Gorgons

This article is about the Greek mythological monsters. For other uses, see Gorgon (disambiguation).

The Gorgons (/ˈɡɔːrɡənz/ GOR-gənz; Ancient Greek: Γοργώνες), in Greek mythology, are three female monsters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, sisters who were able to turn anyone who looked at them to stone. Euryale and Stheno were immortal, but Medusa was not and was slain by the hero Perseus.

Running Gorgon; amphora, Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2312 (c. 490 BC)

Family

According to Hesiod and Apollodorus, the Gorgons were daughters of the primordial sea-god Phorcys and the sea-monster Ceto, and the sisters of three other daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, the Graeae. However according to Hyginus, they were daughters of "the Gorgon", an offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and Ceto, while Euripides, in his tragedy Ion, has "the Gorgon" being the offspring of Gaia, spawned by Gaia to be an ally for her children the Giants in their war against the Olympian gods.

Mythology

Dwelling place

Where the Gorgons were supposed to live varies in the ancient sources. According to Hesiod, the Gorgons lived far to the west beyond Oceanus (the Titan, and world-circling river) near its springs, at the edge of night where the Hesperides (and the Graeae?) live. The Cypria apparently had the Gorgons living in Oceanus on a rocky island named Sarpedon. Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound places them in the far east "across the surging sea" on the "Gorgonean plains of Cisthene", where the Graeae live, while his lost play Phorkides (another name for the Graeae) apparently placed them at "Lake Tritonis", a mythological lake set somewhere in westernmost North Africa. And the poet Pindar has Perseus, apparently on his quest for the Gorgon head, visit the Hyperboreans (usually considered to dwell in the far north). However, whether Pindar means to imply that the Gorgons lived near the Hyperboreans is unclear.

Petrification

Pherecydes tells us that Medusa's face turned men to stone, and Pindar describes Medusa's severed head as "stony death". In the Prometheus Bound, it says that no mortal can look at them and live. According to Apollodorus, all three of the Gorgons could turn to stone anyone who saw them.

Perseus and Medusa

Further information: Medusa

Perseus killing Medusa, 6th century BC

Stheno and Euryale were immortal, whereas Medusa was mortal. According to Apollodorus' version of their story, Perseus was ordered by Polydectes (his enemy) to bring back the head of Medusa. So guided by Hermes and Athena, he sought out the sisters of the Gorgons, the Graeae who had only one eye and one tooth which they shared. Perseus managed to steal their eye and tooth, and refused to return them, unless they would show him the way to the nymphs, which they did. Perseus got from the nymphs, winged sandals, which allowed him to fly, and the cap of Hades, with made him invisible. He also received an adamantine sickle (harpē) from Hermes. Perseus then flew to Oceanus, found the Gorgons asleep. And when Perseus managed to behead Medusa by looking at her reflection in his bronze shield, Stheno and Euryale chased after him, but were unable to see him because he was wearing Hades' cap of invisiblity. When Perseus brought back the Gorgon head, as ordered, with averted eyes he showed the head to Polydectes who was turned to stone. Perseus returned the things he had acquired from the nymphs and Hermes, but gave the Gorgon head to Athena.

Athena's Gorgon aegis

Athena (right) wearing her snake-fringed Gorgon aegis; Attic kylix cup, Louvre G 104 (late sixth–early fifth century BC)

According to Apollodorus, after Peseus gave the Gorgon head to Athena, she "inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield", apparently a reference to Athena's aegis. In the Iliad, the aegis is a device, usually associated with Athena, which was decorated with a Gorgon head. Athena wore it in battle as a shield which neither Apollo's spear, or even Zeus' thunderbolt could pierce. According to the Iliad, Hephaestus made the aegis for Zeus, while according to a Hesiod fragment, Metis made it for Athena, before Athena was born. However, Euripides, in his tragedy Ion, has a character say that Athena's aegis was made from the skin of the Gorgon, the offspring of Gaia, who Gaia had brought forth as an ally for her children the Giants and who Athena had killed during the Gigantomachy. In vase-painting, Athena is often shown wearing her aegis, fringed with snake-heads.

Etymology

The name derives from the Ancient Greek word gorgós (γοργός), which means 'grim or dreadful', and appears to come from the same root as the Sanskrit word garjana (गर्जन), which means a guttural sound, similar to the growling of a beast, thus, possibly originating as an onomatopoeia.

Literary descriptions

Hesiod provides no physical description of the Gorgons, other than to say that the two Gorgons, Sthenno, and Euryale did not grow old. Homer mentions only "the Gorgon" giving brief descriptions of her, and her head. In the Iliad she is called a "dread monster" and the image of her head, which appears—along with several other terrifying images—on Athena's aegis, and Agamemnon's shield, is described as "dread and awful", and "grim of aspect, glaring terribly". Already in the Iliad, the Gorgon's "glaring" eyes were a notably fearsome feature. As Hector pursues the fleeing Achaeans, "exulting in his might" ... ever slaying the hindmost", Homer describes the Trojan hero as having eyes like "the eyes of the Gorgon". And in the Odyssey, Odysseus, although determined "steadfastly" to stay in the underworld, so as to meet other great men among the dead, is seized by such fear at the mere thought that he might encounter there the "head of the Gorgon, that awful monster", leaves "straightway".

The Hesiodic Shield of Heracles describes the Gorgons chasing Perseus as being "dreadful and unspeakable" with two snakes wrapped around their waists, and that "upon the terrible heads of the Gorgons rioted great Fear", perhaps a reference to snakes writhing about their heads. Pindar makes snakes for hair explicit, saying that Perseus' Gorgon head "shimmered with hair made of serpents", and that the Gorgons chasing Perseus also had "horrible snaky hair", so too in Prometheus Bound where all three Gorgons are described as "winged" as well as "snake-haired". The mythographer Apollodorus gives the most detailed description:

... the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine's, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew".

While such descriptions emphasize the hideous physical features of the Gorgon, by the fifth century BC, Pindar can also describe his snake-haired Medusa as "beautiful". And the Roman poet Ovid tells us that Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but because of a sexual encounter with Neptune (the Roman equivalent of the Greek Poseidon) in Minerva's temple (Minerva being the Roman equivalent of the Greek Athena), Minerva punished Medusa by transforming her beautiful hair into horrible snakes.

Iconography

Gorgons were a popular subject in ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman art, with over six hundred representations cataloged in the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Some representations show full-bodied Gorgons, while others, called gorgoneia, show only the disembodied full-frontal face of a Gorgon, such as those described in the Iliad as appearing on Athena's aegis, and Agamemnon's shield. The earliest representations of both types are found from roughly the same time period, the mid seventh century BC. Full-bodied Gorgons are usually shown in connection with the Perseus-Medusa story, while the disembodied gorgoneia, thought to have had an apotropaic (protective) function, are often found on architectural elements such as temple pediments, and ornamental antefixes and acroteria, or decorating various round objects, such as shields, coins, and the bottoms of bowls and cups.

Archaic Gorgon faces, weather on Gorgons or gorgoneia, are particularly distinctive, with large menacing eyes, wide mouths with rictus-like grins, lolling tongues, and fangs and tusks protruding both up and down, a tripartite nose, and serpentine-curling hair, often with actual snakes.

The earliest representations of full-bodied Gorgons are a Boeotian relief pithos (Louvre CA 795), which depicts Perseus, with head turned away, decapitating a Gorgon, and the Eleusis Amphora, which shows two Gorgons chasing Perseus fleeing with a severed Gorgon head. That the Perseus, on the pithos, averts his gaze shows that already in these earliest images it was understood that looking directly at the Gorgon's face was deadly.

Although the Gorgon being beheaded on the Boeotian pithos is depicted as a female Centaur, with neither wings nor snakes present, and the Gorgons on the Eleusis Amphora, have wingless, wasp-shaped bodies with cauldron-like heads, by the end of the seventh century BC, humanoid bodies, with wings, and snakes around their head, necks, or waist, become typical. Unlike the depictions of gods and heroes, which are usually shown in profile, Archaic Gorgons, even when their bodies are presented profile (usually running), their heads are turned to display their full face, with their large bulging eyes glaring directly at the viewer.

Consistent with the change in literary descriptions seen in the works of Pindar and Ovid mentioned above, beginning in the fifth century BC, images of Gorgons and gorgoneia transition from hideous monsters to beautiful young women, with such representations becoming typical in the fourth century BC. One of the earliest such "beautiful" Gorgons (mid fifth century BC) is a red-figure Pelike (Metropolitan Museum of Art 45.11.1), which shows Perseus, with head turned away, about to behead a sleeping Medusa. While gorgoneia continue to be ubiquitous through the end of antiquity, after the fourth century BC full-bodied Gorgons ceased to be represented.

Gallery

• 
  Perseus, with averted gaze, decapitating Medusa (depicted here as a female centaur); Boetian relief pithos, Louvre CA 795 (mid seventh century BC
• 
  Two Gorgons chase Perseus (on the body of the vase below the neck); Eleusis Amphora, Eleusis, Archaeological Museum 2630 (mid seventh century BC)
• 
  Winged Gorgon, large-eyed, lolling tongue, running right with head turned facing out; name vase of the Nessos Painter, Athens, National Archaeological Museum 1002 (late seventh–early sixth century BC)
• 
  Two Gorgons (center and right) chase Perseus, with a headless Gorgon (left); Dinos of the Gorgon Painter, Louvre E874 (early sixth century BC)
• 
  Gorgon with snakey hair, and belt of snakes; pediment from the temple of Artemis in Corfu, Archaeological Museum of Corfu (early sixth century BC)
• 
  Perseus decaptitating the Gorgon; fragment of ivory relief plaque from the Heraion of Samos Archaeological Museum of Samos E 1 (sixth century BC)
• 
  Gorgon; relief terracotta antefix, Temple of Athena at Syracuse, in the Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi of Syracuse, Sicily (late sixth century BC)
• 
  Disk-fibula with a gorgoneion, bronze with repoussé decoration, second half of the 6th century BC (Louvre CA 1371)
• 
  Gorgon from Kameiros, Rhodes, British Museum A 748 (c. 630 BC)
• 
  Gorgoneion; Attic kylix cup, Paris, Cabinet des Medailles 320 (late sixth century)
• 
  Gorgon (detail); amphora, Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2312 (Early fifth century BC)
• 
  Perseus about to behead a "beautiful" sleeping Medusa; Pelike, attributed to Polygnotos, Metropolitan Museum of Art 45.11.1 (mid fourth century BC)

References

• Aeschylus, Fragments, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein, Loeb Classical Library No. 505, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99629-8. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound in Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes. Vol 2. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press. 1926. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. ISBN 0-674-99135-4. ISBN 9780786471119. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Bremmer, J. N. (2006), s.v. Gorgo 1, in Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and, Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry, published online: 2006.
• Bremmer, J. N. (2015), s.v. Gorgo/Medusa, published online 22 December 2015, in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Tim Whitmarsh, digital ed, New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5.
• Cook, Arthur Bernard, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, Volume III: Zeus God of the Dark Sky (Earthquakes, Clouds, Wind, Dew, Rain, Meteorites), Part I: Text and Notes, Cambridge University Press 1940. Internet Archive.
• Euripides, Ion, translated by Robert Potter in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 1. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Fowler, R. L. (2000), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0198147404.
• Fowler, R. L. (2013), Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0198147411.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. Internet Archive.
• Hard, Robin (2004), The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
• Hard, Robin (2015), Eratosthenes and Hyginus: Constellation Myths, With Aratus's Phaenomena, Oxford University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0-19-871698-3.
• Herodotus, Histories, A. D. Godley (translator), Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1920; ISBN 0674991338. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA.,Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hygynus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Karoglou, Kiki, Dangerous Beauty: Medusa in Classical Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 75, no. 3, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2018. ISBN 978-1-58839-642-6.
• Krauskopf, Ingrid, s.v. Gorgones (in Etrurien) in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) IV.1. Artemis Verlag, Zürich and Munich. 1988. ISBN 3-7608-8751-1. Internet Archive.
• Krauskopf, Ingrid, Stefan-Christian Dahlinger ("literarische Quellen"), s.v. Gorgo, Gorgones in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) IV.1. Artemis Verlag, Zürich and Munich. 1988. ISBN 3-7608-8751-1. Internet Archive.
• Most, G.W., Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue of Women, Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library, No. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2007, 2018. ISBN 978-0-674-99721-9. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Neer, Richard T., Greek Art and Archaeology c.2500 – c.150 BCE, New York : Thames & Hudson, 2012. ISBN 9780500288771. Internet Archive
• Ogden, Daniel (2008), Perseus, Routledge, New York, 2008. ISBN 0-415-42725-8.
• Ogden, Daniel (2013), Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-955732-5.
• Paoletti, Grazio, s.v. Gorgones Romanae, in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC) IV.1. Artemis Verlag, Zürich and Munich. 1988. ISBN 3-7608-8751-1. Internet Archive.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Ovid. Metamorphoses, Volume I: Books 1–8. Translated by Frank Justus Miller. Revised by G. P. Goold. Loeb Classical Library No. 42. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1977, first published 1916. ISBN 978-0-674-99046-3. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Robertson, Noel, "Chapter Two: Athena as Weather-Goddess: the Aigis in Myth and Ritual" in Athena in the Classical World, edited by Susan Deacy, Alexandra Villing, Brill Academic Pub, 2001, ISBN 9789004121423.
• Sommerstein, Alan H., Aeschylus: Fragments, Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein, Loeb Classical Library No. 505. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99629-8. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Tripp, Edward, Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). ISBN 069022608X.
• West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-814169-6.
• West, M. L. (2003), Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, edited and translated by Martin L. West, Loeb Classical Library No. 497, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-674-99605-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.
• Wilk, Stephen R., Medusa : Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon, Oxford University Press, New York, 2000. ISBN 0-19-512431-6. Internet Archive. Google Books.
• Zolotnikova, Olga A., "A hideous monster or a beautiful maiden? Did the Western Greeks alter the concept of Gorgon?" in Philosopher Kings and Tragic Heroes: Essays on Images and Ideas from Western Greece, Heather L. Reid and Davide Tanasi (eds.), Parnassos Press - Fonte Aretusa, May 14 2016. ISBN 978-1942495079. JSTOR j.ctvbj7gjn.23

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gorgon, Gorgons". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 257.
• Additional material has been added from the 1824 Lemprière's Classical Dictionary.