The Gorgons ( ; ),Grimal, s.v. Gorgons. in Greek mythology, are three monstrous sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, said to be the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. They lived near their sisters, the Graeae, and 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.Bremmer 2006, s.v. Gorgo 1; Bremmer 2015, s.v. Gorgo/Medusa; Gantz, p. 20; Grimal, s.v. Gorgons; Tripp, s.v. Gorgons.
Gorgons were dread monsters with terrifying eyes. A Gorgon head was displayed on Athena's aegis, giving it the power both to protect her from any weapon, and instill great fear in any enemy. Gorgon blood was said to have both the power to heal and harm.
Representations of full-bodied Gorgons and the Gorgon face, called a gorgoneion (pl. gorgoneia), were popular subjects in Ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman iconography. While Archaic Gorgons and gorgoneia are universally depicted as hideously ugly, over time they came to be portrayed as beautiful young women.
Etymology The name 'Gorgon' (also 'Gorgō' and 'Gorgonē'). is associated with the Ancient Greek adjective (), which, of an eye or look, means 'grim, fierce, awesome, dazzling',The Cambridge Greek Lexicon svv. γοργός, Γοργώ; Beekes, s.v. γοργός. It is considered to be related to the Sanskrit stem garğ.Napier 1992, p. 102. See for example: Mack, p. 599 n. 5; Phinney, p. 447; Feldman, p. 487; Howe, p. 210. The stem has connotations of noise, and Germanic and Romance languages have many derivatives from this stem referring to the throat (e.g. 'gorge') or the guttural sounds produced in the throat (e.g. 'gargle', 'gurgle').Howe, p. 210, n. 10 with many more examples. It has been understood as meaning to growl, roar or howl,Mack, p. 599 n. 5; Napier 1992, p. 102; Phinney, p. 447. while Thalia Feldman suggests that the closest meaning for the stem might be the onomatopoeic grrr of a growling beast.Feldman, p. 487.
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.Gantz, p. 19; Hesiod, Theogony 270–277; Apollodorus, 1.2.6, 2.4.2 (calling the Graeae the "Phorcides"). However, according to Hyginus, they were daughters of "the Gorgon", an offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and Ceto,Tripp, s.v. Gorgons; Hyginus, Fabulae Preface 9, 35. while Euripides, in his tragedy Ion, has "the Gorgon" being an offspring of Gaia, spawned by Gaia to be an ally for her children the Giants in their war against the Olympian gods.Gantz, p. 448; Euripides, Ion 986–991, 1055. Medusa had two offspring by Poseidon, the winged-horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor.Grimal, s.v. Gorgons; Tripp, s.v. Medusa; Hesiod, Theogony 278–281; Apollodorus, 2.4.2.
Mythology Dwelling place Where the Gorgons were supposed to live varies in the ancient sources.Fowler 2013, p. 252; Hard 2004, pp. 59–60; Gantz, p. 20. 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.Fowler 2013, p. 254; Gantz, p. 20; Hesiod, Theogony 274–282. As to whether Hesiod means to include the Graeae as also living there, Fowler reads Hesiod as including the Graeae, while Gantz does not. Compare with Apollodorus, 2.4.2, which has Perseus fly to "the ocean" [i.e Oceanus] to find the Gorgons. The Cypria apparently had the Gorgons living in Oceanus on a rocky island named Sarpedon.Bremmer 2006, s.v. Gorgo 1; Hard 2004, p. 60; Ganz, p. 20; West 1966, p. 246 line 274 πέρην κλυτοῦ Ὠκεανοῖο; West 2003, Cypria fr. 30 West [= fr. 24 Allen = fr. 32 Bernabé]. Pherecydes also has the Gorgons living somewhere in Oceanus, see Gantz, p. 20; Pherecydes fr. 11 Fowler (Fowler 2000, pp. 280–281) [= Scolia on Apollonius of Rhodes 4.1515a]. 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.Fowler 2013, p. 254; Hard 2015, p. 176 16 Tritonis; Sommerstein, pp. 260–261; Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 790–800; Aeschylus fr. 262 [= Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 22 (Hard 2015, p. 16)]. For lake Tritonis, and the Gorgons being located in North Africa, see also: Herodotus, 2.91.6, 4.178, 4.186.1; Pausanias, 3.17.3. And the fifth-century BC 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.Fowler 2013, p. 254; Bremmer (2006), s.v. Gorgo 1; Gantz, p. 20; Pindar, Phythian 10.30–48. Although Bremmer reads Pindar as having located the Gorgons "among the Hyperboreans", Fowler does not conclude that Pindar did this, while Gantz says that Pindar "may or may not" have done so.
Petrification Pherecydes notes that Medusa's face turned men to stone, and Pindar describes Medusa's severed head as "stony death".Gantz, p. 20; Pherecydes fr. 11 Fowler (Fowler 2000, pp. 280–281) [= Scolia on Apollonius of Rhodes 4.1515a]; Pindar, Phythian 10.46–48. In Prometheus Bound, it says that no mortal can look at them and live.Gantz, p. 20; Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 800. According to Apollodorus, all three of the Gorgons could turn to stone anyone who saw them.Apollodorus, 2.4.2.
Perseus
Stheno and Euryale were immortal, whereas Medusa was mortal.Hesiod, Theogony 270–277; Apollodorus, 2.4.2. 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, which made him invisible. He also received an adamantine sickle (harpē) from Hermes. Perseus then flew to Oceanus, where he found the Gorgons asleep. When Perseus managed to behead Medusa by looking at her reflection in his bronze shield, Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang from Medusa's neck, and Stheno and Euryale chased after him, but were unable to see him because he was wearing Hades' cap of invisibility. When Perseus brought back the Gorgon head, as ordered, 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.Bremmer 2015, s.v. Gorgo/Medusa (which calls Apollodorus' version "canonical"); Apollodorus, 2.4.2–3. See also Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 798–800.
Athena's Gorgon aegis
According to Apollodorus, after Perseus gave the Gorgon head to Athena, she "inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield",Apollodorus, 2.4.2–3. 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.Gantz, pp. 84–85; Homer, Iliad 5.738–742. For a detailed discussion of Athena's Gorgon aegis see Cook, pp. 837–867. Athena wore it in battle as a shield which neither Apollo's spear, or even Zeus' thunderbolt could pierce.Gantz, p. 84; Iliad 5.738–742, 21.400–402. 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", an offspring of Gaia, who Gaia had brought forth as an ally for her children the Giants and who Athena had killed during the Gigantomachy.Gantz, p. 84; Homer, Iliad 15.309–310; Hesiod fr. 294 Most [= 343 MW]; Euripides, Ion 987–997. Other accounts name other opponents whom Athena was supposed to have killed and flayed for her aegis, including the Giant Pallas (Apollodorus, 1.6.2), an invulnerable Koan warrior Asterius, and others, see Robertson, p. 42. In the same play, Euripides has Creusa describe a weaving she made "like an aegis, bordered with serpents" with a "Gorgon in the middle".Euripides, Ion 1417–1423. He also mentions Athena's "Gorgon-faced shield" in his tragedy Electra.Euripides, Electra 1254–1257.
In vase-painting, Athena is often shown wearing her aegis, fringed with snake-heads.Hard 2004, p. 74.
Gorgon blood In some accounts, the blood of "the Gorgon" (any Gorgon?) was said to have both the power to heal and harm.Bremmer 2006, s.v. Gorgo 1. According to Euripides' Ion, Athena gave two drops of blood from the Gorgon she slew for her aegis to Erichthonius, one of which "wards off diseases and nourishes life", while the other "kills, as it is poison from the Gorgon serpents".Euripides, Ion, 1003–1015, 1055, 1265. While according to Apollodorus, Athena gave Asclepius some of the blood the Gorgon, "and while he used the blood that flowed from the veins on the left side for the bane of mankind, he used the blood that flowed from the right side for salvation, and by that means he raised the dead."Apollodorus, 3.10.3. Compare with Apollodorus, 2.7.3, which says that Heracles, who had received a lock of Medusa's hair from Athena, gave it to Tegea for the city's protection from attack (according to Pausanias, 87.47.5, the lock of hair was given to Tegea by Athena herself), see Gantz, p. 428.
Gorgon cry The loud cry that came from the Gorgons—perhaps related to 'Gorgon' being derived from the Sanskrit garğ, with its connotations of a growling beast—was also part of their mythology.According to Howe, p. 212, "It is clear that some terrible noise was the originating force behind the Gorgon: a guttural, animal-like howl". Mack, p. 599, n. 5 notes that sound, "though only indirectly a feature of the face, was central to the conceptualization of Medusa's terrifying power". See also Feldman, pp. 487–488.
The Hesiodic Shield of Heracles (c. late seventh–mid-sixth century BC), which describes Heracles' shield, has the Gorgons depicted on it chasing Perseus, with their shrill cry seemingly being heard emanating from the shield itself:
Pindar tells us that the cry of the Gorgons, lamenting the death of Medusa during their pursuit of Perseus, was the reason Athena invented the flute.Gantz, p 20; Howe, pp. 210–211; Vernant, pp. 117, 125. According to Pindar, the goddess:
Nonnus, in his Dionysiaca, also has the fleeing Perseus "listening for no trumpet but Euryale's bellowing".Nonnus, Dionysiaca 25.58; see also Dionysiaca 13.77–78, 30.265–266. The desire to evoke this Gorgon cry may account for the typical distended mouth seen in Archaic Gorgon iconography.According to Howe, p. 211, the "reason that the Gorgon appears on monuments with a great distended mouth [was] to convey to the spectator the idea of a terrifying roar"; Vernant, p. 118, lists a "terrifying cry" and a "gaping grin" as one of several elements "linking the monstrous face of Gorgo to the warrior possessed by menos (murderous fury)".
Literary descriptions