In Greek mythology, a Gorgon is a female creature. The name derives from the same root as the
Sanskrit word "garğ" which is defined as a guttural sound, similar to the growling
of a beast, thus possibly originating as an onomatopoeia. While descriptions of Gorgons
vary across Greek literature and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature,
the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes,
as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Traditionally,
while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not,
and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus.
Gorgons were a popular image in Greek mythology, appearing in the earliest of written records
of Ancient Greek religious beliefs such as those of Homer, which may date to as early
as 1194–1184 BC. Because of their legendary and powerful gaze that could turn one to stone,
images of the Gorgons were put upon objects and buildings for protection. An image of
a Gorgon holds the primary location at the pediment of the temple at Corfu, which is
the oldest stone pediment in Greece, and is dated to c. 600 BC.
Origins
The concept of the Gorgon is at least as old in classical Greek mythology as Perseus and
Zeus. The name is Greek, being derived from "gorgos" and translating as terrible or dreadful.
Gorgoneia first appear in Greek art at the turn of the eighth century BC. One of the
earliest representations is on an electrum stater discovered during excavations at Parium.
Other early eighth-century examples were found at Tiryns. Going even further back into history,
there is a similar image from the Knossos palace, datable to the fifteenth century BC.
Marija Gimbutas even argues that "the Gorgon extends back to at least 6000 BC, as a ceramic
mask from the Sesklo culture...". In her book, Language of the Goddess, she also identifies
the prototype of the Gorgoneion in Neolithic art motifs, especially in anthropomorphic
vases and terracotta masks inlaid with gold. The large Gorgon eyes, as well as Athena's
"flashing" eyes, are symbols termed "the divine eyes" by Gimbutas; they appear also in Athena's
sacred bird, the owl. They may be represented by spirals, wheels, concentric circles, swastikas,
firewheels, and other images. The awkward stance of the gorgon, with arms and legs at
angles is closely associated with these symbols as well.
Possibly related, a female figure, probably a sea-goddess is depicted on a Minoan gold
ring from the island Mochlos in Crete. The goddess has a monstrous head and she is sitting
in a boat. A holy tree is depicted, probably related to the Minoan cult of the tree.
Some Gorgons are shown with fangs, consisting of wild boar tusks, while other representations
lack fangs and show a forced smile displaying large teeth and sometimes a protruding tongue.
In some cruder representations, stylized hair or blood flowing under the severed head of
the Gorgon has been mistaken for a beard or wings.
Some reptilian attributes such as a belt made of snakes and snakes emanating from the head
or entwined in the hair, as in the temple of Artemis in Corfu, are symbols likely derived
from the guardians closely associated with early Greek religious concepts at the centers
such as Delphi where the dragon Delphyne lived and the priestess Pythia delivered oracles.
The skin of the dragon was said to be made of impenetrable scales.
While seeking origins others have suggested examination of some similarities to the Babylonian
creature, Humbaba, in the Gilgamesh epic. A number of early classics scholars interpreted
the myth of the Medusa as a quasi-historical, or "sublimated" memory of an actual invasion.
"The legend of Perseus beheading Medusa means, specifically, that 'the Hellenes overran the
goddess's chief shrines' and 'stripped her priestesses of their Gorgon masks,' the latter
being apotropaic faces worn to frighten away the profane.
That is to say, there occurred in the early thirteenth century B.C. an actual historic
rupture, a sort of sociological trauma, which has been registered in this myth, much as
what Freud terms the latent content of a neurosis is registered in the manifest content of a
dream: registered yet hidden, registered in the unconscious yet unknown or misconstrued
by the conscious mind." Classical tradition
Transitions in religious traditions over such long periods of time may make some strange
turns. Gorgons are often depicted as having wings, brazen claws, the tusks of boars, and
scaly skin. The oldest oracles were said to be protected by serpents and a Gorgon image
was often associated with those temples. Lionesses or sphinxes are frequently associated with
the Gorgon as well. The powerful image of the Gorgon was adopted for the classical images
and myths of Athena and Zeus, perhaps being worn in continuation of a more ancient religious
imagery. In late myths, the Gorgons were said to be the daughters of sea deities, Ceto the
sea monster and Phorcys. Homer, the author of the oldest known work
of European literature, speaks only of one Gorgon, whose head is represented in the Iliad
as fixed in the centre of the aegis of Athena: "About her shoulders she flung the tasselled
aegis, fraught with terror ... and therein is the head of the dread monster, the Gorgon,
dread and awful ..."(5.735ff) Its earthly counterpart is a device on the
shield of Agamemnon: "... and therein was set as a crown the Gorgon,
grim of aspect, glaring terribly, and about her were Terror and Rout."(11.35ff)
The date of Homer was controversial in antiquity, and is no less so today. Herodotus said that
Homer lived 400 years before his own day, which would place Homer about 850 BC; but
other ancient sources gave dates much closer to the Trojan War. Those who believe that
the stories of the Trojan War derive from a specific historical conflict usually date
it to the twelfth or eleventh centuries BC, often preferring the dates given by Eratosthenes,
1194–1184 BC, which roughly correspond with archaeological evidence of a catastrophic
burning of Troy VIIa. For modern scholarship, 'the date of Homer'
refers to the date of the poems as much as to the lifetime of an individual. The scholarly
consensus is, that "the Iliad and the Odyssey date from the extreme end of the ninth century
BC or from the eighth, the Iliad being anterior to the Odyssey, perhaps by some decades."
They are presumed to have existed previously as an oral tradition that eventually became
set in historical records. Even at that early time the Gorgon is displayed as a vestige
of ancient powers that preceded the historical transition to the beliefs of the Classical
Greeks, displayed on the chest of Athene and Zeus.
In the Odyssey, the Gorgon is a monster of the underworld into which the earliest Greek
deities were cast: "... and pale fear seized me, lest august
Persephone might send forth upon me from out of the house of Hades the head of the Gorgon,
that awful monster ..."(11.635) Around 700 BC, Hesiod imagines the Gorgons
as sea daemons and increases the number of them to three – Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa,
and makes them the daughters of the sea deities Keto and Phorcys. Their home is on the farthest
side of the western ocean; according to later authorities, in Libya. Ancient Libya is identified
as a possible source of the deity, Neith, who also was a creation deity in Ancient Egypt
and, when the Greeks occupied Egypt, they said that Neith was called Athene in Greece.
The Attic tradition, reproduced in Euripides, regarded the Gorgon as a monster, produced
by Gaia to aid her children, the Titans, against the new Olympian deities. Classical interpretations
suggest that Gorgon was slain by Athena, who wore her skin thereafter.
Of the three Gorgons of classical Greek mythology, only Medusa is mortal.
The Bibliotheca provides a good summary of the Gorgon myth. Much later stories claim
that each of three Gorgon sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, had snakes for hair,
and that they had the power to turn anyone who looked at them to stone. According to
Ovid, a Roman poet writing in 8 AD, who was noted for accuracy regarding the Greek myths,
Medusa alone had serpents in her hair, and he explained that this was due to Athena cursing
her. Medusa had copulated with Poseidon in a temple of Athena after he was aroused by
the golden color of Medusa's hair. Athena therefore changed the enticing golden locks
into serpents. Diodorus and Palaephatus mention that the Gorgons lived in the Gorgades, islands
in the Aethiopian Sea. The main island was called Cerna and, according to Henry T. Riley,
these islands may correspond to Cape Verde. According to Pseudo-Hyginus the "Gorgo Aix",
daughter of Helios, was killed by Zeus during the Titanomachy. From her skin, a goat-like
hide rimmed with serpents, he made his famous aegis, and placed her fearsome visage upon
it. This he gave to Athena. Then Aix became the goat Capra, on the left shoulder of the
constellation Auriga. A primeval Gorgon was sometimes said to be the father of Medusa
and her sister Gorgons by the sea Goddess Ceto. This figure may have been the same as
Gorgo Aix as the primal Gorgon was of an indeterminable gender.
In the Aeneid, it is mentioned that the Gorgons lived in the entrance of the Underworld.
Pausanias, a geographer of the second century AD, supplies the details of where and how the
Gorgons were represented in Greek art and architecture.
Perseus and Medusa
In late myths, Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons who was not immortal. King
Polydectes sent Perseus to kill Medusa in hopes of getting him out of the way, while
he pursued Perseus's mother, Danae. Some of these myths relate that Perseus was armed
with a scythe from Hermes and a mirror from Athena. Perseus could safely cut off Medusa's
head without turning to stone by looking only at her reflection in the shield. From the
blood that spurted from her neck and falling into the sea, sprang Pegasus and Chrysaor,
her sons by Poseidon. Other sources say that each drop of blood became a snake. Perseus
is said by some to have given the head, which retained the power of turning into stone all
who looked upon it, to Athena. She then placed it on the mirrored shield called Aegis and
she gave it to Zeus. Another source says that Perseus buried the head in the marketplace
of Argos. According to other accounts, either he or
Athena used the head to turn Atlas into stone, transforming him into the Atlas Mountains
that held up both heaven and earth. He also used the Gorgon against a competing suitor.
Ultimately, he used her against King Polydectes. When Perseus returned to the court of the
king, Polydectes asked if he had the head of Medusa. Perseus replied "here it is" and
held it aloft, turning the whole court to stone.
Protective and healing powers
In Ancient Greece a Gorgoneion frequently was used as an apotropaic symbol and placed
on doors, walls, floors, coins, shields, breastplates, and tombstones in the hopes of warding off
evil. In this regard Gorgoneia are similar to the sometimes grotesque faces on Chinese
soldiers’ shields, also used generally as an amulet, a protection against the evil eye.
Likewise, in Hindu mythology, Kali is often shown with a protruding tongue and snakes
around her head. In some Greek myths, blood taken from the
right side of a Gorgon could bring the dead back to life, yet blood taken from the left
side was an instantly fatal poison. Athena gave a vial of the healing blood to Asclepius,
which ultimately brought about his demise. Heracles is said to have obtained a lock of
Medusa’s hair from Athena and to have given it to Sterope, the daughter of Cepheus, as
a protection for the town of Tegea against attack. According to the later idea of Medusa
as a beautiful maiden, whose hair had been changed into snakes by Athena, the head was
represented in works of art with a wonderfully handsome face, wrapped in the calm repose
of death. Cultural depictions of Gorgons
Gorgons, especially Medusa, have become a common image and symbol in Western culture
since their origins in Greek mythology, appearing in art, literature, and elsewhere throughout
history. In A Tale of Two Cities, for example, Charles Dickens compares the exploitative
French aristocracy to "the Gorgon"- he devotes an entire chapter to this extended metaphor.
Other appearances In Rick Riordan's The Son of Neptune, the
Gorgons Stheno and Euryale chase Percy Jackson. Percy saves himself by jumping off a cliff
and entering a tunnel leading to Camp Jupiter. In Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, Percy
Jackson beheads Medusa in her lair, "Aunty Em's Garden Empourium" along with Annabeth
Chase and Grover Underwood. References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh,
ed.. Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press. Additional material has been added
from the 1824 Lemprière's Classical Dictionary.