Stheno
the fierce, Stheno the strong, the immortal Gorgon, who never aged.
The daughter of the sea deity Phorcys, and the goddess of the deep, Ceto, she was the
eldest of the three gorgons.
Stheno was the most independent of her gorgon sisters, Euryale, and Medusa.
Her strength surpassed that of her sisters, and her ferocity belittled their own.
She was bloodthirsty, and always eager to kill, so much so, that she killed much more
men than both of her sisters combined.
In appearance, Stheno was thin, and tall, with an upper body that resembled of a woman,
and lower body of a huge snake.
She had red scaly skin, a long protruding tongue, red snakes curling around her scaly
head, in place of hair.
She had eyes which glowed in the dark, and could turn anyone who looked upon them into
stones. and around her waist, was a snake, tied as a belt.
The later roman depictions took away some of the gorgons hideousness, showing stheno
and her sisters, as beautiful women with snake hair, combining the temptation to behold their
beauty, with the fear of instant death.
Aside Euryale and Medusa, Stheno had other siblings, who were not gorgons.
Some were still monsters, some were hags, and some were nymphs.
They include the Hesperides, the Graeae, Thoosa, Scylla, and Ladon.
Stheno never left her dark home in the caverns.
Hidden by the darkness, She and her sisters laid in wait for unwary travellers and those
foolish enough to enter the caverns.
With the great strength of a cuttlefishh, and her intense urge to kill, most of the
intruders and men who wandered into the caverns, possibly met their cruel deaths, at the hands
of Stheno.
In popular versions of Greek mythology, Stheno and her two sisters were not born gorgons,
but were beautiful women who served in the temple of Athena.
When Medusa, the most beautiful of the three, became boastful, she caught the attention
of Poseidon, lord of the seas. who laid with her, right before the satue of Athena.
Athena punished Medusa, by turning her into an ugly gorgon. and when Stheno and Euryale
tried to defend their sister, The goddess also turned them into gorgons.
After the death of their mortal sister, Medusa, Stheno and Euryale continued to live, as they
were immortal, and could not die.
It is sometimes said, that the two relocated to the underworld, where they were used by
Hades, to torment the dead.