Gorgoneion

Mythology

The Gorgons were three monstrous sisters—Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa—daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. They lived near their sisters the Graeae and could turn anyone who looked at them to stone. Ancient sources disagree on their location. Hesiod placed them far to the west beyond Oceanus near its springs, at the edge of night where the Hesperides and perhaps the Graeae lived.

The Cypria located them on a rocky island named Sarpedon in Oceanus. Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound set them in the far east on the Gorgonean plains of Cisthene, where the Graeae lived, while his lost play Phorkides placed them at Lake Tritonis in westernmost North Africa. Pindar had Perseus visit the Hyperboreans on his quest for the Gorgon head, though whether this implies the Gorgons lived near them is unclear. According to Apollodorus, all three Gorgons could turn people to stone.

Stheno and Euryale were immortal; Medusa was mortal. Perseus, ordered by Polydectes to bring back Medusa's head, was guided by Hermes and Athena. He stole the shared eye and tooth of the Graeae, forcing them to show him the way to the nymphs, who gave him winged sandals, the cap of Hades, and an adamantine sickle from Hermes. He found the Gorgons asleep in Oceanus, beheaded Medusa by looking at her reflection in his bronze shield, and from her neck sprang Pegasus and Chrysaor.

Stheno and Euryale chased him but could not see him because of the cap of invisibility. Perseus later turned Polydectes to stone with the head and gave the head to Athena.

Literary descriptions

The earliest literary accounts of Gorgons come from Hesiod and Homer around 700–650 BC. Hesiod gave no physical description beyond noting that Stheno and Euryale did not age. Homer mentioned only the Gorgon, calling her a dread monster in the Iliad, where her head appears on Athena's aegis and Agamemnon's shield, described as dread, awful, grim of aspect, and glaring terribly. Her glaring eyes were notably fearsome; Hector's eyes in pursuit are likened to those of the Gorgon.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus leaves the underworld in fear at the mere thought of encountering the Gorgon's head. The Hesiodic Shield describes the Gorgons chasing Perseus as dreadful and unspeakable, with two snakes wrapped around their waists and great Fear rioting upon their heads, possibly referring to snakes writhing about them. Pindar made snakes for hair explicit, describing Medusa's severed head as shimmering with serpent hair and the chasing Gorgons as having horrible snaky hair.

Prometheus Bound calls all three Gorgons winged and snake-haired. Apollodorus gave the most detailed description. By the fifth century BC, Pindar could describe Medusa as beautiful. Ovid later told that Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but after a sexual encounter with Neptune in Minerva's temple, Minerva transformed her hair into 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. They appear on vase paintings, architectural ornamentation, shield devices, and coins. Representations show either full-bodied Gorgons or gorgoneia, which show only the face or head. The earliest representations of both types date from the mid-seventh century BC.

Archaic Gorgons typically have snaky hair, either with snake-like curls or actual snakes protruding from their heads. Their faces have large menacing eyes, tripartite or scroll-like noses, wide mouths with rictus-like grins or grimaces, lolling tongues, fangs and/or tusks, and sometimes beards. The most distinctive feature of archaic representations is that the head is always facing frontally with large fierce eyes glaring directly at the viewer.

Beginning in the fifth century BC, representations transitioned from hideous monsters to beautiful young women, becoming typical in the fourth century BC. One early beautiful Gorgon is a red-figure pelike showing Perseus about to behead a sleeping Medusa. After the fourth century BC, full-bodied Gorgons ceased to be represented, though gorgoneia remained ubiquitous through the end of antiquity.

Possible origins

The origins of the Perseus-Gorgon story and gorgoneia are uncertain and subject to considerable speculation. The story might have inspired the development of gorgoneia, or gorgoneia might have come first with the story serving as an etiological origin myth. It is also possible that the two developed independently and later converged. The earliest literary and iconographic evidence for both is roughly contemporaneous, so it cannot definitively distinguish between these scenarios.

Near-Eastern influence is possible. Elements of full-bodied Gorgon iconography seem borrowed from the Mesopotamian Lamashtu. Mesopotamian depictions of Gilgamesh slaying Humbaba may have influenced the Perseus-Gorgon story, while gorgoneia may connect to images of Humbaba. The Medusa pediment from the temple of Artemis in Corfu shows the Gorgon as Mistress of Animals with affinities to Lamashtu, who has an animalistic head atop a humanoid body, often in the Knielauf position, with snakes, a horse or ass, animal offspring, and sometimes in the Mistress of Animals configuration.

Images of Perseus decapitating Medusa with head turned away resemble Mesopotamian depictions of Gilgamesh slaying Humbaba. A bronze shield strap from Olympia showing Perseus with head turned away about to decapitate Medusa, assisted by Athena, bears striking resemblance to a seal impression from Nuzi c. 1450 BC, suggesting Greeks may have misinterpreted or reinterpreted these images, giving rise through a creative misunderstanding to the myth of the Gorgon's petrifying gaze.

Did You Know?

• The name 'Gorgon' is associated with the Ancient Greek adjective gorgós, meaning 'grim, fierce, awesome, dazzling'.
• According to Hyginus, the Gorgons were daughters of 'the Gorgon', an offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and Ceto.
• Medusa had two offspring by Poseidon: the winged-horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor.