Gorgons

The Gorgons were three monstrous sisters of Greek mythology, Stheno, Euryale and Medusa, whose faces turned anyone who looked at them to stone. In the usual account they were daughters of the sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, and only Medusa could die. Her beheading by Perseus is their best-known story.

Parentage and Lineage

Hesiod names Phorcys and Ceto as the parents of the Graeae and the Gorgons (Hesiod, Theogony 270–276). Apollodorus agrees: he calls the Graeae Enyo, Pephredo and Dino, children of Phorcys and Ceto, and describes them as “sisters of the Gorgons” (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2). Aeschylus likewise places the Gorgons close to the Phorcides, calling them their sisters (Prometheus Bound 798–800). Phorcys and Ceto are children of Pontus and Gaia in the Theogony (Hesiod, Theogony 233–239).

Euripides gives a different origin. In his Ion the Gorgon is a terrible creature born from Earth during the battle of the gods and the Giants, as an ally for her children; Athena killed her and wore her skin as the aegis (Euripides, Ion 987–997).

Mortal and Immortal Sisters

The three sisters were Stheno, Euryale and Medusa. Hesiod says that Medusa was mortal and the other two were immortal and ageless (Theogony 276–278). Apollodorus gives the same reason for the quest of Perseus: “Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head” (Library 2.4.2).

Where They Lived

Hesiod places the Gorgons beyond famous Oceanus, at the edge of the world toward Night, where the clear-voiced Hesperides live (Theogony 274–275). In Aeschylus they live on the “Gorgonian plains of Cisthene”, in the far east, next to the three old Phorcides who share one tooth and are never seen by sun or moon (Prometheus Bound 790–800). Apollodorus says only that Perseus flew to the ocean and found the Gorgons asleep (Library 2.4.2).

Appearance and Powers

Aeschylus describes the Gorgons as winged, snake-haired and hateful to mortals, and says that no human being who sees them keeps his breath (Prometheus Bound 798–800). Apollodorus gives the fullest picture: their heads were twined with the scales of dragons, they had great tusks like those of swine, hands of bronze and golden wings on which they flew, and they turned to stone anyone who looked at them (Library 2.4.2). In the Iliad the Gorgon’s head on the aegis of Athena is “dread and awful” (Iliad 5.741–742), and the Gorgon on the shield of Agamemnon is “grim of aspect, glaring terribly”, with Terror and Rout around her (Iliad 11.36–37).

Medusa’s Unique Myth

Polydectes of Seriphus sent Perseus to fetch the head of the Gorgon. Guided by Hermes and Athena, Perseus reached the Graeae and took their one eye and one tooth until they told him the way to the nymphs. From the nymphs he received winged sandals, the wallet called the kibisis and the cap of Hades, which made him invisible; Hermes gave him an adamantine sickle. He found the Gorgons asleep. Athena guided his hand while he looked only at the reflection of Medusa in a bronze shield, and he cut off her head (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2).

When the head was cut off, the winged horse Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang from her. They were her children by Poseidon, who had lain with her “in a soft meadow among spring flowers” (Hesiod, Theogony 278–281; Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2). Perseus put the head in the wallet and left. Stheno and Euryale woke and pursued him, but the cap hid him and they could not see him (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.3).

Perseus later used the head against his enemies, turning Phineus and his companions and then Polydectes and his guests to stone, and finally gave it to Athena, who set it on her shield (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.3). Pindar says that Perseus brought “stony death” to the islanders of Seriphus with the snake-haired head (Pindar, Pythian 10.44–48), and that Athena invented the music of the flute to imitate the lament of the Gorgons, which she had heard pouring from the heads of the sisters and their snakes when Perseus killed the third of them (Pindar, Pythian 12.6–12). For the full story of the hero, see Perseus; for the Gorgon who died, see Medusa.

Why Medusa Had Snakes for Hair

Neither Hesiod nor Homer explains her snakes. Ovid tells that Medusa was once a girl of great beauty and that Poseidon violated her in the temple of Athena. Athena turned away and hid her face behind the aegis, and as a punishment changed the Gorgon’s hair into hideous snakes, which she still wears on her breast to frighten her enemies (Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.793–803). Apollodorus mentions an alternative reason for her death: some say that Perseus beheaded Medusa for Athena’s sake, because the Gorgon wanted to rival the goddess in beauty (Library 2.4.3).

The Gorgons in Art and Culture

The Gorgon head was a familiar image of protection and terror. In the Iliad it appears on the aegis of Athena and in the centre of the shield of Agamemnon, and Odysseus fears that Persephone might send up “the head of the Gorgon, that awful monster” from the house of Hades (Iliad 5.741–742, 11.36–37; Odyssey 11.633–635). Pausanias saw a gilded head of Medusa on the south wall of the Athenian Acropolis, a Medusa carved on the breast of the ivory statue of Athena, and a Medusa made of stone beside the sanctuary of Cephisus at Argos, said to be the work of the Cyclopes (Pausanias 1.21.3, 1.24.7, 2.20.7).

Pausanias also gives what he calls the rational part of the story, leaving out the miraculous: Medusa was a queen who ruled the people around Lake Tritonis in Libya after the death of her father Phorcus, and she was killed by night while camped against the army of Perseus, who cut off her head to show it to the Greeks. He was shown a mound in the market-place of Argos where her head was said to lie (Pausanias 2.21.5).

Gorgons Sources

Ancient sources: Hesiod, Theogony 233–239, 270–286; Homer, Iliad 5.741–742, 11.36–37 and Odyssey 11.633–635; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 790–800; Pindar, Pythian 10.44–48 and 12.6–12; Euripides, Ion 987–1017; Apollodorus, Library 2.4.2–3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.793–803; Pausanias 1.21.3, 1.24.7, 2.20.7, 2.21.5.

See Also: Medusa, Perseus, Graeae, Phorcys, Pegasus, Chrysaor, Athena