Gorgon Medusa part 1 - My Favourite Planet People

Medusa (Μέδουσα, Medousa, guardian, protectress), also known as the Gorgon (Γοργώ, γοργών, γοργόνων, the Grim One, grim, fierce, terrible), was one of the three monstrous Gorgon sisters (Γόργονες, the Gorgons).

Several versions of myths concerning the Gorgons were related by ancient Greek authors. The earliest known written accounts were by Homer and Hesiod, probably some time between the 8th - 7th centuries BC. Homer only mentions the terrifying Gorgon's head [1] the Gorgoneion (see below).

Hesiod (Theogony, lines 270-303 [2]) was the first to record what came to be considered the essential myth concerning the Gorgons, including their birth, Medusa having sex with Poseidon and her death at the hands of the Greek hero Perseus (Περσεύς). Hesiod tells us that there were three Gorgon sisters, daughters of the chthonic sea deities Phorkys (Φόρκυς) and Keto (Κητώ): Stheno (Σθεννώ, mighty or forceful), Euryale (Εὐρυάλη, far-springer or far-roaming) and Medusa (the queen, or guardian, protectress), who was mortal.

Another, perhaps more extensive account of the myth of Perseus and the Gorgons was written by the poet Pherecydes, around the first half of the 5th century BC, in the second book of his Genealogies. Only fragments of the account survive in an ancient scholion (commentary) on the Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius. It was also referred to in the Library of Pseudo Apollodorus. [3]

According to the Roman mythographer Hyginus (see Medusa part 2), the sisters were the daughters of Keto and Gorgon, who was one of the many monstrous children of the Titans Typhon and Echidna:

"From Typhon and Echidna: Gorgon, Cerberus, the dragon which guarded the Golden Fleece at Colchis, Scylla who was woman above but dog-forms below [whom Hercules killed]; Chimaera, Sphinx who was in Boeotia, Hydra serpent which had nine heads which Hercules killed, and the dragon of the Hesperides."

"From Gorgon and Ceto, Sthenno, Eurylae, Medusa"

Hyginus, Fabulae, sections 1-49, Excerpts from the Genealogiae of Hyginus, commonly called the Fabulae Preface. At the Theoi Project. [4]

In the play Ion by Euripides, Gorgon was a monster produced by the Earth goddess Gaia to assist her sons, the Giants, in their battle against the gods (the Gigantomachy), during which he/she/it was killed by Athena [5]. The Gigantomachy is the subject of the frieze around the outside of the Pergamon Great Altar of Zeus. (See Pergamon gallery 2, page 23; see also part of another frieze showing Athena fighting the Giants on Pergamon gallery 2, page 14.)

The original home of the Gorgons is uncertain. Hesiod (Theogony, lines 270-303) described them living near the Hesperides, far to the west of Greece, across the Mediterranean in north Africa. Herodotus, Pausanias and Ovid wrote that they were from Libya, the Greek name for northwest Africa. However, Aeschylus locates them to the east of Greece, on the "Gorgonean plains of Cisthene", and another source relates that they lived on an island called Sarpedon, perhaps one of two places said to have had this name in Thrace and Anatolia (Asia Minor). [6, all references]

Theories have attempted to trace the origins of the Gorgon myths to Greek conquests and colonization, and the assimilation or destruction of indigenous religions. According to such theories, the Gorgon or Gorgons may have been one or more local deities. Other theories have explored the roots of the myths in linguistic, psychoanalytical or sexual terms.

The rapid spread of depictions of the Gorgons from the 7th century BC around the Greek world, including Anatolia, Egypt, Italy and Sicily (see below), coincides with a period in which Greeks were establishing colonies and trading posts around the Mediterranean and as far as the Black Sea (see for example the History of Stageira). Such adventurous undertakings brought them into contact and conflict with hitherto unknown cultures, including those of northwestern Africa.

The Phoenicians, their competitors, established colonies around the western Mediterranean, including Carthage in north Africa, with which the Greeks in the west were to wage wars over the coming centuries. Many Greek myths and legends, including the adventures of heroes such as Herakles, Odysseus, Jason and Perseus, reflect historical incursions into unknown geographical areas; dangerous undertakings which promised either death or wealth and fame for the adventurers.

The myths added epic proportions and supernatural elements: the superhuman heroes had magical weapons and devices lent by their supporting deities, and their enemies became terrible monsters with enormous power. But the heroes often had to use their brains as well as brawn to overcome their foes. These tales must have served as encouragement to the Greeks settling in distant lands and surrounded by enemies, reinforcing their cultural belief that faith in their gods and rulers, courage, steadfastness and intelligence would ensure their survival.

Age-old tales developed over centuries of oral transmission, and new elements were added, often borrowed from traditions of other cultures; further embellishments made the tales more exciting as well as providing back-stories to explain the origins of characters and situations.

Ovid, in Metamorphoses (Book 4), tells us that Medusa was originally beautiful, had shining hair and was desired by many males. Her beauty aroused Poseidon to rape her in a temple of Athena. As retribution for this sacrilege, Athena cursed Medusa, turned her hair into a mass of serpents and made her face so terrible that anyone who looked at it was turned to stone. [7]

With the help of Athena, Hermes, Hades, Hephaistos and the Nymphs, the hero Perseus flew, on wings borrowed from Hermes, to Medusa's home and killed her as she slept (see Medusa part 2). He cut off her head, and the winged horse Pegasus (Πηγασος, Of the Spring) and Chrysaor (Χρυσάωρ, Gold Blade; the hero with the golden sword), her children by Poseidon, sprang from her blood (see photo below and Medusa part 2).

The Gorgon's severed head, known as the Gorgoneion (Greek, Γοργόνειος , Γοργόνειον, Gorgon mask), or the gaze of her eyes alone, could turn those who saw it to stone, and it became a fearsome weapon.

In northwest Africa, Perseus used the Gorgoneion to turn the Titan Atlas to stone (the origin of the Atlas Mountains), then flew to the Aegean island of Seriphos, where he petrified King Polydektes, who had schemed to kill him and marry his mother Danae. [8] He then gave the head to Athena who added it to her armament by attaching it to her aegis (see Medusa part 6).

The threat of the supernatural power of the Gorgoneion, or even an image of it, was believed to provide protection from enemies, and possess apotropaic qualities (i.e. it could ward off evil). It was used as a symbol of several Greek cities, appearing on coins, architectural decoration and sculpture. The presence of an image of the Gorgoneion on a building, grave or other object was meant to scare off potential attackers, thieves and evil spirits. Pausanias wrote that the Athenians placed a gilded head of Medusa on the south wall of the Acropolis:

"On the South Wall, as it is called, of the Acropolis, which faces the theatre [of Dionysos], there is dedicated a gilded head of Medusa the Gorgon, and round it is wrought an aegis."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 1, chapter 21, section 3.

Later he described a curtain in the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, saying that it was dedicated by "Antiochus", probably the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who also gave the Gorgon on the golden aegis above the Theatre of Dionysos as a votive offering:

"In Olympia there is a woollen curtain, adorned with Assyrian weaving and Phoenician purple, which was dedicated by Antiochus, who also gave as offerings the golden aegis with the Gorgon on it above the theatre at Athens."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 5, chapter 12, section 4.

The Gorgoneion may have been large enough to be seen by ships arriving at Piraeus, and have been set up both as a symbol of Athena and a protective talisman. [9]

In February 1395, Νiccοlo da Martoni, a notary from Capua, visited Athens on his return to Italy from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and was shown the two columns of the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos, below the south wall of the Acropolis. He was told that between them formerly stood an idol which had the power to sink hostile ships as they appeared on the horizon. This may have been a folk memory of the Gorgon mentioned by Pausanias. [10]