Gorgon

Menagerie of Myths

Jul 10

Artwork by Benedetta Fiore. ArtStation | Instagram

Origin: Greece

Daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, the three Gorgon sisters were named Stheno (the mighty), Euryale (the Far Springer), and Medusa (the guardian). While Medusa is the most famous of the three, she was the only Gorgon sister not graced with immortality.

All three appeared as women with writhing, venomous snakes for hair, scaly skin, long forked tongues, and golden wings. They could turn any living creature into stone with a look. Their name comes from the Greek word “gorgos,” which means “fierce, terrible, and grim.” Modern depictions often show them as half human, half snake.

The Greek writer Hesiod wrote one of the earliest versions of the Gorgons, and later the Roman writer Ovid took this version and ran with it into some deeply problematic territory. He wrote that Medusa was born a beautiful woman with Gorgon parents, brutally raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple, and then transformed by the goddess into her monstrous form in retaliation. The demigod Perseus would then pursue her at King Polydectes’s behest, armed with a reflective shield from Athena and a scythe from Hermes, and cut off her head.

Some sources say that her blood poured from her neck into the sea and became Poseidon’s children, Pegasus and Chrysaor, while others say that each drop of her blood became a snake. Whatever became of her blood, the story of how it spilled is painfully symbolic of living in a patriarchy.

There is a statue called Perseus with the Head of Medusa in the Piazza della Signoria in Italy, depicting a naked Perseus holding her severed head. In 2008, Argentine-Italian artist Luciano Garbati crafted a response to this work: a statue of a resilient-looking Medusa holding Perseus’s head. I’m not going to lie—I’m tempted to write that retelling.

Appearances in media

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Television:

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Supernatural