Post by .Tenks.Ashford!!!!!!! on Jul 10, 2009 14:26:33 GMT -5
-`--Gorgons in Mythology
In Greek mythology, a Gorgon (derived from "gorgos", meaning terrible) was a monster that was known to have the ability to turn onlookers into stone. It was said that there were three Gorgons and one of them, Medusa, the only mortal, had a hair of living, venemous snakes that she received as punishment from Athena, an image that has become famous.
Gorgons were sometimes depicited as having wings of gold, brazen claws, tusks of boars, but most often with the fangs and skin of a serpent. The oldest oracles were said to be protected by serpents and a Gorgon image was often associated with those temples. Lionesses or sphinxes were frequently associated with Gorgons as well. The powerful image of the Grogon was adopted for the classical images and myths of Zeus and Athena, perhaps being worn in continuation of a more ancient imagery.
The three Gorgons – Stheno (the mighty), Euryale (the far-springer), and Medusa (the queen), was said to have been duaghters of the sea god Phorcys and of Keto. Their home was on the farthest side of the western ocean, but in other legends, Libya. The hero Perseus was responsible for Medusa's death by decapitating her, able to do so by looking at her in a reflection of a mirrored shield he was given by the Graeae.
In Ancient Greece a Gorgoneion (or stone head, engraving, or drawing of a Gorgon face, often with snakes protruding wildly and the tongue sticking out between her fangs) frequently was used as an apotropaic symbol and placed on doors, walls, floors, coins, shields, breastplates, and tombstones in the hopes of warding off evil. Blood taken from the right side of a Gorgon could bring the dead back to life, yet blood taken from the left side was an instantly fatal poison. Athena gave a vial of the healing blood to Asclepius, which ultimately brought about his demise. Heracles was said to have obtained a lock of Medusa's hair (which possessed the same powers as the head) from Athena and to have given it to Sterope, the daughter of Cepheus, as a protection for the town of Tegea against attack.
According to the later idea of Medusa as a beautiful maiden, whose hair had been changed into snakes by Athena, the head was represented in works of art with a wonderfully handsome face, wrapped in the calm repose of death.
