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Gorgons

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Origin

Gorgon as pedimental sculpture on the Temple of Artemis, Corfu

Jane Ellen Harrison claims that many cultures use similar ritual masks in order to scare the owner from doing something wrong, or, as she terms it, to make an ugly face at the owner: "The ritual object comes first; then the monster is begotten to account for it; then the hero is supplied to account for the slaying of the monster".

• Harrison, Jane Ellen (1991). Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01514-7.

Near-Eastern influence

It is possible that the mythology and/or the iconography of Gorgons were subject to Near-Eastern influence. In particular Gorgon iconography seems to have been borrowed from that of the Mesopotamian Lamashtu. 0

Knielauf (kneeling-running) position

• Bremmer 2006, s.v. Gorgo 1

The myth was already known to Hesiodus (Theog. 270-282) and shows oriental influences: the iconography of the G. has borrowed traits from Mesopotamian Lamaštu.

• Ogden 2013, pp. 94–95

• Ogden 2006, p. 38

• Burkert, pp. 83–87

References

• Burkert, Walter, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, translated by Walter Burkert, Margaret E. Pinder, Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-64364-X.

Sources

Ancient

Aeschylus (?)

Prometheus Bound

790–800

When you have crossed the stream that bounds the two continents, toward the flaming east, where the sun walks,......

crossing the surging sea until you reach the Gorgonean plains of Cisthene, where the daughters of Phorcys dwell, ancient maids, [795] three in number, shaped like swans, possessing one eye amongst them and a single tooth; neither does the sun with his beams look down upon them, nor ever the nightly moon. And near them [the Graeae] are their three winged sisters, the snake-haired Gorgons, loathed of mankind, [800] whom no one of mortal kind shall look upon and still draw breath.

Aristophanes

Frogs

475–477

...your kidneys

bleeding with your very entrails

the Tithrasian Gorgons will rip apart.

Henderson, p. 89, n. 52

Teithras was an Attic deme, presumably inhabited by some formidable ladies.

Apollodorus

1.2.6

And to Sea （ Pontus） and Earth were born Phorcus, Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto. Now to Thaumas and Electra were born Iris and the Harpies, Aello and Ocypete; and to Phorcus and Ceto were born the Phorcides and Gorgons, of whom we shall speak when we treat of Perseus.

2.4.2

...Now Perseus having declared that he would not stick even at the Gorgon's head, Polydectes ... ordered him to bring the Gorgon's head. So under the guidance of Hermes and Athena he made his way to the daughters of Phorcus, to wit, Enyo, Pephredo, and Dino; for Phorcus had them by Ceto, and they were sisters of the Gorgons, and old women from their birth. ... And [Perseus] flew to the ocean and caught the Gorgons asleep. They were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Now Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head. But the Gorgons had heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine's, and brazen hands, and golden wings, by which they flew; and they turned to stone such as beheld them.

2.4.3

So Perseus put the head of Medusa in the wallet （kibisis） and went back again; but the Gorgons started up from their slumber and pursued Perseus: but they could not see him on account of the cap, for he was hidden by it.

3.10.3

And having become a surgeon, and carried the art to a great pitch, he not only prevented some from dying, but even raised up the dead; for he had received from Athena the blood that flowed from the veins of the Gorgon, and while he used the blood that flowed from the veins on the left side for the bane of mankind, he used the blood that flowed from the right side for salvation, and by that means he raised the dead.

Euripides

Ion

987–997

Creusa

Listen, then; you know the battle of the giants?

Tutor

Yes, the battle the giants fought against the gods in Phlegra.

Creusa

There the earth brought forth the Gorgon, a dreadful monster.

Tutor

[990] As an ally for her children and trouble for the gods?

Creusa

Yes; and Pallas, the daughter of Zeus, killed it.

Tutor

[What fierce shape did it have?

Creusa

A breastplate armed with coils of a viper.]

Tutor

Is this the story which I have heard before?

Creusa

[995] That Athena wore the hide on her breast.

Tutor

And they call it the aegis, Pallas' armor?

Creusa

It has this name from when she darted to the gods' battle.

1003–1015

Creusa

Two drops of blood from the Gorgon.

Tutor

And what power do they have over mortals?

Creusa

One is deadly, the other heals disease.

Tutor

In what did she hang them around the infant's body?

Creusa

In gold chains; and he gave them to my father.

Tutor

And when he died, they came to you?

Creusa

Yes; I wear them on my wrist.

Tutor

[1010] How is this double gift of the goddess accomplished?

Creusa

This one, which dripped from the hollow vein, at the slaughter—

Tutor

What is its use? What can it do?

Creusa

It wards off diseases and nourishes life.

Tutor

The second one you speak of, what does it do?

Creusa

[1015] It kills, as it is poison from the Gorgon serpents.

Herodotus

2.91.6

They told how he [Perseus] came to Khemmis, too, when he came to Egypt for the reason alleged by the Greeks as well—namely, to bring the Gorgon's head from Libya—and recognized all his relatives; and how he had heard the name of Khemmis from his mother before he came to Egypt. It was at his bidding, they said, that they celebrated the games.

4.178

Next to these along the coast are the Machlyes, who also use the lotus, but less than the aforesaid people. Their country reaches to a great river called the Triton,1 which empties into the great Tritonian lake, in which is an island called Phla. It is said that the Lacedaemonians were told by an oracle to plant a settlement on this island.

4.186.1

Thus from Egypt to the Tritonian lake, the Libyans are nomads that eat meat and drink milk; for the same reason as the Egyptians too profess, they will not touch the flesh of cows; and they rear no swine.

Hesiod

Theogony

270–282

And again, Ceto bore to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean [275] in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One¹ in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. [280] And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs² of Ocean; ...

1 i.e.Poseidon.

2 pegae

The Shield of Heracles (Aspis Hērakleous)

229–237

Perseus himself, Danae’s son, was outstretched, and he looked as though he were hastening and shuddering. The Gorgons, dreadful and unspeakable, were rushing after him, eager to catch him; as they ran on the pallid adamant, the shield resounded sharply and piercingly with a loud noise. At their girdles, two serpents hung down, their heads arching forward; both of them were licking with their tongues, and they ground their teeth with strength, glaring savagely. Upon the terrible heads of the Gorgons rioted great Fear.

Fr 294 [= 343 MW]

294 (343 MW) Gal. De placitis Hippocr. et Plat. III 8.11–14 (I p. 226.4–22 De Lacy) = Chrysippus Fr. 908 (SVF II p. 257.10–28)

294 Galen, On the Opinions of Hippocrates and Plato

... [Metis] made the aegis, Athena’s army-frightening breastplate:

together with that [Zeus] bore her, wearing her warlike armor.

Homer

Iliad

5.738–742

About her shoulders she flung the tasselled aegis, fraught with terror, all about which Rout is set as a crown, [740] and therein is Strife, therein Valour, and therein Onset, that maketh the blood run cold, and therein is the head of the dread monster, the Gorgon, dread and awful, a portent of Zeus that beareth the aegis.

8.349

But Hector wheeled this way and that his fair-maned horses, and his eyes were as the eyes of the Gorgon [Γοργοῦς] or of Ares, bane of mortals.

11.32–37

And he took up his richly dight, valorous shield, that sheltered a man on both sides, a fair shield, and round about it were ten circles of bronze, and upon it twenty bosses of tin, [35] gleaming white, and in the midst of them was one of dark cyanus. And thereon was set as a crown the Gorgon, grim of aspect, glaring terribly, and about her were Terror and Rout.

15.309–310

Then the Trojans drave forward in close throng, and Hector led them, advancing with long strides, while before him went Phoebus Apollo, his shoulders wrapped in cloud, bearing the fell aegis, girt with shaggy fringe, awful, gleaming bright, that the smith [310] Hephaestus gave to Zeus to bear for the putting to rout of warriors; this Apollo bare in his hands as he led on the host.

21.400–402

[400] So saying he smote upon her tasselled aegis—the awful aegis against which not even the lightning of Zeus can prevail—thereon blood-stained Ares smote with his long spear.

Odyssey

11.630–37

And I should have seen yet others of the men of former time, whom I was fain to behold, even Theseus and Peirithous, glorious children of the gods, but ere that the myriad tribes of the dead came thronging up with a wondrous cry, and pale fear seized me, lest [635] august Persephone might send forth upon me from out the house of Hades the head of the Gorgon, that awful monster. “Straightway then I went to the ship and bade my comrades themselves to embark, and to loose the stern cables.

Nonnus

Dionysiaca

13.77–78

Mycalessos with broad dancing-lawns, named to remind us of Euryale’s throat^c

^c Euryale, a Gorgon; Nonnos derives the town’s name from the monster’s roar, μυκηθμός, μυκάομαι.

25.53–58

Perseus fled with flickering wings trembling at the hiss of mad Sthenno’s hairy snakes, although he bore the cap of Hades and the sickle of Pallas, with Hermes’ wings though Zeus was his father; he sailed a fugitive on swiftest shoes, listening for no trumpet but Euryale’s bellowing

30.265–266

Have you seen the eye of Sthenno which turns all to stone, or the bellowing invincible throat of Euryale herself?

40.227–233

The double Berecyntian pipes in the mouth of Cleochos drooned a gruesome Libyan lament, one which long ago both Sthenno and Euryale with one many throated voice sounded hissing and weeping over Medusa newly gashed, while their snakes gave out voice from two hundred heads, and from the lamentations of their curling and hissing hairs they uttered the “manyheaded dirge of Medusa.”^a

^a Pindar, Pyth. xii. 23 gives this origin of the tune called πολυκέφαλος—πολλᾶν κεφαλᾶν νόμον, the tune of many heads.

Pausanias

3.17.3

There are also represented nymphs bestowing upon Perseus, who is starting on his enterprise against Medusa in Libya, a cap and the shoes by which he was to be carried through the air. There are also wrought the birth of Athena, Amphitrite, and Poseidon, the largest figures, and those which I thought the best worth seeing.

87.47.5

There is at Tegea another sanctuary of Athena, namely of Athena Poliati (Keeper of the City) into which a priest enters once in each year. This sanctuary they name Eryma (Defence) saying that Cepheus, the son of Aleus, received from Athena a boon, that Tegea should never be captured while time shall endure, adding that the goddess cut off some of the hair of Medusa and gave it to him as a guard to the city.

Pindar

Phythian

10.46–48

...[Perseus] killed the Gorgon, and came back bringing stony death to the islanders, the head that shimmered with hair made of serpents.

12.6–20

... that art [flute playing] which once Pallas Athena discovered when she wove into music the dire dirge of the reckless Gorgons which Perseus heard [10] pouring in slow anguish from beneath the horrible snakey hair of the maidens, when he did away with the third sister and brought death to sea-girt Seriphus and its people. Yes, he brought darkness on the monstrous race of Phorcus, and he repaid Polydectes with a deadly wedding-present for the long [15] slavery of his mother and her forced bridal bed; he stripped off the head of beautiful Medusa, Perseus, the son of Danae, who they say was conceived in a spontaneous shower of gold. But when the virgin goddess had released that beloved man from those labors, she created the many-voiced song of flutes [20] so that she could imitate with musical instruments the shrill cry that reached her ears from the fast-moving jaws of Euryale.

Modern

Bremmer 2006

Brill's New Pauly

s.v. Gorgo 1

Female monster in Greek mythology. According to the canonical version of the myth (Apollod. 2,4,1-2), Perseus must get the head of Medusa, the mortal sister of Sthenno and Euryale (Hes. Theog. 276f.; POxy. 61, 4099), the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto (cf. Aeschylus' drama Phorcides, TrGF 262). The three sisters live on the island of Sarpedon in the ocean (Cypria, fr. 23; Pherecydes FGrH 3 F 11), although Pindar (Pyth. 10,44-48) located them among the Hyperboraeans ( Hyperborei). Their connection to the sea is still apparent in Sophocles (TrGF 163) and Hesychius (s.v. Gorgides). The Gorgos' terrifying shape (snake hair, fangs) transforms into stone whoever looks at them (their ugliness was so notorious that Aristoph. [Ran. 477] referred to the women of the Athenian deme Teithras as Gorgones). In the divine battle against the Titans, Athena also kills a G., whose blood was later attributed with the power to heal as well as to poison (Eur. Ion 989-991; 1003ff.; Paus. 8,47,5; Apollod. 3,10,3). With the aid of Athena, Hermes, and the Nymphs, who equipped him with winged sandals, Hades' helmet of invisibility, and a sickle (hárpē), Perseus is able to decapitate Medusa in her sleep (Pherecydes FGrH 3 F 11). From her neck rise Chrysaor [4] and the winged horse Pegasus. Perseus is pursued by Medusa's sisters, but he escapes and, in the end, turns his enemy Polydectes to stone by using G.'s head.

The myth was already known to Hesiodus (Theog. 270-282) and shows oriental influences: the iconography of the G. has borrowed traits from Mesopotamian Lamaštu. Perseus saves Andromeda in Ioppe-Jaffa (Mela 1,64), and an oriental seal shows a young hero holding a hárpē and seizing a demonic creature [1. 83-87]. In Etruria, Perseus' adventure was already popular in the 5th cent. [3]. Roman authors like Ovidius (Men. 4,604-5,249) ─ who change Medusa into a stunningly beautiful young girl ─ and Lucan (9,624-733) focussed in particular on the frightening head of Medusa [cf. 4].

In Mycenae, Perseus was seen in the context of initiation. His killing of Medusa reflects the testing of young warriors [2]. In fact, the descriptions of G.'s head recall certain elements of the archaic battle vehemence: the horrifying appearance, broad grin, grinding teeth, and powerful battle screams [6]. The popularity of G.'s head, the Gorgoneion, as attested on Athena's aegis and on warriors' shields (as early as Hom. Il. 5,741; 11,35-37) as well as in Aristoph. Ach. 1124, indicates the frightening effect and the protection of the Delphic omphalós (Eur. Ion 224) and the Delian thēsaurós (thesauros: IG XIV 1247) by the Gorgos. The myth of Perseus and Medusa is therefore an important example of the complex interrelation of narrative and iconographic motifs between Greece and the Orient during the archaic period.

Bibliography

1 W. Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution, 1992

2 M. Jameson, Perseus, the Hero of Mykenai, in: R. Hägg, G. Nordquist (ed.), Celebrations of Death and Divinity in the Bronze Age Argolid, 1990, 213-230

3 I. Krauskopf, S.-C. Dahlinger, s.v. G., Gorgones, LIMC 4.1, 285-330

4 I. Krauskopf, s.v. Gorgones (in Etrurien), LIMC 4.1, 330-345

5 O. Paoletti, s.v. Gorgones Romanae, LIMC 4.1, 345-362

6 J.-P. Vernant, Mortals and Immortals, 1991, 111-149.

Bremmer 2015

Oxford Classical Dictionary

s.v. Gorgo/Medusa

Female monsters in Greek mythology. According to the canonical version of the myth (Apollod. 2. 4. 1–2) Perseus (1) was ordered to fetch the head of Medusa, the mortal sister of Sthenno and Euryale; through their horrific appearance these Gorgons turned to stone anyone who looked at them. With the help of Athena, Hermes, and nymphs, who had supplied him with winged sandals, Hades' cap of invisibility, and a sickle (harpē) Perseus managed to behead Medusa in her sleep; from her head sprang Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus. Although pursued by Medusa's sisters, Perseus escaped and, eventually, turned his enemy Polydectes to stone by means of Medusa's head.

Hesiod (Theog. 270–82) already knows the myth which shows oriental influence: the Gorgons' iconography has been borrowed from that of Mesopotamian Lamashtu; Perseus saved Andromeda in Ioppe-Jaffa, and an oriental seal shows a young hero seizing a demonic creature whilst holding a harpē. Gorgons were very popular—often with an apotropaic function, as on temple-pediments—in Archaic art, which represented them as women with open mouth and dangerous teeth, but in the 5th cent. they lost their frightening appearance and became beautiful women; consequently, the myth is hardly found in art after the 4th cent. BCE.

Fowler

p. 254

As often with the mythical geography of the edges of the world, there is confusion about the location of [Perseus' encounter with the Gorgons]. In He's. Th. 270-5, the Graiai, Gorgons, and Hesperides all live in the west, near Okeanos' springs (πηγαί, whence Pegasus, 282).

Gantz

p. 20

Unlike the Graiai, the Gorgons are from the beginning (in Hesiod) three in number (Th 274-83). Hesiod names them Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, and places them toward the edge of night, beyond Okeanos, near the Hesperides, in other words to the far west (he does not say whether the Graiai lived near them). Of the three, steno and Euryale are immortal and ageless, but Medousa is mortal (Hesiod offers no explanation of this odd situation). She alone mates with Poseidon (assuming Kyanochaites is here as elsewhere, an epithet of the sea god), and after her beheading by Perseus, Chrysaor and the horse Pegasos spring forth from her neck. ...

In contrast to the Theogony, Homer, although he describes several Gorgon heads on bucklers (e.g. Il 11.36-37) and conjures up another to frighten Odysseus in the Nekuia (Od 11.633-35), never alludes to the tale of Medusa, save in Iliad 5, where the description of Zeus' aegis worn by Athena includes the Gorgon head customarily donated by Perseus (Il 5.738-42). ... The Aspis offers a typically garish portrait: Gorgons with twin snakes ... wrapped around their wastes ... and possibly a vague reference to snakes for hair (Aspis 229-37). Snaky locks are in any case well attested by Pindar (Py 10.46-48; 12.9-12), and here again Medousa's head lithifies, while Euryale's lament becomes the model for the song of the flute. In Pythian 10, we also see Perseus journeying to the land of the Hyperboreans in the far north on his quest for the head; the Gorgons may or may not have been located there. For Aeschylus, we must again be content with the description in Prometheus Desmotes, since there are no relevant fragments from the Phorkides. As noted above, his Gorgons live near their sister Graiai to the far east; they have wings and snaky hair, and no mortal can look upon them and live (PD 798-800). This last detail suggests that Aeschylus believed all three sisters could turn men to stone, but he may be exaggerating for effect, or perhaps he refers to their generally ferocious character. The tale that Medousa was once beautiful, and fell prey to Athena's anger by mating with Poseidon in the goddess' temple, first appears in Ovid (Met 4.790-803); something of the same sort also surfaces in [cont.]

p. 21

Apollodorus, who says that Medousa wished to rival Athena in beauty (ApB 2.4.3). Such an idea may have developed at some late point in time to dignify Posiedon's union with the Gorgon; certainly it will not explain the equally hideous condition of her two sisters.

Artistic representations of Gorgons are much too abundant to list in detail here, ... On a Boiotian relief amphora of c. 650 B.C., a figure in traveling garb cuts off the head of a female represented as a Kentauros (Louvre CA 795).²⁵ The attitude of the beheader, with face averted from his victim, seems not only to guarantee that this is an early Medousa, but to offer our earliest evidence for the Gorgon's perilous qualities. On the contemporary Protoattic Eleusis Amphora, the sisters appear as monstrous (albeit shapely) inset-faced creatures with no wings but distinct snakes around their heads (Eleusis, no #). By the time of the name vases of the Nessos and Gorgon Painters of Athens (end of the seventh century: Athens 1002, Louvre E874), canonical features, such as the tripartite nose and lolling tongue (perhaps developed in Corinthian painting), are basically in force; for the wings and snakes there is also a slightly earlier ivory relief from Santos depicting the decapitation (Samos E 1). ... We find this composition [with Pegasus and Chrysaor] ... on the famous Medousa pediment from the Temple of Artemis on Kerkyra (no #), where the wings and snakes are both in evidence. In this latter example, the two snakes knotted around her waist repeat the image found in the Apsis and seen again in Attic Black-Figure of the early sixth century.

p. 84

Of all Athena's attributes, the most curious is surely the aegis. ... From Iliad 15 we learn that Hephaistos made it for Zeus (Il 15.309-10: cf He's fr 343 MW, where Metis makes it for Athena)., ... In Iliad 5 Athena clearly dons it as a piece of clothing (Il 5.738-42x), and in Iliad 21 she is again wearing it, a defense that not even the thunderbolt can pierce, when Ares attacks her (Il 21.400-401.

p. 85

From the description in Iliad 5 we learn that [the aegis] was decorated with a Gorgon head; Medusa is not specifically mentioned (Il 5.741-42). ... In sixth- and fifth-century Greek art Athena is almost always shown wearing the aegis, which seems to be a combination breastplate and cloak ... often it has snake head for tassels ... and sometimes the Gorgon. ... Euripides in his Ion offers the strange idea that the aegis was the skin of the Gorgon.

p. 304

As we saw in chapter 1, Homer mentions a Gorgon's head in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, but never Medusa by name, nor Perseus in connection with such an adventure. Indeed we cannot be entirely certain that Homer knew or thought of Gorgons as complete creatures suitable for decapitating. At one point we do find the Gorgon head on Athena's aegis (Il 5.738-42), but perhaps that detail is older than the explanation of how the head got there (or perhaps Homer knew rather Euripides' tale of Athena's slaying of a Gorgon at Phlegrai [Ion 989-96]). Our earliest sure reference to Perseus and the Gorgons is the Theogony, where Pursues cuts off Medusa's head (all three sisters are named here), and Chrysaor and Pegasus emerge from her neck (Th 270-81). ... In art the earliest representations appear to be the act of decapitation on two Boiotian relief pithoi (Louvre CA 795, CA 937),¹¹ and the subsequent flight on the Protoattic Elesis amphora, all dating probably to the second quarter of the seventh century. On only one of the two relief pithoi is Medousa preserved (as a female Kentauros), but in both cases Perseus averts his gaze, thus attesting to the power of the Gorgon's face.

p. 305-307

p. 448

One other reference ... when the Gigantes meet the gods at Phlegrai, Gaia brings forth as an ally for her sons a Gorgon (Ion 989-96). Athena slays the creature, and places its skin upon her breastplate, the aegis. Euripides does not say that the Gorgon was Medousa, and this alternative tale of the Gorgoneion on the Agis could conceivably be old, since Homer has nothing to contradict it; certainly it fits well with the Homeric notion of the Gorgon as a generic monster. On the other hand it seems suspicious that such a duel between goddess and Gorgon never appears in art, where it would have enlivened the usual iconography.

p. 450

Hard 2004

p. 59

p. 60

p. 61

It seems likely that the Gorgon's head or gorgoneion originated as an apotropaic image, existing independently as such before it was turned into a complete monster and thence into a trio of monsters.

According to a strange story in Euripides' Ion, Athena acquired her gorgoeion by killing the Gorgon (here named) during the battle between the gods an Giants, after Gaia had brought the monster to birth to provide a fearsome ally for the Giants (who were sons of hers). Thus was probably a tale of fairly late origin, perhaps invented by Euripides himself; there is no sign of it anywhere else, whether in literary or artistic record.

p. 74

Ogden 2008

p. 34

... The Iliad gives us a gorgoneion (a full-face Gorgon image ) on the shield of Agamemnon: ... again apparently an image, on the aegis worn by Athena ...

p. 35

The two earliest extant images of Perseus decapitating a Medusa and fleeing from her sisters ca. 675-50 BC. In these images the faces of Medusa and the Gorgons are shown frontally, which in itself strongly identifies them with gorgoneia. In the first, on a Boeotian pithos, we find Perseus, ... [cont.]

p. 36

... decapitating Medusa in the form of a female centaur, ... (LIMC Perseus no. 117 = Fig 3.1). The fact that Perseus is turning away as he does tells us that it is already established that to look at her face brings death.

p. 37

p. 38

Lamashtu ... kneeling-running configuration ...

p. 39

p. 40

Ogden 2013

p. 93

Gorgoneia, the representations of the Gorgon's disembodied, full-frontal, viewer-challenging, face that flourished throughout ancient art (not least on shields, acroteria, and ante fixes) and had a wide range of apotropaic functions, often feel semi-independent of the Perseus-Medusa narrative that supposedly explained their origin, and indeed they may have had separate roots, but even so both seem to have come into existence at roughly the same time. Gorgoneia are first attested in the artistic record from c.675 BC, and soon evolve into a canonical 'lion mask type'. They typically have bulging, staring eyes. Their mouths form rictus grins with fangs and tusks projecting up and down, and a lolling tongue protrudes from them. Their hair forms serpentine curls, with actual snakes becoming apparent by the end of the seventh century.¹²²

The Perseus-Medusa story is first found in the iconographic record two pots dated to c.675-650 BC. On the first, a Boeotian pithos, Perseus equipped with kibisis and sword decapitates a Medusa in the form of a female centaur, whilst looking away from her (no snakes are in evidence). On the second, a Port-Attic amphora, Perseus flees two striding, wasp-bodidied, cauldron-headed Gorgon sisters, leaving behind the rotund, decapitated corpse of Medusa, whilst Athena interposes herself to protect him from his pursuers. In these images the faces of Medusa and the Gorgons are shown frontally, which in itself strongly identifies them with gorgoneia, and in the second snakes project from their heads and neck.¹²³

Potts

[1]

Tripp

s.v. Gorgons

Three Snaky-haired monsters, named Steno, Euryale, and Medusa. Euripides says that Ge brought forth "the Gorgon" to aid her children, the Giants, in their war with the gods. Others claim that the Gorgons were among the brood that sprang from the union of the ancient sea-god Phorcys and his sea-monster sister, Ceto; these offspring included Echidna, Ladin, and the Graeae. The Gorgons had brazen hands and wings of gold; red tongues lolled from their mouths between tusks like those of swine; and serpents writhed about their heads. Their faces were so hideous that a glimpse of them would turn man or beast to stone. Of the three, only Medusa was mortal. She was killed by Perseus. [Hesiod, Theogony, 270-283. See also references un der PERSEUS.]

West

Cypria fr. 30 West [= fr. 32 Bernabé]

30 Herodian. περὶ μονήρους λέξεως 9(ii. 914.15 L.)

30 Herodian, On Peculiar Words

And Sarpedon in the special sense of the island in Oceanus, where the Gorgons live, as the author of the Cypria says:

And she conceived and bore him the Gorgons, dread creatures, who dwelt on Sarpedon on the deep-swirling Oceanus, a rocky island.

Iconographic

Krauskopf and Dahlinger, pp. 285–330 (images: LIMC IV-2, pp. 163–188)

Template:

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, pp. X–Y, no. X

• Digital LIMC [XYZ]

• LIMC IV-2, p. XXX (Gorgo, Gorgones XXX)

Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum 3920 B

Perseus beheading Medusa; Metope from Temple C at Selinus, Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum 3920 B (sixth century BC)

• Marconi, pp. 142–143, 236–237.

• Gantz, p. 21

Two other architectural reliefs of this period [early sixth century BC], a metope from Temple C at Selinous ... present Pegasus alone with Medousa ...

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 313, no. 307

Metope vom Tempel C in Selinunt. Palermo, Mus. Reg. 3920 B. Um 530/10 v.Chr. - ... Medusa im Knielauf (kurzer Chiton, keine Flügel, gebogenes Maul mit Hauern, Zähnen, Zunge) im r, Arm Pegasos haltend.

... [Medusa kneeling (short chiton, no wings, curved mouth with tusks, teeth, tongue) to the right, holding Pegasus by the arm.]

• Digital LIMC 9733

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Athens 1002

Winged Gorgon, large eyes, tripartite nose, wide curved mouth, with tusks/fangs, and lolling tongue; name vase of the Nessos Painter, Athens, National Archaeological Museum 1002 (late seventh–early sixth century BC)

• Gantz, p. 21

By the time of the name vases of the Nessos and Gorgon Painters of Athens (end of the seventh century: Athens 1002, Louvre E874), canonical features, such as the tripartite nose and lolling tongue (perhaps developed in Corinthian painting), are basically in force;

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 313, no. 313

Athen, NM 1002 ... Um 600 v. Chr. ... G. im Knielaufschema, kurzes Gewand, zwei Flügel, Volutennase, gebogenes Maul mit Hauern und Zunge, Bart.

... [G. in knee-length pattern, short robe, two wings, volute nose, curved mouth with tusks and tongue, beard.]

• Beazley Archive 300025

Date: -625 to -575

Attributed To: NETTOS P by BEAZLEY

Current Collection: Athens, National Museum: CC657

Previous Collections:

Athens, National Museum: 1002

• Digital LIMC 13680

Object

ID: 13680

Type: neck amphora

Artist: Nessos Painter

Origin: Attica

Category: vase painting

Material: clay

Discovery: Athens

Dating: -610 – -590

Description

A. Scene depicting a centaur and a male figure to the right, the man (Heracles) brandishing a sword against the centaur (Nessos), which is grazing with his hand the chin of the other, in the suppliant-gesture, (names engraved) B. Γοργόνες (Mέδουσα, Σθενώ, Eυρυάλη).

National Archaeological Museum

Inventory 1002

• LIMC IV-2, p. 184 (Gorgo, Gorgones 313)

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British Museum A 748

Winged and bearded Gorgon from Kameiros, Rhodes, British Museum A 748 (c. 630 BC)

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 310, no. 280

London, BMA 748. ... Um 630 v. Chr. ... Bein freiläßt, vier Flügel, Sebogener Mund, geöffnet, ohne Zunge und Zähne) otre breiter Mund, Hauer, Zunge, Bart.

... [leg, four wings, curved mouth, open, without tongue and teeth) otre wide mouth, tusks, tongue, beard.]

• Digital LIMC 30559

British Museum

London

Inventory

A 748

• LIMC IV-2, p. 182 (Gorgo, Gorgones 280)

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Eleusis, Archaeological Museum 2630 (Eleusis Amphora)

Two Gorgons chase Perseus (on the body of the vase below the neck); Eleusis Amphora, Eleusis, Archaeological Museum 2630 (mid seventh century BC)

• Gantz, p. 21

On the contemporary [c. 650 B.C] Protoattic Eleusis Amphora, the sisters appear as monstrous (albeit shapely) inset-faced creatures with no wings but distinct snakes around their heads (Eleusis, no #).

• Near, p. 106

On the body, Perseus flees with the head of the Gorgon Medousa, her two monstrous sisters in hot pursuit. The convention for representing a Gorgon is still not quite settled: the painter evidently at a loss, used a cauldron with protomes as a model for heads.

fig. 4.24

Middle Protoattic amphora from Eluesis. On the neck, Odysseus and his men blind the Cyclops Polyphemus; on the shoulder, a lion attacks a boar; on the body Gorgons chase Perseus. Ceramic; third quarter of the 7th century BCE. ...

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 313, no. 312

Eleusis, Mus. ... Um 670 v.Chr.

• Digital LIMC 9830

Musée Archéologique

Eleusis

Inventory

2630

• LIMC IV-2, p. 184 (Gorgo, Gorgones 312)

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Louvre CA 795

Perseus, with averted gaze, decapitating a centaur-bodied Medusa; Boetian relief pithos, Louvre CA 795 (mid seventh century BC

• Ogden 2008, pp. 35–36

The two earliest extant images of Perseus decapitating a Medusa and fleeing from her sisters ca. 675-50 BC. In these images the faces of Medusa and the Gorgons are shown frontally, which in itself strongly identifies them with gorgoneia. In the first, on a Boeotian pithos, we find Perseus, ... [cont.] ... decapitating Medusa in the form of a female centaur, ... (LIMC Perseus no. 117 = Fig 3.1). The fact that Perseus is turning away as he does tells us that it is already established that to look at her face brings death.

• Gantz, p. 21

On a Boiotian relief amphora of c. 650 B.C., a figure in traveling garb cuts off the head of a female represented as a Kentauros (Louvre CA 795).²⁵ The attitude of the beheader, with face averted from his victim, seems not only to guarantee that this is an early Medousa, but to offer our earliest evidence for the Gorgon's perilous qualities.

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 312, no. 290

Louvre CA 795. ... Um 670 v. Chr.

• Perseus Medusa Louvre CA795

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Artist/Maker Unknown

Perseus (left, wearing a hat, winged boots and the kibisis slung over his shoulder) averts his gaze as he kills Medusa, figured here as a female centaur. Detail from an orientalizing relief pithos. Terracotta with stamped and cut decoration, Cycladic artwork, ca. 660 BC. From Thebes, Boeotia.

Credit line Purchase, 1897

Accession number CA 795

Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities, Denon, lower ground floor, room 1

• Digital LIMC 9731

• LIMC IV-2, p. 183 (Gorgo, Gorgones 290)

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Louvre BR 4306

Gorgoneion; Disk-fibula, Louvre BR 4306 (second half of the sixth century BC)

• Louvre BR 4306

-550 / -500 (2e moitié VIe s. av. J.-C.)

Inventory number

Numéro d'entrée : CA 1371

Numéro catalogue : Br 4306

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Louvre E874, the Dinos of the Gorgon Painter

Two winged and sake-haired Gorgons (center and right) chase Perseus, with a headless Gorgon (left); Dinos of the Gorgon Painter, Louvre E874 (early sixth century BC)

Gorgon chasing Perseus; Dinos of the Gorgon Painter, Louvre E874 (early sixth century BC)

• Gantz, p. 21

By the time of the name vases of Nessos and Gorgon Painters of Athens (end of the seventh century: Athens 1002, Louvre E874), canonical features, such as the tripartite nose and lolling tongue (perhaps developed in Corinthian painting), are basically in force;

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 313, no. 314

Dinos ... Louvre E 874 ... Um 590 v.Chr. ... Knielaufschema weniger ausgeprägt, Flügelschuhe, Schlangen über dem Kopf.im Knielaufschema, kurzes Gewand, zwei Flügel, Volutennase, gebogenes Maul mit Hauern und Zunge, Bart.

... [Knee-walking scheme less pronounced, winged shoes, snakes over the head. in the knee-walking scheme, short robe, two wings, volute nose, curved mouth with tusks and tongue, beard.]

• Perseus Louvre E 874 (Vase)

Date: ca. 590 BC

On side B, Perseus has beheaded Medusa. As she falls, her two sisters run to the right after Perseus. Hero and gorgons all wear similar winged shoes and short chitons.

• Beazley Archive 300055

Date: -600 to -550

• Digital LIMC 4022

• LIMC IV-2, p. 185 (Gorgo, Gorgones 314)

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Louvre G104

Athena (right) wearing her snake-fringed Gorgon aegis; Attic kylix cup, Louvre G 104 (late sixth–early fifth century BC)

• Beazley Archive 203217

Date: -525 to -475

• Digital LIMC 46725

• Perseus Digital Library, Louvre G 104 (Vase)

Painter: Attributed to Onesimos

Potter: Signed by Euphronios

Context: Caere

Date: ca. 500 BC - 490 BC

Dimensions: Diam. 0.40 m

Shape: Cup

Beazley Number: 203217

Region: Etruria

Period: Late Archaic

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Medusa pediment Corfu

Winged Gorgon with snakey hair, and belt of snakes, kneeling-running position; pediment from the temple of Artemis in Corfu, Archaeological Museum of Corfu (early sixth century BC)

• Gantz, p. 21

We find this composition [with Pegasus and Chrysaor] ... on the famous Medousa pediment from the Temple of Artemis on Kerkyra (no #), where the wings and snakes are both in evidence. In this latter example, the two snakes knotted around her waist repeat the image found in the Apsis and seen again in Attic Black-Figure of the early sixth century.

• Ogden 2006,

On the famous pediment of the temple of Artemis in Corfu of ca. 590 CC (LIMC Gorgo no. 289) Medusa is depicted with her legs in the distinctive kneeling-running configuration, she has a belt formed from a pair of intertwined snakes (cf. belts of Stheno and Euryale in the Hesiodic Shield, 233-7), and a further pair of snakes project from her neck. She is flanked by her children Pegasus and Chrysaor, the former rearing up, the latter reaching up towards her, and beyond these, on either side, sit magnificent lions. This Medusa bears a striking general resemblance to Near-Easterm 'Mistris of Animals' images and also, more particularly, to Mesopotamian images of the child-attacking demoness Lamashu, who was otherwise brought into Greek culture in her own right as Lamia.

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 311, no. 289

Um 590 v. Chr. ... Medusa (zwei Flügel, kurzer Chiton mit Schlangengürtel, Flügelschuhe) im Knielaufschema nach r. An ihren r. Arm lehnt sich der auf den Hinterbeinen stehende Pegasos, von r. schreitet ein junger, nackter Mann (mit Flügelschuhen) auf sie zu (Perseus, Chrysaor?). Medusa wird flankiert von zwei liegenden «Löwenpanthern».

... [Medusa (two wings, short chiton with snake belt, wing shoes) in knee-walking pattern to r. On their r. The Pegasus, standing on its hind legs, leans on its arm, from r. a young, naked man (with winged shoes) walks towards them (Perseus, Chrysaor?). Medusa is flanked by two lying “lion panthers”.]

• Digital LIMC 502

Dating: -600 – -590

• LIMC IV-2, p. 182 (Gorgo, Gorgones 289)

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Metropolitan Museum of Art 45.11.1

Perseus about to behead a "beautiful" sleeping Medusa; Pelike, attributed to Polygnotos, Metropolitan Museum of Art 45.11.1 (mid fourth century BC)

• Karoglou, pp. 9–10

A red-figure pelike attributed to the painter Polygnotos preserves one of the earliest depictions of a beautiful Medusa (fig. 8). The Gorgon sleeps peacefully on a hillside as Perseus approaches, sickle in hand, and grabs her by the hair. He looks away to avoid her gaze, though it is disarmed by sleep.

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 313, no. 301

Pelike ... New York, MMA 43.11.1 ... 450/40 v.Chr.

• Metropolitan Museum of Art 45.11.1

Title: Terracotta pelike (jar)

Artist: Attributed to Polygnotos

Date: ca. 450–440 BCE

Culture: Greek, Attic

Medium: Terracotta; red-figure

Accession Number: 45.11.1

• Beazley Archive 213438

Date: -475 to -425

• Digital LIMC 9730

• LIMC IV-2, p. 183 (Gorgo, Gorgones 301)

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Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2027

Bearded snake-haired Gorgoneion; kylix cup, Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2027 (second half of the sixth century BC)

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, pp. 291–292, no. 41

... München, Antikensig. 2027. ... Um 520 v.Chr. ... Stim hôher, mit mehreren Punkten. AuBen G. zwischen Augen, derselbe Typ mit lingerem Bart, seitlich oe abhängenden Haarstrahnen und einem Kranz kleiner Schlangen über dem Haupthaar.

... [Stim higher, with several points. Outside G. between eyes, the same guy with a longer beard, strands of hair hanging down at the sides and a wreath of small snakes over his head hair.]

• Beazley Archive 9031655

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Provenance: ITALY, ETRURIA, VULCI Date: -550 to -500

• Digital LIMC 30269

Type: cup, kylix

Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek

München

Inventory 2027

• LIMC IV-2, p. 166 (Gorgo, Gorgones 41)

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Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2312

Running Gorgon; amphora, Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2312 (c. 490 BC)

Gorgon (detail); amphora, Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2312 (Early fifth century BC)

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, pp. 311–312, no. 331

Amphora ... [Antikensammlungen] 2312 ... [c. 490 BC]

• Digital LIMC 9805

• LIMC IV-2, p. 187 (Gorgo, Gorgones 331)

• Hard 2004, p. 59, fig. 2.5

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Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8760

Bearded gorgoneion; plate, Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8760 (mid sixth century BC)

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 291, no. 38

München, Antikenslg. 8760. — Para Ap: Lydos; Bianchi Bandinelli, a. O. 37 Abb. 278; Floren 31 Nr. f. - Um 560 v. Chr. - Details trotz veränderter Proportionen wie 37, auBer Nase: Abart der Volutennase, darüber rundliches Gebilde. Auf Stirn zwei Punkte.

[Munich, Antikenslg. 8760. — Para Ap: Lydos; Bianchi Bandinelli, a. O. 37 Fig. 278; Floren 31 No. f. - Around 560 BC BC - Details despite changed proportions like 37, except nose: variation of the volute nose, above it a rounded structure. Two dots on forehead.]

• Beazley Archive 350347

Date: -575 to -525

• Digital LIMC 30266

Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek

München

Inventory N.I. 8760

• LIMC IV-2, p. 165 (Gorgo, Gorgones 38)

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Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen F2313

Athena wearing her snake-fringed Gorgon aegis; plate attributed to Oltos, Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen F2313 (c. 525–475 BC)

Beazley Archive 200575

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: RED-FIGURE

Shape Name: PLATE

Date: -525 to -475

Attributed To: OLTOS by BEAZLEY

Decoration: Obverse: ATHENA SEATED WITH OWL

Current Collection: Berlin, Antikensammlung: F2313

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Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen GL 252, Medusa Rondanini

"Beautiful" gorgoneia, with small head wings and two snakes twined under her chin; the Medusa Rondanini, Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen GL 252 (first-second century AD, Roman copy of a Greek original?)

• Karoglou, pp. 14, 16

The famed Medusa Rondanini ... is generally considered to reflect the first beautiful Gorgoneion in Greek art. ...

The Rondanini ... small wings on the top of the head ... pair of snakes [cont. p. 16] knotted together under the chin. A closer look at the partially open mouth, however, reveals the Gorgon's upper row of teeth, which render her cold beauty repellent. The high quality and classicizing style of the Medusa Rondanini have led some scholars to surmise that it is a Roman, first-century copy of a famous fifth-century B.C. monumental work by Phidias, the most acclaimed Classical Greek sculptor, perhaps a shield device of one of his states of Athena.²¹ Although many scholars question a fifth-century B.C. date for the original, the numerous fourth century iterations of the type nonetheless demonstrate its widespread fame.²² [p. 16 fig. 20] Medusa Rondanini. Roman, Imperial 1st-2nd century A.D., copy of 5th-century B.C. Greek original(?) ... Glyptothek, Munich (252)

• Ogden 2013, p. 96

...it is disputed ... mid fifth century or the early Hellenistic period.

• Krauskopf, pp. 347–348, no. 25

«Medusa Rondanini». ... Cronologia oscillante tra il V sec. a. C., periodo cui una parte della critica, attribuendolo a vari artisti, fa risalire l’archetipo del rilievo (secondo un’opinione diffusa vi si dovrebbe riconoscere, con Buschor, l'emblema dello scudo della Parthenos fidiaca, su cui + Gorgo, Gorgones 175); l'epoca ellenistica (da ultimi Belson e Callaghan, che pensano a un gorgoneion dorato dedicato sull’Acropoli ateniese da Antioco IV o da Antioco HI,

... Chronology oscillating between the 5th century. to. C., a period to which some critics, attributing it to various artists, trace the archetype of the relief (according to a widespread opinion, it should be recognised, with Buschor, the emblem of the shield of the Phidian Parthenos, on which + Gorgo, Gorgones 175); the Hellenistic era (most recently Belson and Callaghan, who think of a golden gorgoneion dedicated on the Athenian Acropolis by Antiochus IV or Antiochus HI,]

• Digital LIMC 25976

Type: mask

Category: relief_stone

Material: marble

Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek

München GL 252

• LIMC IV-2, p. 196 (Gorgones Romanae 25)

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Paris, Cabinet des Medailles 277

Gorgons. Attic black-figure lekythos, Cabinet des Medailles 277 (550–500 BC)

Beazley Archive 1102

Fabric: ATHENIAN

Technique: BLACK-FIGURE

Shape Name: LEKYTHOS

Date: -550 to -500

Decoration: Body: (PERSEUS AND THE GORGONS) GORGONS CHASING PERSEUS, MEDUSA FALLING, ATHENA, ::HERMES IN NEBRIS

Shoulder: HORSEMEN, YOUTH, DRAPED FIGURES

Current Collection: Paris, Cabinet des Medailles: 277

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Paris, Cabinet des Medailles 320

Gorgoneion; Attic kylix cup, Paris, Cabinet des Medailles 320 (late sixth century)

• Beazley Archive 302907

Shape Name: CUP A

Date: -550 to -500

Attributed To: CHIUSI P by BEAZLEY

• Digital LIMC 35646

Type: cup, kylix

Artist: Chiusi Painter

Origin: Attica

Category: vase painting

Material: terracotta

Dating: -510 – -500

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Rhodes, Archaeological Museum 15370

Gorgon running right; Rhodes, Archaeological Museum 15370 (mid sixth century BC)

Beazley Archive 300558

LIMC Gorgo, Gorgones 235

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Samos, Vathy Museum E 1

Perseus decaptitating the Gorgon; fragment of ivory relief plaque from the Heraion of Samos Archaeological Museum of Samos E 1 (sixth century BC)

• Hard 2004, p. 60, Figure 2.6

• Gantz, p. 21

for the wings and snakes there is also a slightly earlier ivory relief from Santos depicting the decapitation (Samos E 1)

• Gantz, p. 305

• Perseus, aided by Athena, with the head of the Gorgon Medusa; fragment of ivory relief plaque from the Heraion at Samos.

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Syracuse, Paolo Orsi (no number)

Gorgon; relief terracotta antefix, Temple of Athena at Syracuse, in the Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi of Syracuse, Sicily (late sixth century BC)

• Zolotnikova, p. 370 n. 52

Gorgon-antefix from Syracuse, dated to the late sixth century BCE (Museo Archeologico Paolo Orsi, Syracuse). http://www.petersommer.com/blog/archaeology-history/medusa/.

• Krauskopf and Dahlinger, p. 309, no. 271

Medusa im Knielaufschema, zusammenbrechend (Flügelschuhe, kurzer Chiton, zwei Flügel, Kopf vom korinth. Typ, ohne Bart) halt im r. Arm Pegasos. Vom 1. Arm kaum etwas erhalten; gegen die von Benton vorgeschlagene Ergänzung des Chrysaor

[Medusa in the knee-walking pattern, collapsing (winged shoes, short chiton, two wings, head of the Corinthian type, without beard) stop in the r. Poor Pegasus. Hardly anything has been preserved from the 1st arm; against Benton's proposed addition to the Chrysaor]

• Digital LIMC 30551

Type: relief

Category: relief_terracotta

Material: terracotta

Discovery: Syracuse, Syrakusai, Syrakus (Temple of Athena)

Museo Archeologico Regionale "Paolo Orsi"

Siracusa

• LIMC IV-2, p. 181 (Gorgo, Gorgones 271)

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?

• LIMC IV-2, p. 178 (Gorgo, Gorgones 232)

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Gorgoneion

The Winged Gorgoneion from Olympia (Olympia B 110), originally an apotropaic shield decoration, early sixth century BC

Gorgon head, silver didrachm issued by Athens, c. 520 BC