ABSTRACT
Three female creatures of frightening aspect, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, both denizens of the sea. Their names were Stheno (‘strength’), Euryale (‘wide-leaping’), and Medusa (‘ruler’ or ‘queen’). They lived in the far west by the shore of Ocean’s stream. Their sisters were the Graiae and, according to some versions, Echidna. With the exception of Medusa, who was slain by Perseus, they were immortal. Poseidon was Medusa’s lover, having taken her in a temple consecrated to Athena, and she was pregnant by him when Perseus killed her. Either the drops of her blood or her decapitated corpse gave birth to Chrysaor and Pegasus. (The mythologist Apollodorus adds a story that Asclepius got hold of Medusa’s blood, which, being the god of healing, he used on his patients. One vein produced blood which had the power to revive dead bodies, but the blood coming from the other was lethal.)
Traditions vary about the appearance of the Gorgons. On the one hand they are sometimes described as beautiful, and it was said that Athena gave Perseus the power to kill Medusa (see Perseus) because she had boasted of excelling the goddess in beauty. Ancient art, on the other hand, depicts them with hideous round faces, serpentine hair, boar’s tusks, terrible grins, snub noses, beards, lolling tongues, staring eyes, brazen hands, a striding gait, and sometimes the hindquarters of a mare. It was said that a glimpse of these creatures, or at any rate of Medusa, would turn a man to stone.
