ABSTRACT
The earliest evidence for Gorgon-heads and the Medusa story falls into four groups which can not be ranked in any uncontroversial chronological order:
1. The Homeric poems, which mention both Perseus (Iliad 14.319-20) and Gorgon-heads, but do not bring the two together, and make no mention of full-bodied Gorgons or Medusa. The Iliad gives us a gorgoneion (a full-face Gorgon image) on the shield of Agamemnon: ‘and on it had been been placed in a central circle a horrible-faced Gorgon with a terrible look, and around it were Terror and Fear’ (11.36-7). It also gives us a Gorgon-head, again apparently an image, on the aegis worn by Athena but said to belong to Zeus (5.741-2). The poem further implies that the Gorgon’s eyes were already particularly terrible, in describing Hector’s eyes akin to those of a Gorgon (8.348-9). The Odyssey, however, seems to have the notion of a terrible disembodied head of an actual Gorgon. When Odysseus finally loses his nerve after calling up the ghosts of the dead, he scuttles off with the observation that ‘Pale fear seized me, lest dread Persephone should send the Gorgon-head of a terrible monster from Hades for me’ (11.6335). These poems are the products of long oral tradition, but
according to the current consensus moved towards their final form ca. 700-650 bc.1
