Perseus and Medusa by Benvenuto Cellini, (1554). Perseus with the head of Medusa. Details.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
In Greek Mythology, the Gorgons were three monsters, daughters of Echidna and Typhon. Their names were Stheno (“forceful”), Euryale (“far-roaming”), and the most famous of them, Medusa (“ruler”). Although the first two were immortal, Medusa was not, and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus.
It was said that their appearance would turn anyone who laid eyes upon it to stone. The name “Gorgon” is Greek, being derived from “gorgos” and translating as “terrible” or “dreadful”.
Hesiod in his “Theogony” imagines the Gorgons as three sea daemons and makes them the daughters of two sea deities.
Homer speaks only of one Gorgon, whose head is represented in “The Iliad”as fixed in the centre of the aegis (meaning a mirrored shield) of Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, and whose counterpart was a device on the shield…
View original post 1,085 more words