Gorgons

The Gorgons, terrible ones, were three winged, demonic sisters: Euryalé, the wide-jumping, Stheino, the strong, and Medusa, the ruler, the best-known. The first two are immortal, but Medusa was not. Athena turned her hair to snakes, and caused her aspect to turn people to stone. Perseus cut off her head by a trick and gave it to Athena, who put it on her aegis, where it still turned people to stone, a useful property. The sisters lived in the far West, and their images were used to scare away evil. Since they are immortal, two of the sisters should still be around. The image on the web page seems too happy to be terrible Medusa, so I suspect it is a fourth, obscure Gorgon sister called Renée.


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Composed by J. B. Calvert
Last revised 20 July 1999