THE MONSTROUS GORGON SISTERS! #BLOGCHATTERA2Z

 

                                                                                           The Gorgons - YouTube

The original Gorgon was a female created by Gaea, the Earth’s personification, to aid the Titans in their war against the Greek gods. In 700 or 800 BCE, Homer made the first mention in both his classics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, of the three Gorgon sisters, as hideous monsters. However, in the first century BCE, Ovid, the Roman poet, described the Gorgons as beautiful women whose amazing beauty tempted men. The only problem was that the men would die if they looked at their faces.

The three sisters were Stheno or Sthenna (the Mighty), Euryale (the Far Springer) and Medusa (the Queen), all of whom were supposed to have snakes for hair, along with claws, tusks, wings and scales.

Aeschylus painted a picture of the sisters in his play, Prometheus Bound:

“The sisters three, the Gorgons, have their haunt;

Winged forms, with snaky locks, hateful to man,

Whom nothing mortal looking on can live.”

The three sisters, according to one account, lived near Oceanus in an island called Sarpedon. While Stheno and Euryale were immortal, Medusa was mortal, and she was also the most well-known of the three. The story of her death has been described by many writers.

Legend goes that Medusa was once beautiful and young. When she showed the temerity to seduce Poseidon, the King of the Seas, Goddess Athena cursed her, turning her into a ‘dread monster’ with ‘glaring eyes’. She turned her hair into snakes, and any man who would look at her face would be turned to stone.

Medusa - Unsplash 

Medusa’s nemesis was a handsome young man named Perseus, who was ordered by his enemy, Polydectes, to bring him the head of Medusa. Though Perseus had divine aid from both Athena and Hermes, he hunted down the sisters of the Gorgons, the Graeae, who had one eye and one tooth among them. Perseus stole the tooth and eye, and returned them only after he got the location of the nymphs from them.

The Graeae Sisters - Pinterest

The beautiful nymphs were nature spirits linked to various aspects of nature, like water, trees, groves, valleys, mountains and woods. Perseus borrowed winged sandals from them with which he could fly to Oceanus, along with the cap of Hades which could turn him invisible, both useful gifts, indeed. There he found the Gorgons deep in slumber. Aware that he would be turned to stone if he looked directly at Medusa, he gazed at her reflection on his polished bronze shield, and beheaded her with one sharp blow. It is said that Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, the winged boar, often also depicted as a young man with a golden sword, leaped out of her severed neck.

Perseus and the head of Medusa - Peakpx

After returning the winged sandals and the cap of Hades to the nymphs, Perseus took back Medusa’s head and presented it to Polydectes who was turned to stone the moment he looked at her face. He then handed over Medusa’s head to Athena who installed it on the front of her shield, making it powerful enough to ward off evil and terrify enemies. It is said that not even Zeus’ thunderbolt or Apollo’s spear could even make a dent on it.

Trivia:

Phonetic pronunciation: Stheno - /sss-theee-know/; Euryale - /you-rye-a-lee/; Medusa -/me-du-saa/; Polydectes - /polly-dec-tees/; Perseus - / per-see-us/

The Gorgon’s Head by Nathaniel Hawthorne can be read below:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9255

Movies on Medusa and the Gorgons:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) and Clash of the Titans (2010)

Movies Anywhere

Percy Jackson Fandom

Novels:

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes (2022)

                                                                                                  Medium                                          

Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren JA Bear (2023)

                                                                                                  Goodreads

 This post is a part of Blogchatter A2Z Challenge 2026.