how many snakes each gorgon had on her head

Bellerophon masters winged Pegasus and kills the Chimaera. Some accounts said her two spawn had sprung from her severed head. Her face had a strange power. While she was there, Poseidon saw her and either seduced her or raped her, and she became pregnant. Lionesses or sphinxes frequently are associated with the Gorgon as well. They may be represented by spirals, wheels, concentric circles, swastikas, firewheels, and other images. There are many depictions of her being beheaded by Perseus in Greek art. [18][15](4.627) He also used the Gorgon against Cetus (when saving Andromeda) and a competing suitor, Phineas, Andromeda's cousin. Heracles is said to have obtained a lock of Medusa’s hair (which possessed the same powers as the head) from Athena and to have given it to Sterope, the daughter of Cepheus, as a protection for the town of Tegea against attack. He later used her head as a weapon to turn enemies to stone. [citation needed]), Some reptilian attributes such as a belt made of snakes and snakes emanating from the head or entwined in the hair, as in the temple of Artemis in Corfu, are symbols likely derived from the guardians closely associated with early Greek religious concepts at the centers such as Delphi where the dragon Delphyne lived and the priestess Pythia delivered oracles. This symbol played into her role in the slaying of the Gorgon Medusa, who had snakes for hair. She had the face of a hideous woman, but had poisonous snakes on her head, instead of hair. Danaë gave birth to a son, Perseus.Though Danaë managed to hide her son from her father Acrisius for a couple years, he later found out about the existence of his grandson and decided to get rid of him. This he gave to Athena. She was the daughter of Phorcys, a God of the sea, and Ceto, a female sea God. Jane Harrison has pointed out, We have already spoken of Medusa and of the powers of her blood to render both life and death. : Perseus is said by some to have given the head, which retained the power of turning into stone all who looked upon it, to Athena. from Humphries translation She was a very lovely one, the hope of many An envious suitor, and of all her … He went to her island while she was asleep and moved her snakes of hair out of the way and then chopped her head off. Medusa Head at Yerebatan Sarayi Cistern in Istanbul. The Gorgon’s head was another prominent symbol of Athena, who was said to have been given it by Perseus after helping him slay the monster. Snakes are among the most misunderstood creatures on earth, and their stories are intertwined with humans in countless ways. Of the three Gorgons in classical Greek mythology, only Medusa is mortal. The end of each braid can be decorated with a snake’s head made out of paper. King Polydectes sent Perseus to kill Medusa in hopes of getting him out of the way, while he pursued Perseus's mother, Danae. Homer, the author of the oldest known work of European literature, speaks only of one Gorgon, whose head is represented in the Iliad as fixed in the centre of the aegis of Athena: About her shoulders she flung the tasselled aegis, fraught with terror ... and therein is the head of the dread monster, the Gorgon, dread and awful ...[10](5.735ff). Professor Hainmond assigns the historical King Perseus of Mycenae to a date. Athena gave Perseus her mirror-bright shield, telling him to look at Medusa only in its reflective surface while fighting her. After hiding the head in his bag, he quickly flew away from the two remaining, fearful and angry Gorgons, and returned home. She gave him a goatskin to bundle her head into, and instructed him to find the three Gray Sisters at the top of the world. They all share Medusa's snake-like locks, and her powers to turn men to stone. K. Kris Hirst is an archaeologist with 30 years of field experience. According to the later idea of Medusa as a beautiful maiden, whose hair had been changed into snakes by Athena, the head was represented in works of art with a wonderfully handsome face, wrapped in the calm repose of death. In this regard Gorgoneia are similar to the sometimes grotesque faces on Chinese soldiers’ shields, also used generally as an amulet, a protection against the evil eye. [16] Diodorus and Palaephatus mention that the Gorgons lived in the Gorgades, islands in the Aethiopian Sea. While descriptions of Gorgons vary and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who later were described as having hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld them to stone. On her death, Medusa's children (fathered by Poseidon) fly out of her neck: Chrysaor, wielder of a golden sword, and Pegasus, the winged horse, who is best known for the myth of Bellerophon. Her head rolled from side to side, the snakes limp. The main island was called Cerna. As a result of consorting with Poseidon, she is said to have birthed Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, the hero of the golden sword. She gave him a goatskin to bundle her head into, and instructed him to find the three Gray Sisters at the top of the world. In late myths, the Gorgons were said to be the daughters of two sea deities: Keto, the sea monster, and Phorcys, her brother-husband. Her work has appeared in scholarly publications such as Archaeology Online and Science.

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