Gorgon
A tragic monster who loves humanity despite the stone gaze that separates her from all she touches.
Gorgon is an Avenger-class Servant who hails from Greek mythology, known in legend as the mature, monstrous form of Medusa, one of the three Gorgon sisters alongside Stheno and Euryale, said to be the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. They were able to turn anyone who looked at them to stone. Euryale and Stheno were immortal, but Medusa was not and was slain by the hero Perseus. Representations of full-bodied Gorgons and the Gorgon face, called a gorgoneion, were popular subjects in Ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman iconography. While Archaic Gorgons and gorgoneia are universally depicted as hideously ugly, over time they came to be portrayed as beautiful young women.
- Class
- Avenger
- True Name
- Gorgon (Medusa)
Lore & Background
According to Hesiod and Apollodorus, the Gorgons were daughters of the primordial sea-god Phorcys and the sea-monster Ceto, and the sisters of three other daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, the Graeae. However, according to Hyginus, they were daughters of 'the Gorgon', an offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and Ceto, while Euripides, in his tragedy Ion, has 'the Gorgon' being an offspring of Gaia, spawned by Gaia to be an ally for her children the Giants in their war against the Olympian gods. Medusa had two offspring by Poseidon, the winged-horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor. Where the Gorgons were supposed to live varies in the ancient sources. According to Hesiod, the Gorgons lived far to the west beyond Oceanus near its springs, at the edge of night where the Hesperides live. The Cypria apparently had the Gorgons living in Oceanus on a rocky island named Sarpedon. Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound places them in the far east 'across the surging sea' on the 'Gorgonean plains of Cisthene', where the Graeae live, while his lost play Phorkides apparently placed them at 'Lake Tritonis', a mythological lake set somewhere in westernmost North Africa. And the fifth-century BC poet Pindar has Perseus, apparently on his quest for the Gorgon head, visit the Hyperboreans. However, whether Pindar means to imply that the Gorgons lived near the Hyperboreans is unclear.
In Their Own Story
Pherecydes notes that Medusa's face turned men to stone, and Pindar describes Medusa's severed head as 'stony death'. In Prometheus Bound, it says that no mortal can look at them and live. According to Apollodorus, all three of the Gorgons could turn to stone anyone who saw them. Stheno and Euryale were immortal, whereas Medusa was mortal. According to Apollodorus' version of their story, Perseus was ordered by Polydectes to bring back the head of Medusa. So, guided by Hermes and Athena, he sought out the sisters of the Gorgons, the Graeae, who had only one eye and one tooth, which they shared. Perseus managed to steal their eye and tooth, and refused to return them, unless they would show him the way to the nymphs, which they did. Perseus got from the nymphs winged sandals, which allowed him to fly, and the cap of Hades, which made him invisible. He also received an adamantine sickle from Hermes. Perseus then flew to Oceanus, where he found the Gorgons asleep. When Perseus managed to behead Medusa by looking at her reflection in his bronze shield, Pegasus and Chrysaor sprang from Medusa's neck, and Stheno and Euryale chased after him, but were unable to see him because he was wearing Hades' cap of invisibility. When Perseus brought back the Gorgon head, as ordered, he showed the head to Polydectes, who was turned to stone. Perseus returned the things he had acquired from the nymphs and Hermes, but gave the Gorgon head to Athena.
Reader's Guide
According to Apollodorus, after Perseus gave the Gorgon head to Athena, she 'inserted the Gorgon's head in the middle of her shield', apparently a reference to Athena's aegis. In the Iliad, the aegis is a device, usually associated with Athena, which was decorated with a Gorgon head. Athena wore it in battle as a shield which neither Apollo's spear, or even Zeus' thunderbolt could pierce. According to the Iliad, Hephaestus made the aegis for Zeus, while according to a Hesiod fragment, Metis made it for Athena, before Athena was born. However, Euripides, in his tragedy Ion, has a character say that Athena's aegis was made from the skin of 'the Gorgon', an offspring of Gaia, who Gaia had brought forth as an ally for her children the Giants and who Athena had killed during the Gigantomachy. In the same play, Euripides has Creusa describe a weaving she made 'like an aegis, bordered with serpents' with a 'Gorgon in the middle'. He also mentions Athena's 'Gorgon-faced shield' in his tragedy Electra. In vase-painting, Athena is often shown wearing her aegis, fringed with snake-heads. In some accounts, the blood of 'the Gorgon' was said to have both the power to heal and harm. According to Euripides' Ion, Athena gave two drops of blood from the Gorgon she slew for her aegis to Erichthonius, one of which 'wards off diseases and nourishes life', while the other 'kills, as it is poison from the Gorgon serpents'. While according to Apollodorus, Athena gave Asclepius some of the blood the Gorgon, 'and while he used the blood that flowed from the veins on the left side for the bane of mankind, he used the blood that flowed from the right side for salvation, and by that means he raised the dead.'
Did You Know?
- The name 'Gorgon' is associated with the Ancient Greek adjective gorgós, meaning 'grim, fierce, awesome, dazzling', and is considered to be related to the Sanskrit stem garğ, with connotations of noise and growling.
- According to Hesiod and Apollodorus, the Gorgons were daughters of the primordial sea-god Phorcys and the sea-monster Ceto, and sisters of the Graeae.
- In the Iliad, the Gorgon's head on Athena's aegis is described as 'dread and awful', and 'grim of aspect, glaring terribly'.
- The mythographer Apollodorus describes the Gorgons as having 'heads twined about with the scales of dragons, and great tusks like swine's, and brazen hands, and golden wings'.
- Pindar tells us that the cry of the Gorgons, lamenting the death of Medusa during their pursuit of Perseus, was the reason Athena invented the flute.