Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa

Chapter Title: A hideous monster or a beautiful maiden? Did the Western Greeks alter
the concept of Gorgon?
Chapter Author(s): Olga A. Zolotnikova

Book Title: Philosopher Kings and Tragic Heroes

Book Subtitle: Essays on Images and Ideas from Western Greece
Book Editor(s): Heather L. Reid and Davide Tanasi
Published by: Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvbj7gjn.23

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 Part VI

The Artistic Influence of Western Greece

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 Olga A. Zolotnikova1

A hideous monster or a beautiful maiden?

Did the Western Greeks alter the concept of Gorgon?

Gorgon, an enigmatic mythic creature, is mainly known as a

hideous female monster who was beheaded by Perseus. However,
the same monster appears as a beautiful maiden in later tradition –
both in myths and art, but the reasons for this transformation are still
debated. In this paper, I will attempt to reconsider the concept of
Medusa Gorgon and to explore the role of the religious traditions of
the Western Greeks in the formation of the image of beautiful Gorgon
in Classical Greek iconography and mythology.

Gorgon in early myths

The available evidence related to Gorgon should be briefly
surveyed. The earliest mentions of Gorgon are found in the Homeric
poems, Iliad and Odyssey, which are dated to the eighth century BCE.
There, Gorgon is referred to as a “dread monster” whose head, by
itself, is in Hades.2 According to the Iliad, the custom of representing
on shields the head of Gorgon -- “dread and awful,” “with grim eyes,
glaring terribly” -- already existed at the time of the composition of
the poem.3 However, the Homeric poems do not contain any
explanatory myth related to Gorgon and her dreadful head existing
by itself in the underworld. This strongly suggests that the theme of
Gorgon was well known to the eighth century BCE Greeks, and the
short mentions of Gorgon’s head in the poems did not require
explanations. Apparently, the mythic tradition regarding Gorgon
implied in the Homeric poems was quite old and, therefore, may be
traced back as far as the prehistoric period.
The first known narration of the myth about Gorgon occurs in
Hesiod’s Theogony, written around the beginning of the seventh
century BCE. According to Hesiod’s version, representing mostly the
Dorian-Boeotian tradition, there were three Gorgons, who formed a
kind of family: they were sisters, daughters of the sea-deities Phorkys
and Keto, and lived together somewhere in the far-West. Two
Gorgons called Sthenno and Euryale were immortal and forever
young, but the third one called Medusa was mortal; she, probably,
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was a maiden, too; Poseidon mated with her “in a soft meadow amid
spring flowers.” Hesiod did not mention specific details related to
the appearance of Gorgons. Perseus, an Argive hero, killed Medusa for
unspecified reasons and cut off her head; the winged horse Pegasus
and the boy Chrysaor came out of the neck of the decapitated Gorgon.4

Fig. 1: Gorgon. Relief on a perirrhanterion from Metapontum, c. 625 BCE (from Ingrid
Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, in LIMC, v.4.1 (Zürich & München: Artemis Verlag,
1988), nu. 255).

In the Attic (Ionian) mythic tradition, the killing of Medusa

Gorgon by Perseus seems to have been interpreted quite early on as
an act favored and supported by Athena. On a Proto-Attic amphora
from Eleusina, dated to c. 675 BCE, the goddess was represented as
staying between Perseus, who runs away with the head of killed
Medusa, and her two sisters pursuing him.5 The episode of the
pursuit of Perseus by the two other Gorgons, omitted in the Theogony,
would have been imagined as a necessary, quite exciting part of the
story of the decapitation of Medusa already in the first half of the
seventh century BCE. Representations of Gorgons running after
Perseus appear at that time not only in Attica, but also in the
Peloponnese, e.g., on a Corinthian tripod vase relief from the Argive
Heraion, dated to c. 650-625 BCE,6 and in Magna Graecia, e.g., on a
relief perirrhanterion from Metapontum, dated to c. 625 BCE (Fig. 1).7
Gorgons, the sisters of Medusa, were represented as monstrous female
creatures with snakes, either gowing from their necks and heads (as
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on the Eleusinian amphora) or held in their hands (as on the reliefs on
the above-mentioned Corinthian vase and Metapontian basin).
In the first part of the sixth century BCE, the author of the poem
The Shield of Herakles, who imitated Hesiod, expressed in quite
powerful words the monstrous appearance of Medusa’s sisters: “Two
serpents hung down at their girdles with heads curved forward.
Their tongues were flickering, and their teeth gnashing with fury,
and their eyes glaring fiercely.”8 It is not difficult to presume that in
the sixth century BCE, the mythological portrait of Medusa Gorgon
resembled the description of her sisters as was given by Pseudo-
Hesiod.
At the end of the sixth century BCE, Pherekydes from Syros
composed another Theogony, which is preserved in fragments, but is
known to have been used in the second century CE by Apollodorus
(or Pesudo-Apollodorus) in an encyclopedic survey of the Greek
myths. Many details of the Gorgon myth mentioned in the Bibliotheca
may have been taken by (Pesudo-)Apollodorus from the
Pherekydian work. Among such details, the behavior of Athena is
noteworthy: not only did she help Perseus to kill Medusa, but she also
accepted her head from the hero and attached it to her aegis.9
Apparently, this version explained to the sixth century BCE Greeks
the association of the dreadful, monstrous face of Gorgon with the
image of Athena appearing with the Gorgoneion at her shield or
breast.
By the beginning of the fifth century BCE, the most popular
version of the Archaic myth about Medusa Gorgon was a combination
of the Hesiodic (Dorian) tradition, especially preferred in Argos,
Corinth, Boeotia, and the Cycladic islands, and of the Attic-Ionian
tradition as was promoted by Athens to the Ionian islands and
Eastern Asia Minor. Pindar briefly mentioned that version in his
Pythian Ode 10, the earliest dated one, written in 498 BCE for
someone from Thessaly.10 According to this version:
 Medusa Gorgon was a monstrous and extremely dangerous
female: her hair was made of serpents, while her eyes turned the
beholder to stone;
 Perseus, the son of the Argive princess Danae by Zeus, killed
Medusa Gorgon with the help of Athena and Hermes, cut off her

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 head, and escaped from her monstrous sisters, who pursued
him;
 Already dead, Gorgon gave birth to Pegasus, a beautiful white,
winged horse especially linked to Corinth, and Chrysaor, a young
hero “with a golden sword”;
 Perseus returned to the island of Seriphos, where he left his
mother, and turned the island’s king Polydektes to stone by
showing him the head of Gorgon, because Polydektes tried to
marry Danae by force;
 The head of Gorgon was presented by Perseus to Athena as a
thank-offering.
Representations of Gorgon alone and in various scenes of the
myth related to her are known from the early seventh century BCE:
they are roughly contemporary with or follow immediately the
composition of the Hesiodic Theogony and were found in Lakonia
(mostly in the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia), Argos, Tirynthos,
Athens, Boeotia, and Samos. A fairly standardized iconography of
Medusa Gorgon is traced from the very beginning: she appears as a
giant female with a big horrible face, protruding tongue, and huge
teeth (boar tusks) projecting from the mouth, while snakes surround
her head (see figure 1). In the late seventh century BCE and
especially during the sixth century BCE, Gorgon is usually
represented winged and running (or in the position with the bent
knees); also, she often appears embracing her children – Pegasus and
Chrysaor.11 In accordance with the Archaic mythic tradition, Archaic
iconography both in mainland Greece and in Magna Graecia
emphasized the idea of the monstrous appearance of Gorgon.

Gorgon’s “transformation”
However, around 490 BCE, Pindar in his Pythian Ode 12, written
for Midas from Acragas, quite surprisingly, as it might appear,
described Gorgon Medusa as “beautiful” or “having nice cheeks” –
“εὐπάραος,” although the poet could not avoid mentioning such
traditional characteristics of Gorgons as “fierce” ones and “maidens
with horrible snaky hair.”12 About ten years after this Ode,
representations of nice-looking Medusa and her sisters appear in art,
with the main evidence coming from Attica. A new detail of the

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myth is traced from the mid-fifth century BCE onwards: Perseus
supposedly killed Medusa, when she was asleep on a meadow.13

Fig. 2: Antefix with the face of Gorgon from Taranto, second half of the fifth
century BCE (from Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu. 108b)

Around 460 BCE, Aeschylus, after his visit to Sicily, wrote the
play Phorkides dealing with Perseus’s exploits. The play is lost, and its
details are not known, but a scene from it may have been represented
on an Attic relief kantharos dated to c. 450-425 BCE. Nice and young-
looking winged Gorgons, sisters of Medusa, each with a snake curling
around her hand, pursue Perseus, while their decapitated sister falls
on the ground; Pegasus and Chrysaor, both just born, are near the
body of their mother.14 It might be presumed that some Attic artisan
represented Gorgons on his kantharos in the way he had seen them
during the performance of the Aeschylean Phorkides.
After the mid-fifth century BCE, the iconographic type of
beautiful Gorgons becomes dominant in representations of all kinds all
over the Greek world, including Magna Graecia.15 Characteristically,
in the southern Italian city of Taranto, the evolution of Gorgon
protomes during the fifth century BCE shows development from a
female face with almost naturalistic features to admirable female
portraits, in which only snakes mixed within the hair indicated the
identity of the represented (Fig. 2).16
Gradually, the type of beautiful Gorgon enters not only vase
painting and sculpture, but also coinage and jewelry.17 Among
plentiful examples, a marvelous bronze protome of Gorgon from

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Syracuse, dated to the third-second centuries BCE, is especially
noteworthy.18
In the beginning of the first century CE, the Roman poet Ovid,
who had visited Sicily at a young age, wrote the poem Metamorphoses
in which he related a story about Medusa who was originally a
ravishingly beautiful maiden, “the jealous aspiration of many
suitors.” Poseidon raped her in Athena’s temple and the enraged
goddess transformed Medusa’s beautiful hair to serpents and made
her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn
onlookers to stone.19
By the second century CE, the idea of Gorgon’s beauty appears to
be deep-rooted in the mythological imagery of the Greeks. Thus,
Pausanias, presenting his his version of the myth, wrote:
Not far from the building in the market-place of Argos is a mound of
earth, in which they say lies the head of the Gorgon Medusa… After
the death of her father, Phorkus, she reigned over those living around
Lake Tritonis, going out hunting and leading the Libyans to battle. On
one such occasion, when she was encamped with an army over against
the forces of Perseus, she was assassinated at night. Perseus, admiring
her beauty even in death, cut off her head and carried it to show the
Greeks.20

Finally, in the collection of the Greek myths composed by (Pseudo-)

Apollodorus in the second century CE, it was specified that Medusa
was originally so beautiful that she even challenged Athena to a
beauty contest. Athena won and, in order to punish Medusa for being
so bold, turned her into a hideous monster, whom Perseus, Athena’s
champion, beheaded.21
Overall, scholars give the following explanations to these radical
changes in the myth and in the visual perception of Gorgon: (1)
evolution of the Archaic iconography and the general tendency to
substitute monstrous images with beautiful ones; (2) the Classical
rejection of ugliness; (3) evolution of the myth of Gorgon to
emphasize her maidenly characteristics, which began especially from
the fifth century BCE onwards.22 However, the fact should not be
ignored that chronologically notable changes in the myth and in the
iconography of Gorgon begin to appear after Pindar’s Pythian Ode 12,
which mentioned a “nice-looking Medusa” and which was written by

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the poet in Sicily. Therefore, the question arises: was it the specific
Western Greek approach to Gorgon that Pindar observed and
reflected in his Pythian Ode 12? Hence, did the Western Greeks by the
beginning of the fifth century BCE form a different view on Gorgon,
which had contradictions with the tradition established in mainland
Greece? In this regard, it is necessary to answer a crucial question:
what kind of deity was Gorgon?

Gorgon’s dual nature

More than a century ago, Arthur L. Frothingham argued that
Gorgon was an old Cretan-Aegean goddess of wild nature, fertility,
and reproduction as well as a protectress of children and women; she
had a primitive, terrifying appearance. In the beginning of the
historic period, she was substituted by Artemis and entered into the
service of Athena and Zeus.23 Now, based on interdisciplinary
research, this remarkable opinion can be developed further.
Linguistic evidence indicates that the Greek name Γοργώ has secure
Indo-European etymology: it derives from the Indo-European theme
garəĝ- bearing such meanings as “horror”, “dread”, and “terror/
terrifying”; the Old Irish adjective garg(g) “rough”, “fierce”,
“frightful”, “wild”, the German adjective garstig “horrible”, “nasty”,
“foul”, and the Slavic noun groza / hrôza “threat”, “horror” are among
its direct cognates.24
The Indo-European origin of the name of Gorgon gives grounds
for associating her concept with the traditional Indo-European
patterns. This leads to the conclusion that Gorgon as an old Indo-
European Balkan goddess originally had a dual nature in conformity
with the Indo-European principle of duality.25 One of her natures was
terrifying, which made her able to repel the negative, ‘evil’ powers
and thereby to perform her main function - to protect. In her
terrifying hypostasis, she would have been comparable to a wild
female animal protecting her offspring26 or to a tribal shaman
performing some primitive frightening ritual.27 Her other nature was
tender, kind, and beautiful as that of a loving mother: she would have
been seen as a gracious and benevolent goddess, taking care of all
living creatures.28 Gorgon as a goddess with a dual nature – ugly and
beautiful, may be associated with a large number of mythological

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personages, who demonstrate the ability of shape shifting, that is, they
can change their appearance from monstrous to beautiful and vice
versa.29

Fig. 6: Minoan goddess with

Fig. 5: Gorgon holding snakes in her raised snakes in her raised hands.
hands. Representation on an Etruscan- Terracotta figurine from
Corinthian skyphos, sixth century BCEE (from Cnossos (from http://ancient-
Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu. 288). greece.org/museum/muse-
iraclion.html).

Fig. 3: Plate with representation Fig. 4: Artemis – Potnia Theron. Representation

of Gorgon as Potnia Theron, from on a Corinthian alabastron found on Delos,
Kameiros (Rhodes), seventh seventh century BCEE (from Charles Dugas,
century BCEE (from: Krauskopf, Délos. Vol.10. Les Vases de l’Héraion (Paris,
“Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu. 280). 1928), nu. 451a, pls. 33, 67).

This original idea of the double-sided appearance of Gorgon may

be observed in representations with similar themes, in which Gorgon
and nice-looking goddesses seem to be alterable, in particular: Gorgon
as the Mistress of Animals on a seventh century BCE plate from
Kameiros (Rhodes) (Fig. 3),30 and Artemis as the Mistress of Animals
well-known from many examples (Fig. 4); Gorgon holding snakes in
each of her raised hands on an Etruscan-Corinthian skyphos of the
early sixth century BCE (Fig. 5),31 and a Minoan figuring of a goddess
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brandishing snakes in both hands, found in Knossos (Fig. 6);32
Gorgon’s head with curling snakes, as, e.g., an Archaic bronze
appliqué found at the Athenian Acropolis (Fig. 7),33 and Late Bronze
Age Cretan figurines representing goddesses with snakes on their
heads (Fig. 8).34
The original dual nature of Gorgon – as that of a beast and that of
a nice human-like being - may have been reflected in the strong and
commonly accepted belief that she was the mother of both a horse
(Pegasus) and a beautiful boy (Chrysaor).35 The appearance of Gorgon
as half-mare/half-maiden (reflected, e.g., on a Cycladic amphora
dated to c. 690 BCE)36 likewise seems to be expressive of the original
perception of her dual nature - one as that of a wild animal and
another one – as that of a nice-looking female.

Fig. 7: Gorgon head. Archaic bronze appliqué
found on the Acropolis of Athens (from:
Andre de Ridder, Catalogue des Bronzes
Trouvés sur l’Acropole d’Athènes (Paris, 1896),
163, nu. 458, fig. 122).
Fig. 8: Cretan Post-Palatial terracotta
figurines of goddesses with snakes
on their heads (from
http://www.squinchpix.com/Tranche19
/HERAKLMUS_VI_JJJZZZ_6-9333.jpg).

To underline, all the evidence suggests that Gorgon was an Old

Balkan (Cretan-Aegean) Indo-European goddess with dual nature: in
prehistoric time, she was venerated as the mistress of animals,
guarantor of fertility and continuity of life,37 protectress of children
(kourotrophos),38 females, and warriors. She was imagined as both
beastly-horrible and humanly-nice. At the beginning of the historic
time, the beautiful side of Gorgon began to be represented by Artemis in
her hypostasis as Potnia Theron and by Athena in her hypostasis as
protectress of warriors, “the goddess with the eyes like those of
Gorgon” (“γοργῶπις θεά”)39 bearing the Gorgoneion. Gorgon herself
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was mostly viewed as an apotropaic demon, while her terrifying
appearance did not bear any negative meaning in actual religion.

Conclusion
Concerning with the subject of this paper, it must be realized
that the concept of Gorgon brought to Italy by the early Greek
colonists had all the features of the concept of Gorgon that had been
shaped in Greece before the beginning of the colonization process.
Thus, we can see that in Corinth, the metropolis of Syracuse, Potnia
Theron or ‘winged Artemis’ (see figure 4)40 could appear as ugly
Gorgon41 and as Artemis-Gorgon, whose cult is explicitly attested on
Corfu (Fig. 9),42 another Corinthian colony. In Rhodes, which sent
colonists to Gela and Acragas, Potnia Theron likewise appeared as
Gorgon (see figure 3) and as a beautiful young goddess.43 In Lakonia,
which founded a colony at Taranto, Artemis Orthia obviously
appeared as both Potnia Theron (Fig. 10) and Gorgon (Fig. 11) on the
initial phase of the cult,44 while there must have been an old
Lakonian custom demonstrating the head or mask of Gorgon,
probably as an apotropaic symbol, during the festival of Karneian
Apollo.45

Fig. 9: Gorgon between two lions. West pediment of the temple of Artemis on Corfu,
sixth century BCE (from Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu. 289).

Notably, in the poem Geryoneis narrating the myth about Geryon,

the son of Chrysaor and grandson of Medusa Gorgon, a three-headed
and triple-bodied creature with six hands and six legs, the western
poet Stesichorus created in words a humanized image of the monster
whose “noble death” (by the hand of Herakles) resembled the death

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of a Homeric hero.46 According to one of the preserved fragments,
some winged, “swift-flying” female creatures appeared in the scene
of Geryon’s death, and a suggestion was made that those might have
been Gorgons, the grandmothers of the monster.47 Whether Gorgons
really appeared in the scene of Geryon’s death or not, they seem to
have been alluded to in the Geryoneis, given that Gorgons’ mythic
island Sarpedonia is mentioned in another preserved fragment of the
poem.48 Therefore, just as Geryon was likened to a human, his
grandmothers, too, could possibly be imagined as human-like beings
inspiring people’s sympathy. Regardless of whether or not multiple
Gorgons or just Medusa appeared in the Geryoneis, or some other
unpreserved poem of Stesichorus, the audience had to accept the
general idea that someone who was traditionally viewed as a
disgusting monster could virtually resemble glorious heroes and be
similar to humans.

Fig. 10: Artemis – Potnia Theron. Relief
plaque found in the sanctuary of
Artemis Orthia in Sparta, seventh
century BCE (from M.S. Thompson,
“The Asiatic or Winged Artemis”, JHS
29 (1909): fig. 2).
Fig. 11: Small bone-head of Artemis
found in the sanctuary of Artemis
Orthia in Sparta. Archaic (from Richard
M. Dawkins (ed.) “The Sanctuary of
Artemis Orthia at Sparta”, JHS
Supplement 5 (1929): 219, pl. 120, fig. 6).

Therefore, on the one hand, it can be assumed that during the

sixth century BCE, Stesichorean interpretations of traditional mythic
themes and characters gradually changed the mythological
perception of the Western Greeks towards kindness and humanity.
On the other hand, it could have been the Western Greek cultural

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environment that formed the Stesichorean approaches to the
traditional epic/mythic characters which manifested themselves on
the stages of (Western) Greek theatres in the mid-sixth century BCE,
in the Stesichorean plays. The old belief in Gorgon as a goddess both
horrible and beautiful could have been passed on through the poems
of Stesichorus and been refined; it could have been adopted by
further poetry and become a motif quite attractive to public. That
motif could have travelled first within the Dorian diaspora to Lakonia,
Corinth, and the Aegean islands, and gradually been accepted in the
Ionian sphere and Cyprus.
Indeed, from the mid-sixth century BCE onward, the
iconography of Gorgon tends to be softened; Lakonian and
Corinthian artisans begin to cast the face of Gorgon with features less
monstrous and more human: the facial proportions attain more
correctness, the mouth becomes smaller and losses its boar tusks.49 In
the iconography of Southern Italy during the late sixth – early fifth
centuries BCE, two main types of Gorgon face developed: (1) the
image of a young coquette female with a complicated hairstyle, wide
smile, and jocosely protruding tongue, while snakes are normally
missing (as seen, e.g., on the antefixes from Gela,50 Acragas (Fig. 12),51
and Syracuse52); and (2) the image of a not especially nice-looking
female whose face is framed by two snakes, but it does not have the
protruding tongue - as seen on a group of antefixes from Himera (Fig.
13).53 Moreover, in some cases, a quite normal female face without
such traditional elements as protruding tongue, exposed teeth, and
emphasized ugliness are attested among the late sixth century BCE
representations of Gorgon found in Western Greece, for example, a
small terracotta Gorgoneion from Messina and a small terracotta
figurine of flying Gorgon from Acragas, both dated to the second half
of the sixth century BCE and exhibited in the Museo Archeologico
Paolo Orsi in Syracuse.54 Also, the representation of nice-looking
Gorgons pursuing Perseus on an Etruscan bronze tripod relief, dated
to c. 550-525 BCE, is worthy of special attention (Fig. 14).55 Together
with the above-mentioned small Gorgoneion from Messina and the
figurine of flying Gorgon from Acragas, it belongs to the earliest
representations of nice-looking Gorgons known to-date, and these
three may have appeared under the influence of Stesichorean poetry.

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 Finally, the main question of this paper must be answered: did
the Western Greeks alter the concept of Gorgon? Based on all the
evidence presented above, I would argue that the Greeks of Magna
Graecia longer, more sedulously, and more heartily kept in their
religious beliefs the concept of Gorgon in that form which it had in
the religious imagery of the mainland Greeks in the beginning of the
historic period and in which it had been brought to Italy by the first
colonists. This is quite understandable: forced to live separated from
their metropoleis, Greek colonists were especially eager to observe and
to preserve the religious traditions of their homelands as they were at
the time their colonies were established.

Fig. 12: Antefix with the face of Gorgon
found in Acragas, c. 520 BCE (from
Ernesto de Miro, Agrigento I. I Santuari
Urbani. L’Area Sacra Tra il Tempio di Zeus e
Porta V. 2 volumes (Rome, 2000), v. 1, 122-
123, nu. 1559).
Fig. 13: Antefix with the face of Gorgon
found in Himera. Late sixth–early fifth
centuries BCE (from Pirro Marconi,
Himera. Lo Scavo del Tempio della Vittoria
e del Temenos (Rome, 1931), 131-133, fig.
124).

Fig. 14: Gorgons pursuing Perseus. Etruscan bronze tripod relief, c. 550-525 BCE
(from George H. Chase, “Three Bronze Tripods Belonging to James Loeb, Esq.”, AJA
12 (1908): 298-299, pl. 13).

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Therefore, in Magna Graecia, Gorgon as originally a goddess with
two natures and two sides – kind and wild, beautiful and dreadful,
respectively -- remained that way during the whole Archaic period,
while in mainland Greece religious beliefs were rapidly evolving
towards the final differentiation of the Olympian harmony and
beauty from the primitive, pre-Olympian wildness and rudeness.
In the religious imagery of the Western Greeks, Gorgon as an old
goddess of nature and the protectress of all alive, never completely
lost her kind and beautiful side, and she was never viewed only as a
monster to the degree that was reached in the religious imagery of
the mainland Greeks during the Middle Archaic period.
Perhaps the Greeks of Italy found support for keeping the
concept of Gorgon in its original form in the veneration which Gorgon
was receiving from the Etruscans. The northern neighbors of the
Greeks in Italy were notably persistent in approaching Gorgon as the
mistress of life; they may also have been among the first in
portraying Gorgons as nice-looking females already in the third
quarter of the sixth century BCE. It seems that the original idea of the
beautiful side of Gorgon not only remained strong in the religious
beliefs of the Western Greeks, but was also revived under the
influence of colorful verbal pictures of human-like mythic monsters
created by Stesichorus. Pindar visiting Sicily would have noticed the
specific approach of the Western Greeks to Gorgon and reflect ed it in
his Ode written for on e of Acragas’s
citizens. It was only a matter of time before the Attic vase-painters,
sensitive and open to all new trends, began to employ in their work
the image of “Medusa with nice-cheeks” sketched by the famous poet.
Indeed, no more than ten years after Pindar’s Pythian Ode 12, the idea
of a nice-looking Gorgon spread all over the Greek world, already on
a new level of iconography and myth.

1 Olga Albert Zolotnikova is currently Associate Tutor in the Department of

Greek Civilization at Hellenic Open University (Greece). She has a
Ph.D. from the University of Athens and works in Greek religion and
mythology (mostly pre-Classical), as well as Indo-European religions
and mythologies. She is also interested in the Homeric period, Ancient
Greek polis, and Ancient Greek society (Archaic-Classical). She is
author of Zeus in Early Greek Religion and Mythology. From Prehistoric

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 Time until the Early Archaic Period, British Archaeological Reports, no.
2492 (2013). Email: olga_zolotnikova@hotmail.com
2 Homer, The Iliad, trans. Augustus T. Murray (London: Loeb Classical

Library, 1999), 5.741-742; The Odyssey, trans. Augustus T. Murray

(London: Loeb Classical Library, 1953), 11.633-635.
3 Homer, The Iliad, 11.32, 36-40 – the description of Agamemnon’s shield.

4 Hesiod, Theogony, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (London: Loeb Classical

Library, 1995), 270-289.

5 Linda J. Roccos, “Perseus”, in LIMC, v.7 (Zürich & München: Artemis

Verlag, 1994), nu.151.

6 Gudrun Ahlberg-Cornell, Myth and Epos in Early Greek Art. Representation

and Interpretation (Jonsered: Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology,

v.100, 1992), 114, nu.121, fig.204.
7 Ingrid Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, in LIMC, v.4.1 (Zürich & München:

Artemis Verlag, 1988), nu.255.

8 (Pseudo-)Hesiod, Shield of Herakles, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, in Hesiod.

Homeric Hymns. Epic Cycle. Homerica (London: Loeb Classical Library,

1995), 229-236.
9 Apollodorus, The Library, trans. James G. Frazer (London: Loeb Classical

Library, 1921), 2.4.2-3.

10 Pindar, Pythian Odes, trans. William H. Race, in Pindar, Olympian Odes.

Pythian Odes (London: Loeb Classical Library, 1997), 10.46-48.

11 Humphrey Payne, Necrocorinthia. A Study of Corinthian Art in the Archaic

Period (Maryland, 1971), 79-89; Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, 285-330.

12 Pindar, Pythian Odes, 12.6-12, 16-18.

13 Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nus.299, 309; Roccos, “Perseus”, nu.103;

Marjorie J. Milne, “Perseus and Medusa on an Attic Vase”, The

Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin New Series 4.5 (Jan. 1946): 126-130.
14 Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu.325.

15 E.g., Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nus.108b, 111, 186.

16 Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nus.81a (mid-fifth century BCE), 108b

(second half of the fifth century BCE); Stefania Caranti Martignago, La

Collezione Archeologica ‘Paolo Orsi’ del Museo Civico di Rovereto (Trento,
1981), 81, nu.46 (end of the fifth century BCE).
17 E.g., gold ring with the face of nice-looking Gorgon, from Cumae, fourth

century BCE, in Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, The Western Greeks:

Classical Civilization in the Western Mediterranean (New York: Thames &
Hudson, 1996), 475, Cat.nu.248.
18 Carratelli, The Western Greeks, 423, Cat.nu.371.

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19 Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. Frank J. Miller (London: Loeb Classical
Library, 1956), 4.791-803.
20 Pausanias, Description of Greece, trans. William H.S. Jones (London: Loeb

Classical Library, 1975), 2.21.5.

21 Apollodorus, The Library, 2.4.3.

22 Kathryn Topper, “Perseus, the Maiden Medusa and the Imagery of

Abduction”, Hesperia 76 (2007): 79-81, 84-85, 90, 102.

23 Arthur L. Frothingham, “Medousa, Apollo and the Great Mother”, AJA

15.3 (1911): 349, 373.

24 Julius Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (Bern, 1959),

v.1, 353.
25 Thomas V. Gamkrelidze & Vjačeslav V. Ivanov, Indo-European and the Indo-

Europeans. A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Indo-

European Language and a Proto-Indo-European Culture. 2 volumes (Berlin &
New York, 1995), v.1, 679, 748.
26 Note, e.g., one of the earliest representations of Gorgon, which is a bronze

mask of bear-like creature, found in the Theban Kabeirion and dated to

the early seventh century BCE, Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu.1.
27 Note, e.g., the famous ritual war-dance haka of a New Zealand tribe,

during which participants roll their eyes and flick their tongues.
28 Note the bronze figurine (hydria attachment) dated to the sixth century

BCE and possibly made in Taranto (Carratelli, The Western Greeks, 386),
which represents Potnia Theron as a beautiful goddess of nature, while
two snakes projecting from her head seem to connect her with Gorgon.
29 See more on this subject in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapeshifting

30 Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu.280.

31 Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu.288.

32 See http://ancient-greece.org/museum/muse-iraclion.html

33 Andre de Ridder, Catalogue des Bronzes Trouvés sur l’Acropole d’Athènes

(Paris, 1896), 163, nu.458, fig.122.

34 See http://www.squinchpix.com/Tranche19/HERAKLMUS_VI_JJJZZZ_6-

9333.jpg
35 E.g., Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu.273 (late seventh century BCE).

36 Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu.290.

37 For Gorgon as a goddess of birth, see the Etruscan relief on a bronze

plaque, dated to c. 530 BCE: Gorgon is in a birth-giving position, while

two lions support her from each side, Ingrid Krauskopf, “Gorgones in
Etruria”, in LIMC, v.4 (Zürich & München: Artemis Verlag, 1988),
nu.89.

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38 For Gorgon as kourotrophos, see the representation on an Etruscan hydria
from Vulci, dated to c. 500 BCE: Gorgon in the shape of a bird flies
holding two children by their hands, Krauskopf, “Gorgones in
Etruria”, nu.117.
39 Sophocles, Ajax, 450 (translation by the author).

40 E.g, Potnia Theron on a Corinthian alabastron found at the Heraion on Delos,

c. mid-seventh century BCE, Charles Dugas, Délos. Vol.10. Les Vases de

l’Héraion (Paris, 1928), nu.451a, pls.33, 67.
41 E.g., Gorgon winged and running on an Early Corinthian aryballos (late

seventh century BCE) found on Delos, while a lion and an owl are
represented on the other side of the same aryballos, Dougas, Les Vases de
l’Héraion, pl.26, nus.330a-b.
42 Krauskopf, “Gorgo, Gorgones”, nu.289.

43 E.g., Potnia Theron winged and holding a young lion in each of her hands,

represented on a gold pendant found in Kameiros (second half of the

seventh century BCE), Andreas Vlahopoulos (ed.) Αρχαιολογία. Νησιά
του Αιγαίου (Athens, 2005), nu.561.
44 E.g., Artemis as Potnia Theron on a relief plaque from the sanctuary of

Artemis Orthia in Sparta (seventh century BCE), M.S. Thompson, “The

Asiatic or Winged Artemis”, JHS 29 (1909): fig.2, and a bone-head of
Artemis Orthia with Gorgon’s features (sixth century BCE), Richard M.
Dawkins (ed.) “The Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta”, JHS
Supplement 5 (1929): 219, pl.120, fig.6.
45 Note a scene from the Karneian festival represented on a late fifth century

BCE red-figure krater from Taranto: Perseus shows the head of Gorgon,
Carratelli, The Western Greeks, 512, Cat.nu.198.
46 Stesichorus, Geryoneis, trans. David A. Campbell, in Greek Lyric III

(London: Loeb Classical Library, 1991), S11, S15; Homer, Iliad 8.306-8.
47 James A.D. Irvine, “Keres in Stesichorus’ Geryoneis: P.Oxy.2617 Fr.1(A)-(B)

= SLG 21 Reconsidered”, ZPE 115 (1997): 38.

48 Stesichorus, Geryoneis, S86.

49 Conrad M. Stibbe, The Sons of Hephaistos. Aspects of the Archaic Greek Bronze

Industry (Rome, 2000), 61-63, 148-149, figs.37-38, 107; Claude Rolley,

“Deux gorgones, deux problèmes. A propos de deux bronzes grecs du
Louvre”, Revue du Louvre 31 (1981): fig.7.
50 Gorgon-antefix of the late sixth century BCE exhibited in the Museo

archeologico regionale di Gela; also, Reynold A. Higgins, Catalogue of

the Terracottas in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. British
Museum. 2 volumes (London, 1954), v.2, pl.155, nu.1137 – Gorgon-antefix
from Gela, dated to the early fifth century BCE.

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 http://www.regione.sicilia.it/beniculturali/dirbenicult/musei/musei2/gela
/part.htm -
51 Ernesto de Miro, Agrigento I. I Santuari Urbani. L’Area Sacra Tra il Tempio di

Zeus e Porta V. 2 volumes (Rome, 2000), v.1, 122-123, nu.1559 - Gorgon-

antefix from Acragas, dated to c. 520 BCE (could it be that “Medousa
with nice cheeks”, which was seen and mentioned by Pindar?).
52 See Gorgon-antefix from Syracuse, dated to the late sixth century BCE

(Museo Archeologico Paolo Orsi, Syracuse). http://www.peter

sommer.com/blog/archaeology-history/medusa/. Two more antefixes of
this type, both seem to be of Western Greek provenance, may be
mentioned: one dated to the late sixth century BCE, acquired by the
Royal-Athena Galleries (Jerome Eisenberg, Art of the Ancient World,
vol.23 (New York, 2012), nu.91 – snakes frame the head of Gorgon in
this antefix) and another one dated to the early fifth century BCE,
exhibited in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts
(http://www.chron.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/Gifts-From-
the-Past-is-a-treasure-trove-of-4714299.php).
53 Pirro Marconi, Himera. Lo Scavo del Tempio della Vittoria e del Temenos

(Rome, 1931), 131-133, figs.124-126 – Gorgon-antefixes from Himera, c.

late sixth-early fifth centuries BCE; Nunzio Allegro et al., Himera II
(Rome, 1976), 646, pl.55, nu.5 – small terracotta mask of Gorgon, early
fifth century BCE.
54 I could not find bibliographic references to these artefacts.

55 George H. Chase, “Three Bronze Tripods Belonging to James Loeb, Esq.”,

AJA 12 (1908): 298-299, pl.13.

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