Chapter 1: The Early Gods
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♠ Hesiod, Theogony 274-83
and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade in his hands. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 325
Her [Chimaera] did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 287-94
But Chrysaor was joined in love to Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious Ocean, and begot three-headed Geryones. Him mighty Heracles slew in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 979-83
And the daughter of Ocean, Callirrhoe was joined in the love of rich Aphrodite with stout-hearted Chrysaor and bore a son who was the strongest of all men, Geryones, whom mighty Heracles killed in sea-girt Erythea for the sake of his shambling oxen. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 11.36-37
And thereon was set as a crown the Gorgon, grim of aspect, glaring terribly, and about her were Terror and Rout. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Odyssey 11.633-35
but ere that the myriad tribes of the dead came thronging up with a wondrous cry, and pale fear seized me, lest august Persephone might send forth upon me from out the house of Hades the head of the Gorgon, that awful monster. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 5.738-42
About her shoulders she flung the tasselled aegis, fraught with terror, all about which Rout is set as a crown, and therein is Strife, therein Valour, and therein Onset, that maketh the blood run cold, and therein is the head of the dread monster, the Gorgon, dread and awful, a portent of Zeus that beareth the aegis. Greek Text
♠ Kypria fr 32 PEG – Poetae Epici Graeci 1, p. 61, ed. A. Bernabé. Leipzig 1987.
♠ Pherekydes 3F11 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, pp. 61-62, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Hesiod, Aspis (Shield of Herakles) 229-37
And after him rushed the Gorgons, unapproachable and unspeakable, longing to seize him: as they trod upon the pale adamant, the shield rang sharp and clear with a loud clanging. 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. And upon the awful heads of the Gorgons great Fear was quaking. Greek Text
♠ Pindar, Pythian 10.46-48
He [Persus] killed the Gorgon, and came back bringing stony death to the islanders, the head that shimmered with hair made of serpents. Greek Text
♠ Pindar, Pythian 12.9-12
the reckless Gorgons which Perseus heard pouring in slow anguish from beneath the horrible snakey hair of the maidens, when he did away with the third sister and brought death to sea-girt Seriphus and its people. Greek Text
♠ Aischylos, Prometheus Desmotes (Prometheus Bound) 798-800
And near them are their three winged sisters, the snake-haired Gorgons, loathed of mankind, whom no one of mortal kind shall look upon and still draw breath. Greek Text
♠ Ovid, Metamorphoses 790-803
Then rejoined
a noble with enquiry why alone
of those three sisters, snakes were interspersed
in dread Medusa’s locks. And he replied:—
“Because, O Stranger, it is your desire
to learn what worthy is for me to tell,
hear ye the cause: Beyond all others she
was famed for beauty, and the envious hope
of many suitors. Words would fail to tell
the glory of her hair, most wonderful
of all her charms—A friend declared to me
he saw its lovely splendour. Fame declares
the Sovereign of the Sea attained her love
in chaste Minerva‘s temple. While enraged
she turned her head away and held her shield
before her eyes. To punish that great crime
minerva changed the Gorgon’s splendid hair
to serpents horrible. And now to strike
her foes with fear, she wears upon her breast
those awful vipers—creatures of her rage. Latin Text
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, University of Georgia, July 2020
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