Discover Top Posts Tagged with #gorgones

The Gorgons

The gorgons are a race of beings who have the body of a woman, a monstrous face, feathered wings, tusks, and venomous snakes as hair. The name “gorgon” comes from the Ancient Greek word “gorgos” meaning “terrible” or “fearsome”. In Greek myth, there were known to be three gorgons, all being sisters; they were Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale. These three sisters were the monstrous children of the sea deities Phorkys and Keto.

The gorgons were most notorious due to their hatred towards everyone and their vindictiveness. They are aggressive, spiteful, and often seek to cause destruction. They were said to live on Sarpedon, a rocky island in the ocean. In ancient Greek vase paintings and sculptures, the three gorgons were depicted as winged women with broad round heads, serpentine hair, large staring eyes, wide mouths, lolling tongues, tusks, flared nostrils, and sometimes short, coarse beards. However, Medusa was humanized in late classical art with the face of a beautiful woman. In mosaic art, her round face was wreathed with coiling snakes and adorned with a pair of small wings on the brow. In much later depictions in media, the gorgons were instead portrayed as having the lower body of a serpent rather than having legs.

The poet Hesiod seems to have envisaged the Gorgons as reef-creating sea-daemones, personifications of the deadly submerged rocks which posed such a danger to ancient mariners. One also bears a distinctly marine name, Euryale, meaning "she of the wide, briny sea". Later writers continue this tradition by saying that reefs were created where Perseus had set Medusa's head. In other motifs, the gorgon Medusa was portrayed as a storm-daemon whose visage was set upon the storm-bringing aigis-shield of Athena. The two ideas were probably connected, with sea storms driving ships to destruction upon the reefs. Some say there was a but a single goat-like gorgon, a daughter of the sun god, who was slain by Zeus at the start of the Titan-War to form his stormy aigis shield.

In a later telling of Medusa’s story, the Roman poet, Ovid, instead told that Medusa began as a beautiful human woman who had sex with Poseidon in a temple of Minerva (Athena); though in some versions, it says instead that Medusa was raped. Due to this desecration, the goddess cursed Medusa to have a horrible form and made it so that anyone she looked upon would turn to stone. However, this poem goes against the original myth of Medusa and is inaccurate to her true nature. She is also later featured in another story by Hesiod, in which the hero Perseus is assisted by Athena to slay Medusa, who had been petrifying anyone who came near her. With the mirrored shield he had received from Athena, Perseus managed to overcome Medusa and beheaded her. When this was done, Pegasus and a giant named Chrysaor sprung from her vanquished body; these two were said to be the offspring of Poseidon. The drops of Medusa’s blood were said to have transformed into the snakes of the Sahara.

Personal experiences: In my experiences with the gorgons, there are many of them, but the three sisters are the main ones who were created first. Their kind embodies extreme envy and spite, causing them to be vicious towards others and highly untrustworthy. The snakes which form their hair represent the venomous personalities that they have and how they will easily strike out at others. The gorgons are all female and appear the exact way the ancient Greeks depicted them: having human bodies with horrific faces, tusks, snake hair, and wings. They are not beautiful in any way and can cause those who look upon them to be filled with terror. They have always looked this way and are just as horrendous in their personalities as their appearances.

Since the gorgons are all female, they mate with a race of serpent-men who have no women born of their kind. Due to this mixed species, the offspring of these two races end up looking a bit different from regular gorgons. Some will look more serpent-like with a snake lower-body but will not have snake hair; others may have human bodies but more of a reptilian appearance. But even though the offspring of the gorgons are partially from another race, they still hold the aggressive characteristics of the original gorgons. The children are born with very violent personalities and often hiss or try to attack others. Their kind is always full of animosity and tend to not care much for anyone but themselves. The gorgon Medusa is actually able to turn people into stone by looking upon them and one of her sisters holds the same ability. This power was genetically passed down to some of their descendants, so not all gorgons are able to do this but many can. Yet the overall species is still highly dangerous and should be avoided.

Despite even some spirits or deities trying to help the gorgons evolve past their spite and cruelty, they have refused to do so and tend to make excuses for their actions or blame others. It would be very unwise to try and work with these beings unless you wish for them to badly impact your life in some way. It is overall best to keep a safe distance from them.

#gorgons #gorgones #medusa #spirits #greek spirits #greek mythology

Περσευς

Perseus was one of the most celebrated heroes of Greek mythology. He was the son of the Argive princess Danae who was locked away in a bronze chamber by her father Akrisios who lived in fear of a prophecy that he would one day be killed by her son. The god Zeus, however, infiltrated her prison in the guise of a golden shower and impreganted her. When Akrisios discovered the child, he placed the two in a chest and set them adrift at the sea. They were carried safely to the island of Seriphos where they were offered refuge by the kindly, fisherman Diktys. When Perseus was fully grown, King Polydektes commanded he fetch the head of Medusa. With the help of the gods, Perseus obtained winged sandals, an invisible helm and a magical sword. He then sought out the ancient Graiai and stealing their single eye compelled them to reveal the location of the Gorgones. Perseus approached Medusa as she slept and beheaded her with eyes averted to avoid her petrifying visage. On his journey back to Greece, Perseus came across the Ethiopian princess Andromeda chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea-monster. He slew the beast and brought her with him back to Greece as his bride. Perseus was the ancestor of the royal houses of Mykenai, Elis, Sparta, Messenia, and distant Persia. His most famous descendant was Herakles.