If you carefully examine the myths and legends of the ancient Greeks, it becomes clear that there were several gorgons, but thousands of years later, from memory we can play only an ode to the name of them - Medusa.
Medusa.The myth about the origin of
very first mention in the literature of the snakehead beings belong to the eighth century BC.In the "Odyssey," Homer wrote about Medusa - a monster from the underworld, and in "Theogony" Hesiod says nothing of the three Gorgon sisters.Generally, there are several options for how and by whom were the Gorgon they were originally.
first version of the appearance that adheres Euripides - titanic.It states that the mother was a gorgon Gaia - earth goddess and ancestor of the Titans.If so, the Gorgon Medusa and her sisters could initially be monsters.
second version can be called "poseydonicheskoy."It sets out in his "Metamorphoses" by Ovid.
Long ago, in ancient times, have Forkisa, who in Greek mythology was the god of the stormy sea, and his sister Ceto, sea monsters, like the dragon, had three daughters - beautiful aquatic maidens.They got such names Stheno (translated from ancient Greek as "powerful"), Euryale ("far-jumping") and Medusa ("Warden", "lady").
most beautiful sister was Medusa.She was so fascinated with the beauty of the god Poseidon, he forcibly took possession of Medusa in a temple dedicated to Athena.Goddess was furious to learn of the desecration of their holy place, and made the sea maiden in Gorgon - a monster covered with thick scales, with flowing hair on his head instead of the Hydra and serpents with protruding from the jaws of yellow teeth.Stheno Euryale and decided to share the fate of the sisters and also became monsters.And maybe it does not in the temple, a powerful Athena jealous beautiful appearance of Medusa and her jealous god of the sea.
Medusa - the only one of the sisters was mortal, and she could only their eyes to turn people into stone statues.In certain other myths of all three gorgons had to pay a terrible gift to stone people and animals, as well as frozen water.When the young Perseus accidentally dropped a phrase that he could kill the Gorgon Medusa, Athena caught him at his word.She taught the hero how to win Gorgon and not turn into stone, and gave the boy his shield, polished like a mirror.Hero kept his promise and brought the goddess Medusa's head and back panel, on which the printed image Gorgon.
The ancient Greeks believed that Medusa, or rather her severed head - it's a great protective artifact that protects against evil and the "evil eye."So there charms and spread-gorgoneion.
Images Jellyfish applied to weapons, armor, medallions, coins and facades of buildings, not only in Greece but also in ancient Rome, Byzantium, and Scythia.First Gorgon drew terribly terrible as a monster, but eventually began to portray Medusa as a beautiful, albeit horrific woman writhing with snakes on his head.
