GORGON By: Brittany Martin

Period 2

HISTOR ICAL /BIBL ICAL S IGNIF ICANCE

Images of the Gorgons were put upon objects and buildings for protection. Such as churches and homes of people that wanted to keep the evil away.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

There were 3 gorgon sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa.Stheno and Euryale were immortal, but Medusa was not.Gorgos translates into terrible or dreadful.Medusa was the only sister with serpents in her hair.

MYTHS AND STORIES

Much later stories claim that each of three Gorgon sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, had snakes for hair, and that they had the power to turn anyone who looked at them to stone.

SYMBOLS

Common images and symbols in the western culture, they appear in a lot of paintings and sculptures, they are referred to in a lot of different stories also.

STRENGTHS

Strengths • Said to scare off evil.• Blood taken from the right side of a Gorgon could

bring the dead back to life, yet blood taken from the left side was an instantly fatal poison.

WEAKNESSES

They are said to be ugly. (Mostly Medusa not the other sisters.)Other than the “petrify” ability, they had no other special talents. Their peaceful nature and abhorrence of fighting left them open to many attacks, but they remained passive and non-violent until their eventual destruction.

WORKS CITED

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgonhttp://www.blurtit.com/q295429.htmlhttp://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Gorgones.htmlhttp://senjo.net/rebirth/race/gorgon.htm