The gorgon is a female mythical beast associated with Greek mythology, often depicted on shields, coins, and jewelry. Medusa, the most well-known gorgon, was once a beautiful woman whose hair was turned into snakes by Athena. Perseus killed Medusa by looking at her reflection in his shield, and her blood transformed into Pegasus or her son Chrysaor. The gorgon is also found in Celtic mythology and represents the hero’s inability to recognize and appreciate their own soul. The fearsome nature of female deities may be due to the replacement of the mother goddess by male deities.
The gorgon is a fearsome female mythical beast, often associated with Greek mythology. In myth, the gorgon has snakes in her hair and her gaze can instantly turn a man to stone. The Greek and Roman fascination with the gorgon has many different types of creature depicted on shields, coins, jewelry, and other works of art. In Homer’s Iliad, Agamemnon’s shield depicts the gorgon, who evokes terror in all his opponents during the Trojan War.
There are several myths specifically centered around the gorgon Medusa, often believed to be a creation of the earth goddess Gaia. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Medusa was once a beautiful woman with enviable golden hair. In fact her hair was so beautiful that the goddess Athena became jealous and she turned her pretty locks into snakes. From Ovid comes the concept that the gorgon is beautiful as well as horrible, and no one can survive such a gaze. Medusa is sometimes depicted as the sister of two other gorgons, Stheno and Euryale. Most often, Medusa is the only gorgon recognizable in common myths.
According to most myths, Medusa meets her death through Perseus, who is able to kill her by only looking at her reflection in his shield. In some accounts, Medusa’s fallen blood transforms into Pegasus, the flying horse often associated with Perseus. In other tales, Pegasus has a brother Chrysaor, created when Perseus kills Medusa. Unlike Pegasus, Chrysaor is human. Both are said to be sons of Medusa and Poseidon. Other accounts suggest that Perseus used the Gorgon’s head to appease one of the Titans sent by Poseidon.
The gorgon, while commonly thought to be of Greek origin, has counterparts in Celtic mythology. In all cases, she is usually considered a minor deity and her face protects from evil. She is among the ranks of many female monsters who recur in numerous mythological tales of the hero’s journey.
According to Jungian literary analysis and the work of Joseph Campbell, these goddesses or angry monsters, also called “foul women,” are representations of the hero’s inability to recognize and appreciate his own soul, also called his female half. Heroes who reject real women and their feminine side usually offend the Anima to such an extent that it stands up in ferocious form pressing for recognition and often engaging in physical combat with the hero.
In real life, this resembles a person not recognizing an aspect of their personality. The inability to understand and integrate the unsavory aspects of personality often means they hide from us until we address them. The gorgon, and creatures like her, become the stuff of nightmares because they are the things we refuse to acknowledge about ourselves, and until they are acknowledged, they are feared. Furthermore, these unacknowledged parts are likely to emerge when we least want to address them.
Other interpretations of fearsome female deities suggest that as the mother goddess was replaced in many parts by male deities, stories arose to suggest her wrath. She could also serve the purpose of conquering tribes to cast mother goddess figures in an evil light to assert the prominence of a conquering tribe’s male god. This explanation could explain the dichotomy between the fearsome nature of beasts such as the gorgon and the many powers and “good sides” that are attributed to them. Spreading rumors about ancient mother goddess figures hasn’t completely diminished their importance.
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