Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths(26)

There have been many attempts to derive a definitive meaning from these Gorgon heads, or more accurately, Gorgon faces or masks. Archaeologists, anthropologists and psychologists have sought to connect them to various natural phenomena: storms, for example. Gorgons are renowned for the strident noise they make, as Pindar confirms when he explains that Athene created many-voiced flutes to try and imitate the eriklanktan go?n12 – ‘deafening wail’ – that emanates from the mouth of Euryale, one of Medusa’s sisters. So the connection with thunder and storm clouds is a tempting one. More convincingly, the Gorgon is thought to be a representation of the animals we might fear, particularly if we slept outdoors: perhaps her snakish hair stands in for snakes (which are often poisonous in Greek myth) or even a lion’s mane. The snakes that surround the Olympia shield decoration are certainly reminiscent of a mane. And the sound of a lion’s roar in the darkness or an unseen snake’s hiss would be the stuff of nightmares for many of us. Is a Gorgon head a way of making our nebulous nightmares less terrifying, by carving them into solid objects we can touch or hold, made of metal and stone? And is it then something we can use to assist us?

The frightening appearance of the gorgoneion is precisely what makes it so powerful as a decorative design. It acts as an apotropaic device: something which wards off danger, particularly the supernatural kind. What better thing to have on your shield than something which scares you, so will definitely terrorize your enemies? And what better way to master your own fears than by taking them and turning them away from you to face whoever you are about to fight? In Homer’s description of the Gorgon, she is accompanied by Terror and Fear.13 These personifications are clearly who you need on your side in a battle. If they are to be found on either side of your gorgoneion, so much the better for you, and so much the worse for your enemies.

If the Gorgons start out as heads (as they seem to be in Homer, and in some early artworks), when do they acquire bodies, and how? And, perhaps most importantly, why? It seems to be the case that the gorgoneia appeared in all kinds of locations, which suggests a folklore origin: round monster heads which serve multiple possible functions, from scaring your enemy to facing your fears. And the Greeks – storytellers always – wanted to explain these strange creatures, so they added them into their stories, which is why Hesiod and Pindar tell us about three Gorgons, and give them names, and describe their appearances and their capacity to make a cacophonous racket. The decorative heads have become characters. But then these authors and their audiences needed an explanation for all the disembodied Gorgon heads they could see around them, if the Gorgons now had bodies and backstories. Something was required which explained the separation of Gorgon head from body, and so we come to Perseus, who decapitates Medusa for reasons we’ll go on to explore. Medusa and her sister Gorgons seem to exist, and certainly gorgoneia exist, before the hero who conquers them. In other words, Perseus was most likely added to Medusa’s story to explain her existence and our interest in her separated head, rather than Medusa appearing in Perseus’ story to give him a monster to fight.

Unsurprisingly, Gorgons acquire monstrous bodies to go with their terrifying faces. Their name means terrible or fierce, and ancient authors were happy to oblige. They are described in this way in Prometheus Bound, a fifth-century BCE tragedy which is often attributed to Aeschylus, though its specific date and author have been much debated. Here, the Gorgons are drakontomalloi – ‘snake-haired’ – and katapteroi – ‘winged’.14 They are also brotostugeis – ‘hated by mortals’, or ‘mortal-hating’ (the word can be active or passive). This description is borne out by contemporary vase paintings: there is a fifth-century BCE Athenian amphora in the State Collection of Antiquities in Munich which depicts just such a Gorgon:15 she has wings as well as arms, snakes around her brow and long ringlets spanning across her neck and shoulders. Her mouth is wide and open, as with the gorgoneia. Her tongue hangs out and she has large tusks on either side of it, pointing both up and down. Her wings suggest she is flying, her legs that she is running. She is caught mid-stride, her feet encased in tight boots. Her spotted skirt is knee-length and her calves are bare and finely muscled. Her arms are in a runner’s pose, one reaching up in front of her, one reaching down behind her: she is moving at speed. Both her wrists are adorned with bangles. She may be a monster, but she still has a taste for jewellery. She looks athletic and powerful, both human and inhuman.

And yet this mighty creature will be decapitated by Perseus, although he will need the assistance of several gods to succeed. This is something he is fortunately well-placed to receive, since he is the son of Zeus. And Zeus impregnates Danae, Perseus’ mother, in an even more inventive way than he manages with Leda. Danae’s father Acrisius receives word from an oracle that if his daughter gives birth to a son, that son will kill his grandfather. Acrisius is not one for risk-taking, so he locks Danae away in an underground room, perhaps made of stone. Zeus is undeterred by this seeming impenetrability and converts himself into a shower of gold, so he can rain down on Danae through gaps in the roof. No mention is made of any unusual sleeping position Danae might have adopted to break up the boredom of being locked underground, but suffice it to say that, however gravity and golden rain coincide, she becomes pregnant. The resulting child is Perseus, whom Ovid calls aurigenae16 – ‘born from gold’. When Acrisius discovers his daughter has borne a son in spite of his best efforts, he reacts with his customary proportionality and puts them both in a wooden chest which he floats out to sea. Zeus ensures the chest remains seaworthy and lands safely. The two are found by a fisherman who takes them to his brother, a king named Polydectes.