MONSTER GORGON.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1103, 17 April 1911, Page 5

MONSTER GORGON.

AN INTERESTING FIND,

By Telccraon-Presa Association-Oopyrieht

Corfu, April 11. The Kaiser witnessed at Gaiftza, in a C'orcyraen Temple dating from the beginning of the sixth century beforo Christ, the unearthing of a slab containing a representation of the clothed body of a monster Gorgon and of her foot, the latter being twenty inches long. The Kaiser described the find as one of the greatest antiquities of all time.

The Gorgons were three celebrated sisters, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, whoso names were Stheno, Euryaie, and Medusa, all immortal except Medusa. According to the mycologists, their hair was entwined with serpents, their hands were of brass, their wings of the colour of gold, their body was covered with impenetrable scales, and their teeth were as long as the tusks of a wild boar, and they turned to stones all those on whom hey fisetl their eyes. JEschylus says, that they had only one tooth and one eye between them, of which they had the «se of each in their turn; and, accordingly, it was at the very moment in which they were exchanging the eye, that Perseus attacked them and cut off Medusa's head. According to some authors, Perseus, when he went to the conquest of the wirgons, was.armed with an instrument like a scythe by Mercury, anil provided with a looking-glass by Minerva, besides winged shoes, and the helmet of Pluto, which rendered all objects clearly visible and open to the view, while the person who woro it remained totally invisible. \Vith weapons like- these, Perseus °Mamwl fin easy victory. The residence ot the Gorgons was beyond the ocean towards the west, according to Ilesiod. yfcschylus represents them as inhabiting tho eastern part of Scythia, and Ovid, as the most received opinion, informs us that they lived in the inland parts of Libya, near tho lake of Triton, or Hie gardens of tho Hesperidos. Diodonis and others explain tho fable of tho Gorgons, by supposing that they were a warlike race of women near the country of tho Amazons, whom Perseus, with 'the help of a large army, totally destroyed.