Pandora Tarot

By Ellen Lorenzi-Prince  © 2005 All rights reserved

XV    Gorgon   

Have you seen the eye of Sthenno which turns all to stone, or the bellowing invincible throat of Euryale herself? Have you seen the tresses of viperhair Medousa, and have the open mouths of her tangled serpents run round you?

        Nonnos, Dionysiaca, ca. 450 CE

  The Gorgons were powerful winged sisters, demons, and the hated enemies of mankind. They were all that the ancient Greeks found loathsome. Broad faces, serpent entwined hair, wide staring eyes, tusks of swine, lolling red tongues, flaring nostrils, and short coarse beards. No man, it was said, can see a Gorgon and live. Yet Athena invented the flute to add to music the fierce and mournful dirges of their voices.

Image source: Red Figure Ware ca. 500 - 400 BCE

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