Medusa Manufacturer: N/A SKU: CLA82a-cl-cl Price: $19.99 This item is in stock Quantity:

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"...and therein was set as a crown the Gorgon, grim of aspect, glaring terribly, and about

her were Terror and Rout."

—Homer's The Iliad

Medusa ("guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon, a chthonic female monster. Gorgon derives from the Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful."

Gorgons sometimes are depicted as having wings of gold, brazen claws, the tusks of boars, but most often with the fangs and skin of a serpent. The oldest oracles were said to be protected by serpents, and a Gorgon image often was associated with those temples.

In Ancient Greece a Gorgoneion (a stone head, engraving, or drawing of a Gorgon face, often depicted with snakes, fangs and protruding tongue) frequently was used as a protective symbol and placed on doors, walls, floors, coins, shields, breastplates, and tombstones in the hopes of warding off evil. In this regard, Gorgoneia are similar to the sometimes grotesque faces on Chinese soldiers' shields, also used generally as an amulet for protection against the evil eye.

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