e fear.

They were frightful winged monsters, whose bodies were covered with scales;
hissing, wriggling snakes clustered round their heads instead of hair;
their hands were of brass; their teeth resembled the tusks of a wild boar;
and their whole aspect was so appalling, that they are said to have turned
into stone all who beheld them.

These terrible sisters were supposed to dwell in that remote and mysterious
region in the far West, beyond the sacred stream of Oceanus.

The Gorgons were the servants of Aides, who made use of them to terrify and
overawe those shades, doomed to be kept in a constant state of unrest as a
punishment for their misdeeds, whilst the Furies, on their part, scourged
them with their whips and tortured them incessantly.

The most celebrated of the three sisters was Medusa, who alone was mortal.
She was originally a golden-haired and very beautiful maiden, who, as a
priestess of Athene, was devoted to a life of celibacy; but, being wooed by
Poseidon, whom she loved in return, she forgot her vows, and became united
to him in marriage. For this offence she was punished by the goddess in a
most terrible manner. Each wavy lock of the beautiful hair which had so
charmed her husband, was changed into a {145} venomous snake; her once
gentle, love-inspiring eyes now became blood-shot, furious orbs, which
excited fear and disgust in the mind of the beholder; whilst her former
roseate hue and milk-white skin assumed a loathsome greenish tinge. Seeing
herself thus transformed into so repulsive an object, Medusa fled from her
home, never to return. Wandering about, abhorred, dreaded, and shunned by
all the world, she now developed into a character, worthy of her outward
appearance. In her despair she fled to Africa, where, as she passed
restlessly from place to place, infant snakes dropped from her hair, and
thus, according to the belief of the ancients, that country became the
hotbed of these venomous reptiles. With the curse of Athene upon her, she
turned into stone whomsoever she gazed upon, till at last, after a life of
nameless misery, deliverance came to her in the shape of death, at the
hands of Perseus.

It is well to observe that when the Gorgons are spoken of in the singular,
it is Medusa who is alluded to.

Medusa was the mother of Pegasus and Chrysaor, father of the three-headed,
winged giant Geryones, who was slain by Heracles.

GRAEAE.

The Graeae, who acted as servants to their sisters