Earliest depiction of a Gorgon

The earliest known depiction of a mythical Gorgon (e.g., Medusa) is a relief on the neck of an Archaic Cycladic terracotta pithos (a type of vase) dated to 700–660 BCE that was found in Thebes, Boeotia, Greece, in 1897. The Gorgon in this 23-cm-tall (9-in) artwork, now housed at the Louvre in Paris, France, is shown as a female centaur (half-woman, half-horse), with large eyes, long fingers and sharp teeth; her head is framed by long hair but not the snakes that would later come to be associated with Medusa and her kind, particularly popularized by the Roman poet Ovid in the 1st century BCE.

In the relief, the Gorgon is at the point of having her throat cut or most likely being decapitated by a sword wielded by the Greek hero and demigod Perseus, son of Zeus. Perseus' head is turned away from the Gorgon, implying that the myth that these creatures could turn people to stone (i.e., petrify) with just a glance was already established at the time this vessel was made.

Over the centuries, Gorgons (and in particular Medusa) would assume many different forms, ranging from feminine and refined to beastly and grotesque. Medusa is a common character across Greek, Roman and Etruscan art, regularly featuring on pottery, coins, weaponry as well as carved in sculpture and architecture. Gorgons are depicted with both a full body and also just as a head (in line with the common storyline of Medusa’s decapitation by Perseus); these latter depictions of just the head are referred to specifically as gorgoneia.

The first written references to Gorgons date back even earlier, emerging out of an oral storytelling tradition, though precise dates are debated. Many cite the epic poems of Homer, such as The Iliad and The Odyssey as well as Hesiod’s Theogeny, all of which have been dated to between the mid to late 8th century BCE. However, there’s a good chance that Gorgons were alluded to in the more fragmentary unattributed verses broadly classified as the Cyclic Epics, which numerous scholars believe preceded the more comprehensive (and surviving) works of Homer and Hesiod.

In Hesiod’s Theogeny, the Gorgons are described as three sisters: Medusa (who was mortal), Stheno and Euryale (who were immortal), all of whom lived at the edge of the world between the Ocean and Night. They are said to be the offspring of sea gods Keto and Phorkys.