Gorgon Sisters?

[shilsen]

Let's put in my mythological .02

The Gorgons were, according to the most popular story, cursed with their ugliness by Athena, because Medusa laid with Possiedon in her temple. Medusa looses immortality by this, but the other two retain it.

Another geek fact, and in defense of Medusa - she is raped by Poseidon.

 

[Len]

Another geek fact, and in defense of Medusa - she is raped by Poseidon.

Olympian "justice" often didn't seem to be very just.

 

[seankreynolds]

I'll chip in on Kamizae's post and say that stories differ to their origin. In The New Argonauts, I went with the version that says Euryale and Sthenno were immortal monsters, and Medusa was a human woman cursed into an ugly form. E and S were immortal, M was not, and that's why Perseus was able to cut off M's head.

So the three of them are "sisters" in a physical-shape sense, not a familial-relationship sense (at least, not all three of them).

 

[Wombat]

Don't blame Gary for the mix up.

Blame medieval writers.

The gorgon-as-bull showed up in several Bestiaries and, I believe, was described as such by Isidore of Seville, master encyclopedist and in-the-running for Patron Saint of the Internet

 

[Mark]

IMO, if you're going to base D&D monsters on elements out of classical mythology, it makes the most sense to go with the most widely accepted variants of that mythology. Othewise, you're losing the value of making a reference, and why do so at all?

Yet, it has already been done. We're not talking about what someone *would* do, we're talking about what someone *did* do and justifying it retrospectively, aren't we?

It makes a certain amount of sense that as the creatures were created for the game they likely got to the gorgon and figured it might require too much explanation that would be easily alleviated by simply calling it "a medusa". While those who are familiar with mythology probably know that Medusa was one of three gorgon sisters, the general public is more likely to associate the name "medusa" as a simple name for that type of creature. Further, as the creature list needed to be expanded and more digging through old reference material turned up the mention (in more obscure books in the local library) of a bull-like creature, and since the name "gorgon" wasn't being used for the other creature, it was fair game and helped fatten the list.

Alternately, perhaps gorgon was first being used for the snake-haired creature but after running across the other references to a bull-like creature, the name of the first was switched to medusa so that the list could be fattened.

Either is a possible explanation and both rationalize what has actually come to be, no matter what someone *would* do.

 

[Tonguez]

The Gorgon Bull is the Medieval version of the Catoblepas - maybe those Medieval writers weren't up on their Greek myth

The catoblepas was inturn probably based upon the Gnu (the animal in Africa)

I say when they decided to call the Bull a Gorgon they had to look for another name for the girls and well Medusa semed to fit

btw iirc of the three sisters only Medusa had the petrifying gaze ability (and I thought only she had the snake-hair too) the others (like Medusa) were winged and ugly though

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Gentlemen! Behold! The medieval gorgon...

 

[shilsen]

btw iirc of the three sisters only Medusa had the petrifying gaze ability (and I thought only she had the snake-hair too) the others (like Medusa) were winged and ugly though

Yes to the petrifying gaze and snake hair. Some traditions have her lacking wings.