Where did the MM Gorgon come from?

[blackshirt5]

Was it in Mythology, a piece of fiction, or did it just spring from a creator's twisted mind?

I ask because I was playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night last night and I saw a creature that looks like the Gorgon, breathes poisonous gas, and is even named the Gorgon! So I'm wondering if it was inspired by D&D or the other way around.

 

[BOZ]

i know we've gone over this before more than once... it's not based on any true mythological creature, so far as i know. that's aboot all i can tell ya.

 

[The Serge]

Actually, the bull-like gorgon is based upon a mythological creature. I don't think the name was Gorgon, but it was very similar. It was a bull with remarkably thick hide (I don't know if it was steel)... The picture I saw of it in a bestiary of mythological creatures also showed it snorting something from its nostrils; don't recall if this "breath" turned victims to stone though.

I wrote the name of the book down somewhere and promptly misplaced the note.

But, yes, the gorgon is actually based upon a real-life mythological creature.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Actually, the bull-like gorgon is based upon a mythological creature. I don't think the name was Gorgon, but it was very similar.

It was called the gorgon. It was supposed to live in Africa. As an interesting aside, the same creature was also known as a catoblepas. Although other descriptions describe the catoblepas as it appears in DnD, seperating it from the bullish gorgon. So it spawned not one, but two monsters.

 

[demiurge1138]

Taking off from what Andrew Gable said...
The catoblepas was first mentioned in writing by the Greek historian/traveler Hetrodotus, whose Histories of the World were often embellished as to make for a better read. It was inspired by the wildebeast, which is ugly and cowlike and has a constantly downward pointed head. Hetrodotus claimed that was because the gaze of the catoblepas could turn a man to stone at thirty paces.
After the book became a big hit, and the catoblepas incorporated into Greek folklore, the catoblepas eventually merged with the rhinoceros (whose thick hide was often described as being armor plates). It was renamed the gorgon, in honor of Medusa and her ilk's ability to turn people into stone.
The gaze becoming a breath weapon was TSR's doing, as they wanted to keep it seperate from the catoblepas (whose stony gaze they converted into just death)

Demiurge out.

 

[Tonguez]

Taking off from what Andrew Gable said...
The catoblepas was first mentioned in writing by the Greek historian/traveler Hetrodotus, whose Histories of the World were often embellished as to make for a better read. It was inspired by the wildebeast, which is ugly and cowlike and has a constantly downward pointed head. Hetrodotus claimed that was because the gaze of the catoblepas could turn a man to stone at thirty paces.
After the book became a big hit, and the catoblepas incorporated into Greek folklore, the catoblepas eventually merged with the rhinoceros (whose thick hide was often described as being armor plates). It was renamed the gorgon, in honor of Medusa and her ilk's ability to turn people into stone.
The gaze becoming a breath weapon was TSR's doing, as they wanted to keep it seperate from the catoblepas (whose stony gaze they converted into just death)

Demiurge out.

Actually I alway thought the breat weapon came from the Bobacon - another giant bull creature which would lift its tail and well - the spray could light fires!

But yeah Gorgon = Medieval version of the Catelopas

 

[Gez]

Another metallic bull comes from Greek folkore. Jason (of the argonauts) had to beat one when he stole the golden fur thingie. Don't remember well, but it may had a noxious breath as well.

 

[Mangrum]

Clip-and-pasting my answer from when it came up on Usenet:

It was an Elizabethan fellow named Topsell, who in 1607 translated (adding his own commentary, of course) a Bestiary written by the 16th century Swiss naturalist Gesner. (The roots of Gesner's bestiary in turn go back to the 12th century, and beyond.)

Apparently, what Topsell labeled a "Gorgon" was a somewhat evolved version of the Catobelpas legend, which was also related to a creature called the Yale.

Topsell's Gorgon:

"It is a beast all set over with scales like a Dragon, having no haire except on his head, great teeth like Swine, having wings to flie, and hands to handle, in stature betwixt a Bull and a Calfe.

[...]

"And thus much may serve for a discription of this beast, untill by gods providence, more can be knowne thereof."

 

[megapenthes]

Taking off from what Andrew Gable said...
The catoblepas was first mentioned in writing by the Greek historian/traveler Hetrodotus, whose Histories of the World were often embellished as to make for a better read. It was inspired by the wildebeast, which is ugly and cowlike and has a constantly downward pointed head. Hetrodotus claimed that was because the gaze of the catoblepas could turn a man to stone at thirty paces.
After the book became a big hit, and the catoblepas incorporated into Greek folklore, the catoblepas eventually merged with the rhinoceros (whose thick hide was often described as being armor plates). It was renamed the gorgon, in honor of Medusa and her ilk's ability to turn people into stone.
The gaze becoming a breath weapon was TSR's doing, as they wanted to keep it seperate from the catoblepas (whose stony gaze they converted into just death)

Demiurge out.

CATOBLEPAS : Fantastic African animal ; Greek legend ; pictures : KATOBLEPS

An excerpt:
THE KATOBLEPS (or Catoblepas) was a large bull-shaped animal of Aithiopia (Sub-Saharan Africa) whose downward hanging face, when lifted, could kill by gaze or through the fumes of its noxious breath.

Aelian, On Animals 7. 6 (trans. Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.) :
"Libya [Africa] is the parent of a great number and a great variety of wild animals, and moreover it seems that the same country produces the animal called the Katoblepon (Down-Looking). In appearance it is about he size of a bull, but it has a more grim expression, for its eyebrows are high and shaggy, and they eyes beneath are not large like those of oxen but narrower and bloodshot. And they do not look straight ahead but down on to the ground: that is why it is called ‘down-looking’. And a mane that begins on the crown of its head and resembles horsehair, falls over its forehead covering its face, which makes it more terrifying when one meets it. And it feeds upon poisonous roots. When it glares like a bull it immediately shudders and raises its mane, and when this has risen erect and the lips about its mouth are bared, it emits from its throat pungent and foul-smelling breath, so that the whole air overhead is infected, and any animals that approach and inhale it are grievously afflicted, lose their voice, and are seized with fatal convulsions. This beast is conscious of its power; and other animals know it too and flee from it as far away as they can."

Interesting, that it is depicted as feeding upon "poisonous roots".

One of my main problems with the various "books of critters" available for fantasy campaigns is the sheer number of carnivores (it would unbalance any ecosystem). Nice that the original AD&D had a dangerous herbivore, for a change...