Gorgon

The Gorgons were female monsters that inhabited Greece, a serpentine race whose terrible gaze could turn the living to stone. Where the older myths spoke of only three, in the age of the gods the Gorgons had become a whole race, ruled over by three matriarchs, and Kratos hunted them across the lands of the living and the dead.

A race ruled by three#

In the older myths of Greece the Gorgons were but three, monsters whose name came from a word meaning terrible and whose gaze turned any onlooker to stone. Two of them, Euryale and Stheno, were immortal, and one, Medusa, was mortal. All three bore hair of living, venomous snakes, given them as a punishment by Athena; by some accounts they had once been beautiful young women, transformed into monsters for their infidelity.

In the age of the gods the Gorgons were no longer three alone but a whole race of serpentine beings spread across Greece, more snake-like in form than the monsters of old. Yet they were still ruled by three matriarchs, the sisters Medusa, Euryale, and Stheno, who held dominion over all the rest.

The army of Ares and the heads of the slain#

During the siege of Athens the Gorgons marched in the army of Ares, led by their queen Medusa, who bore a deep hatred for Athena. The goddess Aphrodite charged Kratos with hunting Medusa down and severing her head, so that he might wield it as a weapon against his enemies, turning her own petrifying power against them. Every Gorgon he met fought to fix him in their gaze and turn him to stone.

Medusa's death did not go unanswered. Her sister Euryale, a Gorgon Queen mightier still, awaited Kratos within her temple, massive and grotesque beyond any Gorgon he had faced. He slew her as he had slain Medusa, tearing the head from her body to carry as a weapon. Euryale spoke as though her sisters were already dead by the Spartan's hand, which led some to believe that Stheno too had fallen to him, slain unseen. Of the three matriarchs, Stheno alone left no certain record of her end.

The breeds of Gorgon#

Many kinds of Gorgon were met across the Greek world. The Gorgon Assassins, bluish and swifter than their common kin, could loose seeking orbs of petrifying magic that followed their prey even out of the line of sight. Mightiest among the lesser breeds were the Gorgon Queens, leaders of their race who hurled stone-turning orbs from their eyes, found in the temples of Persephone and the Fates. In the final fall of Olympus, Kratos faced the great Gorgon Serpents, larger beasts with rattling tails that coiled about a warrior to crush and petrify him, and by tearing the head from such a creature he could turn all its kin to stone. To the people of Greece it was warned that to stare at a Gorgon was to be turned to stone, though the truth was crueler still, for mere nearness to one of them was peril enough.