Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/203

 The Gorgons themselves are to be encountered in all parts of the sea; but their favourite resort, especially on Saturday nights, is reputed to be the Black Sea, where if one of them meets a ship, grasping the bows with her hand she asks, 'Is king Alexander living?' To this the sailors must reply 'he lives and reigns,' and may add 'and he keeps the world at peace,' or 'and long life to you too!'; for then the awful and monstrous Gorgon in gladness at the tidings transforms herself into a beautiful maiden and calms the waves and sings melodiously to her lyre. If on the contrary the sailors make the mistake of saying that Alexander is dead, she either capsizes the ship with her own hand or by the wildness of her lamentations raises a storm from which there is no escape nor shelter. The mention of Alexander the Great in these stories of the Gorgons, as also sometimes in connexion with the Nereids, is unimportant; it is not an instance of purely oral tradition, but has its source in the history of Alexander by Pseudocallisthenes, of which there exist paraphrases in the popular tongue. The interest of such fables lies in the association of beauty and melody as well as of horror with the Gorgons, and in the rôle of marine deity which they play.

In general however it is upon the monstrous and terrifying aspect of the Gorgons that the common-folk seize, so that the name Gorgon is metaphorically applied to ill-favoured and malevolent women. Thus in Rhodes it is used of any large fierce-looking virago ; in Cephalonia (where also the word [Greek: Medousa], Medusa, survives in the same sense) of any lady conspicuously ill-featured. Allusion too has already been made to the case where a child possessed by a mania of bloodthirstiness is occasionally called a Gorgon.

But there is another and fresh aspect of the Gorgon's nature suggested by the use of the word in Cythnos. There it is metaphorically applied to depraved women ; and this isolated usage is in accord with one description of the Gorgon which has come down from the middle ages. This description forms part of a, ibid. p. 260.], ibid. pp. 266-8.], s.v. ([Greek: Politês], l.c.).], 1860, p. 1272 ([Greek: Politês], l.c.).], p. 191 ([Greek: Politês], l.c.).], pp. 293 ff. Cf. above, p. 183. The forms used are [Greek: hê gorgona, to gorgoni], and [Greek: gorgoniko paidi].], 1871, p. 1843 ([Greek: Politês] l.c.).]