Gorgoneion
gor-GO-nay-on
Attested elsewhere in ancient sourcesThe severed head of the Gorgon, worn as a device. Homer sets it at the centre of the aegis, with Rout and Strife and Panic around it, a thing of horror to look upon.
Once Perseus has taken the head, the face that turned men to stone becomes a thing carried deliberately into battle. It goes on shields, on breastplates, on temple pediments and over doorways, to throw at an enemy what was once thrown at a hero.
One is set below Acenes' knee where a greave would carry it.
Sources
- Hom. Il. 5.738-742
- Hes. Theog. 270-283
References are to the standard divisions of the ancient texts, not to any one edition.
Acenes of Sparta: The Dragon Slayer
A dragon is the reason the 300 died. Leonidas used the magic of the gods to bind Kalaxes beneath Taygetus, and the price was his life and his men's. Sixty-two years later a seven-year-old of the agoge falls into the dragon's crypt and inherits the unpaid balance.
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