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The Gorgons were more like an awful, gigantic kind of insect immense, golden-winged beetles, or dragon-flies, or things of that sort, at once ugly and beautiful, than like anything else; only that they were a thousand and a million times as big. And, with all this, there was something partly human about them, too.
But the sublimest effort of the imagination is in the conclusion. While Orestes is yet justifying the deed that avenged a father, strange and confused thoughts gradually creep over him. No eyes see them but his own there they are, "the Gorgons, in vestments of sable, their eyes dropping loathly blood!"
Sir Richard Blackmore was a physician, and at the same time a very prolific and very tasteless poet, whose works are now forgotten, unless when recalled to mind by some wit like Moore for the sake of a joke. The Graeae were three sisters who were gray-haired from their birth, whence their name. The Gorgons were monstrous females with huge teeth like those of swine, brazen claws, and snaky hair.
And so was Persephone, who must be always either in heaven or hell; and Hecate, who was one thing by night and another by day. The Sibyls were females, and so were the Gorgons, the Harpies, the Furies, the Fates, and the Teutonic Valkyrs, Nornies, and Hela herself; in short, all representations of ideas obscure, inscrutable, and portentous, are nouns feminine." Heaven bless my father!
They asked him, and he answered mildly, pointing to the sea board with his mighty hand, "I can see the Gorgons lying on an island far away, but this youth can never come near them, unless he has the hat of darkness, which whosoever wears cannot be seen." Then cried Perseus, "Where is that hat, that I may find it?" But the giant smiled.
Having set the ball in motion, he could not stop it; nor does he appear to have felt the necessity of stopping it, until, in 1831, he was suddenly confronted by three Gorgons at once, a coming Surplus, a President that vetoed internal improvements, and an ambitious Calhoun, resolved on using the surplus either as a stepping-stone to the Presidency or a wedge with which to split the Union.
Then he rose into the air, and held the shield above his head and looked up into it, that he might see all that was below him. And he saw three Gorgons sleeping, as huge as elephants. He knew that they could not see him, because the hat of darkness hid him, and yet he trembled as he sank down near them, so terrible were those brazen claws. Medusa tossed to and fro restlessly in her sleep.
But if I cannot see you, neither can the Gorgons. Follow me, therefore, and we will try your dexterity in using the winged slippers." With these words, Quicksilver's cap spread its wings, as if his head were about to fly away from his shoulders; but his whole figure rose lightly into the air and Perseus followed.
As for the other two, let him have the sharpest sword that ever was forged, and he might have hacked away by the hour together, without doing them the least harm. "Be cautious," said the calm voice which had before spoken to him. "One of the Gorgons is stirring in her sleep, and is just about to turn over. That is Medusa. Do not look at her. The sight would turn you to stone.
It seemed to be a woman's voice, and was melodious, though not exactly what might be called sweet, but grave and mild. "Perseus," said the voice, "there are the Gorgons." "Where?" exclaimed Perseus. "I cannot see them." "On the shore of that island beneath you," replied the voice. "A pebble, dropped from your hand, would strike in the midst of them."