Stories of the fearsome Gorgons are some of the earliest Greek myths. The back of this bronze mirror is decorated with the face of the most famous Gorgon, Medusa. Based on archaeological finds and art, we think the owner of this mirror was a woman. Medusa would have guarded her as the owner was looking at her reflection.

The mirror was made around 500 BCE in southern Italy, where Greeks founded colonies. There are many tales of the Gorgons. Some stories, including in Homer’s Iliad, say there was only one Gorgon. Some tell of three Gorgon sisters born with wings, snakes for hair, and terrifying teeth. Other later versions say Medusa was beautiful but was given snaky hair as a punishment. In most stories, Gorgon heads were so awful that the sight of them could kill. In the most familiar story today, looking into Medusa’s eyes turned people to stone. But in fact, just seeing her face was enough! 

Medusa was the only human Gorgon, so she could be killed. The hero Perseus cut off her head with a sickle, a curved blade, while she was sleeping. He avoided looking at her directly by watching her reflection in his metal shield. Her severed head, called a gorgoneion, could turn away evil spirits, curses, and ill wishes. Zeus attached the gorgoneion to his goatskin breastplate, the aegis. He used it for protection while fighting to become the chief god on Mount Olympus. His daughter Athena borrowed the aegis, and it became one of her most famous attributes (symbols) in ancient art. 

The Gorgon on the mirror is the earlier of two main types of Gorgons in art, a snaky-haired monster. She has glaring eyes, a ferocious grin, and a big tongue hanging out over a short beard. Some other early Gorgons have big tusks and wings. In art from the 400s BCE on, Medusa most often had a human face. But because she offended Athena, the goddess transformed her hair into frightful snakes. (In one explanation, Medusa dared to meet Poseidon in Athena’s temple. In another, she compared her beauty to Athena’s.) Like the monstrous type of Gorgon, this Medusa appears in ancient art as a gorgoneion with snaky hair. Tiny wings grow from her forehead, and snakes are knotted around her neck.