Gorgon

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In the Greek mythological tradition, taken up by Ovid, the Gorgon is a monstrous figure whose gaze petrifies those who receive it: Medusa, the most famous of the three Gorgons, daughters of the sea god Phorcys, was beheaded by Perseus with the help of Minerva, but her head retained the power to turn men into stone. Dante, in Canto IX of the Inferno, mentions the Gorgon while the Furies invoke it as a threat against the poet. The term 'l Gorgón, used in the masculine, indicates the head of the Gorgon, according to a usage attested in poetic language. Allegorically, according to the interpretation recalled in the critical notes, the Gorgons represent the three forms of fear, of which Medusa is the most terrible: a fear that clouds the mind and darkens the sight, identified by some ancient authors with forgetfulness or loss of self.