# When you read the word "gorgon," what image comes to mind?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 19, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343 "2011-08-19T18:04:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/1 "2011-08-19T18:04:38Z")
Poll in a second. I’d explain my interest but I don’t care enough.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/2 "2011-08-19T18:08:08Z")
Green-skinned woman with snakes for hair.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/3 "2011-08-19T18:09:14Z")
The stop-motion animated Gorgon from the old-school “Clash of the Titans” movie.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/4 "2011-08-19T18:10:43Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#):
>
> Poll in a second. I’d explain my interest but I don’t care enough.
Ugly, scaly woman with snake for hair, fangs, the whole Medusa bit.
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/5 "2011-08-19T18:14:02Z")
Medusa
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/6 "2011-08-19T18:15:09Z")
Medusa.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/7 "2011-08-19T18:15:55Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> The stop-motion animated Gorgon from the old-school “Clash of the Titans” movie.
That’s my first thought. It’s immediately followed by [Carrie Donovan](http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfljl8Rnh21qfv0zv.jpg), who the Onion once referred to as an “Owl-headed gorgon” in a Snapshot poll and that’s somehow stuck with me over all these years.
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### Author:  [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/8 "2011-08-19T18:17:00Z")
[This](http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2011/01/79716.jpg), only in monochrome. Spent lots of hours playng that game.
ETA: Not trying to be funny. That’s really what comes to mind. I would have had to look up the mythology meaning.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/9 "2011-08-19T18:18:37Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> Medusa.
> [@Meatros](#):
>
> Medusa
Fool of a
:: pauses to check libel schedule ::
Kentaur!
Saying _Medusa_ is no answer, as the thread question could just as well be rephrased to read “What should Medusa look like?”
What _ **do** _ they teach in these schools, anyway?
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### Author:  [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/10 "2011-08-19T18:18:49Z")
I think of Ernest saying "Never met such a Gorgon… I don’t really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair… "
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/11 "2011-08-19T18:20:46Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#):
>
> I think of Ernest saying "Never met such a Gorgon… I don’t really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair… "
Ditto!
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/12 "2011-08-19T18:21:52Z")
The first two only. They don’t have to be ugly, but on the other hand, not hot because Vallejo’s muscley women don’t do much for me.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/13 "2011-08-19T18:22:26Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Ditto!
Please leave Patrick Swayze out of this.
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> The first two only. They don’t have to be ugly, but on the other hand, not hot because Vallejo’s muscley women don’t do much for me.
When you criticize Borish Vallejo you are supposed to do so much more vehemently, using the phrase _talentless semi-pornographic Etruscan hack_ at least twice. There’s a rule somewheres.
Anyway, the notion that gorgons were beautiful rather than hideous (even post transformation) did not begin with that talentless semipornographic Etruscan hack.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/14 "2011-08-19T18:33:52Z")
I’d expect a large, bull-like creature, possibly metallic, with a petrification special attack, either by gaze or breath. Dunno where my _Monster Manual_ is, but it is definitely not at the office, so I can’t check quicky.
Also think it can only be hit by magic weapons. If you kill one in its lair, it might have pretty good loot from previous victims…
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/15 "2011-08-19T18:38:29Z")
[Louise Bogan’s poem](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/medusa-2/) which is one of my favorites for capturing a mood as well as a scene, and the fact that I think of Gordon the Gorgon because I’m weird that way. Boris and Frazetta can do the illustrations, too.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/16 "2011-08-19T18:43:35Z")
#1-3, with #5-7 being optional but not required.
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/17 "2011-08-19T18:57:10Z")
Medusa with the hair of snakes. Also, Dungeons and Dragons had a monster called a Gorgon that was some sort of bull from hell covered with black scales.
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### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/18 "2011-08-19T19:12:36Z")
The D&D one first, then the medusa. It’s usually easy to tell which is which by context.
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### Author:  [@emulsified](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emulsified)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/19 "2011-08-19T19:20:52Z")
My choice wasn’t in the list:
@
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-the-word-gorgon-what-image-comes-to-mind/593343/20 "2011-08-19T19:37:34Z")
**Skald** , you forgot an option for **ST:TOS** , ep #59
> **[List of Star Trek characters (G–M)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgan_(Star_Trek))**
>
> This article lists characters of Star Trek that received attention from third-party sources in their various canonical incarnations. This includes fictional major characters and fictional minor characters created for Star Trek, fictional characters not originally created for Star Trek, and real-life persons appearing in a fictional manner, such as holodeck recreations.
> Bajoran characters are listed by family name, which is stated first.
> Joined Trills are listed by the name of the symbiont, whic...
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