Posted 05/20/2010 08:14 am
Quote:
Gorgoneion with protruding tongue. (what does this represent?)
Gorgoneion with protruding tongue. (what does this represent?)
The Gorgon-head is usually depicted this way on coins.
The ancient Greeks faced a quandary whenever they depicted the Gorgon on things like coins. They generally believed that coins should be beautiful works of art, but the Gorgon is supposed to be the epitome of ugliness. How do you draw a face that is both beautiful and ugly at the same time? They got around this by giving the Gorgon a hideous expression, with a wild bug-eyed stare and it's mouth distorted by boar-fangs and a protruding tongue.
A coin with a gorgon-head on it also doubled as a magic charm; the ancient Greeks apparently believed that evil spirits would flee at the sight of the Gorgon, while the good spirits (who apparently were smart enough to realise it was just a coin, and not an actual Gorgon) would hang around.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
