On Unbelievable Stories (31)

The story told about these women is much more laughable: that Phorcys had three daughters who had a single eye they each made use of in turn. The one using it would insert it in her head in order to see; she would then hand the eye over to the next one, and this is how they all saw. Perseus crept up behind them silently and grabbed their eye. He said that he would not give it back unless they showed him where to find the Gorgon. So they showed him the way. After Perseus cut off the Gorgon's head, he went to Seriphos, showed it to Polydectes, and thus turned him to stone. But this is even more laughable: a living man turning to stone after seeing the head of a corpse? What is the power of a corpse?

What happened was something like this. Phorcys was a Cernaian. The Cernaians were descendants of the Ethiopians who lived on the island of Cerne outside the Pillars of Heracles. They worked Libyan land by the river Annon, [*] directly opposite Carthage. They were exceptionally rich in gold. This man Phorcys ruled the islands (there are three) outside the Pillars of Heracles and he made a golden statue of Athena, four cubits tall. The Cernaians call Athena ‘Gorgon’, just as the Thracians call Artemis ‘Bendis’, the Cretans ‘Dictyna’, and the Lacedaimonians ‘Oupis’. Anyway, Phorcys died before the statue could be dedicated in the sanctuary, and left behind three daughters: Stheno, Euryale and Medousa. The women didn’t want to marry anyone, so they divided up their father's estate and each ruled one of the islands. Regarding the Gorgon, the women decided neither to dedicate it in the sanctuary nor to divide it between them. Rather, each in turn kept it in her own treasury. Phorcys had a companion, a handsome and noble man, who helped them in all matters, just as if he were their eye.

Perseus was an exile from Argos and was raiding along the coast with ships and a band of men. After learning that there was a kingdom ruled by women, rich in gold, and few in fighting men, he travelled there. He lay in wait in the narrows between Cerne and Sarpedonia, and then captured the Eye when he was sailing through from one island to another. The Eye explained to Perseus that there was nothing worth taking from the women except the Gorgon, and revealed that it was made entirely of gold. When the Eye had not arrived at the agreed-upon time, the women gathered in one place and began accusing one another. Each denied having him, so they began to wonder what had happened. While they were gathered there Perseus launched an attack against them with his ships. He announced that he had the Eye and said that he would not give him back unless they revealed where the Gorgon was. He threatened also to kill the three of them if they did not obey. Medousa refused to disclose the location, but Stheno and Euryale did. So Perseus killed Medousa and handed over the Eye to the other two. He took the Gorgon and dismantled it. He fitted out a trireme, set the head of the Gorgon on it and gave the ship the name ‘Gorgon’.

He sailed around in the trireme exacting money from the islanders and killing those who refused to hand it over. So one day he sailed to the island of the Seriphians and demanded money from them; they asked him for a few days to gather the money. They brought together stones the height of men, deposited them in their agora, and then abandoned Seriphos. Perseus sailed back again for the money that he had demanded, but on entering the agora he found no one there, only stones the height of men. And so Perseus would say to other islanders, when they did not give him his money, Beware that you don’t suffer what the Seriphians did, who gazed at the head of the Gorgon and were turned to stone!