64 Mr. Sankey on the Philological Analysis 



Now, this explanation, though obviously false, marks the 

 local, or, so to speak, geographical affinity, which was at that 

 time admitted to hold between the coral and the Gorgon's 

 head, and that both were considered to have been obtained 

 from the same place. The truth is, that the error has arisen 

 here from the ambiguous etymology of the name xopaX^wv, or 

 xoup&Xiov. This word, analysed, is evidently a compound of 

 two distinct words, xwpn or xo^-xj, and aXr, mare. Now we 

 have already seen, that the first part, xopj, etymologically 

 signifies the harvest. Hence xoi^aXXtov or xopaXXtov analyti- 

 cally means the harvest of the sea an expression which, as 

 very happily designating those resemblances of vegetable life 

 which grow, as it were, beneath the bosom of the deep, was a 

 most appropriate appellation for those crops of coral which 

 Perseus brought home with him. The Greeks appear, how- 

 ever, to have been misled here also, as in the fable of Ceres 

 and Proserpine, by the more common acceptation of the word 

 xopn, and so interpreted the compound xoupzXiov, as though it 

 signified the girl of the sea. This interpretation may also have 

 received some further support from Perseus having possibly 

 encountered and slain, in this expedition, one of the native 

 queens of the country which was the more immediate scene of 

 his exploits. We need not, therefore, be surprised that, in 

 conformity with this view, it was imagined that the Medusa 

 coral, with which Perseus, it would appear, adorned the boss of 

 his shield, was the head of a female, as that species of coral 

 bears some resemblance to the human face, especially that of a 

 woman encircled with heavy ringlets of thick curling hair. 

 Even though we suppose the name to have been originally 

 derived from xopy, puella, and from this fanciful resemblance 

 given primarily to this species, but afterwards extended to 

 corals in general, this will still nowise militate against the view 

 I have taken of the origin of the fable, as grounded on the in- 

 troduction of the coral into Greece. Further, from their like- 

 ness to vegetable and animal life, corals were considered as 

 petrifactions ; and hence arose the idle tale, the offspring of 

 superstition and credulity, of the petrifying qualities of the 

 Gorgon's head, and of whole hosts of armies turned into stone 

 immediately on its being presented to their view by Perseus. 



