G O R 



zola-ir from yellow to purple : this fpccies inhabit! moil 

 feas. 



GORGONIUM, in Botany, a name given by fome 

 authors to the common cryngium or eryugo, the roots of 

 ivhich we ufc candied. 



GORGOXS, ill Jn.'iquity and Myth-Aogy. Authors are 

 not agreed in thii account tlicy give of the Gorgons. The 

 poets reprefent them as throe iiftcrs, whofe names were 

 Stheno, Eiu-yale, and Medufa, the daughters of Phorcus 

 by Ceto ; the latter of whom was mortal ; and having been 

 deflowered by Neptune, was killed by Perfeus ; the two 

 former were fubjeil neither to age nor death. They arc 

 defcribed with wings on their Ihoulders, with ferpents round 

 their heads, their hands were of brafs, and their teeth of a 

 prodigious fize ; fo that they were objeAs of terror to 

 inankmd. ^fchyljs, in his P.-ornetheus, adds, that they had 

 but one eye and cae tooth among all the ihree, which they 

 made ufe of one aKer the other, and that they killed men 

 with a firigle gla".ce of the eye. 



Pindar (Pyth. 13.) invproves upon jEfchylus, and 

 heightens the fable by thefe circumftauces, unknown to tiis 

 predecefTors. The iirfl is, that the Gorgons turned thofe 

 into ilone y.'hom thev looked upon, and that it was by this 

 kind of death that Perfeus, in prefenting Medufa's head, 

 defolated the iliand of Seriphus, whofe inliabitants he petri- 

 fied, tog;tlicr with their king. The fecoiid is, that Mi- 

 nerva, who aided Perfeus while he was ftruggliiig with 

 Medufa, bei:ig furprifed with the melody of the Gorgons' 

 figlis, intermingled with -the hillings of their ferpents, felt 

 ce.'tain charmiiu that mixed compofition of dolelul accents; 

 and to renew UK idea of the harmony, ihe invented a flute in 

 imitation of it, which (he imparted to men ; and in allufion to 

 its lirll model ihe called the various founds it produced " a 

 Harmony with many lieads." The third is, that Pegafus, 

 whom rieiiod i-eprefents as having taken flight to the man- 

 fion of the gods, was afterv.-ards broke by Minerva, and 

 given to Bellerophon, who mounted him to combat the 

 Chimera ; butr that hero having attempted to afcend to 

 heaven on the wings of that horfe, was thrown down to the 

 earth, and Pegafus placed among the ftars. ( Pindar's 01. iii. 

 Pyth. vii. ) The Latin poets, though faithful copiers of 

 tl'.e Greek ones, have yet loaded the fable of the Gorgons 

 with new circumilances. Homer had faid, that the Gorgon's 

 head was engraved upon the tremendous jEgiS of Minerva : 

 \'irgil adds, and upon her cuirafs too, in the place which 

 covered the g-oddefs's breaft : 



■ Tpfanique in peftore Di 



Gorgona defeclo vertentem lumina coUo." ./En. 1. viii. 



After the death of Medufa, her fillers, according to 

 Virgi', were appointed to keep the gate of the palace of 

 Pluto : 



" Multaque prsterea variarum monftra ferarum — 

 Gorgones, Harpeiique '' jEn. 1. vi. 



Oiid of all the poets has more enlarged upon the fable of 

 the Gorgons, and added feveral particulars which are only 

 faund in his Metamorpliofes, 1. iv. and v. 



Diodorus Siculus will have the Gorgons and Amazons to 

 have been two warlike nations of women, who inhabited 

 that part of Lybia which lay on the lake Tritonidis. The 

 e.-itermination of thefe female nations was not effecled till 

 Hercules undertook and performed it. 



Paufanias fays, the Gorgons were the daughters of Phor- 

 bus, probably by miilake for Phorcus ; after whofe death, 

 Medufa his daughter reigned over the people dweUing near 

 the lake Tritontdis. The queen wa« paiTionately fond of 

 hunting r.nd war, fo that flie laid the neighbouring countries 



G O R 



qnilc \»afte. At laft, Perfeus havirp made war on them, 

 and killed the queen hcrfclf, when he came to take a •\\ch/ 

 of the field of battle, found the quecu's corpfe fo c xtrcnicly 

 beautiful, that he ordered her head to be cut off, whici h» 

 tarried with liim to (how his countrymen, the Greeks, who 

 could not behold it wiihout being ftruck with aftcniih- 

 ment. 



Others rcprcfcnt them as a kind of Eiondrous women, 

 covered witli hair, wholivcd in woods and forells. Other., 

 again, make them animals, rei'T.bling wild (heep, whofe 

 eye.^ had a poifonous and fatal influence. 



Xcnophon of Lampfacus, who 'i'; followed by Phnv and 

 Solinus, was of opinion, that tlv- Gorgons were fenuie fa- 

 vnges, who inhabited the illands Gcrgades. Hanno, the 

 Carthaginian gencrnl, penetrated as far as thefe ifiands, where 

 he found women, who, in fwirtncfs, outran the flight of birds. 

 Gerard Voffius, in his " Origin and Progrefs cf Idolatry,'* 

 is perfuaded, that the fable of the Gorgons took its rife from 

 the rcliUion of Hanno the Carthaginian general, above cited, 

 from Xenophon of Lampfacus. Le Clerc, on thecontrar)-, 

 in his notes upon Heiiod, takes them for the marcs of L)- 

 bia, v/hich the Phoenicians in a voyage to Africa had taken 

 away. Banier (Mythol. vol. iii.1 is oj opinion that the Gor- 

 gons dwelt in that part of Lybia, wliich was afterwards 

 called Cyrenaicum ; and that Pho.'cys, their father, had con- 

 quered Ithaca, which was not far from the coall of Africa, 

 where he refided. It is not incrediiile th.U this prince would 

 employ his fleet in carrying on an advantageous trade, and 

 that Polydeftes, king of SeripJius, in order to get rid of 

 Perfeus, gave him fome fliips for the purpofe of pirating on 

 the coails of Africa. Perfeus accordingly, thus equipped, 

 failed from the iile of Seriphus for the coall of Lybia, and 

 having fallen in with the fleet of Phorcys, made himfelf 

 mailer of fome of his fsiips and a part of his riches. Thefe 

 fliips, it is faid, bore the names of Medufa, Stheno, and Eu- 

 ryale. They were loaded with the teeth of elephants, the 

 horns cf fifaes, and the eyes of hysena'i, which Phorcys bar- 

 tered for other gocds. This, it is faid, is the myftery of 

 the tooth, horn, and eye, whicii the Gorgons borrowed by 

 turns ; that is, the fliips, when arrived in the port, took 

 each of them goods proper for the place to which they were 

 bound. The other fictions that accompany this bailor)', 

 fays the author now cited, will explain themfelves. 



For a farther account of tliem, lee Mem. Acad. Infcript. 

 vol. iv. p. 72, feq. See Mi3rus.s; caput. 



GORGONZUOLO, in Gcosrapky, a town of Italy, ia 

 the department of the Olona ; to miles N.E. of Milan. 



GORGORA, an ifland of Abyflinia, in the lake Dembca 

 (which fee), where a palace was built, wliich is the ufiial re- 

 fidence of the emperor in \v-intcr. 



GORHAM, a pod town of America, in Cumberland 

 couSty and Hate of Maine, on the N.E. tide of Saco river, 

 130 miles N.E. from Bofton : incorporated in 176+, and 

 containing 2053 inhabitants. 



GORIO, Akthonv Fr.\kcis, in Biography, a Ic-amcd 

 antiquary of the eighteenth century, a native of Florence, 

 was author of the following works, vi%. " Mufxum Florcn- 

 tinum,'' or adefcription of the cabinet of the Grand Duke, 

 eleven volumes folio, with a great niunbcr of plates : 

 " Mufa?um Etrul'cum," three volumes, folio. " Mufxum 

 Cortonenfe,'' folio. '« Ancient Infcriptions in the Towns of 

 Tufcany," three volumes folio. 



GORITZ, or GoHZ, in Geography a country of Ger- 

 many, in the circle of Aullria ; bounded to the N.E. and S. 

 by the duchy of Carniola, and on the \V. by the Venetian 

 flates. The cliief produce of the country confifts in wine 

 and fruit, with fome corn and filk ; the borfcs and oxen are 

 3 O 2 tew. 



