that he cut it off, and afterwards took it with him to
Greece, to show it to the people, who could not look on it without
being struck with astonishment. On this explanation we may remark,
that if it is true, Perseus must have had more skill than the surgeons
of our day, in being able to preserve the beauty of the features so
long after death.

Again, many of the ancient historians, with Pliny, Athenaeus, and
Solinus, think that the Gorgons were wild women of a savage nature,
living in caves and forests, who, falling on wayfarers, committed
dreadful atrocities. Palaephatus and Fulgentius think that the Gorgons
really were three young women, possessed of great wealth, which they
employed in a very careful manner; Phorcus, their father, having left
them three islands, and a golden statue of Minerva, which they placed
in their common treasury. They had one minister in common for the
management of their affairs, who used to go for that purpose from one
island to another, whence arose the story that they had but one eye,
and that they lent it to one another alternately. Perseus, a fugitive
from Argos, hearing of the golden statue, determined to obtain it; and
with that view, seized their minister, or, in the allegorical language
of the poets, took their eye away from them. He then sent them word,
that if they would give him the statue, he would deliver up his
captive, and threatened, in case of refusal, to put him to death.
Stheno and Euryale consented to this; but Medusa resisting, she was
killed by Perseus. Upon his obtaining the statue, which was called the
Gorgon, or Gorgonian, he broke it in pieces, and placed the head on
the prow of his ship. As the sight of this, and the fame of the
exploits of Perseus, spread terror everywhere, and caused passive
submission to him, the fable originated, that with Medusa's head he
turned his enemies into stone. Landing in the Isle of Seriphus, the
king fled, with all his subjects; and, on entering the chief city,
finding nothing but the bare stones there, he caused the report to be
spread, that he had petrified the inhabitants.

Servius, in his Commentary on the AEneid, quotes an opinion of Ammonius
Serenus, that the Gorgons were young women of such beauty as to make a
great impression on all that saw them; for which reason they were said
to turn them into statues. Le Clerc thinks that the story bears
reference