to a voyage which the Phoenicians had made in ancient times
to the coast of Africa, whence they brought a great number of horses;
and that the name 'Perseus' comes from the Phoenician word 'pharscha,'
'a horseman;' while the horse Pegasus was so called from the Phoenician
'pagsous,' 'a bridled horse,' according to the conjecture of Bochart.
Alexander of Myndus, a historian quoted by Athenaeus, says that Libya
had an animal which the natives called 'gorgon;' that it resembled a
sheep, and with its breath killed all those who approached it; that a
tuft of hair fell over its eyes, which was so heavy as to be removed
with difficulty, for the purpose of seeing the objects around it; but
that when it was removed, by its looks it struck dead any person whom
it gazed upon. He says, that in the war with Jugurtha, some of the
soldiers of Marius were thus slain by it, and that it was at last
killed by means of arrows discharged from a great distance.

The Gorgons are said to have inhabited the Gorgades, islands in the
AEthiopian Sea, the chief of which was called Cerna, according to
Diodorus and Palaephatus. It is not improbable that the Cape Verde
Islands were called by this name. The fable of the transformation of
Atlas into the mountain of that name may possibly have been based upon
the simple fact, that Perseus killed him in the neighborhood of that
range, from which circumstance it derived the name which it has borne
ever since. The golden apples, which Atlas guarded with so much care,
were probably either gold mines, which Atlas had discovered in the
mountains of his country, and had secured with armed men and watchful
dogs; or sheep, whose fleeces were extremely valuable for their
fineness; or else oranges and lemons, and other fruits peculiar to
very hot climates, for the production of which the poets especially
remarked the country of Tingitana (the modern Tangier), as being very
celebrated.

FABLE X. [IV.663-803]

Perseus, after his victory over Atlas, and his change into a mountain,
arrives in AEthiopia, at the time when Andromeda is exposed to be
devoured by a monster. He kills it, and hides the Gorgon's head under
the sand, covered with sea-weed and plants; which are immediately
turned into coral. He then renders thanks to the Gods for his victory,
and marries Andromeda. At the marriage feast he relates the manner in
which he had killed Medusa;