Table of Contents

Part I: The Mystery
1.: The Nature of the Myth
2.: The Myth of Perseus and Medusa
3.: The Gorgon in Art
4.: Parallels from Around the World
5.: Explanations
Part II: The Solution
6.: Mira and Algol
7.: The Surrounding Sky
8.: The Face on the Shield
9.: Gorgons and Gargoyles
10.: What the Gorgon Really Was
11.: The Gorgon Today
12.: Synthesis
Appendix
Notes
Reference
Index

Reviews

"The author's twenty years of devoted and penetrating research has netted so engagingly seined a catch of fact and fancy that he is close to persuasive about [the origins of Medusa's] gaze....Wilk is open, judicious, and critically candid about the broad collage he has so inventively explored. Good
to the last line of text, this rich book never even flirts with the sin of being boring."--Journal of the History of Astronomy
"As the author of this interesting new book demonstrates, the Gorgon was not only an unsually popular subject among Greek and Roman writers and artists, but she has also remained a favorite mythological character in modern times.... Wilk's in-depth study is a welcome addition to the scholarship
about her, containing both extensive review of previous interpretative theories and adding quite a few insightful new ideas of his own."--The Classical Outlook


"The author's twenty years of devoted and penetrating research has netted so engagingly seined a catch of fact and fancy that he is close to persuasive about [the origins of Medusa's] gaze....Wilk is open, judicious, and critically candid about the broad collage he has so inventively explored. Good
to the last line of text, this rich book never even flirts with the sin of being boring."--Journal of the History of Astronomy
"As the author of this interesting new book demonstrates, the Gorgon was not only an unsually popular subject among Greek and Roman writers and artists, but she has also remained a favorite mythological character in modern times.... Wilk's in-depth study is a welcome addition to the scholarship
about her, containing both extensive review of previous interpretative theories and adding quite a few insightful new ideas of his own."--The Classical Outlook

"The author's twenty years of devoted and penetrating research has netted so engagingly seined a catch of fact and fancy that he is close to persuasive about [the origins of Medusa's] gaze....Wilk is open, judicious, and critically candid about the broad collage he has so inventively explored. Good
to the last line of text, this rich book never even flirts with the sin of being boring."--Journal of the History of Astronomy
"As the author of this interesting new book demonstrates, the Gorgon was not only an unsually popular subject among Greek and Roman writers and artists, but she has also remained a favorite mythological character in modern times.... Wilk's in-depth study is a welcome addition to the scholarship
about her, containing both extensive review of previous interpretative theories and adding quite a few insightful new ideas of his own."--The Classical Outlook