gorgoneion

plural gorgoneia

1. A (representation of a) gorgon's head, especially that of Medusa.

   The gorgoneion or "bodiless head of fright" antedates by many centuries the Gorgon with a woman's body.

   1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae

   3 more examples

   Pausanias twice mentions a gilt-bronze aigis with the head of Medousa, or gorgoneion, at its center, placed high on the south wall of the Acropolis above the Theater of Dionysos [Figs. 4, 9].

   1999, Jeffrey M. Hurwit, The Athenian Acropolis, Cambridge University Press, page 273

   Greek drinking cups with low bowls, kylices, were used in sixth century BCE Athens with representations of the gorgoneion on the inside of the bowls and on their outsides, depictions of pairs of huge eyes—to safeguard the drinkers from the Evil Eye (see above, Illus. 6, p. 137).

   2016, John H. Elliott, Beware the Evil Eye, Volume 2: Greece and Rome, Cascade Books, page 246

   Even where, as on a kratēr of the Tarporley Painter, the reflection is centred and placed where we expect the gorgoneion, it appears upside-down and is thereby markedly different from the gorgoneion.

   2017, Jonas Grethlein, Aesthetic Experiences and Classical Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, page 230

2. historicalAncient Greek theatreA theatrical mask depicting the face of a gorgon.

1. Greekhuman sciencesThe head of the gorgon Medusa.

   1 more example

   2000, Extract from [1840, Lewis, Donaldson (translators)], K. O. Müller, Introduction to A Scientific Study of Mythology, Burton Feldman, Robert D. Richardson (editors), The Rise of Modern Mythology, 1680-1860, Indiana University Press, page 419, On returning home, he turns Polydectes and his people to stone, and then gives the Gorgoneion to his protectress Athena, who fixes it upon her shield.

2. Greekhuman sciencesA pendant, worn by the goddess Athena, which features an image of Medusa's head.
3. astronomyThe smaller and closer-orbiting of the two moons of the main-belt asteroid 93 Minerva.

   Synonyms: S/(93) 2 Gorgoneion