THE GORGON’S HEAD
The Gorgons were more like an awful, gigantic kind of insect,–immense, golden-winged beetles, or dragonflies, or things of that sort,–at once ugly and beautiful,–than like anything else; only that they were a thousand and a million times as big. And, with all this, there was something partly human about them, too. Luckily for Perseus, their faces were completely hidden from him by the posture in which they lay; for, had he but looked one instant at them, he would have fallen heavily out of the air, an image of senseless stone.
‘Now,’ whispered Quicksilver, as he hovered by the side of Perseus,–‘now is your time to do the deed! Be quick; for, if one of the Gorgons should awake, you are too late!’
‘Which shall I strike at?’ asked Perseus, drawing his sword and descending a little lower. ‘They all three look alike. All three have snaky locks. Which of the three is Medusa?’
It must be understood that Medusa was the only one of these dragon-monsters whose head Perseus could possibly cut off. As for the other two, let him have the sharpest sword that ever was forged, and he might have hacked away by the hour together, without doing them the least harm.
‘Be cautious,’ said the calm voice which had before spoken to him. ‘One of the Gorgons is stirring in her sleep and is just about to turn over. That is Medusa. Do not look at her! The sight would turn you to stone! Look at the reflection of her face and figure in the bright mirror of your shield.’
Perseus now understood Quicksilver’s motive for so earnestly exhorting him to polish his shield. In its surface
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