Motif
severed head or image that petrifies through terror
severed_head_or_image_that_petrifies_through_terror
A motif of the Sacred Treasures and Power Objects family, within the sub-family Divine and Named Weapons. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.
1 occurrences
1 traditions
roman
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The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII EXPLANATION. / EXPLANATION. / EXPLANATION. / EXPLANATION.; lines 7298-7393 confidence: high
Diodorus and Pausanias are cited for accounts of the Gorgons as female warriors near Lake Tritonis and of Medusa as a ruler whom Perseus surprises by night, kills, and whose remarkable face he cuts off and takes to Greece.
Perseus carries Medusa’s face or the Gorgonian head/image; the passage explains enemy petrifaction as terror or as a report spread after finding only stones.
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