The Hub

Author notes

Ch. 2 - Pg. 28

HyenaHell

on June 8, 2009

RE: Gorgon mythos:
It varies depending on the source. The Gorgon dates back to Archaic Greece- maybe earlier. The earliest source, Homer (or rather, the texts attributed to some dude named Homer, which were written around 800 BCE or so) only ever mentions one Gorgon. And originally she was a cthonic daemon or monster- possibly a kind of archetype figure not meant to depict a specific character- kind of like saying "here's a picture of an angel!" instead of "Here's a picture of Gabriel!", right? Right. There's similar figures depicted in other Ancient Mediterranean/ Near Eastern art, which seems to support this.

Later the myth gets fleshed out by the poets- there are alternate origin stories, and the details vary. But it's consistent that there's 3 sisters- Medusa, Euryale, and Stheno; that they've been cursed by Athena; and that Medusa was the only mortal one. A few much later accounts have all of them turnin' folks to stone; most of the others only specify that Medusa has this power, with no mention of the other two; occasionally Medusa is mentioned specifically as the only one who can turn folks to stone. (When this latter version is favored, she's also described as the only one of the three with snake hair.)

Feel free to consult Wikipedia (or God forbid, a primary source!), as I'm speakin' from memory and all my resource books on that sort of thing are in boxes, somewhere. Yeah, I ever tell you guys about my aborted major in Classical Studies? Naw? Eh…

Anyhow. If they all were able to do the stone trick, ya gotta wonder how the other two didn't smite ol' Perseus for killin' their sister. You could also ponder on how they didn't turn each other to stone, right? In any case- I figured so long as I wasn't givin' her the wings or claws or boar's teeth, I could take liberties with the debatable detail of her bein' able to turn folks to stone.

RE: Why she no longer turns folks to stone:
Well, that'd be mighty inconvenient for the purposes of havin' her in the story, now wouldn't it? I reckon I could've had her wear shades, ala Cyclops from that well-worn Marvel franchise. But Nah. Y'all know I hate explainin' stuff outside the text of the comic, but I'll give this one away early: One of the "rules" of the Hub Universe is that latent "powers" like that don't work anymore once you end up there. Because it's kinda a "kitchen sink" type world, and all manners of otherworldly characters are liable to pop up, it'd give some of 'em a bit of an unfair advantage. Learned "powers" are different, and that particular point will come up eventual.

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@zaymac: I feel ya. A month of no internet access has left me despairingly behind on my comic readin'. x_X

@Freefall Drift: Heh. Bosch is one of my all-time favorites. It's flatterin' to me when people can pick up on my influences. Muchas gracias, sir!

As for whether it's significant that Calamity's got the Greek in her- not right now. But it will be later, is all I'm sayin'. I kinda like the idea of her bein' wrapped up in myth herself. I think she'd make a good Maenad. ;)

@graphictruth: That's Aristophanes, right? Actually I think I've only read Lystrata. But I'll see what I can do. ;)

@kmajor: Yeah, like Pete said, he doesn't need much help makin' an ass of himself. In Vic's defense, he does get a bit less annoying as the story progresses. Not much. Just a bit. ;)

@Drasnus: As real as Jesus, my friend.

@Fenn: Yeah, I think he needs more "Pavlov's Dog" type conditioning than actual "teaching". ;)

@Peipei: Heh. Yeah, Vic isn't the most sympathetic of characters- hell, I'm not sure any of 'em are. But I did start to feel bad for him. Like, "Aw, c'mon man- I know you're not *that* dumb". He is kinda dumb though. Poor bastard.

@ Avie: There's token gay characters too! Although I think if ya got more than four it starts not bein' so token… ;)