They will tell you the way to the Gorgon, that you may slay her, my enemy, the mother of monstrous beasts.

Once she was a maiden as beautiful as morn, till in her pride she sinned a sin at which the sun hid his face; and from that day her hair was turned to vipers, and her hands to eagle's claws; and her heart was filled with shame and rage, and her lips with bitter venom; and her eyes became so terrible that whosoever looks on them is turned to stone; and her children are the winged horse and the giant of the golden sword; and her grandchildren are Echidna the witch-adder, and Geryon the three-headed tyrant, who feeds his herds beside the herds of hell.

So she became the sister of the Gorgons, Stheino and Euryte the abhorred, the daughters of the Queen of the Sea.
Touch them not, for they are immortal; but bring me only Medusa's head.' 'And I will bring it!' said Perseus; 'but how am I to escape her eyes?
Will she not freeze me too into stone ?' 'You shall take this polished shield,' said Athene, 'and when you come near her look not at her herself, but at her image in the brass; so you may strike her safely.

And when you have struck off her head, wrap it, with your face turned away, in the folds of the goat-skin on which the shield hangs, the hide of Amaltheie, the nurse of the AEgis-holder.

So you will bring it safely back to me, and win to yourself renown, and a place among the heroes who feast with the Immortals upon the peak where no winds blow.' Then Perseus said, 'I will go, though I die in going.