Medusa Coin (Mini Album)

A Gorgon is a creature
of Greek myth, one of three sisters
with beautiful faces, hair made of
venomous snakes, and a gaze that turned
beholders to stone. The two immortal sisters,
Stheno and Euryale, are not as famous as the
mortal one, Medusa, who was slain by the hero
Perseus. The gruesome image was thought to confer
protection, and was seen all over ancient Greece,
including on this bronze coin from the Black Sea
region that dates from the first century BCE.
The obverse shows Medusa; on the reverse, Nike,
the goddess of victory, carries a palm branch.