A stone carved head of the Gorgon, Medusa, one of 2 at the Ancient Greek site of Didyma, Aydin, Turkey. According to the legend Medusa was a snake-haired lady, very ugly and wherever she looked at would turn into stone. She was the only one of the three sisters named Gorgons who was mortal. The legend informs us that the goddess Athena was jealous of her beauty and transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so ugly to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. Such carvings are also found in several Greek and Roman historical sites to protect important places from the evil eye. Medusa was beheaded by the Greek hero Perseus, who then used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield.