The Gorgons (episode 1) - Stheno, The Mighty | The Gorgons of Greek Mythology

In the eerie caverns deep beneath Olympus, close to the entrance of the underworld, resided three female monsters of untold hideousness. Monsters with awful scaly skin, hands made of brass, fangs more like tusks, talons of ire, serpent coils as legs, poisonous snakes as hair, and eyes of death itself. So horrifying were they, that a mere gaze upon petrified anyone to death and turned them into stones. The Gorgons, Children of the Sea, Daughters of the Deep. Steno the Fierce, Steno the Strong, the immortal gorgon who never raged. The daughter of the sea deity, Phorsis, and the goddess of the deep, Ceto, she was the eldest of the three gorgons. Steno was the most independent of her gorgon sisters, Euryale and Medusa. Her strength surpassed that of her sisters, and her ferocity belittled their own. She was bloodthirsty and always eager to kill, so much so, that she killed many more men than both of her sisters combined. In appearance, Steno was thin and tall, with an upper body that resembled that of a woman, and the lower body of a huge snake. She had red scaly skin, a long protruding tongue, and red snakes curling around her scaly head in place of hair. She had eyes which glowed in the dark, and turned anyone who looked upon them into stones. Around her waist was a long snake, tied as a belt. The later roman depictions took away some of the gorgon's hideousness, showing Steno and her sisters as beautiful women with snake hair, combining the urge to behold their beauty with the fear of instant death. Aside Euryale and Medusa, Steno had other siblings who were not gorgons. Some were still monsters, some were hags, and some were nymphs. They include the Hesperides, the Graeae, Thusa, Scylla, and Laeden. Steno never left her dark home in the caverns. Hidden by the darkness, she and her sisters laid in wait for unwary travelers, and those foolish enough to enter the caverns. With the great strength of a cuttlefish, and her intense urge to kill, most of the intruders and men who wandered into the caverns, possibly met their cruel deaths at the hands of Steno. In popular versions of greek mythology, Steno and her two sisters were not born gorgons, but were beautiful women who served in the temple of Athena. When Medusa, the most beautiful of the three, became boastful, she caught the attention of Poseidon, lord of the seas, who then laid with her right before the statue of Athena. Athena punished Medusa by turning her into an ugly gorgon. And when Steno and Euryale tried to defend their sister, the goddess also turned them into gorgons. After the death of their mortal sister, Steno and Euryale continued to live as they were immortal and could not die. It is often said that the two relocated to the underworld, where they were used by Hades to torment the dead.