Gorgons

"Common folk frequently use the words 'gorgon' and 'Medusa' interchangably, but we are people of letters and must hold ourselves to a higher standard. For while Medusa and her descendents are examples of gorgons, gorgons are not limited to women with stoney gazes and snakes for hair. 'Medusa' is the proper name for both the species and its progenitor. Referring to Medusae as 'gorgons' is not technically incorrect, only woefully imprecise, like referring to the Diamond of Khourosh as 'a gemstone.'
"Conclusivity is of course a rare luxury when it comes ot the study of dead languages, but my scholoarship suggests that the word 'gorgon' has its origins in the Eloszorian language, and can be loosely translated as 'cursed one.' The modern meaning, of course, is slightly more constrained, referring to a creature that results when a curse transforms a human body into some form of monstrous creature. Descendents of such creatures who also exhibit the aberration are also considered gorgons.
"While Medusae are indisputably gorgons, it isn't always clear what other creatures can be correctly described with the term. An excellent example is the namesake of our generous hosts, the minotaur. According to the legends of the islanders, the original minotaur was the offspring of a queen and normal if quite charismatic white bull. This would seem to indicate that the creature is merely an abberation born of sexual deviancy, not a proper gorgon. However, the queen in question did not mate with the bull by choice, but because she was under the spell of a vengeful sea god.
"While the curse that the sea god placed upon the queen did not directly transform the offspring of the pairing into a bull-headed monster, the sea god's spell clearly caused the minotaur to manifest upon the earth. Furthermore, many would suggest the unlikelihood of the monstrous child being conceived, much less carried to term, without some magic from the sea god's curse guiding the process. This would at least open up the possibility that the 'gorgon' label can properly be applied to the minotaur.
"In this presentation, I will expand upon the working definition that I have developed for the 'gorgon' classification. I will also present my research into a number of species and individual creatures whose purported origins are grounded in magical compulsion and transformation, along with my own opinion as to which of these creatures should or should not be considered 'gorgons.' "

--Thornley Ravenhurst, Purple Sage
from his presentation at the Symposium on Teratologous Taxonomy

Medusa