Gorgias

1000 Classical Characters (1900)

A famous rhetorician and sophist, born about B. C. 480. All his writings have been lost except two declamations of doubtful authenticity. One of Plato 's dialogues is called Gorgias. Gorgones (The Gorgons). Three sisters, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, whose names were Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa . They possessed the power of turning into stone those on whom they looked. Perseus attacked them and cut off Medusa's head, which he gave to Minerva, who placed it on her aegis, which turned into stone those who fixed their eyes on it. Gothi, Gothones, Guttones. A powerful German people, who originally dwelt on the Prussian coast of the Baltic at the mouth of the Vistula, but afterwards migrated south. Gracchus, T. Sempronius. Was twice consul and once censor. He married Cornelia, of the family of the Scipios, a woman of piety and learning. Their children, Tiberius and Caius, rendered themselves famous for their obstinate attachment to the interests of the populace, which at last proved fatal to them. The Gracchi stand out conspicuously in Roman annals. The history of Caius Gracchus has been dramatized by James Sheridan Knowles. It was one of his earliest efforts in dramatic literature, and has long been obsolete as as acting play. Graecia or Hellas. A country in Europe, the inhabitants of which were called Graeci or Hellenes. Among the Greeks Hellas did not signify any particular country, bounded by certain geographical limits, but was used in general to signify the abode of the Hellenes, wherever they might happen to be settled. Graecia Magna, or G. Major. A name given to the districts in the south of Italy inhabited by the Greeks. It appears to have been applied chiefly to the cities on the Tarentine Gulf- Tarentum, Sybaris, Croton, Caulonia, Siris (Heraclea), Metapontum, Locri, and Rhegium; but it also included the Greek cities on the west coast, such as Cumae and Neapolis.