ANCIENT HISTORY AND LITERATURE: The case of Medusa’s gorgon

Abstract

History  and  literature  cannot,  nor  should  they  just  be  seen as  ancillary  disciplines.Depending on the context being examined, and even in the context of some historical theories, arejuxtaposed categories. With regard to studies on the ancient Greek world, the literary sources aredocuments essential for the constrution of the Hellenistic’s speech. For certain topics to be analyzed,sometimes the scholar account only with written texts. In the case of studies concerning the GorgonMedusa  there  are numerous  sources  of  material  culture  that  portray.  But culture  writing  wasresponsible for crystallize the powers of this monster in the thinking man's ancient and contemporary.The goal of this article is to present some fragments of ancient literature that Medusa is described andanalyse how these sources helped to establish it in the field of fear.