Gorgophone

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In Greek mythology, Gorgophone was a daughter of Perseus and Andromeda. Her name means "Gorgon Slayer", a tribute to her father who killed Medusa, the mortal Gorgon. Gorgophone is a central figure in the history of Sparta, having been married to two kings, Oebalus of Laconia and Perieres of Messenia. She was of Lelege descent, the Leleges being a people from Asia Minor who settled in Laconia. One of the sons of Oibalos and Gorgophone was Tyndarus, stepfather of Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, and another was Icarius, father of Odysseus's wife, Penelope. Thus, Perseus's descendants played a central role in the Homeric epics and the pre-history of Greece. The most famous historical Spartan woman derived her name from Gorgophone, that is, Gorgo, who was the daughter of the Spartan king Cleomenes. Gorgo was born around 507 BC and after her father's rather awful death, she married his brother, Leonidas, who became king and was the hero at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. Like her namesake, Gorgophone, Gorgo remarried another Spartan king. Gorgo herself was renowned in Spartan legend, and it is curious that she bore the name that was so closely identified with the legendary Perseus and his daughter, who, if they really lived, pre-dated Gorgo by over seven centuries. Chief sources for Gorgophone are Pausanias (Books II and IV) and Apollodorus (Books I and III). Plutarch's works contain a good deal on Gorgo, and she appears in a couple of Herodotus's anecdotes that emphasize her close ties with her father and his trust in her acuity of judgment. With her first husband, Perieres, she gave birth to two sons, Leucippus and Aphareus. With her second husband, Oebalus, she became the mother of Hippocoon, Tyndareus and Icarius.