"The author's twenty years of devoted and penetrating research has netted so engagingly seined a catch of fact and fancy that he is close to persuasive about [the origins of Medusa's] gaze.Wilk is open, judicious, and critically candid about the broad collage he has so inventively explored. Good to the last line of text, this rich book never even flirts with the sin of being boring."--Journal of the History of Astronomy"As the author of this interesting new book demonstrates, the Gorgon was not only an unsually popular subject among Greek and Roman writers and artists, but she has also remained a favorite mythological character in modern times. Wilk's in-depth study is a welcome addition to the scholarship about her, containing both extensive review of previous interpretative theories and adding quite a few insightful new ideas of his own."--The Classical Outlook"The legend of Medusa isn't nearly so interesting as the fact that her image, the Gorgon image, shows up all over the world and throughout the ages.What inspires [this image]? What is surely the truth came to Wilk as he began to study the practical uses to which the image has been put.the solution is brilliant, is based in science, and, remarkably enough, is free from any taint of misogyny.

"--Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe"The author's twenty years of devoted and penetrating research has netted so engagingly seined a catch of fact and fancy that he is close to persuasive about [the origins of Medusa's] gaze.Wilk is open, judicious, and critically candid about the broad collage he has so inventively explored. Good to the last line of text, this rich book never even flirts with the sin of being boring."--Journal of the History of Astronomy"As the author of this interesting new book demonstrates, the Gorgon was not only an unsually popular subject among Greek and Roman writers and artists, but she has also remained a favorite mythological character in modern times. Wilk's in-depth study is a welcome addition to the scholarship about her, containing both extensive review of previous interpretative theories and adding quite a few insightful new ideas of his own."--The Classical Outlook.