This short text appeared in a reader that Karkavitsas composed for Greek third-grade schoolchildren and which was first published in 1918. In it he explains how the sister of Alexander the Great came to be transformed into the Gorgon.
Once Alexander the Great had waged wars and made the world his own, he summoned the wise men and asked them:
“How can I live to a very old age? I would like to do many great things in the world.”
“There is a way,” the wise men answered, “but it is somewhat difficult.”
“I did not ask you,” said King Alexander, “to tell me if it would be difficult. I want to know what it is.”
“You have to find the immortal water,” the wise men told him.
“And just where is this immortal water?”
“Between two mountains. But they open and close so quickly that not even the swiftest bird could pass through. Many famous princes have tried to take it. But they lost their lives in vain. If, my long-lived King, you manage to pass between the two mountains, you will come upon a dragon that never sleeps. If you kill the dragon, you will be able to take it.”
When King Alexander heard this, he ordered that his horse Bucephalus be saddled at once. The horse did not have wings, but he flew like a bird. He galloped, and after a little while Alexander reached the place the wise men had told him about. He stood there and watched the mountains open and close—ceaselessly, and so quickly that not even a bird could pass through. But the King was not discouraged. He gave a crack of the whip and passed between the mountains unscathed. Then he killed the dragon and took the vial that contained the immortal water.
When he returned to his palace, he forgot to tell his sister just what he had inside the vial. And so, one day she took the vial and poured the immortal water out in the garden. The water fell onto a sea onion, and ever since then the plant has never wilted.[1]
The Princess was inconsolable when she learned of the terrible thing she had done.
“My God!” she said. “I don’t want to believe that my brother will die someday. Let me live forever in the hope that, if he does die, you will bring him back to this earth. Who knows if difficult times lie in store for my country?”
The King’s sister immediately turned into a fish from the waist down and leapt into the sea. She became a gorgon! Ever since then she has continued to roam the sea, and if ever she sees a boat, she hurries to ask it:
“Boat, little boat—does King Alexander live?”
Woe to the boatman who tells her that he has died.
The Gorgon shakes up the water, stirs up mountains of waves, and the boat is lost.
But if a clever boatman should say: “King Alexander, my Lady, lives. He lives and reigns, and all the world is his domain!” then the Gorgon radiates with joy. She lets down her golden hair and instantly the waves subside. The sea and its shores resound, and the sailors are enchanted as, from their ships, they hear the Gorgon’s voice repeat the words in song:
King Alexander lives;
He lives and reigns
And all the world is his domain!