This chapter explores the potential of Cohen’s theory of monsters and culture to frame a study of the beheading of the Gorgon in children’s literature. The Gorgon, on Cohen’s reading, is the monster that by ‘dwell[ing] at the gates of difference’ (1996: 7) signals an otherness that can be variously cultural, political, racial, economic and sexual – and more. I consider what kind of alterities are enacted by the Gorgon’s appearance in children’s literature, with a particular focus on Richard Woff’s Bright-Eyed Athena in the Stories of Ancient Greece, where Perseus’ quest is narrated under the aegis (as it were) of a ‘bright-eyed’, normalising and civilising goddess. I explore how far the quest, as told by Woff, monsterises the other by demonising that which falls outside the norms signalled by Athena. I consider how Woff’s Gorgon fits Cohen’s premise of monsters as those against whom ‘we’ – here children – take action because they contravene the boundaries of ‘I’ or ‘us’.

The volume gathers the results of a stage of the programme Our Mythical Childhood, supported by an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Alumni Award for Innovative Networking Initiatives and an ERC Consolidator Grant. Open Access at Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH at https://www.winter-verlag.de/en/detail/978-3-8253-7874-5/Marciniak_Ed_Chasing_Mythical_Beasts_PDF/ book/ hardcover ISBN: 978-3-8253-6995-8 Series: Studien zur europäischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur/Studies in European Children's and Young Adult Literature, Volume No.: 8 Information about Our Mythical Childhood is available at http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/