Medusa part of their religion. Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the "Gorgoneion". The three Gorgon sisters—Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale—were all children of the ancient marine deities Phorcys (or "Phorkys") and his sister Ceto (or "Keto"), chthonic monsters from an archaic world. Their genealogy is shared with other sisters, the Graeae, as in
Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne the poet Emma Lazarus who had been Rose's friend until her death from cancer. The community became established as a congregation of Religious Sisters in 1900 and were given the Dominican habit. They termed themselves "the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer", and their purpose was to provide for the well-being of incurably ill and destitute cancer patients. At that time, Lathrop was elected as superior of the community, becoming known as Mother Mary Alphonsa. Their first home was founded in 1912 at 71 Jackson Street in Manhattan. It was named St. Rose's Free Home for Incurable Cancer. The Sisters