Page "Gorgon" Paragraph 39

Heracles is said to have obtained a lock of Medusa ’ s hair ( which possessed the same powers as the head ) from Athena and to have given it to Sterope, the daughter of Cepheus, as a protection for the town of Tegea against attack.

According to the later idea of Medusa as a beautiful maiden, whose hair had been changed into snakes by Athena, the head was represented in works of art with a wonderfully handsome face, wrapped in the calm repose of death.