 When Perseus returned to the court of the king, Polydectes asked if he had the head of Medusa.Perseus replied "here it is" and held it aloft, turning the whole court to stone.In Ancient Greece a "Gorgoneion" (a stone head, engraving, or drawing of a Gorgon face, often with snakes protruding wildly and the tongue sticking out between her fangs) frequently was used as an apotropaic symbol and placed on doors, walls, floors, coins, shields, breastplates, and tombstones in the hopes of warding off evil.