Some scenes include the other Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale, pursuing Perseus after he has beheaded Medusa. One example, on an early seventh-century B. The Gorgons are often represented in this running pose, known as knielauf , on pottery The legends of the Gorgons cast them as foreign others living outside of the known Greek world and horrific beings to be feared and ultimately vanquished.
Archaic depictions are monstrous and inexplicable—the Gorgon seems to be both male and female, both human and animal. The sixth-century B. Classical and Hellenistic images of Medusa are more human, but she retains a sense of the unknown through specific supernatural details such as wings and snakes.
These later images may have lost the gaping mouth, sharp teeth, and beard, but they preserve the most striking quality of the Gorgon: the piercing and unflinching outward gaze. Her very presence is foreign, dangerous, and potent, as are her specific characteristics. In the Odyssey , her head was kept in Hades to drive the living from the world of the dead. The Perseus myth provides us with the phenomenon that her face and gaze could turn men to stone.
Perseus and Athena were required to control such threatening forces and harness their power. This harness was taken up by ancient Greek artists, who represented the Gorgon across all periods and in all media. Medusa is a deadly and cryptic other, but she is also ubiquitous, with an undeniable energy that inspired artists to repeat her semblance and story in diverse ways across literature, lore, and art through ancient Greece, Rome, and beyond.
Glennon, Madeleine. Belson, Janer Danforth. Childs, William A. Michael Padgett, pp. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Danner, Peter. Krauskopf, Ingrid. Zurich: Artemis, Mack, Rainer. Marconi, Clemente. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Milne, Marjorie J. Richter, Gisela M. Vernant, Jean-Pierre. Zeitlin, pp. Visiting The Met? Terracotta antefix with the head of Medusa. Terracotta aryballos in the form of a helmeted head. Terracotta kylix: Siana cup drinking cup Attributed to the C Painter.
Terracotta stand Signed by Ergotimos as potter. Part of the marble stele grave marker of Kalliades. Terracotta painted gorgoneion antefix roof tile. Terracotta amphora jar Signed by Andokides as potter. But we have to start somewhere, so let us begin with the myth.
The standard tale of Medusa is as follows: at some point, back in the mists of time, there were three beautiful sisters, Medusa, Stheno and Euriale, children of the sea deities Phorkys and Keto. The parents were both children of Gaia, the personification of Earth, which made their daughters cousins to the Olympian Gods.
Among the three girls, Medusa was the only one to be mortal, but she was of radiant beauty, especially her wonderful hair, and consequently had many suitors. Among those was Poseidon, God of the Sea. One day, as Medusa was worshipping in a shrine of Athena, Poseidon surprised and ravaged her — an outrage against the sacred location. Athena caught them and was very angry: she directed her vengeful wrath entirely against Medusa, transforming her into a gorgon , a hideous monster, her lovely hair replaced by snakes and her beautiful face turned so ugly that any man she gazed upon would turn to stone.
They settled in Libya and no-one in their right mind came near them. A painted terracotta Medusa from the Archaic early 6th century BC? Temple of Athena in Syracuse. Her face is the typical grimace, but she is also holding her offspring, Pegasus, as a foal. Siracusa Archaeological Museum. It is notoriously difficult to interpret myth. Much has been made of the tale of Medusa, Athena and Perseus, ranging from historical explanations to psychological and philosophical ones.
Later, the hero Perseus , son of Zeus, was sent on a mission to kill Medusa. Athena herself, responsible for Medusa and her sister becoming a threat to humankind in the first place, assisted him, equipping him with a highly reflective shield.
From her blood sprang the poisonous snakes that populate the desert and from her body sprang her children by Poseidon, the winged horse Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor. Later, he gave the head to Athena. She placed it on her aegis , her protective shield or armour, adding its turning-to-stone magic to her capacities and making the head, or gorgoneion , one of her attributes.
The idea is that this image was subsumed by the followers of Classical religion to transform her into an entirely negative character and express the submission of her cult, defusing the notion of female rage and the fears it might arouse in a male-dominated society. On a BCE terracotta stand, Medusa is comically hideous, and fully bearded, sticking out her tongue between two tusks. Meanwhile, a rotation of s Versace fashions presents Medusa as a modern luxury logo.
The story of Medusa shifted over time along with her visage. He then employs her head and its stony glare as a weapon, a tool he subsequently gives to the goddess Athena who wore it on her armor. In a later version, as told by the Roman poet Ovid, Medusa is a beautiful human woman, who is turned into a monster by Athena as punishment after she is raped by Poseidon woe to mortal women in mythology. A — BCE red figure pelike container is among the earliest depictions of Medusa as an innocent maiden, with Perseus creeping up on the sleeping Gorgon.
The Classical period of Greek art — from to BCE — further associated beauty with danger when Medusa, the sirens, sphinxes, and Scylla all got a little hotter, losing some scales and wings as their bodies were more and more humanized.
These later images may have lost the gaping mouth, sharp teeth, and beard, but they preserve the most striking quality of the Gorgon: the piercing and unflinching outward gaze. On a chariot-pole finial from 1st-2nd century Rome, Medusa is almost angelic with her flowing hair and a pair of snakes peeking through her tresses , yet her penetrating eyes of inlaid silver recall her petrifying gaze. On funerary urns or armor, she was a talisman of protection, those eyes symbolically warding off evil.
Even into the 19th century, as the romanticization continued, her eyes did not close. Her expression is one of surprised, but unblinking, sorrow. Dangerous Beauty boldly mingles objects from across centuries in the compact exhibition.
Still no matter her form — or decapitation — her gaze is never averted, looking directly at the viewer as an assertion of her horrifying power that cannot be completely subverted by beauty.
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