and he carries the Gorgon’s deadly 6. Sarcophagus with Pegasus and Polygnotos preserves one of the head on a stick. A roughly contem- Chrysaor born from Medusa’s earliest depictions of a beautiful severed neck as Perseus departs porary Attic white- ground leky with her head. Cypriot, Classical, Medusa (fig. 8). The Gorgon sleeps ca. 475–450 b.c. Limestone, thos depicts the action following peacefully on a hillside as Perseus ½ in. (202 cm), W. 28 ⅞ in. Medusa’s decapitation in full swing: L. 79 approaches, sickle in hand, and (73.2 cm), H. 38 in. (96.5 cm). Pegasus, the favorite steed of the The Cesnola Collection, Purchased grabs her by the hair. He looks Muses, springs from the severed by subscription, 1874–76 away to avoid her deadly gaze, (74.51.2451) neck of her well-formed, athletic though it is disarmed by sleep. The body, which lies on the ground 7. Lekythos (oil flask) with Perseus goddess Athena stands next to gushing blood, while Perseus escaping with the head of Medusa. him, looking on sternly. Quite Attributed to the Diosphos Painter. escapes with her head in his pouch Greek (Attic), Archaic, black-figure, unusual is the presence of a nim(fig. 7; see also rollout view on ca. 500 b.c. Terracotta, H. 9 ⅝ in. bus, or halo of rays, around (24.5 cm). Rogers Fund, 1906 page 47). Perseus’s head, now faint but still (06.1070) In Classical Greek art, Medusa visible. Perseus is the only hero was progressively transformed into depicted with these rays, but an attractive young woman. Simultaneously an rather than glorifying him, they probably allude aggressor and a victim, she became a tragic figure, to his katasterismos, or his ascension to the night as evidenced by Attic representations of her death. sky upon his death and subsequent transformaA red-figure pelike attributed to the painter tion into a constellation.14
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