Perseus and Medusa Round 1

The first depictions of this story were painted on amphora, vessels of clay with two handles on either side used in ancient Greece to hold various types of food and liquids.  When these were painted they were very valuable and considered an item of luxury. 

This particular amphora is showing the ending of the battle between Perseus and Medusa.  Perseus is fleeing with Medusa’s head in the kibisis that was given to him and Athena is there to help him conquer the gorgon.  This is done in what is known as red-figure vase painting which was the use of painting in red on a black background as opposed to the even more ancient way of painting in black upon a red surface.  This allowed for greater detail and more tones to be created.  It was common to have scenes of great mythological feats on these amphorae because it symbolized the greatness of the history of Greece and was also a great way to start conversations at a party or at the symposium.  

            This story of Perseus beheading Medusa was also created in sculpture.  It wouldn’t be a part of ancient Greek culture without sculpture.  This story was sculpted first as part of the decoration of temples.  This one in particular was part of a temple and again it is showing the killing of Medusa by Perseus from the temple of Selinus.

            This is called a Metope, which is a part of the relief decorating used in temples that is rectangular in between two triglyphs in a Doric style frieze. This space was always used to show scenes from legends of good triumphing over evil or the particular god/goddess the temple is dedicated to wining a bet or, just in general, being better than all the other gods. 

          This is another example of temple art telling the story of Medusa and Perseus.

           This is a pediment from the temple of Artemis at Corfu, and is possibly one of the oldest parts of the temple.  This is a strange mixture of stories as it used to show Medusa with both of her offspring, the Pegasus and the warrior named “Golden Sword”, which is impossible since her children were only born after her death.  The other subjects in the pediment are the Trojans and the giants; both represent an uncivilized world and are the sworn enemies of the Greeks.  What happened in primitive Greek art was the combining of stories or the combining of aspects of stories to fit in spaces provided.  Many times there would be shown parts of a story that could not be possible to be seen together but would appear in the same space because of lack of space.  When this happened people saw the different parts of the stories mashed together and would be able to fill in the blanks because they knew the stories so well.  A very good example of this is in another amphora showing the Perseus and Medusa story.

This is showing not only the killing of Medusa but also the old King Akrisios, who is not involved in the story save the beginning and the end.  This is a very interesting way to not only tell a story through art but as a way to pass the story down from generation to generation.  Many stories were kept alive by passing them down through word of mouth and art since most people were not literate they were not written down.  It’s fascinating to see how the telling of stories has progressed from sculptures and vase paintings to three dimensional movies and huge anthologies but we always go back to art for references. 

http://www.class.uidaho.edu/monsters/art/gallery.htm

http://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farberas/arth/arth200/women/momasmamas.html

http://www.greek-gods-and-goddesses.com/perseus-slaying-medusa.html

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Red-Figure-Amphora-Showing-the-Slaying-of-Medusa-by-Perseus-Posters_i1348697_.htm