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Undergraduate
Classics Teaching Collections |
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| Name: |
Athena
with Perseus Slaying Medusa |
| Picture: |
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| Description: |
Metope,
Selinous Temple C (Sicily). Palermo, Museo Nazionale. H. 1.47m. From
the left: Athena stands frontally, her right arm across her chest
and her left hand up to cup Perseus' head in a gesture of support.
She wears a long Doric tunic and himation draped over it. Her head
is oversized and unbalances the sculpture; she has a very long nose,
huge staring eyes, high arched brows and a large compressed mouth.
Beside her, Perseus stands frontally, his lower body and legs in profile.
he has heavy archaic features. His hair is covered by Hades' Cap of
Invisibility. His left hand grasps Medusa's hair and he stabs her
with his right hand, which originally held a knife. He wears a short
kilt, and on his feet are Hermes' winged boots. To the right, Medusa
crouches as she dies, her gaze on the viewer, mouth wide in typical
Gorgon grimace. As she dies, the winged horse Pegasos springs from
her blood, and he can be seen within the protective cradle of her
arms, leaping from the earth and her blood. |
| Date: |
c. 550-540
B.C. |
| Discussion: |
Temple
C was a large Doric structure, of which only three complete metopes
survive. There is a confusion of dimensions in all three pieces, the
old Egyptian-style sculpture of rendering everything in two dimensions
giving way to a realisation of the third dimension; hence the confused
and ungainly-looking poses of the protagonists. See Robertson 1981:
19ff.; Stewart 1990: 115-116; 83, 85-6 (ills.). |
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