Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

The aigis and Gorgoneion of Athena 851

In any case, once introduced, the new type ran through a whole
succession of phases, becoming in turn sinister (fig. 665)1, pathetic
(fig. 666)2, and ultrapathetic (fig. 66j)z, but at the last tranquillised

Fig. 666. Fig. 667.

that the Gorgon among her original (African?) folk was frankly regarded as a reigning
heauty. ■ Hence her name Mtdovtra, the ' Queen,' her diadem, and her earrings. A modern
Parallel from an Epeirote tale is ' the Beauty of the Land,' who can turn men into stone
Uupra ii. 1007, 1016).

1 The Medusa Rondanini in the Glyptothek at Munich is a mask of Parian marble,

copied in Roman times from a Greek original in bronze to be dated c. 400 B.C. or

Perhaps somewhat earlier (Brunn—Bruckmann Denim, der gr. undrom. Sculpt, pi. 239,

A- Furtwangler—H. L. Urlichs Denkmaler griechischer und romischer Skulptur Munchen

l898 p. 42 ff. pi. 13, Furtwangler Masterpieces of Gk. Sculpt, pp. i;6—161 (attributed

to Kresilas) fig. 63, id. Ein Hunderi Tafeln nach den Bildwerken der kgl. Glyptothek zu

MUnchen Munchen 1903 pi. 54, id. Glyptothek zu Munchen1 p. 260 ff. no. 252, G. M. A.

Richter The Sculpture and Sculptors 0/ the Greeks Yale Univ. Press 1929 p. 177

(Kresilas?)). Apart from the cold and cruel beauty of this face, the sculptor has

'"iported a fresh element of interest in the pair of small wings attached horizontally

'° the head. Buoyed on these, with her concentrated stare and half-open mouth,

Medousa hovers before us like some keen-eyed maleficent night-
bird.

2 An onyx cameo of two layers, milk-white on bluish white,
°und on tne Via App;a near Rome and formerly in the

yszkiewicz collection (W. Froehner Collection d'antiqttitts du
c°»ite Michel Tyszkiewicz Paris 1898 p. 32 pi. 33, 7. Furtwangler
Ant, Gemmen i. pi. 50, 47 ( = my fig. 666), ii. 244). A smaller
. " less finely worked cameo in my possession (fig. 669: scale \)
lv°ry white on dark grey, has the same troubled forehead and
Painful expression. Traces of subsequent gilding on hair etc. Fig. 669.

3 An amethyst cameo of Hellenistic date, found on the Aventine at Rome and

54—2