DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8577#0106
86 NATURAL HISTORY
If further proof be needed that in cases where we have no Pegasos or
Perseus the 'Gorgon' was really conceived as such, we have the oinochoe in
Florence, fig. 27 d;1 she is here named 26W (Zdevcoi (p. 165, no. 33), cf. Fuai,
p. 166, nos. 47-8, &c), and is therefore one of the sisters of Medusa, known
to us from Hesiod, Theogony 274:
Vopyov<; 6\ at vaiovcri TriprjV kXvtov 'fl/ceai/oto,
ecryaTirj, 7rpos Nuktos, Iv 'Ecnrepihe*; \iyv<f>u>voi,
16evvu) t EvpvdXr) re MeSovcrd re Xvypd Tradovcra.2
It is further evident that another typical attribute of the gorgon is to be
traced back to Corinth—the snakes which grow either from her hair, or
from the waist-band of her chiton. Snakes appear for the first time on the
Thermon metope,fig.23D,then on the Corfu gable and in the later Corinthian
examples, figs. 27 d, pi. 43,2, as well as in various 'Argive-Corinthian' bronze
reliefs. The snakes first appear in literature in the description of the pursuit
of Perseus on the shield of Herakles—a description which clearly goes back
to a Corinthian painting of the kind which is partially preserved for us in the
Thermon metopes.3 If the gorgon story was to figure prominently in archaic
art, it was almost inevitable that the Peloponnese should play a leading part
in its development. For, though there does not seem to be any ground for
the belief that in the earliest form of the story the gorgons belonged to the
Peloponnese,4 their connexion with Perseus would be sufficient to attract to
them the attention of the artists of the Argive-Corinthian region.5 We do not
know whether Argos played any part in giving the gorgon story pictorial form;
the first steps may well have been taken at Corinth. In any case it was at Corinth
that the accepted formulae were created in which the gorgons and the gorgon
story were clothed; and it was from Corinth that they passed to other parts of
the Greek world.
It is certainly no chance that the gorgoneion and the gorgon story first
appear in Attica at the time when Corinthian influence in Attic vase-painting is
1 Blinkenberg in Rev. Arch. 1924, i, 267 ff., finally 4 As Robert has suggested (Heldensage ii, 1, 224)
refutes the heresy that many of the creatures from the fact that the head of Medusa was said to
generally known as gorgons are really Phoboi. have been buried at Argos, and that Tegea possessed
2 On Zdevvu>, see Robert, Heldensage ii, 1, 224, a lock of her hair. Whatever the ultimate destination
who compares Zeus Sthenios and Athena Sthenias. of the head, that is whether it was buried at Argos or
3 Scut. Her. 216 ff. Actually, the Perseus of the given to Athena, in all versions it was carried away,
early Attic bowl from Aegina stands nearer than the and therefore can hardly be used as evidence of the
Thermon figure to the description of the shield, for place where the adventure took place.
there we clearly have a fanciful description of the 5 Compare the explicit accounts of the story in
flying attitude seen on the bowl (out ap eTrujjavuiv mainland poetry (especially Hes. Theog. 274 ff.,
aa/ceos ttooIv . . . enel ovSap.ij iorrjpucTo), but quoted above; Scut. Her. 216 ff.) with the virtual
we shall see that the Attic tradition is generally silence of the Ionic Epic (II. xix, 116, 123; cf. Od.
dependent on the Corinth. Compare, however, the xi, 634; II. xiv, 319 is universally admitted to be a
Bellerophon nerecopos of the Protocorinthian late insertion),
aryballos, Johansen pi. 30, 2b.
If further proof be needed that in cases where we have no Pegasos or
Perseus the 'Gorgon' was really conceived as such, we have the oinochoe in
Florence, fig. 27 d;1 she is here named 26W (Zdevcoi (p. 165, no. 33), cf. Fuai,
p. 166, nos. 47-8, &c), and is therefore one of the sisters of Medusa, known
to us from Hesiod, Theogony 274:
Vopyov<; 6\ at vaiovcri TriprjV kXvtov 'fl/ceai/oto,
ecryaTirj, 7rpos Nuktos, Iv 'Ecnrepihe*; \iyv<f>u>voi,
16evvu) t EvpvdXr) re MeSovcrd re Xvypd Tradovcra.2
It is further evident that another typical attribute of the gorgon is to be
traced back to Corinth—the snakes which grow either from her hair, or
from the waist-band of her chiton. Snakes appear for the first time on the
Thermon metope,fig.23D,then on the Corfu gable and in the later Corinthian
examples, figs. 27 d, pi. 43,2, as well as in various 'Argive-Corinthian' bronze
reliefs. The snakes first appear in literature in the description of the pursuit
of Perseus on the shield of Herakles—a description which clearly goes back
to a Corinthian painting of the kind which is partially preserved for us in the
Thermon metopes.3 If the gorgon story was to figure prominently in archaic
art, it was almost inevitable that the Peloponnese should play a leading part
in its development. For, though there does not seem to be any ground for
the belief that in the earliest form of the story the gorgons belonged to the
Peloponnese,4 their connexion with Perseus would be sufficient to attract to
them the attention of the artists of the Argive-Corinthian region.5 We do not
know whether Argos played any part in giving the gorgon story pictorial form;
the first steps may well have been taken at Corinth. In any case it was at Corinth
that the accepted formulae were created in which the gorgons and the gorgon
story were clothed; and it was from Corinth that they passed to other parts of
the Greek world.
It is certainly no chance that the gorgoneion and the gorgon story first
appear in Attica at the time when Corinthian influence in Attic vase-painting is
1 Blinkenberg in Rev. Arch. 1924, i, 267 ff., finally 4 As Robert has suggested (Heldensage ii, 1, 224)
refutes the heresy that many of the creatures from the fact that the head of Medusa was said to
generally known as gorgons are really Phoboi. have been buried at Argos, and that Tegea possessed
2 On Zdevvu>, see Robert, Heldensage ii, 1, 224, a lock of her hair. Whatever the ultimate destination
who compares Zeus Sthenios and Athena Sthenias. of the head, that is whether it was buried at Argos or
3 Scut. Her. 216 ff. Actually, the Perseus of the given to Athena, in all versions it was carried away,
early Attic bowl from Aegina stands nearer than the and therefore can hardly be used as evidence of the
Thermon figure to the description of the shield, for place where the adventure took place.
there we clearly have a fanciful description of the 5 Compare the explicit accounts of the story in
flying attitude seen on the bowl (out ap eTrujjavuiv mainland poetry (especially Hes. Theog. 274 ff.,
aa/ceos ttooIv . . . enel ovSap.ij iorrjpucTo), but quoted above; Scut. Her. 216 ff.) with the virtual
we shall see that the Attic tradition is generally silence of the Ionic Epic (II. xix, 116, 123; cf. Od.
dependent on the Corinth. Compare, however, the xi, 634; II. xiv, 319 is universally admitted to be a
Bellerophon nerecopos of the Protocorinthian late insertion),
aryballos, Johansen pi. 30, 2b.