![]() Later Roman depictions of Medusa also included her snake-filled hair. ![]() The shield has long since vanished and may be nothing more than a myth. According to a 1550 account by art historian Giorgio Vasari, da Vinci’s father considered the piece macabre, so he sold it to Florentine merchants. The depiction was so masterful, it supposedly frightened his father. It is rumoured that Leonardo da Vinci painted a rendition of Medusa on a shield. In fact, that invention is credited to one of the most renowned artists of all time: Leonardo da Vinci. Her fangs replaced by voluptuous lips.īut Medusa’s defining feature – her snake-filled hair – doesn’t appear until much later. Her moustache and beard were replaced by smooth cheeks. In the 5th and 4th centuries BC, her grotesque visage became increasingly feminized. Things start to change for Medusa during the Classical art period. But in a terracotta stand from 570 BC, we see a more grotesque depiction of the mythological creature, with fangs, a beard, curled hair and a deformed nose. #Medusa toau free#In this depiction, Medusa is sleeping peacefully with angelic wings folded behind her and a head free of snakes. These images from ancient Greek times were carved into funerary monuments and painted on pottery.Ī terracotta jar made between 450 and 440 BC gives us one of the earliest examples of the classical Medusa. Her eyes were bulging, and she sported some unsightly facial hair. She had wings, boar-like tusks and fangs. Greek mythology paints Medusa as a grotesque hybrid creature part animal, part human. If you take a look at early Medusa art, you’ll see a very different creature than the one we know today. Immediately after beheading Medusa, Pegasus, the winged horse, sprung from her neck. He decapitated Medusa whilst she slept thanks to help from a pair of winged sandals from Hermes, a Cap of Invisibility from Hades, a bronze shield from Athena, and a powerful sword from Hephaestus. Polydectes underestimated Perseus, the son of Zeus. You see, Polydectes was in love with Perseus’ mother Danae, but Perseus did not approve of the relationship. ![]() Polydectes was the one who sent him on this mission, which he believed would be certain suicide for Perseus. In the tale of Perseus and Medusa, Perseus was sent on a seemingly impossible mission to bring back the head of Medusa. Seeking vengeance, Athena transformed Medusa’s hair into snakes so that anyone who gazed directly at her would turn to stone. His desire for Medusa was so strong that he “ravaged” her at Athena’s shrine. Ovid says Medusa was a beautiful maiden – so much so that her beauty caught the eyes of Poseiden. But Ovid’s Metamorphoses gives us some more insight into her life. Hesiod’s tale does not divulge much about Medusa, apart from the fact that she was killed at the hands of Perseus. While all three sisters were children of Phorcys and Ceto, only the Gorgon sisters Euryale and Sthenno were immortal. According to the author, Medusa lived with her two sisters, Euryale and Sthenno, at the edge of the world. The earliest known record of Medusa and the Gorgons came from Hesiod’s Theogony. ![]()
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