Pretty much everyone knows the story of Perseus and the Gorgon. The Gorgon, called Medusa, had snakes for hair, and the rather convenient power of turning any man she looked at into stone (she'd presumably never run out of ideas for garden gnomes then). Perseus managed to kill Medusa by watching her in the reflection of his shield - that way, he could see where to thrust his sword, but not get petrified.
So as Medusa is a snake-haired, man-petrifying monster with her tongue protruding, you might wonder why on earth I'm featuring her on this blog for beautiful things.
It's because of the pathos which is shown by the sculpture. This figure of Medusa was part of the west pediment at the Temple of Artemis at Corcyra, from around 580BC. She is shown (out of the frame of this picture) running sideways, on her knees. There were originally figures of her two children, Chrysaor and Pegasus (yup. The winged horse) exploding from her cut neck. As she still has her neck in one piece here, this tells us that the sculptor has chosen to portray this myth synoptically, that is, all at one go rather than in separate frames.
So in one moment, this disgusting monster is killed (whoops of celebration), yet she becomes a mother to two beautiful children. It is this simultaneity of contrasting emotion which makes this pediment a success.
This photo is actually of a plaster cast in the Cambridge Cast Gallery - the original, being in the Corfu Museum, is rather too far away to photograph!
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