The Oxford History Of The Classical World

Relief Vase From Boeotia, of a type made both in Boeotia and the Greek islands in the mid seventh
century, Perseus beheads the gorgon medusa. Perseus wears his cap of darkness and magic boots, and
carries a small bag in which to carry the head. He looks away since the head literally petrifies. The
Gorgon has a horse body because her father was Poseidon, god of horses, and she will give birth to the
winged horse Pegasus in her death throes. Later artists do not generally give her a horse's body, but a
human one with wings, and a different lion-mask face.