Antefix with Medusa

Greek, southern Italy

6th century B.C.

Terracotta

Seattle Art Museum

This is a fragment of a terracotta antefix depicting a Gorgon's face with wide eyes, bared teeth, and decorative elements on the sides. The object is a light brown color with visible texture from the clay. This is a fragment of a terracotta antefix depicting a Gorgon's face with wide eyes, bared teeth, and decorative elements on the sides. The object is a light brown color with visible texture from the clay. Images of women could signify power in Greek art, even when shown as the grotesque antithesis of beauty, the Gorgon. While mythology casts the monstrous Gorgon Medusa and her sisters as wicked—again the external manifestation of internal character—the Gorgon was regularly incorporated in art as a symbol of military victory, appearing on countless breastplates of victorious generals and leaders in the Greek and Roman empires. Gift