Perseus, son of Zeus, was challenged to slay Medusa, the terrifying Gorgon whose fatal stare turned any onlooker to stone. The gods favoured Perseus and supplied him with the cap of Hades, winged shoes and a kibisis (bag for the monster’s head). Perseus successfully severed Medusa’s head, looking away when he struck her.
This krater recounts the story of Perseus and Andromeda, the daughter of the Ethiopian king Kepheus. As he was returning home from slaying Medusa, Perseus encountered Andromeda, here tied to the columns of a naiskos (shrine), being terrorised by a terrible sea monster. Her father had been forced to sacrifice his daughter in order to stop the monster from ravaging his country.
In one version of the myth, Perseus, who fell in love with Andromeda, turned the sea monster into stone with the deadly stare of Medusa’s severed head. Perseus, on the left, is holding a spear and a harpe (hooked sickle-sword), and at the right Kepheus sits watching, a basket of funerary offerings before him.
