Episemata on the Murals of the Tomb at Aghios Athanasios and the Tomb of Erotes. The Origins of the Medusa Rondanini. Эписемы из гробницы в Айос Афанасиос и гробницы Эротов. Истоки образа Медузы Ронданини. (original) (raw)

A. Furtwängler dated the Medusa Rondanini to the 5th century B.C. Many scholars have supported this date, and have concentrated their efforts on the question of authorship. J. Belson and P. Callaghan have argued for the chronological revision of a prototype of the Medusa Rondanini. Both scholars have suggested that it was a gilt bronze aegis dedicated to the Athenian Acropolis by either Antiochus III or his son Antiochus IV. But when, and why, did a winged gorgoneion appear for the first time? In the Macedonian tomb at Aghios Athanassios, two shields are depicted with two episemata: the winged thunderbolt of Zeus on one, and a wingless gorgoneion on the other. In the votive oval shield models from the Tomb of Erotes, we see a combination of the thunderbolt of Zeus and a gorgoneion. Later, the wings of the thunderbolt became part of the gorgoneion. We can also estimate the probable time of this transformation, because a thunderbolt with gorgoneion episema is depicted for the first time on oval shields. This type of shield (θυρεός) began to appear in the Hellenistic kingdoms following the Celtic invasion of Macedonia and Greece (279–277 B.C.). Thus we can suppose that the winged gorgoneion first appeared in the 260s BC and was derived from the episema of thureos type shields.