The thesis presents an analysis of ancient texts and ancient artistic monuments that testify to the myth of Perseus and Medusa, focusing on the analysis of Medusa's appearance. It will try to establish whether it was literature that influenced the visual arts, or whether the roles were reversed and it was the visual arts that influenced literature. The texts of Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus, Ovid and Pseudo-Apollodorus will be examined, as well as two ancient Greek fragments, while within the visual arts various examples, mostly paintings and sculptures, will be presented chronologically. The severed head of Medusa, or gorgoneion, will play an important role in the analysis, as it appears very frequently in the visual arts and in various contexts. Various possible origins of the gorgoneion and of the myth of Perseus and Medusa will be presented, and as we will be following Medusa's transformation from monster to beauty throughout, one of the two questions at the end will also be devoted to the possible reasons for this transformation. The second question will deal with the location of the Gorgon's residence, as this is attested in ancient texts in different parts of the world known to the inhabitants of the time.
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