Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/248

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222
A Solution of the Gorgon Myth.

water indicated by a wavy line, thus making the whole conclusively into a sea-story.[1]

I have already alluded to the attribute of Wings, such as those on the Pompeian heads (Fig. 4, Plate Vll.). These are also to be found very commonly on later Medusae: compare the arms of Sicily (Plate M.). At Perugia, and indeed in most museums where there are Roman or Etruscan Gorgons, wings will be found to be a common feature of the

Fig. 8.

later type. Long, however, before the wings grew, that is in the Greco-Roman times of Magna Græcia, we find the head to have been conspicuously ornamented with Horns, and these perhaps, though common enough, not appealing much to Roman æsthetic taste, were made to take the shape of wings. Just about the Pompeian period we find Roman Mercuries sometimes with wings and sometimes with horns on their heads. Further, on one of the Pompeian frescoes at Naples, Mars is painted with a Greek helmet having the conventional large cockade, but on each side a stiff upright feather, giving much the appearance of horns.[2] We thus fix the development of the wings at from about 350 B.C. to about A.D.

Figs. 9, 9a, and 9b are from original Greek pre-affixes in my possession, in each of which may be noted a very obvious

  1. On this see further Evil Eye, p. 161 et sq.
  2. On this see Horns of Honour, pp. 5-6, Figs. 1 and 2, also p. 35.