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“On the right as you come in, you have a‘ combination of Argolic myth and Ethiopian romance. Perseus is killing the sea-monster and freeing Andromeda; in a little while he will marry her and go away with her. It is an incident to his winged quest of the Gorgons. The artist has represented much in little—the maid’s modesty and terror (for she is looking down on the fight from the cliff overhead), the lad’s fond courage and the beast’s unconquerable mien. ‘As he comes on bristling with spines and inspiring terror with his gaping jaws Perseus displays the Gorgon in his left hand, and with his right assails him with the sword: the part of the monster which has seen the Medusa is already stone, and the part that is still alive is feeling the hanger’s edge. Cf. Claudian (Gigantom. 113), of a giant slain by Athena: pars moritur ferro, partes periere videndo. An echo of the same source?
