CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA 4TH CENTURY B.C.

According to Boardman and Wagner (op. cit., p. 46), the depiction of Perseus on this gem "is not only perhaps the finest single Classical study of the hero but one of the best engraved gems of its period." The robustly muscular hero is depicted nude, stepping forward on tiptoe on a short groundline as he silently approaches his prey, the Gorgon Medusa. He wears a winged diadem and winged sandals. His left hand is raised with his thumb angled towards his lips. In his lowered right he holds two spears, one with an attached sickle-shaped blade, the dorydrepanon. Over his right shoulder he wears a cloak that drapes over his arm and along his back, with two weighted corners descending behind, their edges in zigzag.

For Perseus this pose is unparalleled in Greek art, but the same was employed for the hero Diomedes on a chalcedony scaraboid in Boston, where the hero tiptoes forward, holding a sword and the Palladion (Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings, pl. 596). The unusual variety of mottled red jasper is extremely rare.