L’adamantino dono di Ermes. L’harpe di Perseo: uno strumento divino al servizio dell’eroe

Among the magical objects obtained by Perseus before his campaign against Medusa, the tool used to behead the hideous monster gorgonico occupies a special place. Initially marginal to the point of not being counted as a divine gift, the simple heroic sword that characterizes the iconography of danaide during the archaic age, it articulates itself into even more complex illustrative forms - first a crescent, then a unique dagger stride - which combine to emphasize into a perspective and magical underworld the deep meaning of the beheading of Medusa. The aim of this contribution is to follow, as far as possible, the evolutionary process that characterizes the weapon used by Perseus, trying to focus in a diachronic and functional way, the exegetical keys which are at the base of its transformation.