The krater (vessel for mixing wine and water) is a funerary vase. The painting on the body depicts the deceased woman, identified by her pale skin, holding a coffer and sitting in her funerary monument which is in the form of a naiskos (ναΐσκος, diminutive of ναός, temple). She is visited by two female figures holding gifts, including an alabastron (perfume bottle), a fan and bands.

Each of the moulded Gorgon mascaroons has a white face, brown eyes and hair, and wears a white diadem (see photo below). Around the head are painted, snake-like locks. On the neck of the vessel a female head rises from a flower between symmetrically arranged tendrils. On each shoulder, between the bottom of the handles and the neck, is an attachment in the form of a black swan's head.

The Gorgon head on the handle of a bronze strainer.

From Syracuse. Made in Sicily, perhaps in Syracuse, about 500 BC.

The strainer's ring has a relief of the river god Acheloos, but it is
almost impossible to discern the figure on the corroded object.

The figures on the side of the oinochoe (οἰνοχόη) have been interpreted as dancers taking part in a sacred ritual dance, perhaps at a funeral, and the Gorgoneions probably had an apotropaic function.

Many of the objects in the Etruscan Section of the Milan Archaeological Museum are from excavations at the cemeteries of the Etruscan city Caere (today Cerveteri), northwest of Rome, while others, such as this oinochoe, are from private collections. The provenance of this jug is unknown, but it is thought to have been produced in Chiusi (Siena), southeastern Etruria. It was owned by the Milanese lawyer and historian Emilio Seletti (1830-1913), who donated most of his collection to Milan's civic museums at the end of the 1900s.

Bucchero (perhaps from the Spanish búcaro, or the Portuguese púcaro; derived from the Latin poculum, a drinking vessel) is the modern name given to Etruscan black ceramic ware with a glossy black surface, obtained by the reduction method of resticting oxygen in the kiln during firing. In the 6th century BC a variety of the bucchero type was developed, known as bucchero pesante or heavy bucchero. Such vessels had thicker walls, were often squatter and were decorated with reliefs, moulded separately and affixed to the still-damp clay before firing. The use of bucchero ware declined from the early 5th century BC due to the increasing popularity of imported Greek ceramics and then locally made vessels adapting new styles and techniques of pottery production and painting.

In 1885 the Dutch art historian Jan Six (1857-1926) completed De Gorgone, his doctoral thesis on the Gorgon in ancient art and literature, and in September of the same year he wrote a paper examining Archaic Gorgons on artefacts in the British Museum.

He attempted to distinguish between types of Gorgons in Greek art, and discussed the theory that the Gorgon myth may have arrived in Greece from Asia via Cyprus, the southern Aegean and Dodecanese islands and Arcadia. "We may safely assume," he wrote, "that wherever the flood of material is most copious we are nearest to the source." He cited as evidence the "Golgoi sarcophagus" from Cyprus (see Medusa part 1), which turned out not to be as ancient as was perhaps at first thought, and the plate from Kamiros, Rhodes (see Medusa part 2). The "flood of material" never appeared, Archaic Gorgons from Cyprus and the Dodecanese have proved relatively rare (see for example, a fragmentary statue in Medusa part 2), and none appear to predate those found in other Greek territories.

Over a century later we appear no closer to being able to identify an "Ur-Gorgon", an original or prototype from which others were copied, or a geographical source for the myth.

Among the Archaic Gorgon depictions in the British Museum, Six was also drawn to the charming but baffling figures on this bronze handle.

"It would be hardly less interesting to know whence comes the handle of a large flat and circular or oval object from the Payne-Knight collection. If it is, as I suppose, Etruscan, we must of course despair of explaining its meaning. Yet it seems worth describing.

The real handle, on each side of which is a Triton, bears in relief two Gorgons bending forward in consequence of the shape of the handle, and sustaining each other by the elbow with outstretched hand. The knees are slightly bent, and the wings folded, which gives a very peculiar look to this strange composition. The heads are, of course, seen de face, but not upright. They belong to the same type as those already mentioned, but are much later. The figures are clad in a short folded garment, and wear shoes with large wings. The space between the heads is decorated by a rosette.

I dare not even guess what the meaning of all this may be, and should not like to follow those who find a family connection between Iris and Medusa, and might perhaps explain this as a symbolic picture of the rainbow resting on the waters. It will be best to accept it for the moment as merely decorative."

Jan Six, Archaic Gorgons in the British Museum. In: The Journal of Hellenic studies, Volume 6, pages 275-286. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, London, 1885. At the Internet Archive.

A pyxis (πυξίς; plural, Πυξίδες, pyxides; from πῠ́ξος, pyxos, boxwood), was a type of box with a separate lid, generally cylindrical and originally made of wood, but later made of metal or clay. Pyxides were used mainly by woman to hold cosmetics, toiletries, jewellery and other small objects.

This example was found in "Tomba Reimers" (or Ipogeo Reimers), a chamber tomb at Canosa (Ancient Greek, Κανύσιον; Latin, Canosium; Italian, Canosa di Puglia), Apulia, southeast Italy, named after the businessman, painter and collector Johannes W. F. Reimers, who was present when the grave was discovered and purchased all the ceramic objects found there. After Reimers' death in 1913, the Hamburg museum, after some difficulty, managed to acquire his large collection of antiquities in 1917, including over 1500 Greek and Italic ceramic objects.

It is thought that other masks were also originally applied around the body of the vessel. An askos (ἀσκός, tube; plural, ἀσκοί, askoi) was originally a wineskin, but askoi were later made of metal or clay, often used for storing oil.

Askoi of several types were made in Apulia around 350-300 BC, probably exclusively for use in graves. They were painted with water-soluble pigments (perhaps a mixture similar to tempera) in blue, pink/red, purple, yellow and brown, on a white background. Reliefs and three-dimensional figures (including Gorgoneions, Nikes, winged heads) were fired separately and fixed to the body with an adhesive made of a resin-like pitch. Some feature elaborate statuette-like figures on the top of the body or handles. The non-durable colouring and fragile attachments indicate that the vessels were not intended for practical use, and had a purely sacred decorative function.