This article seeks to underline the importance of the image of Medusa in Statius' Thebaid.The Gorgon is explicitly introduced in an ekphrasis of a sacred goblet in the programmaticfirst book. This ekphrasis seems to function as a narrating mechanism that enablesthe reader to activate Medusa's presence, which may then remain lingering throughoutthe entire epic poem. Stimulated by echoes of words and scenes, that evoke the ekphrasis,the reader gradually creates his own fictional network in which the Gorgon continuouslyappears. Her (implicit) presence is illustrated in the passage that describes the marriageof Adrastus' daughters to Polynices and Tydeus in the second book, and in the tragic passagein the fifth book in which Opheltes prematurely dies.
