Long after the Gorgon was slain, her face endured as a ward — the gorgoneion, struck onto shields and doorways and breastplates to turn away harm by harm. This medallion is that ward: the face wreathed in rays, framed and pinned with garnet, meeting the eye so you need not. The gilt face was struck for those who carried it into real danger; the gold, they said, looked back hardest.