Archaeologists in Spain have unearthed an “distinctive” mosaic that includes the legendary gorgon Medusa within the stays of a lavish home from the Roman period.
The mosaic, discovered on the Huerta de Otero archaeological web site in western Spain, depicts Medusa on the heart of a patterned octagon, meant to symbolize the aegis of Athena, a defend or pores and skin that held Medusa’s severed head after the Greek hero Perseus beheaded the gorgon. Within the mosaic, Medusa is surrounded by masks, geometric patterns and wildlife, together with fish and 4 colourful peacocks that symbolize the 4 seasons, in keeping with a translated assertion.
The thick-browed depiction of Medusa would have served as an apotropaic, or means to repel evil, José Vargas, an archeology monitor for the Barraeca II Skilled Faculty that carried out the dig, stated within the assertion.
Most individuals assume Medusa had snakes for hair and turned individuals who seemed immediately at her into stone. In early Greece, the mortal gorgon was illustrated as hideous and monstrous — generally with a beard and even tusks and pointy tooth. However in Roman instances round A.D. 100, her snaky hair was usually detailed as wild locks and she or he took on the options of Alexander the Nice, akin to having wind-blown hair and a turned head, in keeping with the Getty Middle in Los Angeles.
Associated: Silver medal that includes winged Medusa found at Roman fort close to Hadrian’s Wall
Within the newfound mosaic, Medusa has a spherical face, bulging eyes, unkempt hair, a barely turned face and white wings popping out of her brow, a sign that she may fly, very similar to the Roman deity Mercury. The truth that the mosaic is multicolored, as a substitute of simply black and white, signifies that it was crafted within the second century A.D., in keeping with The Historical past Weblog.
