The face famous for turning men to stone is itself made of stone in this third-century A.D. mosaic, found in the Roman baths at Henchir Thina, in Carthage. The Gorgon Medusa, mythology’s most feared enchantress, was a popular subject on mosaics throughout the Roman world for many centuries—mosaics featuring her head have been found from North Africa to Italy to Spain, some as early as the first and second centuries A.D. and even continuing to the present day. This Carthaginian Medusa, with the ubiquitous snakes hissing through her hair and two small wings sprouting from her forehead, makes use […]
