Name: La Bocca Della Verita (The Mouth of Truth)
Date: unknown
Artist: unknown
Location:
Approximate Dimensions: 1.75 m in diameter
Medium: marble
Sources of info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouth_of_truth
Picture taken by: Kate Tricarico
Significance of the work:
In the days when Roman society thought that the world was flat, it was believed that a great river encircled the earth to its outermost edge. The god of this river was known as Oceanus. He is often depicted as having the upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns. The son of Coelus (god of the sky) and Vesta (god of the earth), Oceanus had many sisters, all of whom were nymphs. In the Iliad, the iconography of Achilles' shield, is enclosed and encircled, as the world itself was believed to be, by Oceanus. When geography became more accurate, Oceanus came to represent the stranger, more unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean, as opposed to the
According to legend, once the rich wife of a Roman noble was accused of adultery. The woman denied the accusations, but her husband wanted to put her to the test by making her hand inside the stone mouth. Knowing perfectly well that she was lying, the woman used a very clever strategy. In front of a group of curious bystanders who had gathered around the Mouth of Truth, the man who was actually her lover embraced her and kissed her. She pretended that she didn't know him and accused him of being a madman and the crowd chased him away.When she put her hand into the mouth, the woman declared that she had never kissed any other man apart from her husband and the poor madman who had just kissed her. In this way she was certain that she hadn't lied and her hand was saved. The betrayed husband saved her honour, but the Mouth of Truth lost its credibility and it is said that since that day it no longer carried out its function as a right and unappeasable judge.
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