The Gorgon of Pompeii in New York City

Mosaic with head of Medusa within a shield design,
Roman, second half of the 1st century BC

From the floor of one of Pompeii’s grandest houses, the terrible face of Medusa once stared upward. Created in the second half of the first century BC for the House of the Citharist, the mosaic depicts the Gorgon surrounded by black-and-white scales and kantharoi, that is, drinking vessels.

Unearthed and removed during excavations in 1867, the mosaic entered the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. It is now on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

To the Romans, Medusa was not merely the monster slain by Perseus. Her fearsome visage possessed apotropaic power, believed to repel evil and protect the household from harm. The mosaic survived successive renovations until Vesuvius buried Pompeii in 79 AD. More than two millennia later, Medusa’s forbidding gaze continues to fulfill its ancient purpose.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, August 26th, Feasts of Sant’Oronzo di Lecce and San Gianuario Martire