CIRCA LATE 2ND CENTURY A.D.

From the right corner of a sarcophagus lid, this fragment preserves a Gorgoneion mask with wings emerging from her forehead. Her deeply-drilled unruly locks fall in waves around her face and end in coiling snakes with some curly tendrils of hair swept onto her cheeks. For a closely-related example in Rome in the Museo Nazionale, see no. 57 in A. Giuliano, ed., Museo Nazionale Romano: Le Sculture, vol. I, pt. 2. The author notes that unlike the heads of satyrs present on a large number of sarcophagi lids, Gorgons are comparatively rare.