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Audience Chamber - below the astronomer mosaic is a mosaic showing seasonal farming scenes surrounding the protectress Medussa - spring Ceres teaching Triptolemus to plough; summer Achilles frightens a girl when it is revealed that he is a man; Autumn mad king Lycurgus with his double headed axe chases Ambrosia, the gods save her by turning her into an encircling vine; winter Attis as a well wrapped shepherd is receiving water for his sheep. The mosaic at the bottom of the picture depicts the sea, the merman has a steering oar and a bowl of oysters; the sea can be frightening but it can also be tamed, the oar and the tritons holding the shepherds crook and flute are to show that we are in control.
All images in this gallery are copyright © and the property of A. Santillo
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