Medusa en los mosaicos romanos: de la mirada que petrificaba a una mirada apotropaica

Abstract

When we speak of the role of the gaze in myth, Medusa & and the legend of her gaze, which changes the viewer into stone &- has a special significance among the various embodiments of the gaze in various mythological periods, for it expresses the view of the ancient Greeks and their regard of the "other" as a key to the mythological. In this way much is also unveiled through the episode about the transformation through the gaze, which transforms into stone, into a new, apotropaic gaze. Thereafter, given myth's symbolism, representations of Medusa resounded through the Roman world, in various media, and very significantly in mosaics. Thanks to the conditions of conservation of mosaics in their original context, the analysis of representations of Medusa on pavements &- in an exchange that today actualises the crossing of gazes which is thereby established between Medusa and the inhabitants of villas and their guests during the time of Antiquity &- shows that in this apotropaic gaze there was a clear conscience choice linked to beliefs in private and domestic domains, be it in context of the domus, be it in within the villa.

Ko govorimo o vlogi pogleda v mitu, ima med različnimi utelešenji pogleda v različnih mitoloških obdobjih poseben pomen Meduza, legenda o njenem pogledu, ki spreminja v kamen, pa je odražala pogled starih Grkov, njihov pogled na »drugega« kot ključ do mitološkega. Na ta način veliko razkriva tudi epizoda o preoblikovanju pogleda, ki je spreminjal v kamen, v nov, apotropejski pogled. Kasneje je, zaradi simbolike tega mita, upodabljanje Meduze dobilo širok odmev v rimskem svetu, in sicer na različnih podlagah, na prav poseben način pa v mozaikih. Tako zaradi svojevrstnih okoliščin, v katerih so se mozaiki ohranili v svojem prvotnem kontekstu, analiza upodobitev Meduze na tlakovcih – gledamo jo in ona gleda nas, kakor je gledala, ko so njo gledali lastniki hiše, prebivalci in povabljeni, in skozi izmenjavo pogledov se v današnjem času izriše antika – priča o zavestni in želeni izbiri apotropejskega pogleda in o verovanjih v njegov pomen v domačem in zasebnem prostoru, bodisi v kontekstu domusa, bodisi znotraj ville.