Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The motif has in relief on the fa?ade of a temple at Hatra in Mesopotamia15 (the modern Al Hadr Iraq) has snakes writhing in his hair. The Hatra mask bears a remarkable resemblance to the glowering male medusa on the pediment of the temple at Sulis Minerva at Bath 16 though this is not a leaf mask. The Bath medusa has also been compared with the scowling Okeanos mask on the central medallion of the great silver dish from Mildenhall (now in the British Museum).17 Like the Hatra mask the Mildenhall Okeanos has a beard of seaweed or acanthus but has dolphins instead of snakes swimming through his wild wavy locks. The penetrating glare common to all three masks is a persistent though not invariable characteristic of the antique leaf masks and must be recognised as a “family trait” later inherited by the Green Men. Other quite different prototypes of the Green Man are found on several fragments from the richly sculptured funerary monuments discovered at Neumagen on the Mosel not far from Trier.s The monuments which date from the second and third centuries were made to commemorate distinguished and wealthy Treveran citizens. (LL)