~sbkhan~
Lie Detector!
Bocca della verita or the Mouth of Truth is at least 2200 years old and 12-1300 kilo heavy round Pavonazzetto marble disk in the shape of a head, where the eyes, nostrils and mouth are carved all the way through the 19 cm thick stone. It probably represents the god Océanus , from him whom all rivers are and the entire sea and all springs and all deep wells have their waters according to Homer (Iliad 21. 194 ff). This is why most scholars presume it to be the original drain cover of the ancient temple of Jupiter Jurarius or the temple of Hercules Invictus. The temple was built using a similar circular domed rotunda or vault roof construction as the Pantheon with an oculus, round open space, in the middle.
After the demolition of the temple the Bocca della Verità was placed in the narthex or portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church around 1650 where it stayed ever since and became known as a place to take the test of truth.
Does it work ?!?
Not really.
According to another legend the mouth of truth lost its credibility, when an adulterous Roman noble man’s wife was put to the test by her husband. The woman was forced to put her hand in the mouth, when all of a sudden a man came forward and kissed her. He was actually her lover, although she pretended not to know him and accused him of being a madman and the crowd chased him away. When she put her hand into the mouth of truth, the woman declared that she had never kissed any other man apart from her husband and the crazy man who had just kissed her. Her honor and that of her husband were saved, but from that moment on no more hands were bitten off. The Bocca della Verità apparently did not like the trickery and stopped working.
Lie Detector!
Bocca della verita or the Mouth of Truth is at least 2200 years old and 12-1300 kilo heavy round Pavonazzetto marble disk in the shape of a head, where the eyes, nostrils and mouth are carved all the way through the 19 cm thick stone. It probably represents the god Océanus , from him whom all rivers are and the entire sea and all springs and all deep wells have their waters according to Homer (Iliad 21. 194 ff). This is why most scholars presume it to be the original drain cover of the ancient temple of Jupiter Jurarius or the temple of Hercules Invictus. The temple was built using a similar circular domed rotunda or vault roof construction as the Pantheon with an oculus, round open space, in the middle.
After the demolition of the temple the Bocca della Verità was placed in the narthex or portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church around 1650 where it stayed ever since and became known as a place to take the test of truth.
Does it work ?!?
Not really.
According to another legend the mouth of truth lost its credibility, when an adulterous Roman noble man’s wife was put to the test by her husband. The woman was forced to put her hand in the mouth, when all of a sudden a man came forward and kissed her. He was actually her lover, although she pretended not to know him and accused him of being a madman and the crowd chased him away. When she put her hand into the mouth of truth, the woman declared that she had never kissed any other man apart from her husband and the crazy man who had just kissed her. Her honor and that of her husband were saved, but from that moment on no more hands were bitten off. The Bocca della Verità apparently did not like the trickery and stopped working.