Mosaic featuring Orpheus

It was found in 1762 in the Roman city of Caralis, corresponding to today’s location of Stampace near Cagliari. The fragment portraying Orpheus was the central frame of a polychrome floor mosaic which was unfortunately broken to pieces when carried to Turin. In the fragment the scene takes place by a rock surrounded by trees where the mythological character, wearing a Phyrigian cap, plays the lyre he used to tame animals. A 1803 drawing documents that a series of animals was depicted along the edge of the mosaic, but only a deer and a horse remain.