The multi-colored peacock in this mosaic was created from stone cubes in Syria in the 400s or 500s CE. Such cut cubes of stone and other hard materials (ceramic, glass) were called tesserae by the Romans. The peacock’s body is outlined in black. The stones used by the artist are not brightly colored, but the tail design is quite dramatic. It is outlined in red, and the interior colors are mixed pink and beige. The “eye spots” in the tail are green, yellow, and white, outlined in black. If you look closely, you can see how the artist laid out the stones in and around the bird to emphasize the design. 

In the original mosaic there were two peacocks facing one another on either side of a now-missing object. The mosaic was cut into sections and although both peacocks are preserved, the object between them was lost. But we know from iconography (repeated images) in early Christian art that the birds likely faced a tree or a wine jug or  wine cup. Grapevines surrounded the peacocks. In the lower left corner you can still see part of a large bunch of grapes. These designs suggest that the mosaic was probably in a church.

Early Christianity spread in a world that believed in multiple gods. Christians adopted the familiar Roman images they saw all around them. They gave them new meaning in a cultural process called syncretism. Peacocks, grapevines, and wine vessels were associated with two Roman divinities. Roman Bacchus (Greek Dionysos) was the god of wine, grapevines, and drinking. Wine was thought to be healthful and to bring joy. His grapevines renewed themselves every year, in a rebirth. 

 The peacock was an attribute (symbol) of the goddess Juno (Greek Hera). The eyes in the bird’s tail originally belonged to a giant with 100 eyes. His name was Argus “All seeing” (Argus Panoptes). Even when some of his eyes were asleep, others were always open. Juno used Argus as her watchful guard. When he was killed, she moved his eyes to the peacock’s tail. The bird shed its tail every year, but the tail grew back, a sign of its rebirth. Over time, Christians associated the peacock with purity. (Saint Augustine even wrote that peacocks’ flesh did not spoil once cooked.) Its unsleeping eyes made the peacock seem immortal.