I always thought the gaping mouth was inscribed “Abandon hope all ye who enter here”.
:’) Dunno, but that’s from Dante, so, could be, not a reader or a speaker of Italian here.
I’ve always wondered why Dante is always served a la Gary — some kind of Renaissance gay love story?
That took a minute to get...
ogni pensiero vola (Every thought flies)
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’ intrate (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here)
I recall a picture (probably in an encyclopedia from childhood) of an ancient tomb (no doubt *very* restored) in Iraq somewhere, same kind of idea, entrance to it was through the scary mouth of some humanoid critter. An attempt at a search just now yielded bupkis...
[’Civ leaves keyboard, footsteps recede in the distance]
Nope, couldn’t find it. Maybe it was in one of the Yearbooks back then.
Found a picture of this, an old favorite, from the big expensive cemetery split by Hall Street in Grand Rapids:
http://www.therapidian.org/sites/default/files/article_images/021.jpg
