The amphisbaena is a mythological, ant-eating serpent with a head at each end. The creature is alternatively called the amphisbaina, amphisbene, amphisboena, amphisbona, amphista, amfivena, amphivena, or anphivena, and is also known as the "Mother of Ants". Its name comes from the Greek words amphis, meaning "both ways", and bainein, meaning "to go".
A 15th-century amphisbaena on a misericord in Buckinghamshire
Illustration of the flora and fauna of India, c. 1540, including a pair of conjoined snakes resembling an amphisbaena
In Greek mythology, Medusa, also called Gorgo or the Gorgon, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her was turned to stone. Medusa and her Gorgon sisters Euryale and Stheno were usually described as daughters of Phorcys and Ceto; of the three, only Medusa was mortal.
Classical Greek gorgoneion featuring the head of Medusa; fourth century BC
An archaic Medusa wearing the belt of the intertwined snakes, a fertility symbol, as depicted on the west pediment of the Temple of Artemis on the island of Corcyra
Coins of the reign of Seleucus I Nicator of Syria (312–280 BC)
An ancient Roman carving of the Medusa, now a spolia in use as a column base in the Basilica Cistern
