Educational Technology Clearinghouse: Clip Art Etc: Oscillum

A diminutive through osculum from os, meaning a little face," was the term applied to faces or heads of Bacchus, which were suspended in the vineyards to be turned in every direction by the wind. Whichsoever way they looked they were supposed to make, the vines in that quarter fruitful. The figure represents the countenance of Bacchus with a beautiful, mild, and propitious expression. the other figure represents a tree with four oscilla hung upon its branches. A syrinx and a pedum are placed at the root of the tree." - Smith, 1873