The Mouth of Truth is known all around the world and is located in the Paleochristian church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. It comes from the classical period and is a large, flat face mounted on the wall. It is supposed to represent a head of a river god and is the ultimate test of truth. If you put your hand inside his mouth and say a lie, legend has it he will bite your hand off! It used to be used in trials as the ultimate source of truth, but a woman in Roman times found a way around it. She was accused of having an affair, but when forced to put her hand inside the mouth, she had her lover embrace and kiss her. She convinced the crowd that he was some crazy poor man who she had never met. So when asked about the affair, she said she had only ever kissed her husband and the crazy homeless man in her life. This made the mouth loose its authority.