Pompeii - December 30, 2011 - Villa of the Mysteries

Inside Villa of the Mysteries

Villa of the Mysteries

A short walk from the tombs and the Herculaneum gate lies the Villa of the Mysteries. Framed by a wall of trailing rosemary the building is well preserved and has been very carefully reconstructed. So much so that it looks like with a few trips to IKEA and some updated plumbing, one could move right in.

This villa appears in almost every book on Roman art because of a fresco that flows around one of the rooms in an immense and impressive cycle. The painting is thought to represent the rites of the cult of Dionysius, a cult whose wild abandon and ecstasies during celebrations were shunned and eventually banned by the earlier more conservative Rome of the republic.

The room of the mysteries in the Villa of the Mysteries

Once inside the villa getting to the fresco was not as easy as one would think. The floor plan is rather maze like and we ended up in the same peristyle three times going around in circles until I finally spotted a German tourist who was also in search of this room. It’s funny I have looked at the floor plan of this house for decades, I know where the room is, however translating that knowledge into 3-D is rather difficult.

We did eventually find the room and I was taken aback by how vibrant and clear the paintings still are after nearly two thousand years buried in ash.

I read somewhere that the villa had been abandoned after the earthquake of 62 AD, though I am not sure where I read that and it seems somewhat unlikely if the house was in relatively good condition.

The exit from here leads out of the Pompeii archeological site and onto a rather pleasant road that winded and twisted and wound its way down to the train station....eventually. It was about a twenty-five or thirty minute walk and there were a number of times that I thought we were lost. As a delightful post script a driver deliberately drove through a puddle of mud that splashed us from head to toe. YAY! Italy in December.

Small Atrium in the Villa of the Mysteries

Pompeii - House of the Tragic Poet

The house of the tragic poet was closed during our visit to Pompeii. However the famous mosaic of a guard dog is in the vestibule and visible close up through the bars of the gate.

“Cave canem” means beware of the dog. Now I am not sure if this was a pun, based on the fact that the mosaic is of a very high quality with a rather realistic looking dog; “Beware of the mosaic dog”, which could be funny if one had the type of mind that finds humor in such situations. It also could be a very real warning; “Beware of the dog because he is vicious and half starved and rips burglars in half and chews on their eyeballs”. The house is known for the richness and high quality of its decoration, so it is distinctly possible that the owners had a guard dog to protect their hoarded treasure.

The house has been made famous in numerous books and movies (Last Days of Pompeii, etc…) but as it was closed I was unable to check the veracity of those accounts. Onward…

Pompeii - House of Menander

Menander

Atrium near tabulium

Another of the delights of Pompeii.

This house has been a bit reconstructed, however the quality of the surviving paintings is extraordinary.


The name comes from a painting of a writer found on one of the walls, most often identified as Menander. Delightful house, a bit of plumbing work and clearing up some of the damp and I’d be happy to move in. Over 100 pieces of silver dinnerware were found here during excavations, though I think it’s all back in Naples right now. 

House of Menander, Atrium

Menander was a Greek playwright possibly best known to the modern reader for the comedic play Dyskolos, which I believe is the only one of his works to survive in a near enough complete state as to make translation possible. You can actually read a translation here. Personally I like The Frogs much better. Plutarch also mentions that the phrase “Alea iacta est”, most famously quoted “Terminator style” by Julius Caesar as he was crossing the Rubicon, came from one of Menander’s plays. Caesar always gets the best catchphrases, one has to wonder if he had a writer
come up with a steady stream of them? Otherwise I’m ure we would end up with such-phrases as “Veni, vidi, vomo” (I came, I saw, I barfed), phrases that silly little school boys come up with in Latin class and laugh about non-stop. I should know, I certainly did.

Peristyle and garden

The atrium is well preserved and the temple to the Lares (or household gods) made me squeal with delight. Which, I have been told was pretty comical in a grown man with a handlebar mustache.


The impluvium is well preserved as are the columns flanking the tablinium that leads to the peristyle and garden. The latter has been recreated with an eye towards historical accuracy, as far as I have

 Household shrine and stairs

been told! looks like boxwood to me, but I tend to have a black thumb when it comes to plants so I try not to get too close.  Having the roof restored makes this a really nice spot to get out of the rain or the sun, depending on the time of year one is visiting.

Other houses in Pompeii, such as the House of the Faun, or the House of Pansa, might be significantly larger, but they are quite obviously ruins. The House of Menander is presented in such an incredible state of preservation and restoration that life in the first century AD becomes quite imaginable. And, I suppose, livable; as long as you were the one that owned the house and not the one that had to empty the slop buckets. Which is still gross, and one of the reasons I hate camping, now where did that rant come from?

Peristyle and garden with roof over atrium

Pompeii - House of the Faun

Atrium of the House of the Faun, with Faun!

This house contains (a replica now) the famous statue of the dancing faun. I saw a copy at Syon House back in the 1980's and I thought that the faun looked high. It's possible.

This house was huge with two peristyles it took up an entire block of land. It's a little hard to imagine as not much above ground level has survived. But still a little overwhelming.

The mosaic in the tablinium is also a copy, the original mosaic is in the archeological museum in Naples, though it still overwhelms. It is a magnificent piece of work. Full of action and depth, it records the battle of Alexander the Great and Darius II of Persia. I read once that it was thought that this was a copy of a well known Greek painting now lost to time. Sort of like having an etch-s-sketch of the Mona Lisa survive.

Mosaic of Alexander vs. Darius II (copy in situ)

Pompeii - House of Julia Felix

Garden colonnade, House of Julia Felix

House of Julia Felix: Over by the Gladiator school and the Amphitheater, nudge-nudge know what I mean. So this rich chick (possibly formerly rich chick) was renting out a huge suite in this house. This house had its own private bath that’s how exclusive this place was. Craxy!

I read a little later that at the time of the eruption the baths were open to the public, or at least an exclusive public that liked the idea of an exclusive set of baths. Think of the Forum Baths as 24 Hour Fitness and these as the Multnomah Athletic Club.

Unfortunately it was not open at the time we visited, however there was a nice view towards the garden and the colonnade with its delicate square fluted columns.

Pompeii - House of Venus

The rain hit us really hard several times during the day, luckily there were plenty of places to step out of the rain. One of these turned out to be the House of Venus. Sometimes known as the House of Venus in the Shell. The name is derived from a tremendously large mural of Venus on one of the walls of the peristyle.

She is accompanied by Mars the god of war who happens to be chillaxin' on the left hand side of the wall.

There were other paintings throughout the house, however they did not photograph well.  You can really see the rain in the picture of the painting. 

Venus on a half shell

Pompeii - Regio VIII, Insula 2

Corner detail

We got to see a number rather interesting and little seen sites along the southernmost alley/street within the walls of Pompeii. Again, thanks to Michael who wanted to gravitate away from large crowds of large tourists (ok, it was December there weren’t many crowds, except at the cafeteria). I of course had a minor panic attack because we were not following the route the guidebook told us to go. I eventually relented as it was quite serendipitous as these pictures from an unnamed house in Regio VIII insula 2 prove. The paintings are in the Third Style and are incredibly vivid. 

A lovely mosaic of a wolf was also in the same Regio, though I cannot remember if it was actually the same house as the paintings.