Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii
Villa dei Misteri, Pompei
 
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  Photos of the Villa of the Mysteries, Rome, Italy
by William Storage and Laura Maish
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For a more detailed attempt to explain the ritual depicted in room 5, see this analysis by James W. Jackson.


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A seated priestess, head covered, unveils a basket supplied by a female servant at stage left. Another woman, wearing a wreath, pours liquid into a bowl. The priestess dips a laurel branch into the bowl. Silenus plays a lyre. Two satyrs to the right play pan flutes. The goddess of wind and morning air, Aura, catches wind in her mantle.

Fresco detail. Standing between two priestesses (or possibly between the initiate and a priestess), a young boy (Dionysus ?) sings/reads from a papyrus scroll.

 

Silenus and drunken Dionysus on left. A kneeling priestess kneeling on the right is doing something that we don't recognize - possibly about to reveal the object covered by the purple veil. A winged divinity at far right wields a whip in her right hand.

Silenus and the drunken Dionysus

A bride, after enduring the initiation ritual shown in other scenes of the room, has her hair combed by a maid, while a cupid holds a mirror.


        


Copyright 2007 Bill Storage. Page created 8/10/2007.
Keywords: Villa dei Misteri, ancient Rome, iconography, Pompeii, Vesuvius, Dionysus, Silenus, satyr, Aura, Naples,