The Domus of Leda and the swan (visible from outside) was found along Via del Vesuvio, during interventions to make the excavation fronts safe and reprofile. The house takes its name from the refined fresco found in a cubicle (bedroom). The scene full of sensuality represents the junction between Jupiter, turned into a swan, and Leda, wife of Tindar king of Sparta. From the double embrace, first with Jupiter and then with Tindarus, the twins Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri), Elena - future wife of Menelaus king of Sparta and cause of the Trojan war - and Clitennestra, and then wife of Agamemnon, king of Argos and brother of Menelaus.
The entire room is characterized by refined IV style decorations, with delicate floral ornaments, interspersed with griffins with cornucopias, flying cupids, still lives and scenes of animal fights. Even on the ceiling, ruinously collapsed under the weight of lapilli, extended the harmony of these precious drawings, whose fragments were recovered by the restorers to reconstruct the plot.
Behind the environment you can see part of the atrium of the residence, with walls of vivid colors and the fresco of Narcissus, in the center of one of them, which sees him mirrored in the water kidnapped by his image, according to the classic iconography .
Interesting, in the atrium of Narcissus, is the still visible trace of the stairs that led to the upper floor; but above all the discovery in the space of the basement, used as a deposit, of a dozen glass containers, eight amphorae and a bronze funnel. A bronze situla (container for liquids) was instead found next to the flood.
On one of the walls of the atrium, placed in front of the entrance of the house, a great figure of Hermes (Mercury) with bright colors has also recently emerged.