POMPEII, DISCOVERY OF A ROOM WITH FRESCOES DEPICTING THE INITIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES AND THE DIONYSIAC PROCESSION
AN EXTREMELY RARE “MEGALOGRAPHY” OF THE 1ST CENTURY BC, LIKE THE FAMOUS VILLA OF THE MYSTERIES
Over 100 years since the discovery of the Villa of the Mysteries, a large new fresco casts light on the Dionysiac mysteries in the classical world. An almost life-size frieze, known as a “megalography” (from the Greek term for "large painting"- a cycle of paintings with large-scale figures) has been unearthed in a spacious banqueting room, excavated in recent weeks in Insula 10 of Region IX in the central part of Pompeii. The megalography runs round three sides of the room while the fourth side opens onto the garden.
The frieze depicts the procession of Dionysus, the god of wine: the bacchantes (also known as maenads) are portrayed as dancers, but also as ferocious hunters with slaughtered kid goats on their shoulders or holding a sword and the innards of an animal; young satyrs with pointed ears play the double flute, while another performs a sacrifice of wine (libation) in acrobatic style, squirting wine behind him from a drinking horn into a patera (shallow bowl). At the centre of the composition, there is a woman with an old Silenus who holds a torch, indicating that she is an initiate, a mortal woman who, through a nocturnal ritual, is about to be initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus, the god who dies and is reborn and who promises the same destiny to his followers.
An interesting detail lies in the fact that all the figures in the frieze are depicted on pedestals, as if they were statues while, at the same time, their movements, complexions and clothing make them appear full of life.
Archaeologists have named the residence with the frieze as the “Casa del Tiaso” (House of Thiasus), a reference to the Dionysiac procession (thiasos). In antiquity, there were a series of cults, including the cult of Dionysus, that were only accessible to those who performed an initiation ritual, as illustrated in the Pompeian frieze. They were known as “mystery cults” because their secrets could only be known by initiates. The cults were often linked to the promise of a new blissful life, both in this world and in the afterlife.
The frieze discovered at Pompeii can be attributed to the Second Style of Pompeian painting which dates back to the first century BC. More precisely, the frieze can be dated to the 40s-30s BC. This means that at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, which buried Pompei beneath a thick layer of pumice and ash in AD 79, the Dionysiac frieze was already about a hundred years old.
The only other example of a megalography with similar rituals is the Mystery frieze in the Villa of the Mysteries outside the gates of Pompeii, also decorated in the Second Style.
However, compared to the Villa of the Mysteries, the newly discovered Pompeian frieze adds a further theme to the imaginary world of the Dionysiac initiation rites: hunting, which is not only evoked by the bacchantes as huntresses but also by a second smaller frieze that runs above the one with bacchantes and satyrs: this frieze depicts living and dead animals, including a fawn and a wild boar that has just been gutted, cockerels, various types of birds but also fish and seafood.
“In 100 years, today will be seen as historic,” declares the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli, “because the discovery we are showing is historic. The megalograph found in insula 10 of Regio IX provides another glimpse into the rituals of the mysteries of Dionysus. It is an exceptional historical document and, together with the fresco of the Villa of the Mysteries, constitutes a one-of-a-kind, making Pompeii an extraordinary testimony to an aspect of life in classical Mediterranean life that is largely unknown. All this makes the resumption of excavation activities in Pompeii important and precious, and the Government supports them with conviction and for which, recently, it has allocated 33 million euros for excavation work, scheduled maintenance, restoration and enhancement of this site and the surrounding area. We are living in an important moment for Italian and world archaeology which has also registered a strong increase in visitors, starting from this Archaeological Park: over 4 million and 87 thousand visitors in 2023 and 4 million and 177 thousand units in 2024”.
“The hunt of the Dionysiac bacchantes”, explains Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and co-author of an initial study of the new discovery published in the E-Journal of the Pompeii excavations, “beginning from the ‘Bacchae’ of Euripides, written in 405 BC and one of the most popular tragedies in antiquity, becomes a metaphor for an unrestrained, ecstatic life that aims to achieve ’great, wondrous things’, as the chorus observe in Euripides’ play. For the ancients, the bacchante or maenad expressed the wild, untameable side of women; the woman who abandons her children, the house and the city, who breaks free from male order to dance freely, go hunting and eat raw meat in the mountains and the woods; in other words, the direct opposite of the ‘nice’ woman who emulates Venus, the goddess of love and marriage, the woman who looks at herself in the mirror and ‘dolls herself up’. Both the frieze in the House of Thiasus and in the Villa of the Mysteries show a woman as suspended, as oscillating between these two extremes, two forms of the female being at the time. These frescoes have a profoundly religious meaning which, however, was also designed to decorate areas for holding banquets and feasts … rather like when we find a copy of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the wall of an Italian restaurant in New York to create a little bit of atmosphere. Behind these magnificent paintings, which play with illusion and reality, we can observe the signs of a religious crisis that was affecting the ancient world, but we can also grasp the grandeur of a ritual that dates back to an archaic world, at least until the second millennium BC, to the god Dionysus worshipped by the Mycenaeans and the Cretans, who was also known as Zagreus, lord of wild animals.”
The Dionysiac scene in the House of Thiasus will be on display to the public immediately as part of the tours of the excavations, which have already been underway since the beginning of the dig in the various rooms as they were gradually explored.
Every day from Monday to Friday at 11.00 am – booking can be done by calling the number 327 2716666 – it will be possible for two groups of 15 people to enter, accompanied by excavation staff who will point out the main finds and rooms that have emerged as well as the excavation methodology. In order to get access to the tours, it is necessary to buy a standard ticket to the archaeological park.
The excavations of the so-called Region IX of Pompeii – one of nine districts into which the site is sub-divided – began in February 2023, in a large area covering about 3,200 sq.m., almost an entire insula (or block) of the ancient city buried in AD 79 by the eruption of Vesuvius. The excavations in this area are in their final phase, which involves the last interventions designed to ensure safety, after which an enhancement project will also enable permanent access in the future to all visitors.
The project “Scavo, messa in sicurezza e restauro dell’Insula 10 Regio IX" (Excavation, safety and restoration of Insula 10 Region IX) was undertaken “for the purpose of re-establishing links with the urban fabric of via di Nola”.
The excavation has unearthed several atrium houses, already partly explored in the nineteenth century, built in the Samnite period and transformed during the first century AD into productive workshops: a fullonica (laundry) and a bakery with an oven, with areas for millstones and rooms for the processing of foodstuffs for distribution in the city.
To the south of these two house-cum-workshops, two living rooms, linked to a large domus, have come to light. Besides the large room with Dionysiac scenes, they include a black reception room, decorated with scenes from the Trojan War; a sacrarium (shrine) with a light blue background depicting the four seasons and allegories of agriculture and pastoralism and a large bath complex. The areas that still await exploration include the entrance, the whole of the atrium complex and a large part of the peristyle (porticoed garden).
Over 50 new rooms scattered over a surface area of over 1500 sq.m. have been discovered in the entire area.
This evening on Raiuno at 9:30 pm Alberto Angela will dedicate an in-depth segment to these latest discoveries at the Pompeii Archaeological Park
WORK TEAM
Director of works: Anna Onesti,
Operational directors: Ludovica Alesse, Vincenzo Calvanese, Giuseppe Scarpati, Pasquale Spiezia,
Safety coordinator: Mario Pietro Gaetani
Book-keeper: Raimondo Marrazzo
Site supervisor: Vincenzo Pagano
During the initial phases
Annamaria Mauro, Designer
Alessandra Zambrano, coordinator of safety planning measures
Paolo Mighetto, Project Manager
Raffaele Martinelli, Director of works, supervised the phases prior to the excavations
Archaeobotanical research:
Applied research laboratory of the Park: Valeria Amoretti, Chiara Comegna
Archaeologists and restorers working on site:
Alessandro Russo, Gennaro Iovino, Alessandra Marchello, Emmanuela Faenza, Giuseppe Pippo, Ausilia Trapani, Marco Biglietto
Temporary consortium of companies (RTI) -Cooperativa Archeologia and Minerva Restauri,
Stefano Coccia, Luca Vitelli, Antonio Collazzo,
Site managers: Andrea Tommasino and Giuseppe Marrazzo
Photography and communications
Park’s Press and Communications Office (Marella Brunetto, Pina Brancati, Maria Luisa Vitale, Sophie Hay, Antonio Benforte, Giuseppe Barbella, Federica Savarese, Laura Amato)
Photography: Silvia Vacca
3D reconstructions: Irene Savinelli
Legal support: Monica Vassallo
Administrative Secretary: Davide Russo
