Pompeii's Frescoes Reveal Roman Life Through Myth, Religion, and Sensuality

Key facts

• Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, burying Pompeii and most of its inhabitants.
• Pliny the Younger (AD 61–113) provided an eyewitness account of the eruption; his uncle died in the disaster.
• Pompeii lies five miles from Vesuvius in the Bay of Naples, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Rome.
• The town's precise location was rediscovered in 1763 through an inscription naming it.
• Frescoes were made using intonaco, a thin limestone plaster painted while damp, sealing pigments into the wall.
• Four Pompeian painting styles are classified, including the marble-like First Style and the paneled Third Style.
• The Death of Pentheus from the House of the Vettii depicts Agave killing her son in a Bacchic trance.
• The Sacrifice of Iphigenia from the House of the Tragic Poet shows Agamemnon hiding his face during his daughter's sacrifice.
• The Murecine complex features the goddess Victory on a vermilion 'Pompeian Red' background.
• Pompeii's Temple of Isis contains frescoes of the Egyptian goddess welcoming Io, with motifs such as a coiled snake.
• The Portrait of a Woman shows an educated woman holding a pen and writing tablet.
• Priapus from the House of the Vettii balances his phallus against a bag of money on scales.
• The House of the Centenary includes a room of pornographic frescoes with apertures for voyeurism.