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The Frescoes in the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii

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The Frescoes in the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii THE FRESCOES IN THE VILLA OF THE MYSTERIES, POMPEII By ELAINE ROSEMARY MACDONALD MINOR DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of MAGISTER ARTIUM In Latin in the department of Greek and Latin Studies In the faculty of Humanities at the UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG Supervisor: Prof. JLP Wolmarans Co-supervisor: Prof. W J Henderson Johannesburg 2010 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the dissertation submitted for the Magister Artium (Latin) to the University of Johannesburg, apart from the help recognised, is my own work and has not previously been submitted to another university or institution ofhigher education for a Degree. ABSTRACT Ofthe many paintings in Pompeii, the frescoes in the Villa of the Mysteries are an example ofthe most beautiful and the most intriguing. These fascinating images have become the focus of much scholarly research and consequent debate that has continued since Amedeo Maiuri (Chief Archaeologist ofPompeii in the 1920's and overseer of the excavation of the Villa ofthe Mysteries) published his belief that the paintings represented the initiation of a young woman into the cult of Dionysus. The paintings were executed during the first half of the first century BCE at a time when many different mystery cults were popular. Some rituals even overlapped, having elements of more than one cult. This has resulted in a variety ofintetpretations as to the god (or gods) represented and the overall meaning of the paintings by numerous scholars, based on a plethora of reasons. In the attempt to investigate and compare these differing opinions and the information used to form them, this dissertation concludes that Maiuri's theory is the most plausible. However, the order in which the scenes should be read is questioned, and a new order of reading these scenes is suggested. If the onlooker separates the scenes using the direction ofthe gazes of the characters instead of using the painted columns to divide them, two worlds become apparent: one human and one mythological. The paintings then appear to represent the initiation of a young woman in to the cult of Dionysus in the human sphere, which is being simultaneously overseen by mythological characters in the spiritual world. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTERl Page INTRODUCTION Reading the frescoes in the Villa of the Mysteries 1 Methodology 4 Review ofLiterature 5 Layout 9 CHAPTER2 SETTING THE SCENE Background and general style ofthe frescoes 10 Painting Style 10 Who painted the frescoes? 15 Conclusion 17 CHAPTER3 PRAGMATIC ANALYIS Scope 18 General Layout 18 Socio-historical context 20 Function 21 Female Space 24 Description of the Villa of the Mysteries 26 Conclusion 30 CHAPTER4 STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS: SYNTACTICS AND SEMANTICS Scope 33 In what order should the scenes be read? 33 Scenes according to layout in addendum 2 35 Scene A -Standing woman, child reading text, seated woman and woman with tray 35 Scene B -Seated woman, two attendants and an old satyr playing a lyre 39 Scene C- Terrified woman with shawl above head, Panfigure,female figure with pointed ears suckling goat 42 Scene D (a) (left hand section)- Old satyr holding bowl, mask, man with head in lap ofwoman, two young men with pointed ears, one looking into bowl, the other holding mask 45 Scene D (b) (right hand section) -Reclining male figure lying in lap of woman (head missing) 50 Scene E- Kneeling woman, phallus in basket, winged figure with stick 53 Scene F- Semi-naked woman, flagellation, hand on head, woman with long stick, woman dancing 57 Scene G-Small winged figure holding up object to seated woman, woman attending to the former's hair 62 Scene H- Small winged figure looking upward with crossed legs 65 Scene 1-Pensive woman wearing ring 66 The frieze as a whole 68 Analysis/discussion 78 CHAPTERS Conclusion 87 TABLES OF SCENES 91 ADDENDUM 1 & 2 101 BIBLIOGRAPHY 103 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Reading the frescoes in the Villa ofthe Mysteries The excavations that began in Pompeii in the 18th century revealed an ancient town that had been buried beneath lava by the famous volcanic eruption in 79 CE. Never before had a historical moment unfolded in such a spectacular fashion. It appeared as if frozen in time. The ruins that archaeologists uncovered gave onlookers the opportunity to see life exactly as it was almost 1700 years earlier (De La Croix et a/.1991 :202). Many houses had paintings on the walls. One house, initially excavated in 1910 and situated on the outskirts of the city, is of particular interest (Snow-Smith 2005:106). The walls of one of its rooms display a series of frescoes, the meaning ofwhich has been hotly debated by academics since its discovery. The house was named 'The Villa of Mysteries' because it was assumed that the scenes represented an initiation into a mystery cult.1 The most popular interpretation is the cult ofDionysus? This has, however, been challenged. The dating of the artworks to around 50 BCE is widely accepted (Honour & Fleming 1995:156), but the function of the room itself is not clear. The exact order in which the paintings should be read, as well as the identification of the characters and objects are much disputed in the secondary literature -see the collection of essays, floor plan and layout in Gazda (2000) and illustrations in Jackson (no date). All of the adult human figures in the frescoes are female. There are, however, some male mythological characters (Brendel 1980:121 ). All interpretations agree that there are no human adult male figures present in the scenes, which appear to express some kind of 1 The mystery cults began to flourish during the Hellenistic period. The reason for this was that many people were turning away from the Olympic panfueon and searching for gods that would give more satisfying religious experiences. Unlike the official religions, which were more public, mystery cults emphasized private worship within closed groups. Personal salvation was becoming important to an increasing number of people (Meyer 1987:4 ). 2 Representations of the god Dionysus were popular in Pompei~ possibly due to the fact that the city owed much of its wealth to the wine trade. Bacchus, son of Zeus and Semele, was often depicted together with satyrs, musicians, bacchanals, grapes, winged youths, cupids or nudes. These figures were part of amorous, erotic or fantastic scenes (Grant 1979:111-113). I female activity, initiation or ritual. The scene marked A in the diagram in Addendum 2 (Gazda 2000a:3) depicts a child reading a text. There are three other women in the same group: one standing, one seated and holding a scroll, and one walking away from them holding a platter. Scene B shows a woman seated with her back to the viewer, attended by two other women. She is lifting a cloth on a table while one attendant pours liquid from a small jug onto a plate. Next to them is an old naked satyr playing a lyre. Scene C consists of three people: One is a woman standing with a shawl thrown in mid-air above her head. Her left hand is raised in an agitated gesture. Seated next to her is a woman with pointed ears suckling one of two goats. A person playing pipes is watching from behind. Scene Dis depicted on the adjacent wall. A seated old satyr is holding up a bowl from which he is possibly drinking (Maiuri 1961 :102 ). A younger male figure is looking into the bowl. Directly behind this is a standing male figure holding an ugly theatrical mask. To the right ofthem is a man wearing a laurel wreath lying sprawled across a chair with his head in the lap of a woman (the head of this figure is missing from the painting). A staff with some foliage is resting against the man's chair. Scene E shows a kneeling woman without with outstretched hands hovering above a large pointed object that is covered with a cloth; to the right a standing winged figure holds up her hand towards this object while she brandishes a stick held high and looks away. Behind them is a standing woman (head also missing). The third wall displays Scene F. One semi-naked woman is lying with open eyes in a dejected and/or expectant pose across the lap of another seated woman. One hand of the seated woman is resting on her head; the other hand is holding her hair in a comforting manner. To their right a woman is holding a long stick with some green leaf-like shapes on its end above them whilst a fourth woman appears to be dancing naked beside them and clapping cymbals in her hands above her head. Scene G depicts a small winged figure holding a small object with the picture of a head and arm on it; this he holds up to be viewed by a woman standing beside a seated woman. The standing woman is looking at this object whilst attending to the seated woman's hair. A small winged boy in Scene H 2 rests its his head on its his hand and looks nonchalantly upward with crossed legs. Scene I shows a woman sitting pensively looking to her right. She is wearing a ring on the third finger ofher left hand and a bracelet on her left wrist. The value of the study may be to increase our knowledge of (a) the mystery cults practiced around the tum ofthe first century BCE, (b) the function of rites ofpassage practiced in Roman society, (c) the expression of social identity given by the Roman house, (d) the positioning, choice, form and function of frescoes chosen to adorn walls in Roman houses, (e) possible connections between these frescoes and literary texts, (f) the way in which these frescoes may be an expression ofthe human subconscious, and (g) the function of these frescoes and whether the room was intended to be a domestic female space.
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