HOUSE OF THE DIOSCURI - POMPEII

A painting in the entrance, now in the Archaeological Museum in Naples, of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, sons of Jupiter and Leda, gives the house its name. This is one of the rare examples in Pompeii of a house with a Corinthian atrium, where the atrium with a central impluvium is surrounded by columns, in this case twelve columns in tufo (the other two alternatives were the Tuscan atrium without columns and the tetrastyle atrium with four columns at the corners of the impluvium). Wall paintings with pictures of mythological subjects were frescoed on the walls of the rooms on either side of the tablinum. Most of them have been detached and are now in the Archaeological Museum in Naples and the British Museum in London. An initial porticoed courtyard with Doric columns is situated beyond the tablinum and has a lararium on the back wall. The second peristyle with a large basin at the centre was added later and is reached from the right side of the atrium. Most of the IV style wall painting is still in place and depicts carpets hung in imaginary architectural surrounds, alternating with panels of still life.

 

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This house is situated in a side street on the Via di Nola, which has only been partly excavated and which is named after the house. The house itself is well known for the refined third style decorations, considered to be superior to those found in Rome. The juxtaposition of shiny black walls with interposed yellow bands depicting arabesques and hunting scenes, and the black floor with inlaid pieces of marble is particularly unusual. The decorations in the tablinum are worth close examination and depict landscapes with villas and gardens as well as two mythological paintings. The wall to the left illustrates the marriage of Venus ands Mars while to the right we can ... continue

(Apic. 3, 19, 1) Ingredients:

• Thistles*, a taft
• Liquamen (or 5 tblsp soya sauce + 5 tsp anchovy paste)
• 5 tblsp oil
• 4 eggs

Instructions:
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Clean, cut and boil the thistles. Boil eggs. Put in a pan Liquamen and oil, mesh and boil. Put the thistles in the sauce and cut eggs over it. Cover and leave it marinate for half an hour, without boiling. Serve hot.
*It’s possible to use artichoke instead of thistles.

Love was a common topic of conversation in Pompeii. Feelings, passions, poetic love, sex, homosexuality, prostitution and so forth were all part of daily life and not a source of prejudice. The concept of “obscenity” seems to have been unknown. Love and sex were considered earthly practices of a man’s life that were encouraged by the benevolence of Venus. The thousands of examples of graffiti found on the town’s walls are unequivocal proof of what the people of Pompeii thought about love and sex.