Wine god fresco unearthed in Pompeii

A fresco depicting Dionysus, the god of wine, has been discovered at the archaeological park in Pompeii, the ancient city destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

 

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The ‘megalography’ shows the followers of the classical god of wine, the bacchantes (also known as maenads) and the satyrs, partaking in a Dionysiac procession. Archeologists have named the recently-excavated residence with the frieze as the 'Casa del Tiaso' (House of Thiasus), in reference to the Dionysiac ritual (thiasos). The fresco is located in Insula 10 of Region IX, in the centre of the historic city. The frenzied state of this procession is evident from the revelry of hunting, dancing and the playing of music. The bacchantes are portrayed carrying goats that they have slaughtered, or holding the animals' entrails. Wine plays an active role in these activities, functioning as a libation (a sacrifice of wine) to Dionysus, also known by the Romans as Bacchus. This represents the religious element of the activity. 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, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, cited Euripidies’ The Bacchae when offering a possible inspiration for the frieze, as "a metaphor for the unrestrained, ecstatic life". Zuchtriegel noted that the bacchante "expressed the wild, untameable side of women". In many regards, this relates to the effects of wine, the frenzied nature of the bacchantes mimics the state of one who is drunk.

 

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Bacchic background

The Bacchae was performed in Athens in 405 BC as part of the Festival Dionysia, an event which lasted five days and was seen as both a civic and religious duty for Athenians. The ancient Athenian reaction to theatre would be one of ritual madness and religious ecstasy, the all consuming performance that makes the audience part of it. This element of classical theatre was known to the Romans and is represented in the frieze by the euphoria of the followers of Dionysus, who play the role of the chorus in the play. There is a risk for the women that follow the Dionysiac procession, that being their actions and the allowance of ritual madness to consume one’s self. Zuchtriegel mentioned how these women represent the "direct opposite of the ‘nice’ woman who emulates Venus, the goddess of love and marriage". The women in The Bacchae are portrayed as having deserted their husbands and having succumbed to this frenzy. In 2017, a Bacchanalian mosaic depicting a similar procession was unearthed in the upper Rhône in France, as db reported at the time.