Panto Dames in Athens
Despite their rambustuous immorality and the frank atheism of some of the more cynical Latin authors, the ancient Romans were a religious lot, paying pious attendance on the gods in their temples and sanctuaries and participating eagerly in the various mystery religions available in the empire. In fact, the hold which cult leaders - to use the modern terminology - had on the Roman citizens was so profound that on more than one occasion the Senate actually banned "foreign cults", demolishing their temples and shrines, banishing or executing their priests and severely punishing anyone who persisted in following them.
To be fair to the ancient Romans, we have to see the horrendous persecutions of Christianity against this background, for at times various other religions - for example, the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis - were proscribed and their devotees persecuted. Christianity won by sheer persistence and because the certainty of its preachers and the historical details of its message were so convincing.
Pompeii, usually thought of as a centre for immorality, bears evidence to this contradictory aspect of the Roman character. Members of the recent Diggings tour that took in Pompeii and Herculaneum were just as eager as anyone else to visit the brothel and just as intrigued by the prevalence of the male phallus, which was used variously as a bell-pull, a finger post pointing down a street, a good-luck charm over a doorway, and a trinket to be worn on a charm bracelet.
When a double-booking of our coach meant that we had the afternoon free and were able to fill in the time by walking up the street from our hotel to the Naples Museum, we were able to visit the Secret Cabinet, long kept locked lest the general public be corrupted by its pornographic contents. (Curiously, upper class people such as dukes and other members of the nobility are not subject to such corruption and could get into the Secret Cabinet more or less at will.) Although tame by today's standards, the frescoes, statues and objects on display showed that the Romans, although not blessed with photography and the Internet, were doing their best and were certainly not lacking in imagination.
Yet while the group traipsed off to view the gladiator barracks in Pompeii, I shot off in the opposite direction to the Villa of the Mysteries, to view the famous frescoes apparently showing the initiation of a young woman into one of the mystery religions. Although interpretations of the scenes vary - with some suggesting that they represent nothing more than a young girl being prepared for marriage - the most common is that the cult of Dionysius is being depicted.
Of course, religion and sensuality had a close link in ancient times. Corinth with its Temple of Artemis and the 1,000 slave girls kept to "assist" worshippers springs to mind. In the case of the Mystery of Dionysius, in most cases the rituals appear to have been little more than an excuse for drinking to excess and roaring around the streets with vine leaves in your hair. However the frescoes in the Villa of the Mysteries point to some more complicated ritual, for there are scenes involving gods, satyrs, possibly ritual flagellation and more. (Many of the scenes can be viewed on this website, though the interpretation should be taken with a pinch of salt.)
Now a second villa with Dionysiac scenes has been discovered, this time at Herculaneum, where a luxury appartment in the North-west Insula is being excavated. A large room with so-called "Fourth Style" decorations has been found to have marble plaques inserted into the plastered walls about six feet up from the floor.
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| Newly discovered relief from Heruclaneum depicting a Dionysiac ritual |
Work proceeds slowly in Italy. Back in 1997 a marble relief depicting Dionysiac scenes was found in the south wall of the room; in February 2009 a second relief, shown here, was found in the east wall. The brickwork of the wall was cut back slightly and the relief inserted and held in place by two iron clamps on the long sides and a single clamp on the short sides. The clamps and the edges of the hole were then covered up with plaster to match the rest of the wall.
As with the Villa of the Mysteries, various interpretations of the scene have been suggested. It is clear that Dionysius is involved, as the statue on the left is clearly intended to represent that god. It is the two figures standing in front of Dionysius that have aroused most interest because while they are wearing female dress, they appear to be male - the short hair and the lack of a bust are the clues.
If they are indeed male, then we may have here a reference to the Oschophoria, an Athenian festival when two youths were selected from among the nobility, dressed in women's clothes and carried in procession from the temple of Dionysius in Athens to the temple of Athena at Phaleron accompanied by a chorus singing hymns and dancers.
The origin of the festival lies in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, because it is claimed that Theseus, uncertain of what awaited him in Crete, smuggled two young men in among the girls - giving them frequent baths and keeping them out of the sun so that their skins became soft and white - presumably to help when the time came to rescue the party. In the event, Theseus was able to kill the Minotaur with Ariadne's help and the two young men, along with the rest of the party, returned with him to Athens.
Whether the newly discovered scenes had a religious significance for the owner of the building is less certain. Cicero, in his Ad Atticum 1.10.3 asks a friend to purchase a couple of marble reliefs to be inserted in the walls of his villa at Tusculum. It could be that this was merely a fashion, similar to modern people who have scenes from the Egyptian Book of the Dead hanging on their walls. Although religious, they have no religious significance for the people who put them there "because they looked nice" and it may well be that the person who lived in this luxury appartment was merely following the dictates of some interior designer who assured him that "a marble relief just there will be just soooo right, ducky!"
© Kendall K. Down 2009
