Newly Discovered Frescoes Reveal Ancient Ritual in Pompeii

A century before the ancient city’s destruction, three entire walls of a Pompeii banquet hall were painted with a dynamic procession of Dionysian revelers. Brightly colored and nearly life-sized, the newly identified fresco figures dance, hunt, and imbibe in the name of the god of wine.

Archaeologists date the Dionysian frieze back to the 1st century BCE—specifically the 40s and 30s BCE. That means the frescoes would have been painted about a century before Pompeii was buried beneath ash and pumice after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Extending across three walls of a large banquet hall, the frieze depicts a secretive initiation rite for followers of Dionysus, the ancient Greek god of wine, fertility, theatre, and religious ecstasy. The vivid scenes belong to the Second Style of Pompeian fresco painting. Popular from about 80 to 15 BCE, the Second Style employed relative perspective to create a realistic architectural effect.

The residence in which the Dionysian frieze was discovered, located in Region IX of Pompeii, has been named the House of Thiasus. The word “thiasus” refers to the ecstatic procession of Dionysus’s followers, often depicted as wild and inebriated. Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, emphasized the dual nature of the frescoes, saying they hold “a profoundly religious meaning” and were “also designed to decorate areas for holding banquets and feasts.”

Frescoes Depict Bacchantes, Satyrs, and a Religious Initiate

Ecastatic life-sized figures dance across the walls of the Pompeian banquet hall in what is known as a “megalography”—a Greek term meaning “grand painting.” Among them are bacchantes, female followers of Dionysus, depicted as hunters and dancers, as well as satyrs playing flutes and drinking wine. The central figure of the procession is a woman holding a torch, suggesting she is a new initiate into the ancient Cult of Dionysus. The woman is accompanied by Silenus, a companion and tutor to Dionysus. Snakes and sea creatures also appear amongst the figures. According to Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, the frieze references The Bacchae, an ancient Greek play written by Euripides in 405 BCE.

These frescoes would have served as a backdrop for the Dionysian Mysteries—religious initiation rites practiced by the Cult of Dionysus in ancient Greece and Rome. To be allowed entry, all new initiates underwent such rituals, the details of which remained closely-guarded by members. As such, discoveries like the Dionysian frescoes at Pompeii are particularly rare and informative, suggesting that Dionysian Mysteries used dance, music, and intoxication to induce an altered state in participants. The Cult of Dionysus eventually fell out of favor with the decline of Greco-Roman polytheism.

“The megalography found in insula 10 of Region IX provides another glimpse into the rituals of the Mysteries of Dionysus,” said Alessandro Giuli, Italy’s Minister of Culture, in a statement. “It is an exceptional historical document and, together with the fresco of the Villa of the Mysteries, is one-of-a-kind, making Pompeii an extraordinary testimony to an aspect of life in classical Mediterranean life that is largely unknown.”