POMPEII - Over 100 years since the discovery of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, a large new fresco has been discovered which will hopefully be able to cast a new light on the Dionysiacmysteries in the classical world. 

 An almost life-size frieze, known as a 'megalography' - from the Greek term for 'large painting'- a cycle of paintings with large-scale figures - has been unearthed in a spacious banqueting room, which excavated recently in Insula 10, Region IX in the central part of Pompeii. The megalography wraps round three sides of the room while the fourth side opens onto what would have been the garden.
 The frieze depicts the procession of Dionysus, the god of wine; the bacchantes are portrayed both as dancers and ferocious hunters with slaughtered goats on their shoulders or holding a swords and the innards of animals. Young satyrs with their pointed ears play the double flute, while others perform offer libations in acrobatic style, squirting wine behind themselves from a drinking horn into a shallow bowl. In the centre of the composition, there is a woman with an old Silenus who holds a torch, indicating that she is an initiate, a mortal woman who, through a nocturnal ritual, is about to be initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus, the god who died and was reborn, promising the same to his followers.
 An interesting detail lies in the fact that all the figures in the frieze are depicted on pedestals, as if they were statues while, at the same time, their movements, complexions and clothing make them appear full of life.
Archaeologists have named the residence containing the frieze as the 'Casa del Tiaso', a reference to the Dionysiac procession (thiasos). In antiquity there many cults, including that of Dionysus, that had to be joined by those who performed an initiation ritual, as illustrated in the Pompeian frieze. They were known as 'mystery cults' because their secrets were only revealed to their members. The cults were often linked to the promise of a new blissful life, both in this world and in the afterlife.
 The frieze discovered at Pompeii can be attributed to the 'Second Style' of Pompeian painting which dates back to the first century BC. More precisely, the frieze can be dated to the 40s-30s BC. This means that at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, which buried Pompei beneath a thick layer of pumiceand ash in 79 AD, the Dionysiac frieze was already about a hundred years old. 
The only other example of a megalography with similar rituals is the Mystery frieze in the Villa of the Mysteries outside the gates of Pompeii, also decorated in the Second Style.
However, when held in comparison with the Villa of the Mysteries, the newly discovered Pompeian frieze adds a further themes and imagery to the world of the Dionysiac initiation rites: hunting, which is evoked not only by the bacchantes as huntresses but also by a second smaller frieze that runs above the one with bacchantes and satyrs. This particular frieze depicts both living and dead animals, including a fawn and a wild boar that has been gutted, cockerels, various other types of birds and also fish and seafood.
 “In 100 years, today will be seen as historic,” declared the Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, “because the discovery we have found is historic. The megalograph found in insula 10, Regio IX provides another glimpse into the rituals of the mysteries of Dionysus. It is an exceptional historical document and, as well as the fresco of the Villa of the Mysteries, is a one-of-a-kind, making Pompeii an extraordinary testimony to an aspect of life in classical Mediterranean life that is still largely unknown. All this makes the resumption of excavation in Pompeii of the upmost importance, and our Government supports this with conviction and thus, it has allocated 33 million euros for further excavation work, scheduled maintenance, restoration and enhancement of this site and the surrounding area. We are living in an important moment for Italian and world archaeology which just so happens to have also created a large increase in visitors, starting from this Archaeological Park with over 4 million and 87 thousand visitors in 2023 and 4 million and 177 thousand units in 2024”.
  Gabriel Zuchtriegel, 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, explained that “The hunt of the Dionysiac bacchantes, beginning from the ‘Bacchae’ of Euripides, written in 405 BC and one of the most popular tragedies in antiquity, becomes a metaphor for an unrestrained, ecstatic life that aims to achieve 'great, wondrous things’, as the chorus observe in Euripides’ play. For the ancients, the bacchante or maenad expressed the wild, untameable side of women; the woman who abandons her children, the house and the city, who breaks free from male order to dance freely, go hunting and eat raw meat in the mountains and the woods; in other words, the direct opposite of the ‘pleasant’ woman who emulates Venus, the goddess of love and marriage, the woman who looks at herself in the mirror and ‘dolls herself up’. Both the frieze in the House of Thiasus and in the Villa of the Mysteries show a woman as suspended, as oscillating between these two extremes, two forms of the female being at the time. These frescoes have a profoundly religious meaning which, however, was also designed to decorate areas for holding banquets and feasts … rather like when we find a copy of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the wall of an Italian restaurant in New York to create a little bit of atmosphere. Behind these magnificent paintings, which play with illusion and reality, we can observe the signs of a religious crisis that was affecting the ancient world, but we can also grasp the grandeur of a ritual that dates back to an archaic world, at least until the second millennium BC, to the god Dionysus worshipped by the Mycenaeans and the Cretans, who was also known as Zagreus, lord of wild animals.”

 The Dionysiac scene in the House of Thiasus will be on display to the public immediately as part of the tours of the excavations, which have already been underway since the beginning of the dig in the various rooms as they were gradually explored.
The excavations of the so-called Region IX of Pompeii – one of nine districts into which the site is sub-divided – began in February 2023, in a large area covering about 3,200 sq.m., almost an entire insula -or block- of the ancient city buried in AD 79 by the eruption of Vesuvius. The excavations in this area are in their final phase, which involves the last interventions designed to ensure safety, after which an enhancement project will also enable permanent access in the future to all visitors.
The project referred to as 'Scavo, messa in sicurezza e restauro dell’Insula 10, Regio IX' (Excavation, safety and restoration of Insula 10 Region IX) was undertaken “for the purpose of re-establishing links with the urban fabric of via di Nola”. 
The excavation has already unearthed several atrium houses, which were partially explored in the nineteenth century and built in the Samnite period, changing during the first century AD into productive workshops: a fullonica (laundry) and a bakery with an oven, complete with areas for millstones and rooms for the processing of foodstuffs for distribution in the city. 
To the south of these two house-cum-workshops there are two living rooms, linked to a large domus, have recently been discovered. Besides the large room with Dionysiac scenes, the house includes a black reception room, decorated with scenes from the Trojan War, asacrarium (shrine) with a light blue background depicting the four seasons and allegories of agriculture and pastoralism and a large bath complex. The areas that still await exploration include the entrance, the entire atrium complex and a large part of the peristyle, the porticoed garden.
Over 50 new rooms scattered over a surface area of over 1500 sq.m. have been discovered in the entire area, which is now open to the public. 

JSV