KITCHENS AND DINING ROOMS AT POMPEII ... - Get a Free Blog

itual evidence is either slim or not associated either with cooking or dining areas. 194 Three
small houses preserve evidence for a close association between ritual and cooking or dining. In
I.8.14, an aediculated niche-shrine is set up in the north wall of dining room (6), facing the part of
the room where the dining couches would have lain. Another painted shrine (now faded away)
once occupied the north side of court (7), near kitchen (11). In two houses, shrines are installed
exclusively in the kitchen of the house. Kitchen (9) in I.10.18 preserves part of a large ritual
painting in three zones: the Genius with a Lar and large rhyton to one side, above a large serpent,
and a pig's head, ham and skewered eel in the lower zone, clearly connecting household ritual to
the food prepared in the kitchen. 195
One of the more complete shrines from this sample is located in kitchen (8) of I.8.18. A
niche shrine is located between two painted Lares above serpents and an altar (Figs. 5.133-5.134).
The niche contains a miniature altar and two rough figures, which by analogy to those figures
found in the shrine (25) of the Casa del Menandro (I.10.4) have been identified as the imagines
maiorum of this household (see below, p. 164). Until now, this shrine has been published as
resting in the southeast corner of the atrium of the neighboring house I.8.17+11 (Fig. 2.6). 196 In
that erroneous context, this shrine served as evidence for a characterization of the residents as "a
family of robust traditions". 197 The shrine was thought to be located in the atrium, next to the
largest and best decorated reception room (9). It was considered to be associated with the
paterfamilias of the family, and seemed to display the value of Romanitas to any guests who visited
the house. The fine Corinthian columns of the canonical atrium and the high-quality wall-
painting in I.8.17 further reinforced the idea of a prestigious domus. However, I have found the
shrine to lie in the much smaller house (I.8.18), whose atrium has rooms on only one side, and
lacks even a garden or peristyle in back. Furthermore, the lararium is not set up in the atrium for
194 I.4.1-3, I.4.22 and I.7.2-3 have no evidence for ritual activity. In I.4.9, an arcuated niche is set in the wall
of the tiny court (n) between kitchen (o) and dining hall (m), and would have been encountered by any
persons entering the kitchen. A painted niche occupies the entranceway of I.10.2-3. A 'votive cup' was
found in dining room (9) of I.9.8, but that does not necessarily prove ritual activity therein.
195 A photo of the shrine appears in PPM II, 502, #4.
196 Fröhlich 1991, 254, n.11 discusses the documentation of this shrine, and concludes that it cannot lie in
I.8.17. He is however unable to place it elsewhere, rejecting the caption of the photo in the Archive in
Pompeii that places the shrine "nella casa dell'atrio dorico [i.e. I.8.18], particolare angolo SE". Fröhlich
apparently thought the caption referred to the southeast corner of the atrium of that house, where indeed
there is no shrine. But the caption in fact refers to the southeast corner of the house as a whole, where
kitchen (8) is located. A comparison of a 1977 photo of that shrine in PPM I, 918, #7, which places it in
kitchen (8) of I.8.18, and the original 1941 excavation photo, published in PPM I, 853, #13 as belonging in the
southeast corner of the atrium in I.8.17, reveals that they are pictures of the very same shrine, which has
undergone severe degredation in the years since its excavation (compare Figs. 5.133 and 5.134). I have
personally inspected and confirmed the location of the shrine in I.8.18 (8).
197 Castiglione Morelli del Franco & Vitale 1989, 208: "una famiglia di robuste tradizioni".
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