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

subsidiary atrium (41) assigned to the procurator, an arcuated niche sits in the wall above the low
hearth (Fig. 2.13). There is also one lararium painting in room (42) off the atrium of the procurator,
another in room (45) (once a kitchen) and another in kitchen (52) on the other side of the house.
All of these were probably not used by the higher ranking members of the family. The spatial
compartmentalization of this house would have made these shrines, closely associated with
cooking areas, socially invisible.
Most intriguing of all is the famous set of wooden ritual figurines that occupied an
arcuated niche above an altar in one of the splendid exedrae (room (25)) that define the south
portico of peristyle (c) (Figs. 5.162, 5.164). Maiuri explained these figures as the imagines maiorum,
the images of the family ancestors. 202 To Maiuri's mind, these rough and rustic figures proved
the noble Roman character of the owner of the house, who preserved the ius imaginum even in the
context of the rich but corrupting Hellenizing decoration of the house. 203 The shrine's position
off the peristyle, within view of some dining-areas and next to the entrance of the luxurious bath
suite, was a way to advertise the piety of the owner to selected guests. The shrine was not
directly visible from any dining rooms, but it could not be missed by guests enjoying the baths
before the meal.
In their individual surveys of domestic shrines at Pompeii, Boyce and Orr documented
the areas of the house where shrines appear most frequently. 204 Their combined totals show that
the garden or peristyle was the most common shrine location, appearing 126 times. Following
was the kitchen, 94 times, and the atrium, 67 times. All other spaces in the house combined
appear 20 times, including only three in a dining area. It should not be surprising that shrines
appear so often in the circulation centers for the household and guests: the atrium, garden and
peristyle. In those locations, shrines were visible and could be visited. They demonstrated the
religious devotion of the family to outsiders while serving the personal needs of insiders.
Orr has stated: "...the domestic deities had a long history of intimacy with the hearth and
the storerooms." 205 The continuance of the household depended upon a reliable (and to many
Pompeians a ritually protected) food supply. The link between domestic ritual and food ended at
the kitchen door. Dining areas almost never include a shrine, and guests could not often have
seen a ritual area from their place at table. The preparation of a meal required assistance from the
202 Maiuri 1933, 98-106.
203 Clarke 1991, 193 interprets both the shrine and the decoration of the house positively: "In addition to the
new decorations that presented him [the patron] as a man of high culture, proud of his knowledge of Greek
theater and Hellenistic caricature, he had an important ancestry."
204 Orr 1973, 98-99 summarizes his and Boyce's (1937) counts.
205 Orr 1973, 98.
164