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

possessed intimate motifs in a Nilotic setting. People, animals (such as hippopotami and
crocodiles) and rural shrines dot a verdant landscape along the banks of the Nile. Particularly
interesting are two banquet scenes that face each other at the S end of the inside faces of the E and
W couches. Both depict persons reclining around stibadia (semicircular sets of couches). On the E
side, seven persons are set around a large table upon which cups sit; a servant arriving from the
left carries in cups of wine. On the W side, five pygmies recline around a table set with a krater
and ladle for mixing wine; the leader raises his cup for the company. The W banquet scene is
sheltered by a bower, and both parties take place on the banks of the river, in the vicinity of a
large crocodile. As painted pendants, these banquet scenes mimic the diners reclining on the E
and W couches on either side of the central fountain, a tame substitute for the Nile. The paintings
also repeat (on a perpendicular axis) the pendant of the two elaborate dining areas DH (17) and
the DO in (23) that face each other across a landscape of water and statuary, one room indoors
and the other outdoors. One might speculate that a particularly large dinner party might have
been held in both dining areas simultaneously, two triclinia comprising a kind of oecus Cyzicenus
with boundaries extended beyond the architectural space of one room. Alternatively, a group of
guests who might have begun to eat in DH (17) while the sun was still hot could have adjourned
to the DO in (23) for the post-prandial commisatio, the drinking party that is depicted on the sides
of the masonry couches. Richardson has suggested (to Dunbabin's disagreement) that due to the
spray of the water from the central fountain, eating would have been impractical on these
couches, and that they were used principally, even solely, for drinking.
J) Sanctity: There are numerous and different ritual areas in this house. At the SE corner of
atrium (A') is a arcuated niche, below which is a painting of Lares and other attendants flanking
the Genius as he sacrifices at an altar. Below is a larger altar decked with fruit and flowers, faced
on either side by two serpents. At the W end of the corridor passing in front of DH (17), at the S
end of the pantry (18), is another arcuated niche with a tile shelf that projects slightly from the
wall. Below the niche are painted two snakes flanking a festooned altar. A more elaborate
aedicula lies just to the S at the W end of portico (19). This aedicula was built at a 45° angle, turned
directly towards the garden; its small half-domed interior (decorated as a seashell) is supported
by two elaborate pilasters that frame the niche and hold up a pediment. A square podium, the
base for a statuette, sits at the back of the niche. When the castellum aquae was built immediately
to the S, this aedicula was largely blocked off from view within the garden.
Its aedicular form was repeated in the construction of a new shrine at the S end of the garden
(23), set behind the DO (Fig. 5.89). Two round colonettes support a pediment above the
architrave, upon which a relief frieze in stucco depicts Diana between two deer. The half-domed
niche (also decorated as a seashell) shelters a bronze statuette of the goddess Pomona, who
carries a shell-shaped tray filled with fruit. The niche is also a water source that cascades down
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