A new house similar to the Villa of Mysteries was recently discovered in Pompeii.
100 years after the discovery of the suburban Villa of the Mysteries. A new hall, this time located in Regio IX Insula 10, has unearthed a megalograph similar to the fresco of the famous Villa of the Mysteries.
The two houses are united not only by the actual size of the wonderful paintings, but also by their significance. Indeed, here, too, the rite of initiation into the cult of Dionysus is celebrated.
The house, referred to by archaeologists as the House of Thiasos. In reference to the procession of Dionysus, had already recently brought to light another exciting and great discovery.
A very large private thermal quarter, inside the domus, could accommodate up to 30 people and served as a stage for sumptuous banquets.
The direct connection between these thermal spaces and the large convivial hall, in fact, was probably used by the owner of the house to hold luxurious receptions. Or to secure the electoral approval of his guests or to promote the candidacy of friends or relatives. Or simply to assert his social status, as was the custom of the time.
A rich, imposing domus that excited again a few weeks after the last discovery in the thermal quarter with the discovery of this new room.
A banquet hall open to a garden and paved with a large black tile frame and with African yellow and green breccia tiles inside, of which only two remain. Unfortunately, the house was plundered in ancient times. Grave robbers by means of burrows dug in the walls, which are still visible today, have stolen most of the floor pieces leaving only a few specimens.
The paintings of the new Thiassus house
What is striking about this great domus is not only the size and richness of the rooms but also the enormous megalography found in the sumptuous hall.
The painting shows the procession of Dionysus, god of wine, along with Bacchae, depicted both as dancers and as fierce hunters (with a slaughtered kid on their shoulders or with a sword) and with young satyrs with pointed ears playing the double flute.
The most important scene, however, is the one in the center of the hall wall. Here a woman is depicted with an old Silenus holding a flashlight.
This is an initiate, a mortal woman who, through a nocturnal ritual, is about to be initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus. The god who dies and is reborn, promising the same to his followers.
A marvelous fresco that shows all the figures represented on pedestals, as if they were statues, while at the same time their movements, complexions, and clothing make them appear very much alive.
A megalography that in size, meaning and style of painting is similar to that of the Villa of the Mysteries. It is no coincidence that the two houses were both frescoed in the II style of Pompeian painting, which dates back to 1 BC.
The significance of the Dionysian rites
But what are these Dionysian rites meant to represent, what is their significance?
Let us begin by saying that Dionysus was a Greek god, defined by the Romans as Bacchus. God of grapes, wine, intoxication and loss of reason. But also the instinctive, chaotic and irrational god.
He was considered the deity of life and the afterlife. He could die and come back to life, so he was considered by his followers to be a liberating god on whom they placed hope for an afterlife.
And the hope of this otherworldly life was expressed through the Dionysian rites, which led the initiate, that is, a mortal woman, to initiate herself through a nightly ritual to be initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus, the god who dies and is reborn, doing the same for his followers.
How the Dionysian Rite was performed
This rite consists of exaltation, madness. In fact, Dionysus was the only god who allowed women and slaves to participate in his rites. Which included, in addition to the unrestrained and liberating dance, the hunting with bare hands of a wild animal, mauled and swallowed in shreds while still warm and bleeding. According to the ritual, the body heat and dripping blood were reason for life to be swallowed.
The procession, which took place at night, consisted of maenads, women crowned with laurel branches and wearing wild animal skins, and men disguised as satyrs. Women were admitted to the rites because they personified the irrationality that the Greek world contrasted with the typically male reason.
To enable them to dance as chaotically as possible, they held the tirso, whose sole purpose was to make the dancer’s body as unstable as possible. The procession indulged in musical suggestion with a haunting rhythmic dance punctuated by flutes and drums.
And in the House of Thiasos this Dionysian ritual appears clear and blatant, unlike the one present in the Villa of the Mysteries.
Where the stages of a bride’s preparation for her wedding or a young woman’s initiation into the mystery rites of Dionysus are depicted. This is a decidedly more sober painting, where hunting scenes, live, dead and dismembered animals are not present as in that of the thiasosus.
