HOUSE OF THE DIOSCURI - POMPEII

A painting in the entrance, now in the Archaeological Museum in Naples, of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, sons of Jupiter and Leda, gives the house its name. This is one of the rare examples in Pompeii of a house with a Corinthian atrium, where the atrium with a central impluvium is surrounded by columns, in this case twelve columns in tufo (the other two alternatives were the Tuscan atrium without columns and the tetrastyle atrium with four columns at the corners of the impluvium). Wall paintings with pictures of mythological subjects were frescoed on the walls of the rooms on either side of the tablinum. Most of them have been detached and are now in the Archaeological Museum in Naples and the British Museum in London. An initial porticoed courtyard with Doric columns is situated beyond the tablinum and has a lararium on the back wall. The second peristyle with a large basin at the centre was added later and is reached from the right side of the atrium. Most of the IV style wall painting is still in place and depicts carpets hung in imaginary architectural surrounds, alternating with panels of still life.

 

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In the north-eastern corner of the Forum stood the covered market where the townspeople could buy the food they needed. Built during the Augustan age, its main entrances in the Forum and Via degli Augustali were lined with shops. It originally had a secondary entrance on Vico del Balcone Pensile which was later closed off when the Temple of the Public Lares was built. The entrance under the colonnade in the Forum was divided into two gateways by a votive aedicule and led into the open space which was originally surrounded by a portico. A number of shops opened out onto the right-hand side of Macellum while the rear wall was divided in three areas. The central room acte ... continue

(Apic. 4, 2, 25) Ingredients:

• 500 g scallion
• Liquamen (o 1 tblsp soya sauce + 1 tblsp anchovy paste)
• 3 tblsp oil
• 1/2 glass water
• 2-5 fillets smoked herrings
• 2 tblsp honey
• 2 tblsp red wine (like dry Marsala)
• Savory

Instructions:
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Clean the scallion. Put in a pan Liquamen, oil and water; mesh and warm. Cut in a half and dispose it in a pyrex-dish. After boiling, add smoked herrings, cut in fillets, between the scallion. Do not mesh, but only shake and tilt the pan. Melt honey in wine and pour on s ... continue

Love was a common topic of conversation in Pompeii. Feelings, passions, poetic love, sex, homosexuality, prostitution and so forth were all part of daily life and not a source of prejudice. The concept of “obscenity” seems to have been unknown. Love and sex were considered earthly practices of a man’s life that were encouraged by the benevolence of Venus. The thousands of examples of graffiti found on the town’s walls are unequivocal proof of what the people of Pompeii thought about love and sex.