Pompeii Art

This magnificent fresco is a megalographia(a depiction of life-size figures) and its origins are very unique. The scene is a detail from a fresco that runs round all four walls of a room in a villa outside Pompeii.


The panels of the fresco appear to show a series of events, and their interpretation are at the center of much debate.


Its commonly thought that the fresco illustrates the initiation of a woman into the secret rites of Dionysus, and it is this theory that gave rise to the name of the Villa of the Mysteries.


The scene pictured above shows the "initiate is flogged, while another woman dances beside her".