PREVIEW

A newly discovered fresco in Pompeii is shedding fresh light on the mysterious Dionysiac cults of the ancient world - and how they depicted “wild” women who broke free of the male order.

More than a century after the famous Villa of the Mysteries was unearthed, archaeologists have revealed a strikingly detailed frieze depicting the procession of Dionysus, the god of wine.
The nearly life-sized fresco, known as a "megalography" due to its large-scale figures, was found in a grand banqueting room in Insula 10 of Region IX in central Pompeii. It spans three sides of the room, while the fourth side opens onto a garden.

The vivid artwork portrays bacchantes, or maenads, as both dancers and fierce hunters. Some carry slaughtered kid goats or wield swords while holding the innards of animals. Young satyrs, with their distinctive pointed ears, are shown playing the double flute. At the centre of the frieze stands a mortal woman accompanied by an aged Silenus holding a torch, suggesting her initiation into the Dionysiac mysteries—a cult promising rebirth and the possibility of an afterlife.

Explaining its significance, Gabriel Zuchtriegel said: “These frescoes have a profoundly religious meaning which, however, was also designed to decorate areas for holding banquets and feasts, rather like when we find a copy of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the wall of an Italian restaurant in New York to create a little bit of atmosphere.

“Behind these magnificent paintings, which play with illusion and reality, we can observe the signs of a religious crisis that was affecting the ancient world, but we can also grasp the grandeur of a ritual that dates back to an archaic world.”
He also said the bacchante or maenad, “expressed the wild, untameable side of women,” who “break free from male order to dance freely” and take on traditional male pursuits like hunting.

Intriguingly, all the figures appear to stand on pedestals like statues, yet their expressive movements and finely rendered details bring them vividly to life.

Archaeologists have named the residence the “Casa del Tiaso” (House of the Thiasus), referring to the sacred Dionysiac procession. Such mystery cults were exclusive to initiates who underwent special rites, offering spiritual transformation and a promise of bliss both in this life and beyond.

The fresco is attributed to the Second Style of Pompeian wall painting and is believed to date from the 40s-30s BC, making it around a century old when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. It represents only the second known example of a megalography depicting Dionysiac initiation rituals, the first being the famous frescoes of the Villa of the Mysteries.

Notably, the newly discovered frieze adds an additional theme absent from the Villa of the Mysteries: hunting. A second, smaller frieze above the main artwork depicts a variety of animals, including a recently gutted wild boar, a fawn, cockerels, and fish.

The Italian Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, hailed the find as "historic" and emphasised the significance of ongoing excavations.

“In 100 years, today will be seen as historic,” he explained. “Because the discovery we are showing is historic. The megalograph found in insula 10 of Regio IX provides another glimpse into the rituals of the mysteries of Dionysus. It is an exceptional historical document and, together with the fresco of the Villa of the Mysteries, constitutes a one-of-a-kind, making Pompeii an extraordinary testimony to an aspect of life in classical Mediterranean life that is largely unknown.”