4. Guests at banquets are usually depicted with fine clothing and elaborate jewelry, and in a state of eternal youth. The facsimile here shows the right part of one large banquet scene.

The largest figure depicts the deceased, the sculptor Nebamun, with his immediate family members, while other attendees are featured in smaller sizes to the left. Standing before him is a female figure—Henutnefret, his wife or sister—who hands him a bowl of wine with the words "Drink and make a happy day!" Attendees often consumed an excessive amount of alcohol during these celebrations.

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BANQUETS ORGANISED BY ETRUSCAN PRINCES

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5a. The Etruscans seem to have been great wine consumers and lovers of luxury. In the semi-mountainous region of Etruria, vines grew in abundance on the hillsides and were strongly cultivated. The numerous amphorae found prove that the wine produced by the Etruscans was exported throughout the Mediterranean basin. From the 8th century BC, Etruscan banquets, the customs of which were borrowed from the Greeks, were organised by the princes. The ceremony was much ritualised. To the music of flutes or lyres, male and female guests, lying on couches, tasted wine served by slaves.

These events rivalled each other in luxury. The wine vessels were made of precious metals and skilfully crafted. Conserved in pansus or stamnoi vases, the wine was mixed with water in a large pan (patera), terracotta vase or cauldron (lébès), then placed before the guests. One could then draw the wine with ladles (simpulae) to transfer it into carafes (œnochoes), before finally pouring it into individual cups. Sometimes, impurities were removed from the wine prior to consumption by means of a filter. (Source: Inrap)

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5b. The komasts (participants in the komos procession*) enjoy the pleasures of the symposium with music, wine and games of kottabos**.

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5c. This wall depicts a nude serving young man (as a cupbearer) next to the krater, a large vessel used for mixing wine that was often at the center of the symposium.

 

The individual that was buried choose to respond to the codes governing the symposium by depicting the idea that "the pleasure of wine drinking is unequivocally projected beyond life" (Cipriani, Marina. The Lucanians in Paestum. Vol. 1. Pæstum, Italy: Fondazione Pæstum, 1996).

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* The word Komos generally refers to a noisy group of festive drinkers accompanied by musicians, characteristic of depictions of banquets and Dionysiac feasts. Featuring regularly on Attic vases from the 6th century BC.: Wine and the Arts, Objets d'art

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** Kottabos was an Ancient Greek game of skill played during symposia and in bath houses. It was very popular in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. It’s a playful take on the libation performed at the start of each banquet, when a few drops of wine would be poured on the floor and a god’s name (usually Dionysus) invoked. In its early days, people would pour out the rest of their wine while saying a loved one’s name. Later, it became a game: the goal was to throw the rest of one’s wine into a cup placed on the floor or table, while saying the person’s name. If the drops of liquid reached their goal, it was a good omen. The winner was often given a modest prize: an egg, apple, cake or even a kiss… Skill alone was not enough: you needed a supple throw and good posture too.

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DIONYSUS DISCOVERS THE MUSES WITH HIS MOTHER

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6. Some distance from Pompeii, the Villa of Mysteries is an ancient doctor’s house. In the masters’ quarters, a room holds the newly-restored fresco to which the villa owes its fame: rolled out on a large frieze are twenty nine life-size characters, set against on a Pompeian-red background. This fresco might represent the initiation of a young bride to Dionysian mysteries; here the ritual is read by a child who might be Dionysus himself. The cult of Dionysus, of which the mistress of the house would have been a priestess, was very popular in Southern Italy at the time. The scene presented in the foreground is strange: a woman dressed in an old-fashioned peplos (a woman’s wool tunic, in the Dorian style of Ancient Greece) watches a young boy, himself naked but for a pair of high boots, who reads a volumen (a scroll of papyrus sheets).

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Another woman, wearing clothes contemporary to the frieze, sits behind the child. She holds a volumen in her left hand and rests her right hand on the boy’s right shoulder. Divine teacher, she is teaching him his art. The peplophoros (wearer of the peplos) represents Dionysus’s nurse, who always appears in such scenes, particularly in scenes showing the toilet and dressing of the hero. Even if Dionysus has never been represented as having learnt to read, the book gives an indication of the knowledge and higher circles of the Muses. Our priestess shows us her pedagogical activity as a profane mother-figure within the myth of Dionysus, this time identifying herself as the mother of the hero, Semele. 

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"BACCO-GRAPPOLO", PROTECTOR OF VINES AND VESUVIUS

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7. This fresco from the 1st century BC comes from the lateral wall of a domestic shrine situated in the service atrium of the Centurion’s House in Pompeii, excavated between 1879 and 1881; the shrine’s remaining frescoes have been conserved in situ. In the upper part of this fresco, we can see a votive garland decorated with ribbons, on which sits a bird, motif often featured in funeral paintings and domestic shrines; on the left appears Dionysus-Bacchus, whose body is decorated unusually with a gigantic bunch of grapes. He is nevertheless still easy to identify by his features: the long loose hair falling to his shoulders and the ivy crown. In one hand he holds the sceptre of Dionysus: a stick decorated with vine leaves or grapes, topped with a pine cone decorated with a ribbon; with the other hand, he sprinkles his panther with wine from a cantharus, a two-handled drinking vessel.

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A mountain covered with cultivated vines is represented in the background. In the bottom part of the fresco, a long snake – recurrent image in Pompeian shrines – uncoils itself in the direction of a cylindrical altar; the snake represents the genius loci, the good spirit of the home. The serpent was actually a positive symbol, linked to the underworld beneath the ground and therefore associated with fertility, among other things. Dionysus was considered the protector of Vesuvius. It is highly likely that the Pompeiians did not understand the volcanic nature of Vesuvius and therefore saw it as a protector of the town and its prosperity. The vines of this area produced Vesuvinum (source: Pliny), a famous wine which, with Pompeianum, contributed to the richness of the town.

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* Household shrines of any kind were known generically as lararia (s. lararium) because they typically contained a Lares figure or two. Lares were divine witnesses at important family occasions, such as marriages, births, and adoptions, and their shrines provided a religious hub for social and family life.

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Find out more: Gallery Nectar of The Gods >>

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RHYTONS FOR POURING OR DRINKING WINE

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8 et 9. The rhyton is an ancient horn- or cone-shaped drinking and pouring vessel, made of metal, clay or glass. They are often decorated with an animal (or sometimes human) head. While used for ordinary drinking, rhytons also served for libations during some religious ceremonies and rituals.

This fresco represents two Lares (guardian deities) pouring wine into a pail (situla) using a rhyton. This is a sacrificial scene. The head of the family is shown making an offering while a musician plays; meanwhile, two smaller figures carry various objects and a pig for the sacrifice. Over time, the rhyton lost its use as a pouring vessel and served instead as a recipient, as in this banquet.

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Find out more: Wine and the Arts, Objets d'art >>