simple purpose of having a picture gallery. This would explain why very often there
is no system, and different topics are combined. On the other hand, the painted
world of the gods and heroes illustrates models of (mostly) good experiences in life,
and at the same time expresses the wish of the inhabitants of the house to share in
these Dionysiac and erotic pleasures. There is hardly any connection to the people’s
daily world and to their religious activities, except for the paintings and statuettes
of the household shrines, which seem to belong to a quite different sphere.Mosaics
If in the first centuryad the main medium for illustrating mythological subjects was,
apart from sculpture, wall painting, in the later Roman empire this preference shifted
to floor mosaics. In this period, the body of evidence comes mostly from sumptu-
ous villas of the second to fourth century in Spain, north Africa, and the eastern
provinces. As far as the subjects are concerned, there are no fundamental differences
from wall painting. Here too, it is not possible to prove a common iconographicReligion in the House 191Figure 14.1b Wall painting of Perseus and Andromeda, House of the Colored Capitals
(VII 4.31, 51), Pompeii (now in the National Museum Naples). The loving couple seem
not to be disturbed by the menacing Medusa’s head above them (photographed from
Wilhelm Zahn, Die schönsten Ornamente und merkwurdigsten Gemalde aus Pompeji,
Herkulanum und Stabia, Berlin, 1829. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford,
Mason EE51d, III Taf. 24).ACTC14 26/04/2007 09:38 AM Page 191