Religion in the House 189The Hellenized House in Italy
As a result of Rome’s conquest of the Mediterranean world during the second
century bc, Roman aristocrats came into close contact with the Hellenistic way of
life. The Hellenistic palaces, equipped with porticos, libraries, picture galleries, and
marvelous interior decoration, set new standards. Equally important, however, were
the surroundings of the houses: the architecture was harmonized with the adjacent
garden, and the view into a carefully chosen landscape added much to the new
way of living. In order to blur the distinction between inside and outside, and to
intensify the effect of grandeur, stage-like architectural prospects and idyllic scenery
were painted on the walls. Certain parts of the house were given Greek names
(gymnasium, palaestra, etc.), thus testifying to the inhabitants’ education (D’Arms
1970: 1–72; Zanker 1998: 135 – 42).
Understandably enough, this new type of housing was in sharp contrast with the
republican ideals of austerity stressed by writers such as Varro (Rust. 1.13.6,
3.2.3 – 4) from the first century bcor Pliny the Elder (Nat.35.118) in the first cen-
turyad. This might have been a reason why in Italy the Greek model was first copied
in the countryside, not in towns. Cicero gives us a vivid picture not only of his many
purchases of statues and paintings to be installed in his villas at Tusculum and else-
where, but also of the social life marked by otium, that is, intellectual activities and
discussions with friends about art, philosophy, and literature (Neudecker 1988: 8 –18).
One of the favorite regions for establishing large villas was the coast of Campania.
The small town of Pompeii was in this area, with a population of around 10,000
inhabitants byad 79 (Wallace-Hadrill 1994: 98 –103), and there the conditions for
observing this process of adoption and transformation are particularly favorable.Wall Painting
There have been many attempts to track down the meaning of Pompeian wall paint-
ing and to decipher its underlying message. A very comprehensive and at the same
time extreme view was put forward by Karl Schefold. He pleaded for a coherent reli-
gious interpretation of all the paintings (e.g. Schefold 1962, 1998: 361–77). To sum-
marize and simplify his ideas: the decoration of a single house followed one coherent
concept, illustrated by mythological and divine figures, be it a conflict between a
hero and an evil-doer, or a more abstract concept like music or education. The main
divine concept is represented by the Egyptian goddess Isis, who is present as well
in the many landscape paintings often adorned with Egyptian motifs. Landscapes in
general are thought to be sacred, and still-lifes represent offerings. Schefold’s rigid,
all-embracing system, however, despite many valuable observations and analyses, has
not met with much scholarly acceptance (see Ling 1991: 136 –7).
In recent years, Paul Zanker – amongst many others – has reconsidered the ques-
tion of myths in domestic context, thus summing up one aspect of his many con-
tributions to Pompeian problems (Zanker 1999). He stresses three points. First, imagesACTC14 26/04/2007 09:38 AM Page 189