A rare and monumental cycle of frescoes depicting a procession of Bacchus, the god of wine, has been discovered in a banquet hall in Pompeii, the famous archaeological site near Naples, it was announced on Wednesday.
“This is an extraordinary historical document,” Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said, calling the discovery “an important moment for Italian and world archaeology.”
This megalograph (monumental painting), comparable to that of the Villa of the Mysteries, covers the three walls of a banquet hall that opened onto a garden.
Dating back to 40-30 BC, these frescoes feature followers of Bacchus, known as bacchantes, depicted as dancers, hunters carrying a slain goat or sword, and young satyrs with pointed ears playing the flute or performing libations.
At the centre of the scene is a female figure with an old man holding a torch, representing a young mortal participating in a nocturnal ritual to learn the mysteries of the Greek God Dionysus (called Bacchus in Ancient Rome). All the characters are shown on pedestals, as if they were statues.
Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the second most visited tourist attraction in Italy after the Colosseum (4.17 million visitors in 2024), covers a total area of approximately 22 hectares, one-third of which is still buried under ash.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD helped preserve many buildings almost intact by encasing them in ash and rock while creating eerie casts of the victims’ bodies.
