Pompeii’s Villa of the Mysteries is an actual mystery, possibly showing a wine-drinking cult

Including the word “mystery” sounds like nonsense the director of Pompeii’s marketing would come up with: “Let’s call it the Villa of the Mysteries, tourists will love it!”

Except…it actually is kind of mysterious, and historians aren’t entirely sure what its frescos depict. So please, put your phone down. No need to call the Clickbait Police just yet.

Amazon’s Prime Villa

This is a really fancy house. Even the Jeff Bezos of Ancient Rome may have thought it was a bit too ostentatious. Okay, maybe not. But still, it’s impressive. And remember, this assessment I’m making is even grading on the Pompeii Curve — the town is filled with big homes for the wealthy.

A statue of Livia was found here, which has led some to speculate she was once the owner. Livia was the wife of the Emperor Augustus, which would have made her quite the big deal. Augustus is best known for being the first Emperor of Rome, as well as being the inspiration for Mark Zuckerberg’s haircut.

That’s true, by the way. It’s not just a joke. The Zucc really does cut his hair like that because of Augustus. Which is just a joke.

The villa may also have been owned by a freed slave named “Zosima,” as a bronze seal with his name on it was found. That could mean he was the owner, or just a worker. Or he could have been the guy in charge of reconstruction after a big earthquake in 62 CE — about 17 years before Vesuvius blew up.

While the majority of people escaped from the volcano, several bodies were found here. I think it’s fair to say this isn’t actually in Pompeii — it’s a bit outside of the main town. You have to walk along a wide road to get there, lined with tombs on both sides. Apparently the Ancient Romans didn’t allow burials inside of city limits, which is believed to be an old practice to reduce the spread of disease. 

The villa would have sat by the shore back in those times — and you know what everyone says about the most important aspect of real estate is, right? Nowadays, the Bay of Naples is off in the distance, because the eruption of Mount Vesuvius dumped so much mud and ash that new land was created.

It home built in the 2nd Century BCE, and changed quite a bit after the earthquake. That disaster caused a lot of damage to Pompeii, and many residents left. The villa was partially turned into a farm at that point — grapes and olives were grown here, and presses were found. 

Ain’t No Party Like an Occult Party

But you probably came here for the mystery, not the house. Well, it’s believed this fresco depicts various stages of a bride’s initiation into a “mystery cult.” This one would be the “Dionysian Mysteries,” named for the Greek god of wine.

These “mystery cults” dated back long before the time of the Romans — before the Greek Dark Ages that began around 1100 BCE, even. We’re talking over a thousand years before the eruption of Vesuvius.

Now, I don’t think the word “cult” has quite the same meaning as it does today. They tended to just be centered on a particular god, although the initiation procedures were secretive. Actually, that does kind of sound like a cult, come to think of it.

The best way to describe this cult would be a focus on casting off society and returning to a natural state. The members would drink wine, which may have included…let’s just say, “medicinal herbs.” Part of the goal would be to enter kind of a trance, and then…well, I guess you can just let your imagination run wild.

This involved a belief that the wine was the embodiment of Dionysus. The grapes grew from the earth, the people would drink the wine, and getting drunk meant you were being possessed by him. You were casting off the constraints of human society, and returning to nature like teenagers in San Francisco in 1969.

It meant going on a spiritual journey where you’d unleash your inner animalistic self, while waving around a staff with a pinecone on the top. You’d make offerings and try to unite with Dionysus. There’d be lots of drums and flutes and dancing and hugging flowers. Maybe other kinds of hugging too.

This is sounding more and more like a cult after all.

Mysterious Pompeii Dining

Okay. You ready? We’re going to get into the specific parts of the fresco seen in this picture, piece by piece.

What you see here is possibly a progression of different scenes, showing what the bride goes through. I’ll try not to get too in depth into the individual scenes, because you can’t see them all in this picture — they wrap around to the right, and continue along the other side of the wall where I was standing when I took this.

So over on the left may be the mother of the bride, who can’t go any further. There’s some sort of priestess on the throne, and a boy is reading what might be initiation rites from a scroll. The possibly pregnant bride moves to the right, carrying cakes that may be an offering.

Then we see priestesses getting baskets of food ready, presumably for the ceremony. Over on the right is Silenus, a tutor of Dionysus. He’s part horse and is playing a lyre. He’s also extremely creepy. Don’t tell me I’m wrong, you know he is.

In the next scene, the bride looks panicked for some reason. It’s been speculated that she’s about to undergo a “rebirth,” and is afraid of the death of her former self. There’s also a nymph playing panpipes, and a satyr feeding a goat.

The last scene you can see in this picture has a satyr looking into a bowl of wine being held by Silenus, while another satyr holds up a scary theatrical mask. There may be some implied symbolism here relating to “Orphic rites.” Or maybe the satyr is just playing a mean prank.

Like I said, the scenes continue beyond here. The next one shows the bride getting spanked. No, I didn’t make that up. Why do you keep thinking I’m making things up? Give me a little credit here.

Of course, this is all conjecture. Some have argued it has nothing to do with a mystery cult at all, and that she’s just a bride — because as it turns out, Dionysus was also used as a symbol of marriage. Or maybe she’s not a bride, because there’s no groom being shown. In the end, I think it meets the true modern definition of a “mystery,” especially because so little is known about these cults that we may never have clear answers.

I do think it’s worth mentioning this is probably the most impressive place in Pompeii — as far as I’m concerned, anyway. There’s been an extensive amount of modern preservation put into this villa, and it shows. Many places in Pompeii have had frescos literally cut out of the walls and taken away, but there’s been a concerted effort to keep this room as it is.

The conservation in this room is excellent. Like many parts of Pompeii, these frescos suffered once they were exposed to the elements. And on top of that, it underwent some rather damaging “protection” efforts to shield it from the elements; namely, slathering them with wax and oil. Not only did this seal in moisture and weaken the walls, but it dulled the pigment. A lengthy cleaning using lasers was part of a restoration that’s resulted in their bright appearance.

Unfortunate Residents of the Villa of the Mysteries

It feels inappropriate to have a discussion about the Villa of the Mysteries without mentioning those who were found here. As I’ve written elsewhere, while most of the residents of Pompeii had time to escape, some stayed behind. We have theories on why, but it’s not like they’re able to tell us.

The victims were buried in ash and mud, which later hardened. When the town was being excavated, voids were found — if you poured plaster into these spaces, what emerged were shapes of bodies, with bones and other items usually stuck inside. In the first picture here, you can see the skull sticking out of the plaster.

These bodies were found in the Villa of the Mysteries, and remain there today.

Like I said at the beginning, this villa likely became more farm-like after the big earthquake. They found the remains of a wine press, as well as horses and a harness. There were a number of rooms that probably belonged to slaves who worked here.

Who were these people? The family who lived here? Their guests? Slaves? Yet another mystery in a home that’s built on them.

Still think we need to involve the Clickbait Police? Feel like reporting me for billing this villa as holding a “mystery”? Before you do, consider this: the word “mystery” itself comes from the Greek word “mystērion,” describing exactly what we’ve been talking about.

So there.