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Introduction
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Pleasures of the flesh
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An erotic wall painting
– one of many in Pompeii
AKG Photo
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While to all appearances, Roman society observed the same rites of passage
in 1st-century Pompeii as they had for decades, beneath the surface much
had changed radically. The lifestyles of pre-eruption youth would have
been unrecognisable to their grandfathers.
This was a time of huge cultural anxiety for the élite, what with
the rise of cults, the ambitions of freedmen and the decline in moral
standards. This anxiety was focused on the young men.
Baths
Historians and archaeologists have linked Pompeii's 'urban space'
to its 'urban time'. By skilful use of literary sources, they have illustrated
the varying time-tables of wealthy property owners, their clients, shopkeepers,
artisans, and women tied to the home. Not surprisingly, the rich and their
dependants were dominant, covering most ground during the day and making
the strongest visual impact on the urban scene as they moved from early-morning
salutatio to forum, baths and then home to dine. This had interesting
implications for a city like Pompeii in the siting of houses, the forum
and the baths.
The expectation of luxury and leisure was one of the defining features
of the early empire. An indication of this in Pompeii lies in the priority
given to the rebuilding of the Stabian baths after the earthquake of AD
62.
The public baths were central to Roman daily life, and for young men
of the upper class with time on their hands, they would have been a familiar
haunt. The baths were a place of healthy recreation but were also associated
with tempting decadence – for instance, effeminacy and immoderate
lust – to which feverish youth was vulnerable.
Brothels and games
However, although concerned about the corruptibility of youth, society
was very open about sexual matters. A number of buildings in Pompeii were,
in modern times, mistakenly taken for brothels because of the erotic pictures
on their walls. Brothels there were, though. While supposedly hidden from
the eyes of elderly women and children, they advertised their services
quite openly.
The clearest barometer of the changing times in Pompeii was in the attitude
to entertainment. Now, the gladiatorial games were everything. With citizens
no longer subject to military duty, what remained of the old military
traditions were now merely archaic hangovers that provided the illusion
of continuity.
Honouring the goddesses
It wasn't only the men who indulged in sensuality. As well as their
involvement in the Dionysiac 'mysteries' (see box),
women celebrated the festival known as the Veneralia every 1 April. This
honoured Venus Verticordia ('changer of heart') and her companion Fortuna
Virilis ('bold fortune'). In general, the wealthier women honoured Venus
and the lower classes honoured Fortuna.
It is thought by some researchers that Fortuna Virilis represented not
merely 'luck', but also the irresistible force that drove men and women
to mate, and, as such, she could make women irresistible to men. She was
the goddess of fertilisation, and so was especially worshipped by women
wanting to become pregnant and by gardeners.
During the festival, both married and unmarried women went to the men's
baths, where they would offer incense to Fortuna Virilis and drink a potion
made of pounded poppy, milk and honey. Crowned with myrtle wreaths, they
then bathed and prayed to Venus. They removed the jewellery and other
ornaments from statues of the two goddesses so that they could be washed,
after which they were redecorated and adorned with roses.
The festival was generally a day for women to seek divine help for their
relations with men. The poet Ovid claimed that the ritual blinded men
to the bodily defects of their women. Another ancient commentary states
that the women went to the baths to view men's private parts.
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The Villa of the Mysteries
This villa,
built around a central court and surrounded by terraces, is much
like other large houses in Pompeii. However, it contains one very
unusual feature: a room, known as the 'initiation chamber', decorated
with beautiful and strange frescos showing, among other things,
a naked girl being whipped by a winged female, a satyr giving suck
to a fawn, and a sprawling, drunken god.
These images seem to be part of a ritual ceremony aimed at preparing
privileged, protected girls for the psychological transition to
life as women. However, the secrets of these mysteries of Dionysus
– the god of growth, wine and ecstasy – were fully known
only to those who had been initiated into them. There is no ancient
text that expounds them, and so the full significance of the frescos
can only be guessed at.
A threat to morality
We do know that the rituals were already centuries old by the
time the Pompeii frescos were painted. Their roots can be seen in
the ancient Greek play by Euripeides, The Bacchae, dating
from about 405 BC. During the Roman republic, a growing number of
women were attracted to the rites, where they stepped outside male
control and into a ceremonial world led by women.
In the early years of the 2nd century BC, the Roman authorities
were making serious charges against the initiations. The historian
Livy reported a consul saying: 'This Dionysiac mystery-cult is a
growing evil; its adherents grow more numerous every day; it weakens
loyalty to the state; it is a conspiracy; it is the sole cause of
all the evils of recent years; and unless we are vigilant, it will
take over the state, for that is their aim ... The rites themselves
take place by night, and so lead to sexual abuses.'
Mass executions
Matters reached a head in 186 BC. The Roman authorities were
determined to wipe out the conjurari (conspirators), rumoured
to number more than 7,000. Recent initiates were imprisoned, but
all the rest were condemned to death.
The state followed the old policy of allowing men to punish female
relatives in the privacy of the home. Those who hesitated to put
their female kin to death faced the certainty that the state would
do it for them, disgracing their manhood. A bloodbath ensued, carried
out in secret by the paterfamilias against sisters, daughters,
wives and slaves.
As the frescos in the Villa of the Mysteries show, the initiations
were not eradicated from the Roman empire, despite the executions
of two centuries earlier. However, the rites were probably changed
to avoid the appearance of undermining loyalty to the state. The
state, in turn, appeared to be tolerating a quiet, unexuberant cult
within the family.
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