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THE HOUSE of MARCUS LUCRETIUS

What a painting of Hercules can show us about Roman hospitality (and holding one’s wine)

In the foreground is a floor mosaic with partially plastered stone walls on either side. In the middle ground is shrubbery. In the background is a small arched shrine with a single standing figure. The shrine is set into a stone wall with rectilinear supports.
Exterior view of the House of Marcus Lucretius. Yefim Bam / Alamy Stock Photo

Marcus Lucretius

Archaeologists have tentatively attributed this property to one Marcus Lucretius—perhaps a priest and member of the city council—based on an inscription found on a still-life fresco with a painted letter bearing his name. Additional surviving paintings show us something about how the homeowner wanted to be perceived and the values he wished to project.

The House

The House of Marcus Lucretius contained more than thirty rooms on the ground floor alone. The second story did not survive.

Hover over floor plan for more information.
Floor plan of the House of Marcus Lucretius. Image courtesy of Jackie and Bob Dunn, www.pompeiiinpictures.com

The Paintings

The central figure of a nude man wears an ivy-leaf crown and holds a spear in his left hand. His wine cup has fallen to the ground, and he is supported under his right arm by an elderly bearded man. At the right a partially nude woman with a robe draped across her groin and legs leans against the man’s club with her left hand. She wears a lion-skin headdress. Several standing figures look on in the background. Three small childlike figures of erotes are also at play. One blows pipes into the younger man’s left ear; one peeps out from under the robes of the elderly man; and a third attempts to set the wine cup aright.
Hercules and Omphale, 1st century CE, fresco, House of Marcus Lucretius, triclinium 16, east wall, central section, Pompeii, H. 203.2 cm; W. 162.6 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Naples: MANN 8992. Image © Photographic Archive, National Archaeological Museum of Naples

When a visitor entered the triclinium (dining room), the first image they encountered was a large central painting depicting a moment in the story of the demigod Hercules and the Lydian Queen Omphale. Drunk during a feast for Bacchus, Hercules exchanged his clothes with those of Omphale, a demonstration of Bacchus’s power to influence behavior through wine. This fresco presented Marcus Lucretius as a gracious host who invited visitors to enjoy themselves, but also to be conscious of the potential pitfalls of too much wine.

Brought low by overindulgence, the central figure of Hercules can no longer stand without support and his head lolls to the side as an erote blows pipes in his ear. Before him, his massive wine cup has fallen to the ground and another erote looks at his reflection in its silver surface. Hercules wears a crown of grape leaves sacred to the god Bacchus, and displays Omphale’s elegant garments and footwear for the viewer. Behind him, the sound of a drum and the movement of revelers communicate the frenetic nature of the festivities. At right, Omphale presides over the scene, wearing Hercules’s lion skin and carrying his club, remnants of his heroic endeavors that emphasize even the strongest is no match for the powers of Bacchus.

The large central wall paintings were surrounded by smaller, equally festive scenes. These smaller panels depict erotes (cupid-like figures that personify love) and psyches (small female figures that personify the soul) at leisure.

A group of psyches make music beneath a canopy. At the left, two sing. In the center a third psyche plays a stringed instrument. At the far right a fourth opens a box that holds a draped cloth. Below that figure sits an erote.
Beneath a canopy, a group of psyches listen to the music of another psyche who plays a pipe.
Beneath a canopy, five winged erotes recline on beds to enjoy the wine in cups set before them on a three-legged table with (perhaps) lion-paw feet A statue of Dionysus appears in the background above the canopy. The painting shows considerable wear and pigment loss.
Beneath a canopy, a group of psyches dance to the music of an erote at center who plays a pipe.
Beneath a canopy, reclining winged erotes and psyches (young girls with butterfly wings that personify the soul) enjoy an outdoor banquet. Two of the erotes play stringed instruments. A statue of Dionysus appears in the background above the canopy.

Explore the Villa

The wall at the rear has two blank rectangular spaces where paintings have been removed. The wall at the left has one blank rectangular space. The wall at left has a window with light from the outdoors
View of the east wall of the triclinium of the House of Marcus Lucretius showing where the paintings were removed. Image courtesy of Jackie and Bob Dunn, www.pompeiiinpictures.com
An imagined restoration of a wall in bright colors. Two bright red rectangles sourround a major central fresco with the following image: The central figure of a nude man wears an ivy-leaf crown and holds a spear in his left hand. His wine cup has fallen to the ground, and he is supported under his right arm by an elderly bearded man. At the right a partially nude woman with a robe draped across her groin and legs leans against the man’s club with her left hand. She wears a lion-skin headdress. Several standing figures look on in the background. Three small childlike figures of erotes are also at play. One blows pipes into the younger man’s left ear; one peeps out from under the robes of the elderly man; and a third attempts to set the wine cup aright. A black horizontal rectangle runs along the bottom with a few yellow folliage decorations.
A reimagining of the same wall in a painting by Giuseppe Abbate, 1860. Photo © ICCD. https://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 IT

Using nineteenth-century documentation, contemporary scholars have been able to digitally recreate the triclinium (dining room) with the position of each fresco.

Video fly-through of a Roman home showing the different hallways and rooms with painted frescoes and tiled floors.
A contemporary digital recreation of the House of Marcus Lucretius. Created by Summer Trentin with Michael McComb. 3D model and image (c) Summer Trentin 2021
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Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
New York University
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