The Villa of the Mysteries fresco

On the walls of a room in a suburban villa outside Pompeii, an anonymous Roman painter frescoed a scene of a woman being initiated into the mystery cult of Dionysus. Ten scenes flow around the room: a reading of the sacred text, a ritual banquet, the arrival of the god, a flagellation, the unveiling of the phallus. What was inside the mysteries was a state secret. The initiates swore oaths of silence. Then Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, sealed the walls under ash, and the whole secret was preserved by accident. It is the fullest depiction we have of any ancient mystery religion. Now at Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii @pompeii_parco_archeologico