Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fresco from Pompeii,
before ad 79. Bacchus is
standing before Vesuvius,
which had yet to erupt.
Image not available - no digital rights
Last Days of Pompeii
, written nearly 1,800 years later. They do
not however tell us anything about the appearance of Vesuvius
before the eruption. Evidence for this was buried by the ash
that settled on the city, and was not dug out again until the
nineteenth century. In this section of fresco, found in Pompeii,
Bacchus, the god of wine and good living, holds in his right hand
a
kantharos
, a high-handled cup, that he is casually allowing to
empty. His accompanying leopard is ready to lick up the drops
of wine. The body of Bacchus is formed out of a bunch of grapes,
which suggests that he is many-breasted, or at least fruitful,
like the Syrian god Cybele. Behind him is the source of the
