Image Details

Erich Lessing

A satyr (note the goat-like ears) frolics with a maenad in this mosaic scene in the House of the Faun. Maenads were female followers of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. Frenzied with drink, they would wave pine-cone-tipped wands and shriek in ecstasy. Even Mark Twain refrained from commenting—except obliquely—on scenes such as this one, which is tame by Pompeii’s standards.