The frescoes in the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii

M.A.Ofthe many paintings in Pompeii, the frescoes in the Villa of the Mysteries are an example of the most beautiful and the most intriguing. These fascinating images have become the focus of much scholarly research and consequent debate that has continued since Amedeo Maiuri (Chief Archaeologist ofPompeii in the 1920's and overseer of the excavation of the Villa ofthe Mysteries) published his belief that the paintings represented the initiation of a young woman into the cult of Dionysus. The paintings were executed during the first half of the first century BCE at a time when many different mystery cults were popular. Some rituals even overlapped, having elements of more than one cult. This has resulted in a variety ofintetpretations as to the god (or gods) represented and the overall meaning of the paintings by numerous scholars, based on a plethora of reasons. In the attempt to investigate and compare these differing opinions and the information used to form them, this dissertation concludes that Maiuri's theory is the most plausible. However, the order in which the scenes should be read is questioned, and a new order of reading these scenes is suggested. If the onlooker separates the scenes using the direction ofthe gazes of the characters instead of using the painted columns to divide them, two worlds become apparent: one human and one mythological. The paintings then appear to represent the initiation of a young woman in to the cult of Dionysus in the human sphere, which is being simultaneously overseen by mythological characters in the spiritual world