Gell, William: Pompeiana: the topography, edifices and ornaments of Pompeii ; the result of excavations since 1819 ; in two volumes (Band 2) (London, 1832)

POMPEIANA. 43

manner, to the fruitfulness of the mistress
of the house. The female with the torch and
fruits may have some reference to Hymen,
as well as the torches at the portico; the
altar with the pomegranates may have a
reference to Juno Lucina; and a phallic
emblem on the left renders the rest of the
interpretation more probable.

In this portico is a well, or the mouth of
a cistern, of marble. The garden itself was
laid out in beds of flowers in long right
lines. At the point marked 31 in the Plan
is a little shrine with an altar before it,
seemingly dedicated to Bacchus.

The wall is ornamented between the
Doric columns with paintings representing
a garden with trees, birds, fountains, pis-
cinas, and alternate grass-plots, which when
seen from the atrium, or the tablinum, must
have produced a pretty effect.

A narrow staircase, probably, led to the
roof of the peristyle N. N. N. from the faux
U. If there were chambers in an upper
story, they might have been above the ala T
and the rooms 0, which would not have re-
quired the whole height of the tablinum.

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