Something sad about this 9th century banquet. The Thracian queen looks downward, refusing the king’s offer of food. Does she regret the situation she finds herself in? As a favored wife she must go with her husband when he dies. To find out more, see my poem “A Favored Wife” in Dance of Atoms.
The table in the painting is in better shape than the surviving carbonized one in the museum case. Such tables, along with the glass objects on the floor in this museum display, were common at dinner time in Pompeii before 79 CE. See my poem “Las Supper in Pompeii” in the just-published poetry collection, DANCE OF ATOMS.
The face without a man — my term. This man’s face shows, however, even though layered with plaster, that he was frightened and somehow resolved. His mouth is clamped down. He is seeing disaster he never dreamed of before his eyes. Many of the people who were preserved in this way show some expression of their shock, grief, and horror at what is happening.
These Roman men are gesticulating something, but what? Right across from where they are standing is, the, yes, it’s the Ladies’ Rest Room in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy. This museum holds many treasures from Pompeii and its surroundings.
These bronze runners in the Naples National Archaeological Museum were taken from the Villa Papyrii, an elaborate villa with extraordinary art works.
Writing tools in Pompeii and surroundings. When a slave is given the prompt “How to End a Poem,” see what happens to his tablet when the eruption begins. See my poem of the same name in Dance of Atoms.
