Egyptian Cults in Pompeian Domestic Wall Paintings

Abstract

Default contentThis article focuses on cult images of Egyptian deities painted in a Pompeian domestic context. It is part of my statistical study of all Egyptian motifs of Pompeian wall paintings in their architectural in the urban texture of the city. I will present systematically and contextually the Pompeian evidence of painted Egyptianizing imagery whose principal (but not exclusive) meaning for Pompeians was religious. Studies based on catalogues by A. Coraliniand M.J. Versluys testify to the usefulness of systematic and contextual listing of specific Pompeian pictorial themes. The aims of this study are 1) to define specific patterns of how Pompeians decorated their homes with religious images of Egyptian deities and 2) to understand better than earlier the specific role of Egyptian deities in the Pompeian domestic sphere. I hope that my analyses of eight Egyptian cult paintings with their architectural and decorative frameworks can help further studies aiming to understand better the multifaceted roles not only of Egyptian cults but of diverse pictorial allusions to Egypt in the Pompeian domestic sphere.