Mosaic of the Muses

Mosaic of the Horses

In this magnificent mosaic, the horses are identified by their names. The mosaic which depicts horses with affinities to the so-called ‘Lusitanian Horse,’ attests to the breeding of horses in this territory in Roman times.

Mosaic of the Horses

Horses from Lusitania were famous for their speed. Pliny the Elder (23-79), in his Natural History, 8. 166, claims that they appear to have been generated by the wind, an ancient belief found in Homer (Il. 16. 150, 20. 223-5), Virgil (G. 3. 272-5). The Flavian poet Silius Italicus (Pun. 3. 379-81) attributes the fleetness of the Iberian horses of the Vettones to impregnation by the wind.

"This winds impregnates the creatures that derive life from the earth – indeed in Spain even the mares, as wee have stated".

(Pliny, Natural History 16.39.93)

The Panel of the Muses

The panel depicts the nine Muses with their attributes. They introduce the myths that decorate the other panels of the mosaic. The Muses have a solemn pose, their hair piled high in a contemporary Roman style to symbolize wisdom and their victory over the Sirens.
The legend on the base of the mosaic reads SCO [pa a]SPRA TESSELLAM LEDERE NOLI VTERI F[elix] (Do not hurt the stones with a hard broom. Be happy.)

The Muses

The Muses are displayed in the following order:
Clio (History)
Euterpe (Music)
Erato (Lyric Poetry)
Thalia (Comedy)
Melpomene (Tragedy)
Urania (Astronomy)
Calliope (Epic)
Polyhymnia (Hymns and Pantomime)
Terpsichore (Lyric Poetry)

What man or hero do you choose, Clio,
to celebrate with lyre or shrill pipe?
What god?

Horace, Odes 1.12.1-3

Horace, The Complete Odes and Epodes, transl. D. West, Oxford/ New York, 1997

Bacchae

The panel shows two Maenads, the name given to female participants in the cult of Dionysus /Bacchus. The one on the left is dancing barefoot, which is evident from the swirling movement of her cloak; the one on the right, wearing a garland of flowers, carries a thyrsus and a musical instrument.

“… On, Bacchanal maidens, ye glory of Tmolus the hill gold-welling, thunder-knelling,/ Blend the acclaim of your chant with the timbrels/ Glad-pealing the glad God’s praises outr/ With Phrygian cries and the voice of singing/ When upsoareth the sound of the melody-fountain,/ Of the hallowed ringing of flutes far-flinging/ The notes that chime with the feet that climb/ The pilgrim-path to the mountain!...” (153-163).

Euripides, Bacchanals, Madness of Hercules, Children of Hercules, Phoenician Maidens, Suppliants, transl. A. S. Way, Cambridge (Mass) / London, Harvard University Press/ William Heinemann Ltd, 1988r

Apollo and Daphne

This panel depicts Daphne, daughter of the river god Peneus, and Apollo, son of Zeus, sitting on a rock, holding his lyre. Apollo fell in love with Daphne, who rejected him and, in order for her to escape the god, she was transformed into a laurel tree.

‘My bride’, he said, ‘since you can never be,
At least, sweet laurel, you shall be my tree.
My lyre, my locks, my quiver you shall wreath;

Ovid, . Metamorphoses (with an introd. and notes by E. J. Kenney), transl.. A. D. Melville, Oxford/ New York, : Oxford University Press, 1986.

Daphne, Peneus’ child, was the first love
Of great Apollo, a love not lit by chance
Unwitting, but by Cupid’s spiteful wrath.
[…] At once he loves; she flies the name of love;
Delighting in the forest’s secret depths
And trophies of the chase, a nimph to vie
With heaven’s virgin huntress, fair Diana.
[…] Apollo saw her, loved her, wanted her –
Her for his bride, and, wanting, hoped – deceived
By his own oracles […].
But she
Flies swifter than the lightfoot wind nor stops
To hear him calling: ‘Stay, sweet nymph! Oh, stay!
I am no foe to fear.
[…] Alas! That love
No herb can cure, that skills which help afford
To all mankind fail now to help their lord!’
More he had tried to say, but she in fear
Fled on and left him and his words unfinished.
[…] Her strength was gone; the travail of her flight
Vanquished her, and her face was deathly pale.
And then she saw the river, swift Peneus,
And called: ‘Help, father, help! If mystic power
Dwells in your waters, change me and destroy
My hateful beauty that has pleased too well.’
Acarce had she made her prayer when through her limbs
A dragging languor spread, her tender bosom
Was wrapped in thin smooth bark, her slender arms
Were changed to branches and her hair to leaves;
Her feet bout now so swift were anchored fast
In numb stiff roots, her face and head became
The crown of a green tree; all that remained
Of Daphne was her shining loveliness.
And still Apollo loved her; om the trunk
He placed his hands and felt beneath the bark
Her heart still beating, held in his embrace
Her branches, pressed his kisses on the wood;
Yet from his kisses still the wood recoiled.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.450-453, 474-476, 490-491, 502-504, 523-527, 543-563

Medea Planning to Kill her Children

Medea, the most famous sorceress of Antiquity, fell in love with Jason and helped him to capture the Golden Fleece, which was possessed by Medea’s father, Aeetes, king of Colchis. Afterwards, Jason abandoned Medea for Creusa, the daughter of the king of Corynth. Medea then decided to kill her own children.
In this depiction of Medea, she wears the typical clothes of a tragic actor. Her left hand supports her right wrist, and in her right hand there appears to be a knife. A man is visible in the background, holding a whip and a torch. There is a child between them (most probably one of Medea’s sons).

Nay, Jason, heap up for thy sons their last funeral pyre; build them a tomb. Thy wife and father have already the services due the dead, buried by me; this son has met his doom, and this shall suffer like fate before thy eyes. (vv. 997-1001)

Seneca, Tragedies, transl. Frank Justus Miller, Cambridge (Mass.)/ London, Harvard University Press/ William Heinemann Ltd., 1917

Hercules in Fury

Hercules (the Roman name for Herakles) is the son of Zeus and Alcmena and possibly the most famous of Greek heroes. Zeus’ wife Juno, out of jealousy, has maddened the hero, so that he no longer recognizes his children. Hercules is about to kill his children (depicted on their knees). Megara, his wife, is anguished. The motif of Hercules possessed by madness is rare in mosaics.

"And Alcmena was joined in love with Zeus who drives the clouds and bare mighty Heracles".

Hesiod, Theogony 943-944)

Whither shall I flee? Where shall I hide me, or in what land bury me? What Tanaïs, what Nile, what Tigris, raging with Persian torrents, what warlike Rhine, or Tagus, turbid with the golden sands of Spain, can cleanse this hand?

Seneca, Hercules Furens 1321-1326)
Seneca, Tragedies, transl. F. J. Miller, Cambridge (Mass.)/ London, Harvard University Press/ William Heinemann Ltd., 1917

The Triumph of Dionysus/ Bacchus

Bacchus’/ Dionysus’ voyage to the East is a well known episode of ancient mythology. The god returns to the west with a large court: Silenus, Bacchae, nymphs, satyrs, the god Pan. They carry with them the thyrsi embellished with flowers, stocks of grapes, garlands of ivy, and musical instruments. Bacchus/ Dionysus leads the procession.
The mosaic shows a procession of sixteen characters moving towards the right. A carriage is pulled by tigers and driven by a satyr and Pan. One of the Bacchae carries a thyrsus, the other a flute.

Liber, …
Bacchants and Satyrs are your followers,
And that old drunkard whose stout staff supports
His tottering steps, who sits so insecure
Upon his sagging ass. Wherever your
Course leads you, young men’s shouts and women’s cries
Echo afar with noise of tambourines
And clashing bronze and long-bored pipes of box.

(Ov. Met. 4.25-30)


Ovid. Metamorphoses (with an introd. and notes by E. J. Kenney), transl. A. D. Melville, . Oxford/ New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Theseus and the Minotaur


The panel depicts Theseus and the Minotaur, a monster composed of a human body and the head of a bull. Behind them is the labyrinth where the monster was imprisoned.
The Minotaur was born of the unnatural love between Pasiphae, king Mino’s wife, and a magnificent bull given to king Minos by the god Poseidon. The Minotaur was killed by Theseus, the son of the king of Athens, with the help of Ariadne, the daughter of king Minos, with whom Theseus fell in love. The theme of the Minotaur is common in mosaics all over the Roman empire.

Minos reached harbour in the isle of Crete
And, disembarking, paid his vows to Jove,
A hundred bulls, and hung the spoils of war
To adorn his palace walls. His dynasty’s
Disgrace had grown; the monstrous hybrid beast
Declared the queen’s obscene adultery.
To rid his precincts oh this shame the king
Planned to confine him shut away within
Blind walls if intricate complexity.

Ovid, Metamorphoses (with an introd. and notes by E. J. Kenney), transl. A. D. Melville, Oxford/ New York, Oxford University Press, 1986