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a transparent dress, her hair done up in ribbons and a garland draped across her shoul-

der to fall between her breasts.

This scene of drinking excesses in the good old days must have amused the Roman

diners who came to this modest dining room to eat and drink in the Greek fashion. The

artist has relied on figural types in circulation to show four beautiful drinkers in four diªer-ent states of consciousness—from drunken sleep to alert vigilance.18 If inspired to com-

ment on this scene, everyone reclining around the table would recognize the central joke,

that you needed professional help to win a drinking contest. The story goes further, since

a squabble may arise between the hetairai: the woman whose partner has passed out is

accusing the other of cheating by oªering unusual assistance to her barely conscious part-

ner. She is holding him up bodily so that he will win, even as she squirts a bit more wine

into his mouth.

It is important to remember that although this painting of the excesses of the Greek

symposium constituted a proper decoration for this modest Pompeian dining room, con-temporary viewers did not see it as an illustration of their own customs or behavior. The

notion of decor —that is, furnishing a room with artwork that is appropriate for the ac-

tivities taking place there—was not the same as emulatio, setting up art as examples for

viewers to follow. A woman guest in this triclinium, reclining at table—even for the wine-

drinking part—would certainly not be bare-breasted; nor would she be saddled with the

job of getting her partner drunk. This was the province of prostitutes, not freeborn—or

freed—women like herself. She would have seen the men and women in the picture as

beautiful creatures from another time and culture, appropriate subjects for conversations

about the pleasures and pitfalls of drinking too much. A Roman man viewing this pic-ture of Greek times might compare his own experiences. He might muse about the times

he attended Roman versions of such drinking parties with prostitutes as partners—

certainly in venues, such as hotels or taverns, far removed from the domestic sphere.

The central pictures on the back and left walls of the triclinium are more refined and

complex in both style and subject matter, indicating that for them the owner hired a diªer-

ent, more talented artist. For these walls the patron chose two pictures that complicate

the theme of the Greek-style symposium to a greater degree than the picture we have just

looked at.

On the north wall the artist has placed two couples on couches beneath the cover of an elegantly embroidered cloth canopy (plate 18). There are eight figures in all. A viewer

scanning the image from left to right would first notice a woman who sits at the edge of 

the left-hand couch and looks out of the picture as she raises a large cup to her lips. She

is a tibia (double oboe) player taking a break, her instrument clearly visible in her left hand.

A young woman stands behind her and turns to her in three-quarters view, her hair tied

with a ribbon, like her companion’s. Immediately to the right a hetaira in a yellow robe

languidly leans back on her left side as she kisses her male companion. She has lost her

left sandal, and her right arm dangles at the side of the couch.19 In her left hand she holds

a little crown of flowers; the man clasps her left wrist with his left hand.

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