Gladiators and circus horses in the Iliad frieze in Pompeii's Casa di D. Octavius Quartio?

Abstract

The only three surviving frescoes from the Roman world to depict a series of episodes from Homer's Iliad in continuous frieze format are all found on a single street in Pompeii. They were published in 1953 in V. Spinazzola's Pompei alla luce degli scavi nuovi di Via dell’Abbondanza (anni 1910-1923), vol. 2, under the editorship of S. Aurigemma, whose detailed descriptions and interpretation of the iconography and epigraphy have remained largely unchallenged. Relatively poorly preserved, they exhibit a puzzling interplay between their iconography, epigraphy and the Homeric text, and even the chronology of the epic itself. Each of the Iliad friezes, like the Odyssey frescoes in the Vatican Museums, in parts reflect close adherence to the text of their respective epics, yet each contains details which do not derive from the Homeric account: some alter it in subtle ways, noticeable only to those who know their Homer well, but there are also extra-Homeric figural scenes and painted epigraphy in the form of labels which, although traditionally considered to be errors made by an ill-educated artist or even evidence of the use of hypotheses of the Iliad and Odyssey, must derive from some external source. This paper seeks to show that in the Iliad frieze of the Casa di D. Octavius Quartio it may be possible to establish the source of the extra-Homeric insertions: the details appear to refer not only to the erudite realm of Homeric epic, but also to the thrill and violence of contemporary arenas.