Pompeii - Brothel

Pompeii, Brothel. Direction.


This shows the direction to follow.

New finds: according to the magazine, Archeology Odyssey, March/April 2005, article " 'Daphne is Mine' " --  New Inscriptions from Pompeii's Lupanar, by research journalist, Judith Harris, the brothel at Pompeii is the only brothel from antiquity to be definitely identified.  There are some 136 graffiti, the work of the workers and the clients: some 53 gents and 29 ladies. "Fudita sum hic," declares one.  Look it up. I did what here?
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 The article notes that the prostitutes served both men and women. Equal opportunity pleasures. One, Mula, was a lady who was a "fututrice" -- acting the male role with women. This is not an unusual reference.  See article.
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Pompeii, cobble street, Italy

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Antonio Varone, then an archeologist with the "Superindendency" of Pompeii is cited for other references from antiquity to female-female activities. He notes a 1st century AD poem by Martial *; and that people could rent rooms like a motel at the Lupanar. What is the name?  From a she-wolf in heat, says the article, thus the lupus lupa. Other buildings in the area also fostered brothel activities.

Another issue, September-October 2002, describes three days of hot ash and cinders falling on the 2,000 Pompeiians who did not escape.  Death came by 200 mph winds, a "surge of super-heated gas." They were buried under 20 feet of debris.  With exposure, and insufficient funds for conservation, the site is at risk.


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* Martial.  First century AD poet, 40-104 AD, Celtic background from Bilbilis, Spain, moved to Rome and cultivated patronage there, including from emperors and others he flattered.  He was a master of the pun, the pithy saying, often ribald.  See Archeology Odyssey, "In the Here and Noww: The First Century AD poet Martiadfl wryly -- and tirelessly -- observes life in ancient Rome," September-October 2002 at p.42.  The following samples are not related to Pompeii, but to practices. See more on practices pornographic at the Naples Archeological Museum, including art and etc. from Pompeii. Archeology Odyssey has illustrations, September-October 2000 issue at p.18 ff. "Ancient Smut". Many were excavated beginning 250 years ago, but considered too racy for showing or publication.
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 Epigrams 1.90: http://www.archive.org/stream/martialepigrams01martiala/martialepigrams01martiala_djvu.txt
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XC

QUOD numquam maribus iunctam te, Bassa, videbam
quodque tibi moechum fabula nulla dabat,

omne sed officium circa te semper obibat
turba tui sexus, non adeunte viro,

esse videbaris, fateor, Lucretia nobis : 5

at tu, pro facinus, Bassa, fututor eras.

84

Translated at the same site (fair use of huge work)
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IN that I never saw you, Bassa, intimate with men,
and that no scandal assigned you a lover, but every
office a throng of your own sex round you performed
without the approach of man you seemed to me, I
confess, a Lucretia ; yet, Bassa oh, monstrous !

 "Monstrous" is not the translation elsewhere of "fututor eras" - do a search.  For Bassa, do a "find" at the Epigrams site.

Pompeii - buried in ash

The ancient world.

Techniques for art, living spaces, and the laundry

Pompeii. This is a city that death caught in mid life. See http://www.pompeiana.org/.

Pompeii, fresco, face

Frescoes remain visible, some in strikingly good condition.  The face remains vivid, although the rest of this fresco has faded.  The technique is a painting on wet plaster, see http:// www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/6981/fresco

The ruins show ordinary lives, rooms, doorways, gardens, doorways opening into more doorways, views of interior gardens.
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Pompeii, ruin of a house, many rooms
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Where there are shops, there are also refreshment places. liquid and snacks offered to the shoppers, social
places to go.


Laundrymen in Roman times had their own patroness:  the Goddess Minerva, symbolically shown as the owl.  Pompeii also had its commercial laundry, where soiled clothing was arranged over a wicker cone, and a smudge pot of burning sulphur set beneath. 

The laundry process.  Smelly.  See the magazine, Archeology Odyssey, March-April 2005 (this by way of update), see homesite at http://www.bib-arch.org/archaeology-odyssey.asp.  At page 56, learn that urinals outside the establishment collect donations from pissers-by.  That aromatic liquid is combined with potash from wood ashes, potassium carbonate; and hot water.  Pour into tub, add clothing, and pay (slaves?) laundry workers to tromple about like on grapes, then comes the rinse, wring and dry in the sun.

Fuller's earth, or a kind of absorbent clay, like kitty litter? degreases the fragile items. 

Then comes the carding, brushing up nap and then shearing it smooth again (razors on sweaters?).  Pressing was accomplished by a vise, like your husband's trouser press possibly. 

This is not an OSHA approved process.  The fumes and toxicity produced infections, breathing ailments.  Toga washing.  Not for the faint-hearted. 

How big is a toga?  Very big.  Perhaps 20 feet long, 10 feet wide.  Patricians donned pure white togas, but lower beings wore lower-maintenance off-white.  See "Going Clean", Togas Washed and Pressed, Archeology Odyssey.



We enjoy ruins, learning what the structures were. The common sense of old cultures - here are stepping stones to get across the street without mussing sandals in the muck, with space for wagon or chariot wheels in between. We are more alike than un-alike. Markets, art, recreation.