page_title: Foreign influences on Pompeii
section_title: The Three Graces Fresco
hierarchical_section_title: Foreign influences on Pompeii / Greek influences on Pompeii / Art / The Three Graces Fresco
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Affresco romano con le Tre Grazie, rinvenuto a Pompei (IV, insula occidentalis), oggi al Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (inv. 9231). English: from Pompeii, Regio IV, Insula Occidentalis, The Three Graces, 1st-century BC-1st century AD, Fresco, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (inv. 9231).
context_page_description: Several non-native societies had an influence on Ancient Pompeian culture. Historians’ interpretation of artefacts, preserved by the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, identify that such foreign influences came largely from Greek and Hellenistic cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt. Greek influences were transmitted to Pompeii via the Greek colonies in Magna Graecia, which were formed in the 8th century BC. Hellenistic influences originated from Roman commerce, and later conquest of Egypt from the 2nd century BC.
  Specifically, these cultures contributed to the development of Pompeii’s art, architecture and religious spheres. For instance, Greek influences can be identified in the Alexander Mosaic, horse-shoe shaped theatres and Pompeii’s adoption of the Greek pantheon of gods. Examples of Egyptian influences can be found in the Nile Mosaic, garden art in the Villa of Julia Felix and the Cult of Isis.
context_section_description: Discovered in the House of Titus Dentatus Panthera (on south wall of tablinum), the Three Graces fresco depicts the Graces dancing naked in a circle while holding sprigs of myrtle and wearing wreaths. The Graces (also known as the Charities) were minor goddesses of Greek mythology.
caption: The Three Graces mosaic, House of Titus Dentatus Panthera
exif: {}