HARPOCRATES AND AN ALTAR, 46-79 CE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI
This fresco from the House of the Tuscan Columns in Herculaneum was found in Bourbon tunnelling in 1748 which broke through walls and left devastation in its wake. This may have come from a little shrine area in the kitchen. At centre is a cylindrical altar with a huge snake curving up it, its frightening head devouring the eggs left for it. Beside the serpent, now no longer visible, was written "GENIVS HVIVS LOCI MONTIS", "the spirit of this place of the mountain". In fact the snake was the embodiment of the "genius" and snakes could be kept in Roman houses. Approaching the altar from the left is a little boy with his finger held to his lip. In his other hand he holds a leafy branch. This is Harpocrates, "Horus as a child", son of Isis and Serapis. His finger at his lips derives from the Egyptian hieroglyph for "child", but as Harpocrates took on a different identity to that of Horus, the powerful protector of the pharaoh, this gesture was misinterpreted as a call for silence, and Harpocrates became the god of secrecy. Here perhaps he is telling the kitchen staff not to gossip about the owners.
For #FrescoFriday we're back in #Herculaneum via #Naples, where a small cult #fresco of the house serpent eating the eggs offered to it also has an image of wee #Harpocrates, the syncretic #Roman and #Egyptian god of #silence. What happens in the #cubiculum stays in the cubiculum!