Splendid frescoes inspired by Trojan War discovered in Pompeii

A new banquet hall with stunning frescoes inspired by the Trojan War has been unearthed by archaeologists in Pompeii, the ancient city destroyed and buried under ash by the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 in southern Italy. According to experts, the recently uncovered frescoes are among the greatest to have emerged at the renowned archaeological site. One of the frescoes shows the Greek god Apollo seeking to seduce the priestess Cassandra while the other depicts Prince Paris meeting Helen of Troy. The fresco also features a dog and a Greek inscription reading “Alexandros,” Paris’ other name. The elopement of Paris and Helen was what triggered the Trojan War in the 12th century BC, according to Greek legend. The frescoes adorn the towering walls of what was once a 15-meter-long, 6-meter-wide vast banquet hall. The walls were primarily painted black, and the figures in the murals seem to emerge from the shadows. The room was the winter dining room in the mansion of a wealthy family and it was in this room that the hosts ate and conversed with their guests. The “black room” was excavated next to an inner courtyard and an inner staircase, on which there is a charcoal drawing depicting two gladiators and a phallus.