SITES IN PULA
The remains of a lavish town house (domus) were found in 1958/59 on what was once the main street of the Roman colony of Pola, not far from the forum. The find was made in the course of construction work on a new building, during the removing of the concrete floor of a cinema hall destroyed by bombing in World War II. The dining room (triclinium) of the third phase of this domus—actively inhabited for centuries—next to the portico of the peristyle, was furnished with marble wall cornices and coverings, frescoes, and a polychrome mosaic with geometric and figural patterns. The mosaic in the dining room is divided into two equally large fields, one designating the space for couches and a table, and the other for entertainers, actors, musicians, and dancers who amused the guests. The figural representations in the southern field, with a grid of hexagons, set in trapezoids along the edge, are limited to fish, a bird, dolphins, and a pair of confronted dolphins with an anchor in the centre. The northern field is divided into nine rectangles, of which eight at the edges contain rhombuses or complex motifs incorporating vine tendrils.
At the centre is a scene from Greek mythology depicting the punishment of Dirce, a lesson in violent retribution for misdeeds and the punishment awaiting a disobedient woman in a patriarchal society. The twins Amphion and Zethus, sons of the god Zeus and the mortal Antiope, take revenge on Dirce for abusing and persecuting their mother by having a bull to tear her apart. Dirce, wife of the Theban king, banished the pregnant Antiope, who was then forced to abandon her newborn twins. When they grew up, Amphion and Zethus learned that Antiope was their true mother and decided to cruelly punish the evil Dirce. After killing Dirce, they conquered Thebes by force, killed the king, Dirce's husband, and together became the kings of Thebes.
Dirce is depicted in the mosaic as an immoral and dissolute half-naked bacchante with Dionysian attributes. The Dionysian cult is represented by a vine at the top of the scene, a tympanum, and a thyrsus. To the left of Dirce lies a tympanum, a percussion instrument consisting of skin stretched over a round frame with hanging bells. The tympanum was used in Dionysian festivals and rituals. At Dirce's feet lies a thyrsus, the Dionysian staff, topped by a pine cone as symbolic of eternal life, and ribbons symbolizing devotion to the cult. The polychrome mosaic is of late 2nd or 3rd century date.
