The Truth About Stuff
Rummaging through photos from a trip to Italy D and I took a few years back, I ran across photos of our day spent in the unearthed remains of Herculaneum outside Naples after Vesuvius lost its head. Of all the amazing things you can see in Herculaneum are the ways the Roman upper class of two millennia ago lived, and that at least one sculptor from that time had a bent sense of humor.
Years earlier, we had visited the Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaiʻi (aka the Big Island). We were there before the latest eruptions; the volcano was mostly just steaming, and the sulfurous clouds made for poor photography.
About the only curiosity was the abandoned house in a sea of black lava. Within sight of the black lava field we saw houses in patches of green looking to be still occupied— I imagine they’re gone now, though the attraction, all that royal blue ocean to the horizon was understandable.
Though, unlike the relatively unpopulated Hawaiian island, what lay in the path of Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 AD, besides the better known ruins of Pompeii, was the seaside vacation town of Herculaneum facing the Gulf of Naples. Herculaneum was a moneyed town, evidenced by the surviving artwork, frescoes and mosaics, as well as statuary. In a previous blog, I included a number of the photos taken that day: Herculaneum
What started this piece was finding the following in amongst the other photos. The original sculpture resides in the British Museum — the Brits always coveting other countries’ artwork. The BBC website has the following description: “This AD 1–79 marble statuette depicts an undignified Hercules relieving himself while under the influence of Bacchus, the wild god of wine.”
I don’t understand what’s so undignified; he’s got a monster’s skin slung over one shoulder and the dude isn’t even peeing on himself.
