From the USF Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx) Collection

The mosaic is disfigured by large gaps, but the scene can be recognized. This mosaic is enclosed by a laurel-leaf frame running along the entire perimeter of the room. It depicts Orpheus, a mythical singer and poet, dressed in a large drapery. He turns his gaze to the distance, as if to seek poetic inspiration. The sweet sound that his zither spreads, of which only a small tract remains, attracts animals of all kinds near him. It seems to depict a section from Ovid’s Metamorphosis 142-143: “Such was the wood attracted by the poet, who sat in the maze of a flock of beasts and birds”. This mosaic puts the diaeta of Orpheus in dialogue with the room of Arione (41) by following the same apsidal structure. In both rooms, the triumph of virtue and reason over animal violence is recognized.

Method: captured by Techne S.A.S on behalf of University of South Florida and in partnership with the University of Catania, processed in Agisoft Metashape.