Banqueting room with preserved frescoes discovered among the ruins of Pompeii | Ital

A banquet room filled with well-preserved frescoes depicting characters inspired by the Trojan War has been discovered among the ruins of Pompeii in what has been described as one of the most astonishing discoveries ever made at the southern Italian archaeological site.

The 15-meter-long and six-meter-wide room was found in a former private residence on the Via di Nola, which was Pompeii's longest ancient street, during excavations in the Regio IX area of ​​the site.

The black room, so-called because of the color of its walls that were probably intended to mask the soot from burning oil lamps, was a refined setting for entertaining during pleasurable moments, experts said.

Its walls are decorated with artwork depicting Greek mythical characters, including one of Helen of Troy meeting Paris, the prince of Troy, for the first time. The fresco includes a dog and a Greek inscription that reads Alexandros, another name for the prince. According to Greek legend, the elopement of the couples sparked the Trojan War in the 12th century BC.

Another fresco depicts the Greek god Apollo trying to seduce the priestess Cassandra. In his attempts to seduce her, Apollo had given her the power to predict the future, but when she refused him, he cursed her so that no one would believe her predictions. As a result, she was unable to prevent the tragic events of a battle she had prophesied. After being raped during the capture of Troy, Cassandra ended up enslaved.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii's archaeological park, said the mythological figures had the clear function of entertaining guests and providing talking points during the holidays.

Mythological couples provided ideas for conversations about the past and life, only seemingly of a purely romantic nature, he said. In reality, they refer to the relationship between the individual and fate: Cassandra who can see the future but no one believes her, Apollo who sides with the Trojans against the Greek invaders but, being a god, cannot ensure victory, Helen and Paris who, despite their politically incorrect love affair, are the cause of the war, or perhaps just a pretext.

He added: People used to meet to eat after sunset; The flickering light of the lamps made the images seem to move, especially after a few glasses of good Campanian wine.

The artworks are of the third style, or decorated style, and date between 15 BC and 40-50 AD.

It's always difficult to judge quality, but what we see is a high degree of care for detail, expression and shading, Zuchtriegel said. This is very surprising, as is the subject of the works.

Meanwhile, the rooms' sophisticated mosaic floor features more than a million tiny white tiles.

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The room opens onto a courtyard with a long staircase leading to the first floor of the property, beneath which a large pile of building materials was found. On the stair arches, someone had drawn in charcoal two pairs of gladiators and what archaeologists said in a statement appears to be a large stylized phallus.

Excavations in Regio IX, a quarter of the city that had hosted a group of houses and workshops, have yielded many other discoveries since early February last year, including a house that contained a narrow bakery where it was believed that the people of slaves were imprisoned and used to produce bread.

The remains of three victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius AD 79 were found in one of the furnace rooms. A still life fresco resembling a pizza was also found on a wall in the corridor of the houses. In December, 13 Eastern-style statues were found in an upright position on what was probably a shelf in the hallway of a house. Archaeologists said the figures provided evidence of pagan rituals in Pompeii before the city was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius.

Pompeii is truly a treasure chest that never ceases to surprise and amaze us, because every time we dig, we find something beautiful and significant, said the Italian Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano.

The ruins of Pompeii were discovered in the 16th century, with the first excavations beginning in 1748. Pompeii is the second most visited archaeological site in the world.