File:Drawings of 1st century CE Fresco fragments from Pompeii or Herculaneum depicting mythological scenes and a sphinx.jpg

English: Drawings of 1st century CE Fresco fragments from Pompeii or Herculaneum depicting mythological scenes and a sphinx

Translation of full plate description: "This first fresco is in such poor condition that one can barely make out the outlines of a figure, probably a man, seated on a stone and leaning against a column. The figure in the middle is again that of a man who, standing and holding a long bandage in his left hand, seems to be listening to the orders given to him by a third personage, Minerva, the helmet on her head, seated on a stone and near a door. We can see in this painting the expiation of Hercules cured by Minerva of the fury of which Megara and her sons had been victims (1). This is exactly the scene from Euripides in which Amphitryon, by order of Minerva, binds the sleeping son of Alcmene to a column (2). "In the second fragment, also mutilated, an old man seated on a throne, with diadem and scepter, presents his right hand to a young man standing before him. Behind the monarch, and as if in another room, we see a veiled woman conversing with a fourth figure armed with helmet and shield; on the other side of the painting, a horse is held by a squire conversing with a young girl. Many conjectures have been attempted to explain this scene: Peleus and Acastus, Bellerophon and Prœtus, Alcinous and Arete, have been proposed in turn, but without sufficient plausibility to fix uncertain minds. Our doubts are such that we must abstain.

"The bottom of the board is occupied by a fragment of architectural decoration. On a red background, a yellow cornice, loaded with palmettes and green festoons, and supported by a greyish column, is a sphinx with a gold collar and diadem, whose feet and face are the color of flesh, and red body mottled with brown. To this first cornice is attached another, in an inverted arch, of brown color, with yellow ornaments, and bearing a tiger." - Louis Barré, 1870