Salomão parodiado: elementos judaicos na paisagem pompeiana

Abstract

From Pompeii, from the so-called House of the Doctor, comes three frescoes, dated from the 1st century, containing scenes starred by Pigmees. The paintings show: a fight between the little creatures and animals from the Nile; a banquet where some of the invited are entertained with sexual intercourse; and a judgement, where a very young child is upon an altar and woman cries to the judge. There have been several interpretations for this triptych, defending the main one the Alexandrian origin of its subjects. With some other researches before, we agree that the last panel depicts the biblical theme of «The Judgement of Solomon», but we also propose that one must read the three panels as being part of a decorative program, which pretends to show ethnic stereotypes of some of the Roman subdued people, like the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Jews.