Try-out: Colourful stone carpets.... (2)

The most famous mosaic of the Villa Casale is the floor where 10 ladies in bathing costumes (girls in bikinis) perform routines of the pentathlon.

A victorious girl stands with a laurel leaf in her hand while she puts a crown of roses on her head.

The mosaic is placed on top of an earlier geometric floor.

In detail: Girls are throwing a discus and running.

In the large dining room (triclinium) the floor shows the works of Heracles. As Heracles was the protector of Maximianus, the works symbolize the "works" of Maximianus himself.

Killing the lion....

A wounded giant....

Further on a half round the vestibule leads to private rooms for the children. It must have been a nice cool place, with a fountain and the floor depicting a fishing scene with cupids fishing with nets or just playing with fishes and ducks.

In the Small Circus, a child's version of the Circus at the baths, 4 chariots are pulled by different animals in a sort of race. The 4 chariots stand for the 4 seasons. Splashes of light spoiled the pictures...... so just one.

In one of the vestibules Eros ("reason") and Pan (the "wild") are fighting. Look at the table with the palms and the bags with each 22.000 denari (the prize for the winner).

The bedroom with the Hunt of the children. Boys hunting small animals. Girls picking roses. The rose was seen as a divine flower, protecting against witchcraft and evil.

Almost perfect is the mosaic in the bedroom of the lady of the house. Children are playing games on the "threshold" of the niche for the bed. The room is known for its "erotic scene". A scarcely clad lady with her lover right in the middle of the room.