This fresco from Pompeii is a clear example of domestic and popular religious devotion. It was part of the lararium of a house attached to a caupona (tavern), where it was located near the latrine. It represents the goddess Isis, whose cult was the most popular among the various Egyptian cults to spread throughout the Roman world, with worshippers at various social levels. This depiction illustrates the hybridization process between the goddess and other deities from the Graeco-Roman pantheon. Shown here, Isis in fact presents the attributes also of the goddess Fortuna – her cornucopia and rudder. The rudder refers both to her power over the changeability of fate and to her role as protectress of seafaring.
Shown smaller than the goddess, a naked young man completes the composition, crouching with his heels touching each other and his head seen in profile. Accompanied by two snakes, he is probably Isis’ son Harpocrates/Horus. A graffito inscription, cacator / cave malu(m), has been written above this smaller figure, a form of warning directed at the one acting so shamelessly. The graffito does not date from the same time as the painting and, in view of the position which Harpocrates is in, could have been intended as a mockery directed at the followers of Isis – an allusion made all the more poignant by the proximity of the fresco to the latrines. It could also be simply a warning not to defile the sacred space.