Address: Insula 9
Area: 1281 square meters
Rooms: 24
House of Meleager, located on the street Via Mercurio and was first excavated in 1829, then again in 1836 and 1966. Behind its simple facade hides the interior inherent in Samnitsky houses. It is richly decorated with frescoes of the first, third and fourth styles. The houses of Meleagra are named after one of these frescoes, depicting Meleagru and Atlanta.
The corridor (a), which opens on the east side of Via di Mercurio,
is decorated with fourth-style frescoes with red panels divided by
architectural motifs above the lower black frieze. The central panel
on each side depicts a mythological scene. On the left side (in the
north) there is a very faded painting by Meleager and Atalanta,
after which the whole house of Meleagra was named, and on the
southern side, the painting by Demeter and Hermes. The corridor has
a small black and white mosaic floor with a geometric pattern.
The atrium - living room (b) has a central marble basin for
collecting rainwater with a rectangular marble table at the east
end. Due to limited space, the House of Meleager has an irregular
layout with a peristyle, an internal garden on the north side of the
atrium. In the atrium itself there are several rooms located around
three sides. This part of the house is in poor condition. Only
fragments of ornaments are preserved today. When the house was
excavated in the 19th century, the best frescoes that adorn the
atrium were removed and can now be seen in the National Museum in
Naples. Mythological scenes included images "Dido" and "Hephaestus"
and "Tethys".
The best preserved of the rooms, located around
the atrium, represent the room-cubiculum (c) in the north-west
corner. The room is decorated with frescoes in the fourth style with
blue panels with fantastic architecture over a low dark red
decorated frieze. The central panels depict mythological scenes
(long removed), while the side panels depict simple figures of
heroes and deities. The upper zone depicts human figures set among
fantastic architecture with birds and small paintings on a white
background. From the room one could get into both the atrium living
room and the peristyle courtyard.
In the large room (d) in
the southwest corner of the atrium there is a staircase that leads
to the upper floor. Today, almost nothing has survived from the
private chambers of the House of Meleager. This room, together with
the room-kubula (e) and the triclinium-bedroom (f), is in a
semi-destructive state with several preserved remains of gypsum.