And there's been a lot of speculation what was behind the purple cloth.
Is it an erect phallus?
Very possibly, that's exactly what it is.
It would have been kept again, in this basket, that was underneath here.
Although the speculation has been so wild
that we even have a scholar who has written an article suggesting that the
profile of this particular obje, this particular cloth here, is so similar to
the profile of Mount Vesuvius that what we have here is a reference instead
to Mount Vesuvius and to the fact that this scene takes place in Pompeii.
It's a very intriguing idea, I think it's, I can't imagine that it's correct.
But nonetheless it gives you some sense
of the kind of scholarship and some of the speculation there has been about
what is actually going on here. But it seems to be the the
covering in this particular case, and possibly about to reveal
the secret, the most important secret item in this cult.
Over here we see another fascinating figure.
We've gotten to another corner and we
can see that she straddles the empty red space in that corner.
A figure of a woman who is winged; the
only winged figure that we see in these scenes.
You can see her large stretched, outstretched wings behind her.
She is naked from the waist up.
She's wearing a fantastic skirt. I love this skirt.
With with, she has with purple around the waist and purple at the hem and then a,
a wonderful, it flips out, it's brown, and it flips out, and
it matches these great tall boots brown boots that she also wears.
And she's sort of on her tippy-toes as she as she herself
puts up one of her hands, perhaps again to ward something off.
We don't know what.
But with the other hand, what's most important,
she has her hand behind her back, and she's
about to bring a whip, which you can see, down on the back of one of the initiates.
And as we look across the corner, again the artist masterfully
taking the corner into consideration in his design vis-a-vis the content.
And the execution we see the way in which
that whip is about to come down on the back
of one of these initiates, who's kneeling and has her
head in the lap of a woman who protects her.
Here is the scene.
So again we see the figure, the winged figure with the whip.
We see the object of the whipping this initiate here, she is kneeling.
She is in the lap in part of a woman who seems to protect her.
Or try to protect her.
The woman who is trying to protect her, her eyes
are very wide, she is staring up at the winged figure.
Imploringly, it seems almost imploring her,
please, you know, enough, enough, please stop.
And she is, she is very nurturing, to the young girl who is
undergoing this initiation as she pats her on the head as you can see here.
An incredible view of this woman.
The way in which the upper part of her body is exposed for the whipping.
The rest of it covered in a voluminous purple mantle as you can see here.
Also figures to her right a naked woman who is
