House of the Vettii hand and holds a chisel in his left, placed against the wooden beam. The final mythological scene in the north triclinium is Dionysus discovering Ariadne on the south wall. The scene of Dionysis discovering Ariadne was a popular theme in Greek vase paining. It depicts the moment Dionysus discovers Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos and Pasiphae. After being abandoned by Theseus, the slayer of the Minotaur, Dionysus finds her sleeping on the island of Naxos and weds her. In this scene Ariadne lays on a large leopard skin, with her back to the viewer. She wears gold armlets and
Greek hero cult Greek hero cult Hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, "hero" (, ) refers to a man who fought (on either side) during the Trojan War. By the historical period, however, the word came to mean specifically a "dead" man, venerated and propitiated at his tomb or at a designated shrine, because his fame during life or his unusual manner of death gave him power to support and protect the living. A hero was more than human but less than a god, and various kinds of supernatural figures came to be