Phallic cymbal
The tintinnabulum or wind chime is a phallus with wings, lion’s feet and hanging bells.
Flaying a dangerous game
One of several surviving sculptures of the satyr Marsyas. He is bound to a tree and flayed after losing a musical contest with the god Apollo.
Snakes alive!
This moving marble sculpture shows Trojan priest Laocoon and his sons struggling to escape from snakes sent by Poseidon to strangle them.
Urine trouble now…
This AD 1-79 marble statuette depicts an undignified Hercules relieving himself while under the influence of Bacchus, the wild god of wine.
Cheers!
This fragment of a wall painting from Pompeii shows a man reclining to drink. Violence, sex and indulgence pervaded Roman culture.
Stag do
A typically violent work, from Herculaneum, AD 1-79, showing two tense stags whose flesh is being clawed by hunting dogs.
Pan sexual
One of the most infamous art works in antiquity, this statue of Pan and a female goat was uncovered in Herculaneum in 1752.
The Highlanders 