DRAFT

House of the Nymphs (Maison des Nymphes)

Author: Amina-Aïcha Malek

Contributor: Xue Xia

Permalink: https://roman-gardens.github.io/test-drafts/id/f1728557d2/

Published: 2021-04-21

Modified: 2025-09-16

Dates

Unspecified

Garden Description

This large house (1500m²) laid-out around a peristyle-garden is known for its mosaic pavements figuring Homeric scenes. The peristyle is entered from the S. The N wing had a vast oecus-triclinium bordered on both sides by two apartments that each had two rooms and a passage to a pseudo-atrium (Plan view, Fig.1).

The peristyle was trapezoidal in shape (8.29 x 9 x 16. 15 m) and was bordered by 12 columns. Four porticos, 5m wide, enclosed the garden. The semicircular pool facing the oecus-triclinium, that projected into the garden was paved with a mosaic depicting a mask of Ocean among fishes and had an inscription "NYMFARUM DOMUS" quoting a passage from Virgil's Aeneid. According to the excavator, J.-P. Darmon, a row of broken amphoras that had served as planting pots were found along the central axis of the garden facing the oecus and the basin (Fig.2)

Plans

Fig.1: Plan of the House of the Nymphs.
Credit: (Darmon, J.P., 1980, p. 9, pp. 85-6 et p. 146.)

Images

Fig.2: Photographic view of the garden. (?)

Fig.3: View of the basin of the garden peristyle of the House of the Nymphs.
Credit: (Malek, A.-A., 2018, fig. 12.11A)

Fig.4: Detail of the basin with the inscription Nymfarum Domus.
Credit: (Malek, A.-A., 2018, fig. 12.11B)

Bibliography

Bullo, S., Ghedini, F., Amplissimae atque ornatissimae domus: l'edilizia residenziale nelle città della Tunisia romana, Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 2003, p. 179-182. (worldcat)
Darmon, J.P., Nymfarum domus, Les pavements de la maison des Nymphes à Néapolis (Nabeul, Tunisie) et leur lecture, Leiden, 1980, p. 9, pp. 85-6 et p. 146. (worldcat)
Malek, A.-A., "Entre jardin et mosaïque: La verticalité et le merveilleux dans la vie quotidienne", in La Maison Gréco-romaine IX, Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome n°352, Rome, 2005, p. 1335-1346. (worldcat)
Malek, A.-A., "Mosaic and nature : "Cultural allusions to Nature in the Roman Domus", in Gardens of the Roman Empire, Volume II, eds., W. F. Jashemski, K. Gleason, A-A Malek, K. Hartswick, Cambridge University Press., NY, 2018, pp. 333-336, fig. 12.11A. (worldcat)