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Posted on 09/22/2026 5:07:32 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Romans may have loved their pets just as much as we do, yet with no internet on which to upload photos of their furry companions, the ancients had to make do with mosaic portraits of their beloved animals laid into their villa floors.
An extraordinary example of one such pet-themed artwork has recently been discovered in what was an affluent household in Adramytteion, located beneath the modern settlement of Ören in Türkiye.
Dated to the late second or early third century CE, the Roman-era residence consists of three mosaic-paved halls set around a central atrium.
Within the north hall - which acted as a reception room for visitors - archaeologists found an elaborate floor mosaic consisting of 15 panels, each of which depicts real or mythological animals and monsters. At the center of the arrangement, for instance, is an image of the head of the gorgon Medusa, which may have served to ward off unwanted spirits or bad omens.
Among the other creatures portrayed in the panels are a peacock and a leopard, as well as "a nude, short-statured male with an enlarged head and emphatically animated movement."
According to a forthcoming study penned by archaeologist Hüseyin Özgen, an accompanying inscription identifies this character as a pygmy, probably from Egypt. In Roman art, scenes of the Nile often included 'pygmies' as the mythologized imaginings of a foreign, exotic territory.
(Excerpt) Read more at iflscience.com ...
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The mosaic consists of 15 panels, each depicting a real or mythological creature. Image courtesy of Adramytteion Research Archive.Hüseyin Murat Özgen
Emerald the cat is depicted on an appropriately colored pillow. Image courtesy of Adramytteion ResearchHüseyin Murat Özgen
Ocean the dog was probably a household pet. Image courtesy of Adramytteion Research Archive.Hüseyin Murat Özgen
Ocean’s 15?.................
I agree, Ocean was mostly if not totally a house pet.
He has a sort of “Dad Body”, not sleek and muscular like hunting dogs are expected to be.
He’s portrayed, uh, ‘rampant’ too.
ping!
Thanks for the thread!
For anyone else curious...
zmaragdinus, zmaragdina, zmaragdinum
adjective
Definitions:
emerald-green
Age: In use throughout the ages/unknown
Area: All or none
Geography: Greece
Frequency: Having only single citation in Oxford Latin Dictionary or Lewis + Short
Source: “Oxford Latin Dictionary”, 1982 (OLD)
Always mosaics, never a word about larrysaics or curlysaics.
Have to wonder — was the cat just a real gem, or actually green?
This kind of post is one of the main reasons I absolutely love Free Republic!
Kitty was named for his or her gem green eyes, I’ll bet.
I love Roman mosaics.
Tnanks, SunkenCiv.
Thanks! In the past I've been turned off by the IFLS website name, but an earlier topic was sourced there, and now I have that one, this one, and three more on deck. Beats having the system reject source URLs because they end in a slash.
That’s probably it. Looks like the cat had white fur.
My pleasure!
Looks like the cat had white fur.
And it got on everything !
There’s a mosaic in Pompeii (or one of the other towns that got buried by the eruption) showing the dog on a chain, and in Latin, “beware the dog”.
https://search.brave.com/search?q=pompeii+mosaic+beware+the+dog
Dogs have owners, cats have staff.
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