| Picture shows the fresco and stucco of Gragnano in Villa Carmiano - "Lararium". This is lararium panel consists of a niche showing Minerva, an important Roman goddess, equivalent to the Greek Athena. Described as the "goddess of a thousand works" by Ovid, she was believed to be the inventor of music, and the goddess of wisdom, of warriors, crafts and medicine.
Below the niche, on a yellow background, a big good-natured snake moves in a rich setting of vegetation toward a small marble altar upon which there are votive offers: among them there is an egg, the symbol of fertility. The snake is a typical presence in Pompeian shrines of this kind, symbolising the presiding divinity of the house and the regenerating power of the housemaster.
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