Images of Music in Magna Graecia: The Tomb of the Diver at Poseidonia (5th Century BCE)

The Tomb of the Diver (480–470 BCE)—unearthed a kilometerand-half outside the walls of Poseidonia (Paestum) and today on display at the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale in Paestum—is unusual for its liminar location in the Tempa del Prete necropolis and for the uniqueness of its decoration among Greek tombs from the time. The tomb is made of five limestone slabs forming the four lateral walls and the roof. All five slabs were painted on the interior side using a fresco technique. The scene shows a symposium in which ten people are lying onklinai, and it recalls the Greek habit of meeting and entertaining, which was also practiced in the colonies of the West. Such visualization, showing the people linked by friendship and common interests and drinking wine in the presence of male or female players, had a strong social and political relevance. The decoration painted inside the tomb is unparalleled among the thousands of Greek tombs from the time, but it was well known in Etruria and in the regions inhabited by Etruscans in Campania, at the borders of Poseidonia. It appears that the two tradition have met here, because although the Tomb of the Diver is decorated inside, it has a very different overall form from the Etruscan tombs. It is a sarcophagus decorated only for the deceased, while Etruscan tombs consisted of a chamber accessible from outside where family members of the deceased were able to conduct periodic rites. The scene of the symposium seems to refer to happiness after death and to the continuation of life in all its happy and positive aspects. The image projects beyond death where a serene and youthful humanity prepares to reach a state of happiness in the afterlife. This happiness consists essentially in prolonging the pleasures of the earthly symposium, where the gift of Dionysos joins with the singing and the music. It is exceptional evidence of paintings, which helps us to understand how music is the greatest pleasure, even after death.