[Illustration: Fig. 169. Cupids as dealers in wine. Wall painting in the house of the Vettii.] Two of the pictures on the end wall are so damaged that it is not easy to make out the details. One of them, like that just described, presents a purely Roman subject--the festival of Vesta (Fig. 170). Cupids and Psyches are reclining at ease about a serving table in the shape of a deep platter with two handles, on which drinking vessels are seen; in the background are two asses, sacred to Vesta (p. 98). Some, at least, of the Cupid pictures could not have been taken from Greek originals. In the atrium also there was a black stripe containing Cupids similar to those already described, but the figures are not so well preserved. The most interesting scene represents a sacrifice to Fortuna. Cupids appear also riding and driving. Some are mounted on goats and engaged in a contest. One stands on a crab, guiding the ungainly creature with reins and plying the whip; another is similarly mounted on a lobster. A few are in chariots, the chariot in one case being drawn by two dolphins. In each division of the wall of the atrium near the bottom is the half-length figure of a child, painted on a dark red ground. The children are busied with vessels of all kinds, apparently intended for sacrifice. The seriousness of their task, the importance which they attach to their helpfulness, is finely expressed in the faces, which are individualized in the manner of a true artist. [Illustration: Fig. 170.--Cupids celebrating the festival of Vesta. Wall painting in the house of the Vettii.] We may dismiss the later paintings of the house with few words. In the fauces (_b_) are small monochrome panels containing a pair of deer, a cock fight, vases, and a wallet with a herald's staff, attributes of Mercury, who perhaps had a place among the Penates of the house. In the room at the left of the atrium (_e_) is a painting of Cyparissus, the youth beloved of Apollo, with his wounded deer on the ground near him; in another part of the room is the wrestling match between Pan and Eros. Among the figures seen in the architectural framework of the upper division of the wall is Zeus, sitting on his throne, represented as a youth, unbearded; Leda with the swan also appears, and Danaë holding out her robe to catch the golden rain. The direction of the owner's tastes is perhaps indicated by a painting in the peristyle, at the middle of the wall under the colonnade at the left. It contains a portrait, probably of an author; near by is a manuscript case with rolls of papyrus. [Illustration: PLATE IX.--A DINING ROOM IN THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII]