The ancient Roman city of Pompeii has been frequently featured in literature and popular culture since its modern rediscovery. Pompeii was buried under 4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.
Audio productions
Rexford (Rex) Phillips, a.k.a. "Rexino Mondo", wrote, sang, narrated and produced a 210-minute audiobook entitled Messenger From Pei, in 1992.[citation needed]
Louis Untermeyer wrote the short story, "The Dog of Pompeii", which centered on a blind orphan boy and his dog during the last days before Vesuvius erupted.[2]
The story of the manga NG Life (serialized from 2005 to 2009) revolves around a Japanese student who has apparently retained his memories of having been a gladiator in Pompeii, who lost his wife in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
In Daniel Godfrey's New Pompeii (Titan Books, 2016), the population of ancient Pompeii is transported through time to the present day and into a replica of their town.
In Shaey Sinclair's upcoming book series, The Earthbound Chronicles, a trio of witches travel back in time from the present day to Pompeii in 79 AD and get caught in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. [citation needed]
2014 – Pompeii a German-Canadian film set during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Allusions to Pompeii
Vesuvius is the name of the fictional glam metal band in the 2008 comedy The Rocker, which produces a hit song called "Pompeii Nights", depicting a glorified but grim version of the disaster.
Games
In the PC/Xbox 360 game Darkest of Days (2010), the player fights through the streets of Pompeii as the volcano is erupting, in an effort to save "The Father of Time".
In the PC game Imperator: Rome, an event occurs about the eruption of the volcano, causing heavily negative effects on Pompeii and nearby cities.
In the story arc "The Lovers in the Pax Romana" from the iPhone/Android game "Magia Record", several Magical Girls from the 21st century travel to Pompeii to correct the timeline with the help of a Roman Magical Girl called Amaryllis.
In 1769, the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited the Temple of Isis, which had been recently unearthed. His visit and the memories of the site inspired him 20 years later in his composition of The Magic Flute (1791).
In October 1971, the band Pink Floyd performed at the vacant 2,000-year-old amphitheater in Pompeii, to an audience composed of film crew including camera operators. This performance, including some exterior shots of the ruins, was released as part of a movie entitled Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972). In 2017, band guitarist David Gilmour returned to perform a concert in the amphitheatre for about 3,000 people.[5]
Polish singer, songwriter, poet and author, Jacek Kaczmarski wrote two songs about Pompeii. The first, "Pompeja" (1978) depicts the last moments of Pompeii and later excavations of it, but allegorically also refers to Polish cities like Warsaw or Gdańsk, and talks about ignorance of warning signs and voices in times of crisis. Kaczmarski actually wrote this song before seeing Pompeii, which he visited a year later after winning a trip to Italy in the Students' Song Festival in Cracov in 1978 (or 1979?).[citation needed] The second song, "Pompeja Lupanar" (or just "Pompeja II") (1980), talks about live of various peoples in Pompeii before the Vesuvius eruption.[6]
The German progressive rock band Triumvirat produced a concept album, "Pompeii" (1977), telling the story of both the 62 and 79 AD eruptions of Vesuvius.
"American Pompeii" is the eighth track on the Anthrax album Stomp 442 (1995).
"This Was Pompeii" is the name of a song by Dar Williams about the city, on the album Mortal City (1997).
"Pompeii" is a song by Seattle-based progressive rock band Gatsbys American Dream. It is the second track of Volcano (2005), and is based loosely around the story of Pompeii.
"Pompeii am Götterdämmerung" is a song by the band The Flaming Lips on their album At War with the Mystics (2006). The song narrates the tale of a couple who, in reaction to their families' rejection of their love, commit suicide together by simultaneously jumping into a volcano.[citation needed]
Frank Ticheli composed a song entitled "Vesuvius" (2007), which depicts the last days of Pompeii.[7]
Gordon Downie, the lead singer of the Canadian band The Tragically Hip, refers to a dying family member as "the rock-plug for all of us" and says, "in the conduit of Vesuvius you were far more unifying than you know" in the song "Toronto #4" (2010).[8]
Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice (2010), the seventh studio album by the Finnish rock band HIM, features a song entitled "Like St. Valentine" in which one line reads: "Like the couple from Pompeii, our drama's put on display".
The British band Bastille released a single named "Pompeii" (2013) with lyrics that reference the destruction of the city. It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart.[citation needed]
"Pompeiii" is a song by Marcus Orelias, on the album 20s A Difficult Age, the video also featured footage from Pompeii. (2017)[9]
TV
Pompeii is featured in many television biographies and documentaries.
It is also featured in ABC's television series called Roman Mysteries.
Entertainment
Pompeii was supposedly fueled with supernatural energy. The paranormal reality TV show Destination Truth feature this historic land to prove a paranormal presence roams the ancient city.
In The Simpsons episode "The Italian Bob" the family visits the remnants of Pompeii where Lisa refers to the numerous victims whose bodies were preserved by the ash in the position they were in the moment they died. One group of plaster cast victims include a family exactly resembling the Simpsons with a Homer look-alike strangling a Bart look-alike. The couch gag from "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" is also a reference to Pompeii.
Pompeii featured in the second episode of the fourth series of revived BBC drama series Doctor Who, named "The Fires of Pompeii", where it transpires that the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble caused the eruption in order to prevent the Earth from being taken over by an alien race known as the Pyroviles.[10]
Within the universe of the Highlander franchise, immortals are not allowed to take heads on holy ground. According to the character Joe Dawson in the episode Little Tin God, there is a story that tells of how two immortals engaged on holy ground resulted in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
In the television series Forever Knight, vampire Lucien Lacroix was a Roman general who returns home to Pompeii to find his daughter Divia has become a vampire. He is turned into a vampire by his daughter during the fall of Pompeii.
Apocalypse Pompeii (2014) TV film – Mount Vesuvius erupts when a family visits Pompeii. A Former Special Ops commando visits the ancient city on business with his wife and daughter and become trapped as Mt. Vesuvius erupts with massive force. While his family fights to survive the deadly onslaught of heat and lava, he enlists his former teammates in a daring operation beneath the ruins of Pompeii.
Pompeii's destruction is depicted in the Disney+ series Loki, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the episode "The Variant", an alternative version of the character Loki warns the people of Pompeii about Mount Vesuvius' coming eruption. The villagers at first dismiss his warnings until the eruption starts, while Agent Mobius notices that Loki's actions did not affect the timeline.
In the Shadow of Vesuvius (1997), a National Geographic special that explores the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, interviews archaeologists, and examines the events leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius.[citation needed]
Pompeii: The Last Day (2003), an hour-long drama produced for the BBC that portrays several characters (with historically attested names, but fictional life-stories) living in Pompeii, Herculaneum and around the Bay of Naples, and their last hours, including a fuller and his wife, two gladiators, and Pliny the Elder. It also portrays the facts of the eruption. It is heavily influenced by Edward Bulwer-Lytton's book The Last Days of Pompeii (see Pompeii in popular culture#Books and other printed works), which – while being responsible for the popularization of Pompeii in Western culture – has been dismissed for its lack of historical credibility. To give some historical reality to the characters, the death throes of the characters portrayed are based on actual skeletons and bodies found during excavations in the 18th century, while Pliny the Elder's death is shown as based on the accounts of how he actually died. Although in the story the narrator uses reports that Pliny the Elder died from inhaling the fumes of the final and greatest pyroclastic surge, as many reports have found, he most likely had suffered a heart attack or stroke.[citation needed]
The Discovery Place museum in Charlotte, North Carolina held an exhibit of "A Day in Pompeii".[15][citation needed]
The Naples National Archaeological Museum from October 2007 to March 2008 held an exhibition called "Alma Tadema e la nostalgia dell'antico" or "Alma Tadema and the longing for the antique",[16] showing how Lawrence Alma-Tadema and other painters represented the ruins of Pompeii in their pictures. A book of this exhibition has also been published.[17]
The theme park Busch Gardens Williamsburg features an attraction entitled "Escape from Pompeii", which carries riders through the city as flaming ruins topple around them, ending in a 50-foot plunge.[18]
Pompeii is the title of an Aristocrat Mark VI slot machine. It features a volcano wild symbol which erupts, as well as a free games scatter feature sounding "Veni, Vidi, Vici!"[citation needed]
English comedian Al Murray's running gag about Italy's being lazy includes him saying, "Pompeii, clean up for God's sake!"[citation needed]
Pompeii!! is an original vaudeville-style musical in two acts, written by Max Hartman, Michael Federico, and Cameron Cobb that premiered at Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, Tx.
^Ticheli, Frank. Vesuvius by Frank Ticheli: Concert band. Suitable for high school, community, and college bands. Grade 4. Conductor score and set of parts. Duration 9:00. Manhattan Beach Music (MH.0-931329-15-9). ISBN0-931329-15-9.
^"Toronto #4". The Tragically Hip. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
^Shelley Hales; Joanna Paul (2011). Pompeii in the Public Imagination from Its Rediscovery to Today. Oxford University Press. p. 367. doi:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199569366.001.0001. ISBN978-0199569366. The recent UK Channel 5 programme, transmitted live from Herculaneum on 29 June 2006...
^Eugenia Querci, Stefano De Caro, Alma Tadema e la nostalgia dell'antico (Milan 2007) 312 p., ISBN978-88-370-5336-9.
^Entertainment, SeaWorld Parks &. "Escape from Pompeii". seaworldparks.com. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
External links
Romano-Campanian Wall-Painting contains chapters on: The Neoclassicising of Pompeii; Tourism, Romanticism and Pompeii; and Roman Wall-Painting and Film Culture
