Villa of Tiberius and the Grotto site features

The site at Sperlonga is a Roman villa on the shore with a natural sea cave at the end of it, and the cave is the architecture. A circular pool took up most of the grotto, connecting to a larger pool outside, with a rectangular island in the fish pond where the dining couches stood -- under a tent or light pavilion, since the back of the cave would have been dim even at midday and the whole thing was presumably lit artificially after dark.

The grotto

Four groups of sculpture stood around that pool and they were arranged to be read from the couches. At the back of the cave and to the right, the blinding of Polyphemus, dominated by the huge figure of the drunk cyclops lying down. Forward of that, on the island in the middle of the circle, Odysseus's ship under attack by Scylla. At the sides of the opening to the outer pool, two smaller groups: to the left a "Pasquino group" of Odysseus carrying the dead Achilles off the battlefield, and to the right Odysseus about to betray Diomedes after the two of them have stolen the Palladium out of Troy. In a niche in the cliff face above the entrance, Ganymede being carried up by Zeus's eagle.

The cave was dressed as well as filled: artificial stalactites and encrustations, a coloured opus sectile floor, and in a "room" to the left of the Polyphemus group a set of theatrical masks mounted on the walls and designed to be lit from behind.

The museum

Built on the site in 1963 to hold the reconstructed sculptures and the other finds from the villa. Many elements appear twice over in the same room -- once as the pieced-together original fragments, once as a cast reconstruction filled out with educated guesswork.

The blinding of Polyphemus

At the rear of the grotto on the right, dominated by the enormous figure of the cyclops lying drunk while Odysseus and his men go to work. The marble struts left between the sculpted elements to strengthen them run everywhere -- even the toes of Polyphemus are connected by them -- which has been used to argue the pieces were carved off-site, perhaps on Rhodes, and needed protecting in transit.

The Scylla group

Odysseus's ship attacked by the monster, set on an island in the middle of the circular pool so that the shipwreck happened in the water in front of the diners.

The Pasquino group

Odysseus carrying the body of Achilles from the battlefield, on the left of the pool's opening. The type is named after the battered Hellenistic group still standing in a street in Rome; the Sperlonga version differs in details but is close enough to be an adaptation of the same original.

The theft of the Palladium

On the right of the opening: Odysseus about to betray Diomedes, after the two have stolen the Trojan cult image during the siege. Set opposite the Achilles group, it is the other half of the argument the whole ensemble makes -- the four groups show the different sides of Odysseus, his courage and his perfidy, pushed further apart than Homer pushes them.

Ganymede and the eagle

In a niche in the cliff face above the grotto entrance, Ganymede carried up by the eagle that is Zeus in disguise -- apparently of the same period as the Odysseus groups, and placed where it is seen on the way in rather than from the couches.

The masks room

A space to the left of the Polyphemus group with theatrical masks mounted on its walls, made to be lit from behind.

The reconstructions

Cast reconstructions of the large groups, made for the museum opened in 1963 and described by the classicist Mary Beard as "creative reinventions". Standing beside the original fragments, they are the most honest thing in the building: you can see exactly how much is known and how much is inference.