The excavations of the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum have revealed a vivid snapshot of the religious beliefs and practices of the people, right before the disaster of 79 AD. Both had been discovered by accident over 200 years ago, and have proven to be invaluable sources of information of ancient Roman society, yet it is religion and worship, in their grandeur and importance, that catch the eye most. Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as most other Roman provinces, were polytheist in faith, and appeared to have an abundance of cults dedicated to foreign deities, as well as temples and shrines dedicated to past emperors. Furthermore, they believed in smaller gods which guarded the household, and had deities covering every aspect of life, but it was the patron gods of the towns that had impressive temples dedicated to them. Moreover, reminders of death in the form of paintings and skulls found everywhere urged the people to live life to the full, and there was a belief that if conclamatio – a rite and ritual of burial, was not done correctly, the dead would live on as malevolent entities.
As both cities were polytheist in faith, Pompeii and Herculaneum had an abundance of cults and shrines dedicated to a few foreign deities. Commonly referred to as ‘mystery cults’, the uncovered evidence of the worship of Egyptian goddess Isis, and Greek god Dionysus, suggests that they were not as secretive as their name claims, and that they held a significance to their followers, who at first consisted of mostly women, slaves, and freedmen, but later achieved an important role in the society as nobles joined, and the cults prospered. Moreover, Mauiri, in 1939, made a find that widened the circle of foreign Gods worshipped in Pompeii. In the house of the Four Styles, he discovered an ivory statuette of Lakshimi, the Hindu Goddess of beauty, wealth, and fertility, whose