Roman Villa of Tellaro
The Villa del Tellàro is a rich suburban residence of the late Roman imperial age, located near the Oriented Natural Reserve of Vendicari .
The remains, found starting from 1971 , are located in a fertile agricultural area, are located slightly on the surface, but under an eighteenth-century farm, where the mosaic decorations are found. The geographical position of the villa is such as to be in the immediate vicinity of a river area, as in the case of the villa of Borgellusa in Avola, this allowed the goods produced to enter both sea and river trade routes.
The long and difficult exploration work, which lasted 20 years, made it possible to bring to light the central part of the ancient complex. This is articulated around a vast peristyle of about 20 meters on each side surrounded by a portico & nbsp; on which there are different rooms identified on the north and south sides. The section of the portico on the northern side has a mosaic pavement with laurel festoons that form circles and octagons with inflected sides including geometric and floral motifs and two other rooms overlook it which preserve the figured mosaics.
In the first of these two rooms the mosaic, unfortunately badly damaged, preserves a panel with the scene of the redemption of Hector's body . The scene depicts Ulysses, Achilles and Diomedes, identified thanks to the inscriptions in Greek, engaged in weighing the hero's corpse. The figure of Priam is lost. Hector's fragmentary body was on one side of the scales, while the gold of the ransom was on the other plate. This episode, not mentioned in Homer's Iliad, probably derives from a tragedy of Aeschylus.
In the second room, the mosaic floor presents a hunting scene . These scenes are loosely inspired and follow no schematic outline. Below is a scene with an open-air banquet among the trees and a female figure interpreted as the personification of Africa. The scenes in the second room recall the hunting mosaics of the Villa del Casale in Piazza Armerina, but with more stylized and two-dimensional figures, of uncertain proportions.
Based on numismatic evidence, the mosaics were made after the middle of the 4th century A.D..
