House of the Tragic Poet, Ancient Roman villa in Pompeii, Italy

The House of the Tragic Poet is a Roman villa in Pompeii, Italy, known for its floor mosaics and wall paintings. The building includes several rooms around a courtyard with columns, where remains of decoration and room layout are still visible today.

Antonio Bonucci uncovered the house in November 1824, buried since the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Its painted panels in the Fourth Pompeian style and its mosaics, more than twenty in all, drew the attention of scholars and writers from the start. Six panels linked to the Iliad were later moved to the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, which gave the house its other names, Homeric and Iliadic House.

The names Homeric House and Iliadic House come from six panels linked to the Iliad, now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. The atrium frescoes, about four feet square, centre on women at turning points of Greek myths, as in the Nuptials of Zeus and Hera.

The villa lies in Region VI of the archaeological site of Pompeii and is accessible via the main paths. Visitors should wear sturdy shoes and allow enough time to see the rooms and the courtyard at a comfortable pace.

The entrance shows a mosaic with a dog and the inscription Cave Canem, meaning Beware of the Dog. An English writer made the house famous in the 19th century through a historical novel, where he portrayed it as the home of the main character.