DESCRIPTION:

The two panels on the right of the portico continue the love scenes between gods and mortals. The first panel depicts Poseidon with his trident advancing towards Amymone. Between them is a winged Eros with a torch, a symbol of love, and a parasol (an umbrella that protects from the sun), which he offers to Amymone. According to the myth, Poseidon dried up all the springs of the country and King Danaus sent his daughters in search of water. Among them the beautiful Amymone whom a Satyr tried to rape. Poseidon's sudden intervention saved the girl. After falling in love with her, he revealed to her a source of water ending the area's drought. The metal hydria in the middle of the show symbolizes the spring water.

The last panel presents the myth of Apollo and Daphne. The beautiful nymph Daphne, daughter of the river Peneus, had sworn not to be given to any man. But when the god Apollo saw her, he fell in love with her and pursued her. Desperate, Daphne prayed to her father to save her. When she reached the river Peneus, her father transformed her into a tree named after her Daphne, the laurel tree. Since then, the laurel tree became the sacred tree of Apollo. The mosaic here shows the moment of Daphne's transformation into a tree.