The detached fresco, exhibited at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities of Cairo, has been partially restored

during the Training Course for the “Egyptian Museums Requalification System” funded by the

General Direction for the Cooperation for Development of the Italian Ministry of

Foreign Affairs and the General Secretary of the Italian Ministry

of Cultural Heritage  and Activities.

It dates back to the 2nd century AD, and was particularly interesting from an iconographic

point of view because was representing three moments of Oedipus’s life.

On the right is the execution of Laio, kneeling down in front of his son Oedipus who holds a sword,

and the allegorical figure of Agnia (the Ignorance) who, frightened, is running away.

On the left of the painting, Oedipus is outside the gate of the city, Thebes, questioning with the Sphinx sat on a pedestal.

In the centre, Oedipus is sitting on a bench in front of the personification of the city of Thebes.

All these figures and the situations represented can be identified by the

Greek inscriptions that the painter added on the painting.

The painting is carried out by quick and effective brushstrokes very close

to the “compendiary” Greek-Roman style.

The final aesthetical treatment

unluckily has never

been carried

out.