House of the Boat of Psyches
Ground plan of the House of the Boat of Psyches, a third century villa in Daphne near Antioch.
Of the eight excavated rooms in the House of the Boat of Psyches, five feature illustrations of myths related to water. Throughout Antioch, a large percentage of mosaics focus on water, with frequent appearances by river deities, busts of Tethys and fishing erotes. This visually expresses the words of the orator Libanius, who extolled his native city's rushing streams, its natural springs at Daphne, and its location on the river Orontes with nearby access to the Mediterranean as key factors making Antioch a city renowned for its physical beauty (Oration 11.244-48).
The house consists of a series of three large rooms oriented towards a fountain composed of five semicircular niches and a colonnaded portico at its western end. At the fountain (area 5), viewers could look down through pools of water and see a mosaic of erotes fishing from the backs of dolphins.
Plan: Wes Chilton and Victoria I. Source: Antioch: The Lost Ancient City.
