It is an oversized, box-shaped, ashlar-built parallelepiped tomb that had a horizontal ashlar roof resting on planks.
The tomb of Persephone has this conventional name because of the subject of the majestic fresco that adorns the walls of the burial chamber.
The painted decoration of the walls of the tomb has been done by a very great painter whose name we do not know. There is a hypothesis, based on Pliny's testimony, that this is a work of the great painter of the middle of the 4th century. BC Nicomachus from Thebes.
His compositions are original and inspired and the painter has captured them when the plaster of the walls was still fresh, and this can be seen because numerous etchings and drafts are preserved next to the final contours of the figures.
The main composition of the painting decoration is on the north wall, which is 3.50 m long. In a majestic composition, the abduction of Persephone by the god Pluto, ruler of the kingdom of the dead, is depicted. The god, with one foot on his three-wheeled chariot, with his right hand holds the reins and his scepter, while with his left he holds Persephone by the waist, who stretches out her hands in despair, struggling in vain to escape from her captor her. The expressive power of drawing on faces and bodies is of incomparable beauty and perfection. In front of Pluto's chariot runs Hermes, while behind it is Persephone's friend, who kneels and fearfully stretches out her hands in despair.
The frenzied gallop of Pluto's chariot is expressed by Persephone's blond hair flowing back and by her crimson garment also flowing, leaving almost all of her body uncovered except for the lower abdomen.
The forward movement of the chariot as Hermes leads is contrasted with Persephone's backward movement, and the composition closes with the desperate and expressive gesture of the goddess's friend who stretches out her hands but is no longer able to help her.
On the continuous, narrow, eastern wall, a seated female figure is depicted. The fact that she is sitting on a rock, with a sullen expression and the proximity of the figure to the fresco of the rapture of Persephone, leads to the conclusion that it is the goddess Demeter sitting on the unsmiling stone.
On the south wall, opposite the rapture, are three seated female figures, which are not well preserved. It is probably the three Fates, Atropos, Lachesi and Klotho.
Editor: Niki Kalopaidis