Pompeii, Now with Lobsters

Pompeii, which has already survived eruption, burial, excavation and two millennia of interpretation, has now accepted a new indignity: giant lobsters.

The Archaeological Park of Pompeii has opened Philip Colbert in Pompeii: Pop Mythology, a site-wide exhibition running from July 27 through November 30, 2026. More than thirty monumental lobster sculptures have been placed among the ruins and across related sites in the surrounding territory. It is, in other words, a perfectly serious cultural event involving enormous brightly colored crustaceans wandering among some of the most solemn ruins on earth.

Which, on reflection, feels less absurd than honest.

History is always being explained to us in tones of reverence, as though civilization were a tidy procession of marble profiles and moral lessons. But perhaps the more accurate understanding is that human beings have always been theatrical, symbolic, excessive, and just a little strange. Pompeii merely had the courtesy to preserve the evidence.

There is also something unexpectedly graceful in the choice. The installation is not merely ornamental. It places contemporary absurdity into open conversation with ancient seriousness, as if to remind us that the distance between high culture and low comedy is usually shorter than advertised. Roman walls. Ancient stone. Measured geometry. Mediterranean light. And then, without apology, a giant lobster behaving as though it has every right to be there.

Frankly, that is how all the best surrealism should arrive.

One should never underestimate the dignity of a well-placed lobster.

#TheModernRaconteur #Pompeii #Serendipity #ElegantNonsense