Il Ninfeo di Punta Epitaffio

Only in recent decades has the submerged material of the splendid bay been explored and
protected with the recovery of important finds. These are now exhibited in the Archaeological
Museum of the Phlegraean Fields located in the Aragonese castle of Baia.
The permanent exhibition of the nymphaeum of Punta Epitaffio has been set up in the Tenaglia
Tower of the castle, which came to light for the first time in 1959 when prof. Lamboglia, founder of
the experimental center for underwater archeology, had started a survey with the Daino ship
aimed at determining the morphology of an architectural complex found in the depths of Punta
Epitaffio. Ten years later, two statues still standing in the apse of a rectangular building were
found. They recognized Homeric characters from the scene of the intoxication of Polyphemus by
Ulysses and his companions, Ulysses hands a cup of wine to a Cyclops.
Besides these two other five of which the most beautiful and intact is of young Dionysus and a
statue of a probable daughter of Claudius. It appeared as a sort of "gallery" of dynastic portraits
of the gens - Claudia.