“Sleep, lord of all gods and of all men […] Lull me to sleep the bright eyes of Zeus beneath his brows, so soon as I shall have lain me by his side in love.”
Homer, Iliad, Book XIV, lines 232 and next.
The roman villa of El Ruedo lies on a slope over the valley of Almedinilla river, in the municipality of the same name. Almedinilla is placed in the province of Cordoba. The oldest settlement of El Ruedo starts in the middle of the 1st century. From then on, there are several occupation phases, being the most remarkable the one between the end of the 3rd century and the middle of the 5th century. Then, the villa acquires its most aristocratic appearance, with a very well-preserved residential area which is nowadays completely excavated.
Among the decorations of the villa stand out the wall paintings, with more than 50 linear meters preserved, the mosaic floors, the wide and original sculpture set (which can be seen at the Historical Museum of Almedinilla), and the triclinium or dining room. This room features an original fountain or nymphaeum and an stibadium, a dining bed in a really good preservation state.
This triclinium may have housed the bronze statue of Hypnos, god of Sleep, for it seem to recreate the dwelling of Sleep described by mythology, inside a domestic ambiance where sacred and secular joins through domestic worship.
In its last occupation phase (midlle of 5th century – 7th century) it seems the villa was appropriated by peasants, christians already, using for farming purposes rooms that once were part of the residential area.
