And because she looks a little bit older, because she looks a little bit wiser, because she is looking out at the panorama of what's happening in front of her, it has been speculated, and I think quite convincingly, that the woman we see here is probably the matron of the house -- probably the wife of the man who owned and built the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, who was herself an adherent to the cult of Dionysus, and has set aside this secret room in her house for the cult of Dionysus in which she can help initiate other young women into this mystery cult. 