In 79 AD, the Roman city of Pompeii was completely buried in ash by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, then completely forgotten until it was rediscovered in the mid-18th Century. Many of its citizens attempted to flee but few made it. This image is a fanciful telling of a fugitive from Pompeii who dove into the sea and was changed by Neptune into an octopus. He now drifts in the depths, dreaming of his former life.