The rooms open onto the peristyle, from which one may enter the large garden where once grew beans, perhaps onions and cabbage, grapes, exotic plants (from the 1st cent. BC to the 1st cent. AD cherry, peach, apricot, and pistachio trees spread from the Orient) whose seeds or seedlings were kept in 28 terra-cotta vases found along the boundary wall, and lemons, seemingly introduced by the Hebrews and held in high regard for their medicinal qualities, for rinsing one’s mouth, and protecting stored clothes from insects. Animals were raised in the stalls at the back of the garden. The house takes its name from the graffito on the north wall of the peristyle, depicting a cargo ship labelled EUROPA (alluding to the Greek heroine kidnapped at sea by Jupiter disguised as a bull).
