He was usually accompanied by a troop of Satyrs , male disciples of the god, and Maenads raving female followers. He was such a vibrant and controversial god that many myths surrounded him, his worship developed into a cult, with rituals and celebrations that have survived through the centuries.
But who was Dionysus, and what are the facts behind the myths? Semele was a mortal, the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes , who was the founder of the city of Thebes in Greece. Cadmus was a Phoenician prince sent to Greece in search of his sister Europa who was kidnapped by Zeus, he then settled in Greece and established his kingdom.
Fact: By the etymology of the name Dionysus, we derive two words — dio- either referring to his father Zeus Dias, Dios, in Greek or to the number two dio in Greek , that implies to the dual nature of the god and -nysus- indicating the place he grew up, Mt.
The dual nature of the god is primarily his association with wine, he brought joy and divine ecstasy, while he could also unleash brutal and blinding rage, thus echoing the dual nature of wine. Identified as a male god, but always surrounded by women, his chief worshippers.
His worship included transvestism and rather obscure sex roles. Men and women both dressed in long robes covered by fawnskins, and women, as bacchants, left their homes and danced madly on mountainsides. Dionysus even looks somewhat ambiguous sexually, effeminate in his long curls and his pale complexion.
Dionysus is also, unlike most of the other gods, the son of a mortal woman, Semele, whom he later rescued from the underworld and made her immortal. This means that by birth he is a native son of two realms, the mortal and the divine, the dual nature of man as found in monotheistic religions.
Many of the gods had brief affairs with mortals; Dionysus loved one and made her divine. Myth: According to the myth Zeus, his father, entrusted the infant to the care of the Nymphs on Mount Nysa. Hera, the legitimate wife of Zeus, never acknowledged this illegitimate child of her husband, so the child was left in the care on the Nymphs of Mount Nysa and later as an adolescent he wandered all around the world where he acquired knowledge and customs from local cultures and has been associated to many eastern deities.
His travels took him to India to extend his cult. He stayed there for two years and celebrated his triumph by riding an elephant. The sarcophagus above depicts a procession of Dionysus and his followers as they make a triumphant return from India to Greece. The procession includes Satyrs, Maenads, as well as, animals exotic to Greece — elephants, lions, and a giraffe. On the right, a snake lurks in a tree. Dionysus himself is at the back of the procession in a chariot drawn by panthers.
At either end of the lid is a satyr head, one smiling, one frowning, representative of the tragedy and comedy, as Dionysus was also the god of Theatre. Fact: As a Greek deity he was always considered as an imported god, eastern and foreign. The worship of Dionysus was established sometime in the sixth millennium BC, during the Neolithic period, and evidence is found also in Mycenae, Greece. Mount Nysa is placed in several locations around the world, from Ethiopia to certain locations in Greece and Asia Minor.
Dionysus then set his sights on establishing his worship in his homeland, so he traveled back to Greece. There is an informal rule that, if you have one divine parent and one human parent, then you are a human usually a hero and not a god. But there were two exceptions to this rule. Heracles Hercules , who became a god and was taken up to Mt.
Olympus upon his death, and Dionysus. But no one believed him because his mother was a mortal. So, when Dionysus traveled back to Greece to establish his rites, he had trouble convincing people that he really was a god. There are several Resistance Myths connected with Dionysus.
Resistance Myths are stories about men or women who try to resist the worship of a particular god or goddess. There are a number of Resistance Myths attached to Dionysus, more than for any other god or goddess. The most famous Resistance Myth connected with Dionysus occurred in his city of origin, Thebes, with his cousin Pentheus.
After Semele died, her sisters, most notably Agave, spread the rumor that Semele had lied about the paternity of her child and Zeus had punished her for it with his thunderbolt.
As a result, no one in Thebes believed that Dionysus was divine. He was a very young man, perhaps only about twenty or twenty-one when he became King of Thebes. Dionysus came to Thebes to introduce his worship to his homeland, but Pentheus forbade any of the Theban women to worship him. In the centre foreground a female figure, perhaps a Muse, is seated facing left on what appears to be an altar.
She is naked to the hips, her lower torso and legs are covered by a himation cloak. Her head is lowered to look at the mask of a bearded male, believed to be Silenus, which she holds in her right hand with the tip of the beard resting on her thighs.
To the left is a small temple behind which is a boy holding an aulos double pipes. To the right is a stele on a pillar similar to those in the "Ikarios reliefs", see below , which stands on a platform. Behind it two naked young figures stand facing each other, so close together that their faces appear to be touching.
A restored fragment of a marble relief depicting a Dionysian initiation scene, identical in composition to the relief in the Palazzo dei Conservatori above. The relief has been titled "Sacred love and profane love" amor sacro e amor profano or "Voluptus and Virtus" Voluptas e Virtus.
It was believed that the main female figure in the upper register represents Voluptas at a temple of Faun, and the two figures on the right Amor Eros and Psyche kissing. The young couple in the lower register were interpreted as Virtue Virtus , turning their backs on Priapus and following a child in the opposite direction.
It is described in Domeniconi Monaco's A complete handbook to the National Museum in Naples and editions merely as "Comic marble bas-relief". On the left a plane tree covered with a vine stands in front of a wall. One of the tree's branches grows through a window of a tower on the wall. A statuette stands in a niche in the wall, from which two pipes and part of another object a shield? On the right is part of a temple with four Ionic columns and double doors.
Found in near the church of S. Vito, in the area of the Horti Tauriani, Rome. A marble statue of a Satyr in repose, wearing a nebris and holding a flute, leaning on a tree stump. Roman Imperial period, perhaps after a work by Praxiteles , around BC.
Found in the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, near Rome. A marble statue of a resting Satyr, wearing a nebris and holding a flute, leaning on a tree stump. Height cm, width 78 cm, depth 47 cm. The ancient torso is said to have been found at the Palazzo Sessoriano, Rome, probably in during the rebuilding of the S. Croce in Gerusalemme church. It was restored soon after by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, who added an unrelated head from a different statue type. Transported to Berlin, it was set up before in the Half Rondel, in the gardens of the Neues Palais, Sanssouci, Potsdam, along with a number of other statues.
In it was further restored by Christian Daniel Rauch see Demeter part 2 , who added the head, lower left arm and right leg and other parts.
At first it was described simply as a "Bacchic Faun". A marble statue of a Satyr wearing a nebris panther skin and playing a flute. An ox sits at his feet. Found in in the Vigna of the Padri del SS. Cosma e Damiano, on the Aventine, Rome. The restorations include the head, the right forearm, both hands and the flute, parts of the nebris, the horns and left ear of the ox, and the edges of the plinth.
Twenty statues of this type are known, and it appears on Roman Imperial coins of Caesarea Paneas in Syria. In the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann wrote that there were over thirty ancient statues of young Satyrs or Fauns of various types in Rome, and remarked "The most beautiful Faun statues are an image of mature beautiful youth in perfect proportion" Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums , The history of art in antiquity , , page Roman Imperial period, 2nd century AD, after a late Hellenistic original.
MC A marble oscillum with a relief of a naked dancing Satyr with a panther skin draped over his right shoulder and holding a thyrsos in his left hand. The so-called "Alcibiades among the hetairai", a marble relief which may depict either drunken Dionysus with three women Seasons, Maenads? Two of the females kneel on a couch or bed, and one holds onto the bottom of the lyre held by the male. Dionysus on an inscribed marble votive relief found in Piraeus.
Dedicated to to the god by actors after a theatrical performance, possibly Euripides' Bacchae. Dionysus sits on a kline couch , holding a rhyton drinking horn and phiale libation bowl. A woman, Paideia, sits at the foot of the kline with her face turned towards a man holding a theatrical mask.
On the left stand two actors, one holding a tympanon hand drum , the other a mask and a tympanon. Detail of the B side of the "Parthenopaios krater" see below , a fragmentary Apulian red-figure calyx krater, showing Dionysus reclining on a kline couch covered with a panther skin. He holds a thyrsos with his left arm, and a phiale libation bowl in his raised right hand.
A fawn stands at the foot of the kline, and parts of a Satyr and two unidentified female figures can be seen standing around the god. Attributed to the Lycurgus Painter , mid 4th century BC. Provenance unknown. Some of the figures are identified by inscriptions.
He talks with an unnamed elderly man with a white beard and walking stick. Above them in the top register sit three gods left to right : Hermes , holding a kerykeion caduceus , wearing winged boots and with a petasos sun hat hanging behind his head; Apollo, holding an olive branch and a lyre, and with a swan at his feet; Ares, the god of war, bearded and holding a spear.
The deities are not mere spectators but intervene in the unfolding story of the Theban war. The tableau is thought to represent a dramatic performance based on comparison with other vase paintings of theatrical scenes, particularly the gestures and clothing of the figures.
The dais on which the kline stands is thought to represent a theatre podium, and the columns at each end of the picture area parts of the stage scenery. It has been suggested that the three gods are sitting on a theatrical theologeion raised platform above the mortal characters.
This scene is not known from any known ancient literary source or other work of art. The story of the "Seven Against Thebes" is thought to have been first written in the Thebaid , one of the four lost epic poems known as the Theban Cycle, written around BC. Height 96 cm, width top-bottom cm.
The top of the tapering stele of grey marble is in the form of a naiskos small temple , decorated with low reliefs. On the architrave is a row of five theatrical masks. The left-most head is shown in three-quarter view, and is quite different in style from the other four frontal comedy masks of a more conventional type, as seen on other representations of the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
It depicts a mature male with short hair and a long beard a god, silen, philosopher or playwright? Within the naiskos, framed by the profiles of two Doric columns, Dionysus sits on a rock to the right, facing left, wreathed and wearing a himation, holding in his left hand his thyrsos, which appears to bend under the weight of the god's arm. In his outstretched right hand he holds out a kantharos wine cup to an adolescent Satyr who approaches him from the left, carrying an oinochoe wine jug in his right hand.
The citizens of the deme decided to award them each a golden crown worth drachmas, to be presented in the theatre at the comedy competition during the next year's Dionysia festival. At the bottom of the stele, below the inscription, are two reliefs of crowns wreaths.
The latter date has become generally accepted. Fragmentary marble statues of Dionysus right and a female figure, probably a muse, wearing a peplos. Early 3rd century BC. From a choragic monument which stood on a semi-circular exedra in the West Monument of the sanctuary of Dionysus, in the city of Thasos , Greece. The Dionysion, the sanctuary of Dionysus in Thasos, east of the city's agora, was a small area with a triangular enclosure wall see photo below , containing two choregic monuments.
The other choragic monument the East Monument was built in the form of a Doric temple, inside which was a statue group on a semi-circular exedra, depicting Dionysus see the head above flanked by eight smaller statues of allegorical figures representing theatre genres.
The names of four of the figures are preserved on an inscription on the base of the exedra: Comedy, Tragedy, Dithyramb and Nykterinos. The inscription also names the actors and musicians of the performing group which was awarded the choragic prize.
The statues are now in the Delos Archaeological Museum. On either side of the exedra is a marble monument consisting of an enormous marble phallus on a rectangular base.
Three sides of the base are decorated with Dionysian reliefs see photo, right. The very worn relief on the left side shows Dionysus, probably drunk, supported by Pan or a Satyr carrying a lagobolon hunting stick, see Pan. At the front of the base is a cockerel with a phallus in place of a head and neck.
The exedra was built next to this monument during the 2nd century BC, and a second phallus monument was placed at its left side. The two marble statues of Papposilenos actors, found in in the Stoibadeion, Delos. Each of the statues depicts an actor dressed as Papposilenos, wearing a mask with a long braided beard, a "hairy" sheepskin costume covering the torso, arms and legs, over which is a himation cloak , draped over the left shoulder and wrapped around the body.
Each carries a wineskin over his left shoulder, and the figure on the left, cm high, holds a tympanon hand drum in his right hand.
He led the god's thiasos. Either a Hellenistic original of the 2nd century BC or a Roman copy. Said to be from Alexandria. The "Type B" statuette follows the later idealized model of the two types of portraits of Socrates. One of several surviving marble statues of Papposilenos, from the Roman period skene stage building of the Theatre of Dionysos , Athens. Thought to be a copy of a 4th century BC original. From the Quirinal Hill, Rome.
Height cm, width 98 cm, depth 55 cm. The figure wears a mask, a "hairy" sheepskin costume and a himation tied around his waist. In his raised right hand he holds part of a lagobolon, a short hunting stick, curved like a walking stick at one end, used for throwing at hares also an attribute of Pan. One side of the vase shows two costumed Silens running towards each other, each carrying a winged Eros figure on his shoulders. This silen carries a torch while the Eros pulls at the string of a bow.
The other other Eros holds a torch. The other side of the vase has a painting of a scene from a tragedy. Reliefs of theatrical masks on metopes of a marble Doric frieze above the outside of the vaulted tunnel entrance parados , at the north side of the Hellenistic theatre in the Sanctuary of Leto, Letoon, Lycia. The broad, fertile plain around Kumluova is prone to waterlogging due to the nearby river, and in winter and early spring parts of the Letoon are submerged.
Lycia is a mountainous area dotted with plains at the southwest corner of Anatolia Asia Minor , where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean. The Lycians were a fiercely independent people, with their own distinct culture, language and alphabet, who had resisted the aggressive expansion of other cultures such as the Hittites, Greeks and Lydians. After Alexander's death in BC, the control of Lycia was contested by his successors the Diadochi , finally coming under the rule of the Ptolemies of Egypt, then the Seleucids.
The sanctuary later known as the Letoon was the religious centre of the Lycians, and during the Archaic and Classical periods, 7th - 5th century BC, it was probably dedicated to the cult of the ancient Lycian mother goddess Eni Mahanahi. During the Hellenistic period, due to the increasing Greek influence on Lycian culture, the sanctuary was dedicated to Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus.
In Greek mythology, the pregnant Leto rested here while fleeing from the vengeance of Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus. According to one interpretation of the mythical tales, Apollo and Artemis were born here, although Delos and Ephesus also claimed to be their birthplace.
Letoon was destroyed by the Romans in 42 BC, but rebuilt during the Roman Imperial period, and further buildings were added during the reign of Emperor Hadrian AD , who made it a centre of the cult of emperor worship. The Hellenistic theatre, which was used for religious performances, is at the north of the sanctuary, at the end of the road from Xanthos, and near an ancient cemetery.
Temples of Leto, Artemis and Apollo stood close together, side by side at the sanctuary's centre, and to the south was a sacred spring, pool or lake, where a Hellenistic nymphaeum was extended with the addition of a semicircular pool during the Roman period. There was also a sacred grove, and the constellation of temples, grove and lake are comparable with those at the sanctuary at Delos. A Byzantine church was built in the 5th or 6th century AD to the east of the nymphaeum, using stones from the temples.
Letoon appears to have been abandoned in the 7th century, probably due to the Arab raids in the area, and gradually became a swamp, covered by mud and silt from the Xanthos River. In the early 19th century the British traveller, antiquarian and topographer Colonel William Martin Leake estimated the location of Letoon, and the archaeologist Charles Fellows see above , who had discovered Xanthos in , attempted to visit it on 17th April , but was thwarted by the high water levels of the swamp.
However, in March Richard Hoskyn , the master of the British navy ship HMS Beacon, on a cartographic mission along the Lycian coast, was able to reach the site on his way to Xanthos. He reported seeing the theatre, foundations of a temple and some sarcophagi at the silted-up sanctuary.
Near it on the plain are the foundations of a temple, probably the temple of Latona [Leto]. A few sarcophagi are scattered about. The theatre is of rather unusual construction, the sides being parallel, as in the theatres of European Greece; the proscenium has quite disappeared; over the north vomitorium are some bas-reliefs of faces, representing laughter and grief in various stages. Richard Hoskyn, Narrative of a survey of part of the south coast of Asia Minor; and of a tour into the interior of Lycia in ; accompanied by a map.
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society , Volume 12, pages The theatre, built around the late 2nd to early 1st century BC, was carved out of the natural rock of a low hill, but the two ends of the retaining walls which support the row cavea audience seating area , built of ashlar masonry, are free-standing see middle photo, right.
It was restored and perhaps enlarged during the Roman Imperial period, possibly during the reign of Hadrian. During the s French archaeologists uncovered the foundations of the skene stage building. Curiously, the theatre is oriented with the cavea facing northwest and away from the centre of the sanctuary. The 17 triglyphs have no architectural function and are purely decorative, imitating the entablature of a Classical Doric temple.
Between the triglyphs are 16 metopes with reliefs of heads and masks, with 7 motifs. The two metopes in the photo above are numbers 1 and 2, on the left east end of the frieze.
The Doric facade of the vaulted tunnel entrance to the south side of the theatre see bottom photo, right , facing the temples in the centre of the sanctuary, is larger, better built and better preserved. It has a similar frieze but the metopes are undecorated. Fellows was finally able to make a short visit Letoon in December , on his way up to Xanthos by river. Over the next century the sanctuary was seldom visited or mentioned, although the first photographs and lengthy description of the site, particularly the theatre, were published by Otto Benndorf and George Niemann in Gerold's Sohn, Vienna, In the French Archaeological Mission, which had begun excavations at Xanthos in , extended their work to Letoon, where they continued excavating and restoring the site over the next five decades, with a number of areas, particularly to the south of the sanctuary, still to be excavated.
However, in a controversial government decree revoked the permission for the French archaeologists to work at Xanthos and Letoon. As at other sites, a condition for acceptance to the UNESCO World Heritage list was the preparation of a conservation plan, which in the case of Letoon was approved in Following closure for essential conservation work, reportedly costing 2.
From the vicinity of Smyrna Izmir, Turkey. Late Hellenistic era. Height 60 cm, width The tragedian centre , seated and holding a scroll in his left hand, hands an actor's mask of Herakles to Skene, the young female personification of the theatre left , while a statue of Dionysus right looks on, holding a kantharos in his right hand.
The names of the three figures are inscibed in Greek at the top of the stele. Behind Euripides's seat another tragic mask sits on a basket or box which stands on a dais. Gustave Mendel suggested that the relief should be called "the Apotheosis of Euripides" because of the similarity of subject and treatment to the "Apotheosis of Homer" relief. Found in the hyposkenion of the theatre in Caearea Maritima, Judaea near Haifa, northern Israel , during excavations directed by Antonio Frova of the Italian Archaeological Mission of Caesarea, A fragmentary marble relief of the "Ikarios relief" type also known as "Ikarios' Feast" , showing Dionysus and his thiasos retinue visiting the "Athenian actor Ikarios" museum labelling.
From the Vedius Gymnasium, Ephesus. Roman period. A number of relief fragments, including those in Pergamon Museum, Berlin see below. Height 45 cm. A mature Dionysus with a long beard and wrapped in a heavy himation similar to the "Dionysos-Sardanapalos" type statues , accompanied by his thiasos of reveling Satyrs and a Maenad, visits a mortal or hero.
The god, entering from the right, appears to be drunk and unsteady on his feet. His left forearm is supported by a Satyr, while another removes his sandal and a third carries his thyrsos staff. On the left, the host, sitting on a kline dining couch with a female companion, bids the god welcome with a gesture of his raised right arm.
The base of the kline is decorated with actors' masks. To the left of the figures a small herm of Dionysus? The scene appears to be taking place outside, perhaps in the host's garden or courtyard, with a long cloth draped in an apparently improvised way over the wall which provides the backdrop. The buildings behind the figures have been interpreted as either his home, a temple or part of a theatre.
The youthful host himself is named Ikarios or Icarius on the labelling and in the literature of various museums which describe him as an "Athenian actor" or "dramatic poet". There is no textual evidence concerning the subject of the image, and it is not mentioned in ancient literature. The identification of the figures has been discussed since the 16th century, when there were already two copies known in Rome those now in the British Museum and Naples.
According to other theories, the original image may have been a votive relief dedicated by the winner of a theatrical competition, or even an illustration of a scene from a theatrical performance or the enactment of a Satyr play.
Plaster cast of a marble "Ikarios relief" showing Dionysus visiting the house of "a dramatic poet". The original relief, in the British Museum not on display , is from Rome, tentatively dated to the 1st century AD, "with many alterations and restorations". The scene is almost identical to the relief in Izmir above , with the notable execption that the woman on the host's couch is missing removed by restorers? The long building a temple? The votive relief on top of the pillar behind to the right of the head of Dionysus depicts a winged Victoria Nike driving a speeding two-horse chariot see also the illustration below.
The relief appears to be that now in the British Museum, before restoration and the removal of the female figure on the kline. This is the only relief in which so many details have survived, including the small relief of Nike in a chariot behind the head of Dionysus, and the figure in the background, standing before a palm tree on the raised area in front of the building with the Gorgon pediment.
The male and female couple on the extreme right in the print are missing from the British Museum relief. A terracotta plaque with an "Ikarios relief". This compact version of the "Ikarios" scene shows two young men sitting close together on the kline. A female sits to the left, her feet resting on a footstool and her head is turned back to the right to face Dionysus, who is depicted at a larger scale than the mortals and the two Satyrs.
Traces of paint have survived: a greyish-yellow layer over the undecorated surfaces, and red on the hair and beard of Dionysus. The scene is framed above and below by egg-and dart mouldings.
The plaque has four holes for suspension. One of a number of Campana plaques purchased by the 19th century collector Charles Townley in Rome, now in the British Museum. Purchased by the museum in from Peregrine Edward Towneley.
Fragment of a marble "Ikarios relief" showing Dionysus with two Satyrs. Early 1st century AD. The restored fragment shows the group of four figures known from the lower right side of other "Ikarios reliefs": a Silen playing an aulos double pipes , followed by a Satyr raised right arm turning back to a Maenad holding a lyre, who is supported by a bearded Satyr. The top left corner of a marble relief, described as "relief representing a sacred landscape". It shows the top of a temple with a Gorgoneion on the pediment as in the relief above , part of a wall from which a cloth sheet is hung, a column topped by a relief and a tree left.
It could well be a fragment of an "Ikarios relief", with the head of "Ikarios", bottom, centre. One of a number of Dionysiac relief fragments from the Horti Maecenatiani, Rome see also the relief fragment above. Found in in the area of the Auditorium. A procession with Dionysus and Ariadne left on a wagon pulled by two panthers "a panther chariot" , led by Pan , Satyrs and Maenads playing music and dancing. Eros, riding one of the panthers, plays a lyre.
Relief on a marble closure slab of a sarcophagus-like wall grave. A fragment of a marble statue of Dionysus reclining. Thought to be from a sculpture group, perhaps of the god in a chariot as part of a triumph.
Found December in an underground chamber beneath the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, the ancient Horti Lamiani, Rome, among several other well-preserved ancient sculptures, thought to have been made in the same workshop. Height 56 cm, width The sarcophagus was later reused as a basin for a fountain and the surface of the marble has been extremely eroded.
On the left, Dionysus rides on a chariot drawn by two elephants, exotic animals which are rare in Triumph depictions. One of the elephants treads on a panther. Immediately behind the chariot Victoria Nike holds a victor's palm branch. Satyrs and Maenads play music and dance around a flaming altar in the centre.
At the far right stands a hip herm, with a sculpted figure shown down to the hips. On the left side of the sarcophagus is a relief of an ecstatically dancing Satyr. On the right side, a Satyr with an aulos double pipes and Dionysus with a thyrsos and kantharos. Sarcophagus height 62 cm, length cm, depth 69 cm. Palazzo Altemps, National Museum of Rome. Ludovisi Collection, from the Carpi Collection. On the left, Dionysus, holding his thyrsos staff, sits in a chariot drawn by two Centaurs.
Winged Eros stands on the back of one of the Centaurs, and a lion and a panther run alongside them. In the centre Pan dances in front of a Satyr playing pipes and a Maenad playing a tympanon.
Right, a couple the deceased? On the left, a drunken Dionysus, holding a kantharos wine cup , stands in a chariot drawn by two Centaurs, one of which plays a lyre. Winged Eros stands on the back of one of the Centaurs. In the centre Pan dances on the cista mystica between two Maenads, one playing a pipe and the other a tympanon. To the right Silenus lies drunk on a four-wheeled wagon pulled by an exhausted donkey and surrounded by Satyrs, one of whom carries a calf on his shoulder.
Another, smaller figure who also looks like Pan can be seen stepping from Silenos' wagon onto the back of the donkey. Sarcophagus height 58 cm, length cm, depth 71 cm. The relief was made around the same time as the one above and depicts a similar scene, with the notable exception of the appearance of the large figure of a drunken Hercules, supported by two Satyrs, in the centre. On the left, Dionysus supported by a Satyr. On the right, in the place of Silenus' wagon, a winged Eros sits on a lion led on a leash by Pan.
A snake emerging from a round, lidded basket, interpreted as the cista mystica sacred kiste , appears twice in the relief. Sarcophagus height 87 cm, length cm, depth 97 cm. Relief of a triumph of Dionysus on the front of a Roman marble sarcophagus, 3rd century AD, reused as a tomb for a member of the noble Piscicelli family.
On the left, Dionysus lounges in a familiar pose, with his right forearm over his head, and in his left hand is a thyrsos which looks more like a military sceptre. His four-wheeled wagon is pulled by two panthers; the cat in front is clearly female. Below the panthers is the head of an ox in profile. To the left of the god is a vine, and to the right a Maenad, probably playing a flute. On the right of the relief, Silenos lies in a similar wagon pulled by two donkeys, below which is the head of a male in profile.
To his right is Pan , who appears to have extra-long horns and to be holding a lagobolon. To the left stands a Maenad playing cymbals, and a garlanded circular altar on which there is a ram's head.
In the centre two Satyrs, with shouldered lagobolons and wearing animal skins, hold a clipeus round shield device bearing the coat of arms of the Piscicelli family. Below it are two small seated figures, one clothed and the other naked a Maenad and Satyr? An old description of the sarcophagus A. Sorrentino, La Basilica costantiniana a Napoli e notizia di due suoi sarcofagi. Napoli, mentions "A row of comic and tragic masks shaped like a pedestal to the Bacchic scene". However, these masks are now not to be seen.
They may be covered by the cement used to seal the lid. Each of the short sides has a relief of a mask between festoons of foliage and fruit. The sarcophagus rests on two marble blocks decorated with reliefs of oak leaves.
According to one source, it was the tomb of Alfonso Piscicelli 14th century , although so far I have found no confirmation of this. A fragment from a marble sarcophagus with part of a relief thought to have depicted the triumph of Dionysus. The lower part of a figure can be seen riding one of two camels, walking side by side to the right.
To the right of the surviving head of one of the camels are the head and shoulder of a bearded man facing right. Severan period, early 3rd century AD. Found between Hamadan and Kirmanshah, Iran. Length From his waist hangs a metal insignia with the head of a large cat, and the folds of his cloak, billowing in the wind, appear to take on the form of lotus flowers. Pan and three Satyrs accompany him, and one Satyr left carries two elephant tusks as booty. Another Satyr second from right holds a long-stemmed plant with three large flowers.
At the centre of the work, below the triumphal group, is a pair of cymbals, symbolic of Dionysian rites. The martial significance of the work is underlined by the weapons and armour - trophies captured from defeated enemies - at the bottom lower register and sides of the object. The seated figure on the left has been interpreted as a prisoner of war with his hands tied behind his back.
The supreme importance of self-control is embodied by none other than the disguised Dionysus. While Euripides vividly illustrates the full extent of Dionysus's ecstatic powers upon his followers, the Stranger himself is calm, self-possessed and patient. He alone displays self-control and wisdom, and these traits distinguish him from the mortals who surround him. While he is able to sting men with madness, he is the picture of sanity, suggesting that he is not the agent of the tragedy, but perhaps that mortals themselves are responsible for their bloody discord.
SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols.
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