See: Charles Edson (editor), Inscriptiones Graecae, X: Inscriptiones Epiri, Macedoniae, Thraciae, Scythiae. Pars II, fasc. 1: Inscriptiones Thessalonicae et viciniae (= IG X/2,1), No. 28. De Gruyter, Berlin, 1972.

Fragments of a colossal marble statue
of Dionysus, from the Attic deme of Ikaria
(today Dionysos). Around 520-510 BC.

The fragments were found during excavations
at Ikaria in 1888-1889, directed by Carl Darling
Buck. The head was recently associated with
the body. It is uncertain whether the right
hand with the kantharos (wine cup) belongs
to the statue. [5]

This may have been a cult statue of the god
in the Archaic Dionysion of Ikaria. According
to myth, viniculture was introduced to Attica
at Ikaria after Dionysus taught Ikarios the
art of winemaking there (see below).

Marble statue of a seated Dionysus.

About 500 BC. Known as the "Plateia
Eleutherias Dionysos" after the place
in Athens where it was found in 1931,
at the site of an Archaic cemetery [6].
Pentelic marble. Height 107 cm,
depth 61 cm. Height of base 13 cm.

The figure's body is covered by a himation
(mantle) which leaves his right shoulder
bare. He and sits on a folding diphros
(stool) with lion paws at the end of the
legs, and covered by a panther skin. The
stool was covered with painted motifs
(meander, chequered pattern). Traces of
red paint can also be seen on the base.

The remains of the pediment were discovered among a number of other ancient artefacts in 1973 during construction works on private land owned by T. Giovanis in the Figareto (Φιγαρέτο) area, near the southwest end of the Kanoni peninsula, the location of the ancient city Korkyra (Κόρκυρα), just south of modern Corfu town (see Medusa part 3). The excavations were led by Angelos Choremis (Άγγελος Χωρέμης, 1936-2002), at that time Ephor of Antiquities for Corfu. [7]

Sculpted in great detail typical of the High Archaic style, the two male figures in the relief have been described as symposiasts (from συμποσιαστής, symposiastes, fellow-drinker), that is participants at a symposium (συμπόσιον, symposion, dinner or drinking party). Such symposia are depicted on numerous vase paintings and reliefs (see some reliefs in Demeter and Persephone part 2) This is one of the largest surviving ancient sculptural depictions of symposiasts, and one of the few from an architectural context. Most others are on the lids of sarcophagi and cinerary urns (see, for example, Homer part 2).

They recline on a dining couch in the conventional manner, with their heads to the right, each leaning on his left elbow. Both wear crowns and have curly hair around their foreheads, as well as long tresses hanging from behind each ear to below their shoulders. Their heads are turned to the right as if they are paying attention to or communicating with someone or something on the pediment's now missing centre or right side. Perhaps on the right side was a similar reclining pair, arranged symmetrically. It has been suggested that Hephaistos may have been depicted drunk, in a scene from the mythological tale of the god's return to Mount Olympus.

The bearded man on the right, thought to represent Dionysus, appears to be wearing an animal skin over his back and shoulders. In his left hand he holds a rhyton (drinking horn), and his right forearm (now missing) was originally extended to the right as if he was gesturing, or offering/accepting something to/from another figure. Lying in front of him, his young nude companion holds an Ionian kylix (or a Siana cup) in his right hand. His left hand is now missing.

In front of the couch a panther crouches below a low table, its head turned to face the spectator. Its presence stengthens the identification of the bearded figure as Dionysus (see more about Dionysus and panthers below). To the left of this is a walking dog (head and right legs now missing), probably a mastiff, thought to be of the kind known as "table dogs" (τραπεζήες κύνες, trapesés kynes) that cleared the floor of food remains. Behind it, to the left, is a large krater, a vessel used for mixing water with wine.

No trace of such a temple has yet been found at Figareto, and most of this suburb has not been excavated, since it is built over with modern houses and businesses. Remains of a pottery workshop and a sanctuary of Artemis found here now form the small archaeological site known as "Kerameikos at Figareto" (Κεραμεικός Φιγαρέτο, see note in Medusa part 3).

Judging from the remains of this pediment, the building to which it belonged was around 10 metres wide, smaller, for example, than the Corfu "Temple of Artemis" or the Hephaisteion in the Athens Agora. Temples of Dionysus were often associated with open spaces in which the god was honoured with festivals of singing and dancing, which developed into theatres (for example in Athens and Pergamon). However, nothing is known of a theatre in ancient Korkyra. If the theory that the pediment relief featured Hephaistos is correct, this may have to do with the Figareto area having been occupied by industrial workshops. Perhaps, as in the Athens Agora, Hephaistos was worshipped here as the patron god of artisans.

Now battered and discoloured, the remains of this sculptural group are still vivid and the figures have a remarkable physical presence. When they were new and freshly painted they must have been impressively powerful, and for their viewers very lively and realistic. They belong among the best surviving sculptures of the late Archaic period, and although there remains a hint of the "Archaic smile" on the lips of the two figures, their attentive gazes and relaxed, almost lithe poses are a long way from the stiffly standing kouros statues of the previous century.

Surprisingly, though it was discovered half a century ago, there appears to be very little published discussion concerning this relief. This is generally true of several other artefacts from ancient Korkyra. Perhaps few art historians have made it to Corfu, or it may be at least partly due to the fact that the archaeological museum there was closed for many years.

The red-figure rhyton has part of a painted scene of Hermes facing Apollo and Artemis and their mother Leto, above a band of palmettes. All the figures are now headless, but the inscribed names of the first three have survived. The vessel was damaged and filed down for continued use in antiquity, reformed as a one-handled cup, a keras. The broad, semicircular handle, which is joined at the bottom to the right knee of the Dionysus figure, can be seen at the rear.

Marble stele with a Neo-Attic Archaistic relief of Dionysus.

1st century BC. Found at Loutses, between the
districts of Chalandri and Agia Paraskevi, Attica.

Dionysus, in profile, walks to the left, holding a kantharos (wine
cup) in his right hand and his thyrsos staff in his left hand.

A large marble krater (wine bowl) with a Neo-Attic reliefs on both sides, each depicting
Dionysus leading two Maenads in a procession. On the relief above the bearded god
holds a kantharos and his thyrsos. The relief on the other side (see photo below)
shows him dressed differently and holding the thyrsos in his left arm.

Mid 1st century AD. Pentelic marble.

Restored fragment of an Archaistic marble relief of Dionysus.

Beginning of the 1st century AD.

The left and lower sides and the top right corner of the relief are modern, speculatively restored with fine, crystalline marble to resemble similar extant reliefs of Dionysus, including a marble base of a candelabrum or thymiaterion (incense burner) in Dresden (Skulpturensammlung, Albertinum, Inv. No. Hm 027), a plaster cast of which was acquired by the Berlin museum around 1842 (known to have been exhibited in the Neues Museum in the 1850s, Inv. No. I.G. 1545 FW 423). The relief was cleaned in 1993.

Dionysus is shown in the Archaic style as a mature, dignified, bearded figure (comparable to Archaic depictions of Hermes). His head is shown in profile, while his body is presented in a three-quarter view. His hair is brushed forward to a point at the front, beneath a crown of ivy leaves, and is tied at the back with a knot (krobylos). Two corkscrew locks fall from behind the ear and rest on his chest. His long beard is also brushed forward to a point.

He wears a long chiton (tunic) covered by a himation (cloak) which clings tightly to his body. His left arm, completely covered by the himation, is bent behind him so that the back of the hand rests on the top of his hip; the pressure of the hand causes deep creases on the side of the himation. His slightly bent right leg is in front of the left leg which carries his weight, and he appears to be resting some of his weight on the long thyrsos held in his right hand. The restoration shows the god barefooted.

In the restoration, the thyrsos rests on the low base of a tall pedestal on which stands a tripod with animal-paw feet. Such tripods were awarded as trophies to winners of theatrical competitions during the annual Great Dionysia festival in Athens, and set up as votive offerings to Dionysus in public spaces (see, for example, the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos and the Choragic Monument of Nikias).

The left side of the relief has not survived, however, other extant reliefs show a woman (perhaps a priestess) decorating a tripod with a victor's headband (tainia).

Charles Fellows travelled through southwestern Anatolia in 1838, 1840, 1842 and 1843, discovering and exploring several ancient Lycian cities. During his first journey he discovered the ancient Lycian capital Xanthos (Greek, Ξάνθος; Lycian, Arnna), which he described as "my favourite city", and from where he later took artefacts, including the surviving parts of the famous Nereid Monument, for the British Museum (see Museum boom part 1 at The Cheshire Cat Blog).

He noted the survival among the Greeks in Anatolia of the ancient custom of adding pine resin (turpentine) to wine to make what is today known as retsina, and related it to the pine cone on Dionysus' thyrsos, although he referred to it as a "fir-apple". An entry from his journal, written 19th April 1838 while he was in Xanthos, Lycia (at the village of Kınık, Antalya Province, southwest Turkey):

"In the houses of the Greeks only is wine to be met with, and by them it is taken far too freely. In their mode of manufacturing it another trace of antiquity is recognised. They add a flavour of turpentine, obtained from the fir-apple; this was also the custom with the ancient Greeks, and the fir-apple is found in all bacchanalian emblems surmounting the vine-wreathed thyrsus or staff of the god."

Charles Fellows, A journal written during an excursion in Asia Minor, 1838, pages 234-235. John Murray, London, 1839. At the Internet Archive.

Colossal marble mask of Dionysus.

Pentelic Marble. Roman period, 1st century BC.
From the Athens Acropolis.

The mask was probably set high up. On vase
paintings (particularly Lenaia vases) such
masks, made of various materials, are shown
set up on trees, wooden poles or stone columns,
sometimes draped with clothing, at sanctuaries
of Dionysus, with rituals being performed
around them (see photo below right).

Head of Dionysus.

Archaistic sculpture of the Augustan period
(27 BC - 14 AD). Pentelic marble.

Colossal limestone mask
of Dionysus from Cyprus.

100 BC - 100 AD. Found at Lefka,
probably from Soloi, Cyprus.

The Dionysus cult was introduced to Cyprus
after 300 BC, during the Hellenistic period,
perhaps because the Ptolemies of Egypt, who
ruled the island, claimed descent from the god.

Worshippers sacrificing in front
of an image of Dionysus.

Detail of an Attic red-figure vase, 470-450 BC.

British Museum.

Terracotta mask of bearded Dionysus,
perhaps Dionysus-Hades.

4th century BC. Found to east of the theatre
in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore
at Corinth. Height 18 cm.

The god wears a stephane (crown) or polos
decorated with a wreath of ivy leaves. Unusually,
he also appears to have two curving horns (one
now broken off) in the center of his head. The facial
type has been identified as that of Dionysus-Hades.
Another, smaller, fragmented mask and a ceramic
plaque inscribed with the name Dionysus
(see below) were also found at the site.

Corinth Archaeological Museum. Inv. No. MF 73-3.

See: Nancy Bookidis and Joan E. Fisher,
Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth:
Preliminary Report V: 1971-1973, Hesperia,
Vol. 43, No. 3, July - September 1974, pages 267-307
(discussion of the mask on pages 290-291, plate 59).
The American School of Classical Studies
at Athens (ASCSA). At jstor.org.

Ceramic alabastron with
a mask of Dionysus.

Late 2nd - early 1st century BC.
Found in a late Helenistic fill in the
area of the Thessaloniki agora.

Dionysus was particularly popular
in Thessaloniki. The vessel is in the
form a phallus, a symbol of fertility,
well-being and avoidance of bad luck.

"Bärtiger Dionysos" (Bearded Dionysos), marble Archaistic herm of Dionysus.

Roman, 1st - 2nd century AD. Height 69 cm.

Acquired in 1766 from the Natali Collection in Rome by the art dealer Giovanni Ludovico Bianconi for King Friedrich II of Prussia (Frederick the Great, 1712-1786) who placed it in the Neue Palais, Sanssouci, Potsdam.

Restoration included the repair and addition of part of the left eyebrow, the nose, most of the top lip, the back of the head, the bust with most of the back and shoulders, side-locks and the end of the beard.

As the museum labelling mentions, such representations of Dionysus and his brother Hermes became so similar that they are often impossible to distinguish.

See: Alexander Conze, Beschreibung der antiken Skulpturen mit Ausschluss der pergamenischen Fundstücke (Description of the ancient sculptures with the exception of the Pergamon finds), page 53. Generalverwaltung, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Verlag von W. Spemann, Berlin, 1891. At the Heidelberg University Digital Library.

Marble statue of the "Dionysos-Sardanapalos" (Διόνυσος Σαρδανάπαλος)
type, depicting the god with a long wavy beard and tresses, and wrapped
in a chiton (tunic) and a himation (cloak).

1st century AD. Restored 1918-1920 from several fragments found
separately between 1865 and after 1891 at the Theatre of Dionysos,
Athens. Pentelic marble. Height 123 cm.

Statues of the "Dionysos-Sardanapalos" (or "Dionysus-Sardanapalus") type are believed to be Roman period copies of a Greek original of around 350-325 BC, attributed to the school of Praxiteles. The type is named after the late Roman period inscription (or perhaps added by modern restorers) "ϹΑΡΔΑΝΑΠΑΛΛΟϹ" (Sardanapallos) on the example now in the Museo Pio-Clementino of the Vatican Museums (see image right). It was found in 1761 in a vineyard near Frascati, at a village named Monte Porzio Catone after the so-called Villa di Catone Uticense, believed to have been the villa of Cato the Younger (Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, 95-46 BC). The statue was restored with a modern thyrsos of wood and iron.

Other "Dionysos-Sardanapalos" type sculptures:

Statue, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome (see below).

Fragment of the head of the Terme statue. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (see below).

Bust, National Archaeological Museum, Naples (see below).

Statue, British Museum. Inv. No. GR 1878,1106.1 (Sculpture 1606). Not on display. 40-60 AD. Carved from a single block of Pentelic marble, except for the missing right arm, which was made separately. Said to have been found at Posillipo, Campania, Italy. Purchased In Rome, 1878, from the art dealer Alessandro Castellani. Height: 201.25 cm.

"Dioniso barbato", statue, Centrale Montemartini, Capitoline Museums, Rome. Inv. No. 3035. Purchased on the art market, Rome, 1957. Height 195 cm. Head and right arm restored.

Bust, Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum, Palermo, Sicily. Inv. No. 713.

Bust, Uffizi Gallery, Florence. (Inv. No. 376 ?)
Very little information and apparently no photos of this bust have been published. It may not be on display.

Marble statue of the "Dionysos-Sardanapalos" type.

1st century AD. Pentelic marble. Height 206 cm. Found in 1926 in the area
of Due Sante (probably a villa), Via Appia, Castel Gandolfo, Rome.

Athough it is often stated that the statue was discovered in 1928, the British archaeologist and art historian Bernard Ashmole (1894-1988) reported seeing it in 1926, just after its discovery. The missing face was restored in 1942, based on the statue in the Museo Pio-Clementino (see above).

Presented by Mussolini in 1944 as a gift to Germany, it was exhibited in the Nietzsche Archiv, Weimar, as a symbol of the cult of "Dionysos-Nietzsche". After the Second World War it was moved to the Pergamon Museum, East Berlin, and in 1991, following the reunification of Germany and claims for its repatriation by the Italian government, it was returned to Italy.

Ashmole also reported that the missing part of the head turned up on the London art market in summer 1929, and it was purchased for the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (see photo right).

See: Bernard Ashmole, Sardanapalus again, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Volume 50, Issue 1, November 1930, page 142. At the Internet Archive.

The "again" in the title of the short report refers back to Ashmole's 1919 article on the Dionysos-Sardanapalos type, which followed Katharine A. McDowall's 1904 article.

Bernard Ashmole, The so-called 'Sardanapalus'. The Annual of the British School at Athens, Volume 24, Supplement (1919/1920 - 1920/1921), pages 78-87. At jstor.

Marble head of bearded Dionysus
of the Athens/Kos type, related to
the "Dionysos-Sardanapalos" type.

1st century AD Classicistic work inspired
by 4th BC century originals. Found in
the theatre near Zea Harbour, Piraeus.

Archaistic marble head of Dionysus
from Korkyra (Κόρκυρα, today Corfu).

Roman Imperial period, 2nd century AD.

Marble double herm bust of bearded Dionysus.

Roman Imperial period.

Marble bust of bearded Dionysus.

2nd century AD.

Marble head of bearded Dionysus.

2nd century AD. From the Peribolos
of Apollo, ancient Corinth.

Little has been written about this bust which appears to have baffled many scholars. It depicts a mature bearded male with long hair held by a fillet (headband), wearing a chiton (tunic). He has been identified as either Dionysus or Priapus (Πρίαπος, Priapos), the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite. Following its discovery the work was attributed by some scholars to Skopas or Praxiteles.

The pedimental sculptures of the Parthenon were made of Pentelic marble by Pheidias and his pupils 438-432 BC. According to Pausanias (Description of Greece, Book 1, chapter 24, section 5), the theme of the east pediment was the birth of Athena, and that of the west pediment the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of Athens.

Each of the sculptures is actually a free-standing statue, executed in the round, rather than the type of reliefs known from the pediments of other temples (see for example the high relief of Dionysus from the Temple of Apollo in Delphi below). They are remarkably detailed and finished, particularly considering that they stood so high on the Parthenon that many parts would not be visible to the viewer on the ground. An entire pediment can be seen only when standing some distance from the building; the view of the figures from the angle shown in the photo above was not possible when they were in place.

Marble high relief of youthful Dionysus from the west pediment of the Late Classical
Temple of Apollo in Delphi. Circa 330 BC. Present height of figure 150 cm.

According to Pausanias, the pediments of the Temple of Apollo, the most important temple in Delphi which contained the oracle, were made by the Athenian sculptors Praxias and Androsthenes. The reliefs on the east pediment (above the entrance) depicted Artemis, Leto, Apollo, Muses and a setting Sun (Helios); the west pediment reliefs depicted Dionysus with the Thyiads. Praxias died during the lengthy construction of the temple, thought to have taken around twenty years, and his work was completed by Androsthenes.

"The carvings in the pediments are: Artemis, Leto, Apollo, Muses, a setting Sun, and Dionysus together with the Thyiad women. The first of them are the work of Praxias, an Athenian and a pupil of Calamis, but the temple took some time to build, during which Praxias died. So the rest of the ornament in the pediments was carved by Androsthenes, like Praxias an Athenian by birth, but a pupil of Eucadmus."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 10, chapter 19, section 4.

The sculptures of the east pediment have not been discovered, and may have been taken to Rome. Only a few fragments have survived of the west pediment's frieze, which show Dionysus standing in the centre of a group of dancing female figures, believed to be Thyiads (Θυιάδες, Thiades; singular, Θυία, Thyia), women in his thiasos who held dances on Mount Parnassos. [11]

Dionysus resided at Delphi in the winter when the oracle was closed and Apollo stayed among the Hyperboreans (Ὑπερβόρεοι), the mythical people who lived beyond the North Wind. The grave of Dionysus was said to be within the temple. Athens sent a delegation of women known as Thyiads to the orgia (ὄργια), ecstatic sacred rites on Mount Parnassos that took place in winter.

"The Thyiads are Attic women, who with the Delphian women go to Parnassus every other year and celebrate orgies in honour of Dionysus. It is the custom for these Thyiads to hold dances at places, including Panopeus, along the road from Athens."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 10, chapter 4, section 3.

"Others maintain that Castalius, an aboriginal, had a daughter Thyia, who was the first to be priestess of Dionysus and celebrate orgies in honor of the god. It is said that later on men called after her Thyiads all women who rave in honour of Dionysus. At any rate they hold that Delphus was a son of Apollo and Thyia. Others say that his mother was Melaena, daughter of Cephisus."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 10, chapter 6, section 4.

Marble statue of a youthful, unbearded Dionysus.

Pentelic marble. Mid 4th century BC. Found in the "Ploutonion"
in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone, Eleusis, Greece.

The god's hair, parted in the middle, hangs in long wavy tresses from behind his ears, down
the side of his head and on to his shoulders and chest. He wears a himation which covers
his left shoulder and arm, and is wound around the lower part of his otherwise naked
body. Some scholars believe the statue may depict Dionysus as Iakchos or Eubouleus,
gods associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries (see Demeter and Persephone).

Bronze statuette of Dionysos holding
a kantharos (wine cup). Perhaps made
in Taranto, Italy, around 200 BC.

Bronze statuette of Dionysus on a
round base. Roman period, modelled
on works of the late 2nd century BC.

The figure wears a nebris (νεβρίς, panther skin)
[13] over his left shoulder and sandals. He may
have held a thyrsos in his right hand and a bowl
in the left. His left foot rests on a lying animal
which looks like a dog, but is probably a panther.

Part of the "Ambelokipoi Hoard" of Roman
period statuettes discovered in the
Ambelokipoi district of Athens in 1964.

Bronze statuette of Dionysos wearing
an ivy wreath with bunches of grapes,
a nebris (fawnskin) over a chiton, and
high traveller's boots (endromides). He
probably held a thyrsos in his left hand
and a drinking cup in the right.

Mid 2nd century BC. Said to have been
found in Chochlia (Χόχλια), Aitolia
(Eurytania, Central Greece). Hollow cast:
the head, arms and body were cast
separately. The left arm was repaired
in antiquity. Height 47 cm.

Marble statuette of Dionysus wearing
an ivy wreath and a himation (cloak),
which hangs loosely from his left arm
and hips, covering his legs but leaving
his torso and genitals exposed. He
leans against a tree stump on which
his left elbow rests. In his left hand
he holds a bunch of grapes, and in
his lowered right hand an apparently
empty kantharos (wine cup).

From Eleusis, Greece. Roman period.

Marble statuette of Dionysus wearing a vine
wreath and a nebris. His raised right hand is
thought to have held a kantharos (wine cup)
with which he poured wine into the mouth of
the small panther (now headless) at his feet.

From the Temple of Isis, Pompeii.
Reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD).

The statuette was originally gilded and painted.
The inscription on the base states that it was
a votive gift from Numerio Popidio Ampliato,
father of Popidio Celsino, who restored the
temple with his money. The Romans identified
Dionysus with the Egyptian god Osiris.

Marble statue of Dionysus from the Janciculum "sanctuary", Rome.

Luni Marble. Roman Imperial period, second half of the 2nd century AD. Discovered 1908.

The pretty young god stands naked in a sensual pose, with an expression which could
be interpreted as dreamlike or drunken. An emptied kantharos (drinking cup) hangs from
his right hand, and he may have originally held a thyrsos in his left hand. Bunches of
grapes hang from his headband. Traces of gold leaf on the head and hands suggest
that the statue was gilded in the way usual for the sun god Dionysus-Helios.

Marble statue of Dionysus from the Temple of Dionysus in Cyrene (Κυρήνη), Libya.

The god, depicted as young and clean-shaven, wears an ivy wreath and holds a bunch
of grapes in his left hand. Most of the right arm below the biceps is missing. The broad
swathe of the lower part of his himation (cloak) is revealing and overtly erotic.

Roman Imperial period, 2nd century AD. Perhaps the cult statue of the temple. Thought
to be a Roman adaption of an existing type of statue rather than a copy of a Greek original.

"Dioniso da ponte Garibaldi", a bronze statue of Dionysus as a beardless adolescent.

Reign of Emperor Hadrian, 117-138 AD. Found in 1885 on the bed of the Tiber
river, during excavation for the foundations of a pier for the Ponte Garibaldi,
west of the Isola Tiberina (Tiber Island, see Asklepios), Rome. Height 158 cm.

The nude god stands with his weight on his right leg, holding a thyrsos in his left hand, his head turned slighty to the right. His long, wavy hair, parted in the middle, is held in place by a ribbon with red, white and blue vertical stripes, tied around the head and adorned with ivy twigs, leaves and clusters of berries. Two locks of hair fall from each side of the back of the head and rest on each shoulder. The inlaid eyes have brown pupils, and his full lips are coloured red (see photo below). The figure was made using the lost wax method.

A marble statue of Dionysus from Rome.

Antonine period, circa 150 AD. Thought to be a Roman copy of a Late Hellenistic
(2nd century BC) reworking of a statue attributed to Praxiteles (mid 4th century BC).
Found on the Piazza del Viminale, Rome, during the construction of the foundations
for the Ministry of the Interior building, 1913-1916.

The nude wine god steps forward, his weight resting on his straight right leg, his torso
leaning back and to the right. He wears a crown of vine leaves, shoots and clusters of
ivy berries. His head is lowered forwards, and he looks down with an apparently pensive
expression which is described by the museum labelling as "absorbed and detached".
The left arm and the lower right arm are missing. He may have held a thyrsos in the
left hand, and a kantharos (wine cup) in the lowered right hand.

Marble statue of Dionysus from Ostia, near Rome.

2nd century AD. Discovered in 1938 near the Temple of Hercules (Tempio
di Ercole, I,XV,5), in the Republican sacred area, Ostia. Parian marble.

Fragmentary marble statue of Dionysus,
wearing a nebris, with a panther.

2nd half of the 2nd century - 1st half
of the 3rd century AD. Height 165 cm,
width 68 cm, depth 40 cm.

Black marble statue of Dionysus, wearing a diadem, ivy wreath, a nebris
and high sandals. He holds a wine jug in his raise right hand, and with his
left hand he holds his thyrsos, the top of which rests on his left shoulder.

Marble statue of a youthful Dionysus.

50 - 1 BC. Found near
Stazione Termini, Rome.

Marble bust of a youthful Dionysus.

2nd century AD, after a Hellenistic original.
Perhaps from the Vatican.

Marble statue of Dionysus leaning on a tree
trunk covered with a vine. The elaborate
arrangement of the hair on the top of the
head is more usual for statues of Apollo.

2nd century AD. From Thessaloniki.

Part of a marble statuette of
Dionysus wearing a nebris.

160-190 AD. Height 76.3 cm,
width 29.5 cm, depth 19.9 cm.

Detail of a marble table support (trapezophoron)
with a Dionysian group: Dionysus, Pan and a Satyr.

170-180 AD. From Dokimeion, Anatolia (Asia Minor). Unknown provenance.

The nude Dionysus holds a rhyton (ritual drinking
horn), one end of which is shaped like the front
of a panther. On the left goat-footed Pan holds
a lagobolon (a stick for throwing at hares). He
rests his left foot (the lower left leg is missing)
on the lid of a small cylindrical basket fron which
a snake emerges. A Satyr climbs the vine behind
Pan and cuts grapes with a sickle in his left hand.
A lagobolon hangs from the vine.

Marble table support with
Dionysus and a panther.

Turn of the 2nd - 3rd century AD.
From Argos, Peloponnese, Greece.
Height 91 cm, width 26,5cm, depth 24 cm.

Dionysus stands naked, resting his left
arm on a tree trunk support around
which grows a grapevine. A small panther
sits below the trunk, next to a discarded,
empty kantharos (wine cup). His right
forearm (now missing) rests on top of his
head, a gesture also seen in depictions
of Apollo, and thought to represent a
state of rest or inner vision.

Marble bust of Dionysus.

Roman period copy of a late
4th century BC Greek original.

A silver coin of Korkyra (Corfu, see above), northwest Greece,
with the head of Dionysus, in profile facing right, wearing a
headband, and a wreath of ivy leaves and berries. 229-48 BC.

A silver tetradrachm of Thasos (Θασος), northeast Greece, with
the head of Dionysus, in profile facing right, wearing a headband,
and a wreath of ivy leaves and berries. Circa 180-170 BC.

The reverse side shows Herakles standing with his club and
lion skin, and is inscribed "ΗΡAΚΛΕΥΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ" (Herakles
Soteros, Herakles Saviour) and "ΘAΣIΩN" (Thasion).

The obverse side of a silver tetradrachm of Maroneia (Μαρώνεια),
on the Aegean coast of Thrace, west of modern Alexandroupoli,
with the head of Dionysus, in profile facing right, wearing
a headband, and a wreath of ivy leaves and berries.

Circa 146-80 BC. Diameter 33 mm, weight 15.64 grams.

The reverse side of a silver tetradrachm of Maroneia, Thrace,
with a depiction of a nude male figure, believed to be Dionysus,
holding a bunch of grapes. The obverse shows the head of
Dionysus similar to that on the coin in the photo, left.

Circa 189-45 BC. Diameter 31.85 mm, weight 15.63 grams.

The legendary or mythological founder of Maroneia was Maron (Μάρων), a son of Dionysus, Oinopion or Silenos [14]. He may have been the Maron, son of Euanthes and priest of Apollo at Ismaros (Ἴσμαρος) in Thrace, who gave Odysseus the strong, sweet wine with which he later made the Cyclops Polyphemos drunk (Homer, The Odyssey, Book 9, lines 196-212; see Homer part 3).

Archaeological excavations at the site of ancient Maroneia have revealed the remains of a Hellenistic theatre and a large sanctuary, believed to have been dedicated to Dionysus.

These coins, issued 189/188 - 49/45 BC, replaced a previous series which showed a standing horse or horse's head on the obverse side, and a bunch of grapes or vine on the reverse.

This side of this particular coin (photo, right) is among the best surviving examples (there are several in the Berllin museums collection) in terms of the quality of the engraving and the detailing of the figure. The clean-shaven, muscular nude male stands frontally, his weight resting on his straight right leg, his head turned to the left. He appears to be wearing a tainia (headband) or wreath. In his extended right hand he holds a bunch of grapes. A himation (cloak) is draped over his left arm, and with his left hand, which rests on his left hip, he holds two staves or spears, which have also been described as narthex stalks or a double thyrsos. Written vertically, either side of the figure is the inscription "ΔΙΟΝΙΣΟΥ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ" (Dionysou Soteros, Dionysus Saviour), and to each side of his legs is a monogram. The coin has been struck too low, so that only part of the inscription "MAPΩNITΩN", the name of the issuing authority at the bottom, can be seen.

Although I have so far not found this suggestion in modern literature, is it possible that the figure is meant to depict Maron rather than Dionysus?

Silenos (Σειληνός, Seilenos; Latin, Silenus), was the oldest of the Silens, the tutor of Dionysus, in whose cult Greek theatre developed, and led the thiasos. He is also referred to as Papposilenos (Παπποσειληνός, Father Silenos), particularly in the context of the theatre. Depictions of the old Silen holding the infant Dionysus are variants on those of Hermes with the infant Dionysus. This statue is thought to depict a Papposilenos actor rather than the old Silen himself.

Pausanias noticed a stone near the Propylaia of the Athens Acropolis, on which according to legend, Silenos rested when he came with Dionysus to Attica. As confused as most of us about the origin of Silens and Satyrs [see note 4], the travel writer made some enquiries into the subject:

"There is also a smallish stone, just large enough to serve as a seat to a little man. On it legend says Silenus rested when Dionysus came to the land. The oldest of the Satyrs they call Sileni.

Wishing to know better than most people who the Satyrs are I have inquired from many about this very point. Euphemus the Carian said that on a voyage to Italy he was driven out of his course by winds and was carried into the outer sea, beyond the course of seamen.

He affirmed that there were many uninhabited islands, while in others lived wild men. The sailors did not wish to put in at the latter, because, having put in before, they had some experience of the inhabitants, but on this occasion they had no choice in the matter.

The islands were called Satyrides by the sailors, and the inhabitants were red haired, and had upon their flanks tails not much smaller than those of horses. As soon as they caught sight of their visitors, they ran down to the ship without uttering a cry and assaulted the women in the ship. At last the sailors in fear cast a foreign woman on to the island. Her the Satyrs outraged not only in the usual way, but also in a most shocking manner."

Other depictions of Silenos holding the infant Dionysus include:

The tondo of a red-figure kylix. Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

A terracotta figurine from Tanagra, around 350-300 BC. Louvre. Inv. No. CA 463. Height 13 cm.

A marble statue found in 1832 in the Theatre of Dionysos, Athens, late 2nd century BC. National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Inv. No. 257. Parian marble. Height 113 cm.

A fresco from Pompeii, circa 1st century AD, showing Silenos, Hermes, the infant Dionysus and Nysiad Nymphs. National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

A marble statue from Rome, Roman period. Glyptothek, Munich. Inv. No. GL 238. Height 187 cm.

A marble statuette, 1st - 2nd century AD. Hermitage, Saint Petersburg. Height 61 cm.

A marble statue, 1st - 2nd century AD. Found in the Horti Sallustiani, Rome, 16th century. Louvre. Inv. No. Ma 922 (MR 346). Height 190 cm.

A marble statue, mid 2nd century AD, perhaps a copy of a Greek original by Lysippos, around 300 BC. Braccio Nuovo, Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican Museums. Inv. No. 2292.

The infant Dionysus was also depicted being carried by Pan (see below), a Satyr, and Zeus:

Fragment of a terracotta figurine of Papposilenos
carrying the infant Dionysus on his left shoulder.

4th century BC. From the sanctuary of Artemis
Mounichia (Μουνίχια) in Piraeus, Attica, Greece.

Fragment of a marble statue group with Silenos holding
the infant Dionysus. Above them is the lower part of the
goat-footed god Pan, and to the right the right arm of
a larger figure.

2nd century AD. From Aphytis (Ἀφυτις), Pallene peninsula
(today Cassandra peninsula), Halkidiki, Macedonia (see
map in History of Stageira part 8), where Dionysus was
worshipped as early as the 8th century BC. As well as a
sanctuary of Dionysus there was also a cave dedicated
to Dionysus and the Nymphs.

Pietrabbondante is thought by some historians to be the location of ancient Bovianum, the meeting place of the assemblies of the confederation of the four Samnite tribes, the Caraceni, Caudini, Hirpini and Pentri. The site of the sanctuary, first excavated in the 1840s, includes a theatre and a temple.

Dionysus stands in a naiskos (ναΐσκος, small temple), wearing an ivy wreath and a himation which covers only his left shoulder and legs, leaving his torso naked. He holds his thyrsos in his right hand, and in his left hand he holds a kantharos (wine cup) upside down by its foot. A tympanon flanked by cymbals decorate the pediment of the temple.

The luxurious private house, near the theatre of Delos, south of the Sanctuary of Apollo, was named "the House of Dionysos" after this mosaic, which was found in the peristyle of the large central courtyard known as "court c". Made using the opus vermiculatum technique (worm-like work), the highly detailed, multi-coloured mosaic emblema was made with tesserae of glass, faience, natural stone and terracotta, most around one millimetre square.

The winged boy riding the tiger has also been interpreted as: Eros (or Cupid); a personification or the genius of Autumn; Acratus (Ἄκρατος, also referred to as Acratopotes, Ακρατοποτης, Drinker of Unmixed Wine), a hero or daimon and follower of Dionysus. Naked apart from a wreath of flowers and ivy leaves, he sits on a large cloth (a himation or an animal skin) draped around the tiger's torso. His cheeks are puffed out and he appears drunk. He looks down into a large bowl of wine which he holds in his right hand. With his right hand he steers the tiger with a red rein as it walks to the right, its head turned back to the left. The tiger has a lion-like mane, a protruding tongue and prominent, sharp claws. Its left eye is missing and around its neck is a wreath of vine leaves and grapes. With its left forepaw it treads on a thyrsos lying on the ground at what appears to be the craggy edge of an abyss.

Around this square central emblema is a border with poylchrome representations of eight comic and tragic theatre masks at each corner and the centre of each side, between which run garlands of scrolls, fruits and foliage. Around a further outer frame is a continuous frieze of spiral waves in red and white, with nine waves along each side.

Like the "Alexander Mosaic", also from the House of the Faun, and the mosaics of Dioskourides of Samos from Herculaneum, the central emblema and inner frame are exceptionally well executed, made of small, tightly-fitted tesserae, have dynamic compositions and are finely detailed with painterly qualities. The image of the central emblema may appear odd to modern eyes, and the mane and distorted anatomical proportions of the tiger are perhaps due to the artist's unfamiliarity with the exotic beast. It is not clear if the tiger's missing left eye is the work of the artist, or a result of damage to the mosaic. The eye socket is filled in with shaded tesserae, which may be restoration, but the area below is swollen and wrinkled, and there is what appears to be a horizontal scar along the outer side. The general appearance of the tiger is that of an older animal which has perhaps survived several battles.

The author of a guide to the Naples museum expressed what many of us may feel when seeing such a fine work of art made "merely" to decorate a floor:

"One can hardly believe that this beautiful work of art was made to be walked upon, and formed part of a pavement."

On the left Herkales stands, facing frontally, wearing (barely) the skin of the Nemean Lion. A paw and leg of the lion hangs down in front of his left forearm, and the rest of the pelt falls from behind the arm and around his thighs, with the head on the outside of his right thigh. He holds a wine cup in his left hand, and in his right hand his club which rests on the head of a bull. Dionysus stands on the right, wearing a wreath of ivy berries and a nebris, fastened at the left shoulder and covering only part of his torso. In his left hand he holds his thyrsos, and his right arm rests on Herakles' right shoulder. Behind their heads three bunches of grapes with leaves hang from a vine extending across the width of the recessed relief area.

Both Herakles and Dionysus were said to be sons of Zeus, each by a mortal woman, and were thus half-brothers. Here they enjoy together a moment of close fraternal friendship and rest. Their poses and clothing suggest abandonment and intoxication - they both appear quite drunk - and look as though they are having their snapshot taken at a party.

A small panther sits between them, its body facing left, the head turned back to the left. On the right Pan sits on a rock above a Silen (perhaps Silenos) who carries on his head a bowl containing four round fruits. These two figures are depicted at a much smaller scale than Herakles and Dionysus.

Statue of a sitting female panther.

Roman Imperial period. Pavonazetto marble, with inlaid eyes of yellow stone.

Dionysus is often depicted with female figures,
such as his mother Semele or his consort Ariadne.

A bearded Fufluns stands naked apart from a cloak carelessly draped around his left forearm and wound around his right knee, holding a kantharos (drinking tankard) in his right hand and his thyrsos in the left hand. He looks downwards to his left, and appears to be gazing into a patera (libation bowl) held by a female figure (who has been referred to as an "attendant" or Maenad) in her right hand; in her left hand she holds a jug. She wears a long, transparent chiton. It has been suggested that they are practising lekanomanteia, the reading of a prophecy in a liquid. [17]

Behind the god is a tree at the foot of which an owl is perched on a stump of a branch or a rock decorated with a schematic ivy branch.

The scene is thought to represent the marriage of Dionysus and Ariadne on Naxos (see below and Selcuk gallery 2, page 2). Dionysus lounges drunkenly, with his right forearm on top of his head and his right leg resting on the left thigh of Ariadne, who sits to his left. A small panther sits right of him, rather like a domestic pet. Two grapevines stretch horizontally, from left and right, meeting above Dionysus' head. Maenads dance to left and right, and two more sleep on the shoulder of the vessel.

The Derveni Krater is a volute krater (wine mixing bowl), made of an alloy of bronze and tin, elaborately decorated with several figures including Dionysus, Ariadne and Maenads. Dated to the 4th century BC, it was probably made in Athens.

Height 90.5 cm, weight 40 kg.

It was discovered in 1962, carefully buried in a tomb at Derveni, the site of the ancient Mygdonian city of Lete (Λητή), near Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. [18] It had been used as a funerary urn for a Thessalian aristocrat and contained the burnt bones of a man aged 35-50 and a younger woman. An inscription in the Thessalian variant of the Aeolian dialect, engraved on the base of the krater, names the man as Astiouneios, son of Anaxagoras, from Larissa:

An Attic black-figure lekythos (oinment jar)
with Dionysus dancing with two Satyrs.
On the shoulder is a cockerel between
two heart-shaped leaves.

Late 6th - early 5th century BC. Attributed
to the Cock Group (by Claudia Lambrugo).
Height 13.8 cm.

A black-figure trefoil oinochoe (wine jug)
with Dionysus and two Satyrs.

5th century BC. From the extended north
cemetery of Pydna, Macedonia, Greece.

A bronze statuette of a nude ithyphallic Silen
with horse's hooves, dancing ecstatically.

Made in a Corinthian workshop around 540-530 BC.
Found 1875 in the Sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona, near
Ionnina, northwestern Greece, during excavations by
Konstantinos Karapanos (see note in Homer part 3).

Colossal marble statue group with Dionysus,
a young Satyr and a panther.

160-180 AD, Roman period copy of a 4th century BC
Greek original. Found in the area of the Baths of
Constantine (Thermae Constantinianae) on the
Quirinal Hill, Rome, it probably originally stood in a baths.

Small bronze bust of a Satyr, made in Kos.

Roman Imperial period, 1st - 3rd century AD.
Found in a storeroom in the ancient agora
of Kos, Dodecanese.

Smaller than lifesize marble statue group of drunken Dionysos, a Satyr, Pan, infant Eros and a panther.

150-200 AD. Found in June 1937, along with six other marble statues, in Room VIII of
the "House of the Rape of Europa" (la Casa considdetta del Ratto di Europa), in Kos Town,
during excavations 1936-1940 directed by Italian archaeologist Luigi Morricone (see Hermes).

Marble statue of Dionysos and a Satyr.

160-170 AD. Found in the pool of the tepidarium
of the Faustina Baths, Miletus, Turkey.
Height 235 cm, width 98 cm, depth 73 cm.

Altes Museum, Berlin. Inv. No. Sk 1797.
Acquired in 1904.

A marble table support (trapezophoron)
depicting a drunken Dionysus supported
by Pan and a young Satyr.

Roman period, mid 2nd century AD.

Acquired 1846 in Rome by Gerhard from the art
dealer Trebi. Until 1859 in Sanssouci, Potsdam.
Height 78 cm, width 47.5 cm, depth 27 cm.

Marble trapezophoron (table support)
depicting Dionysus and a panther.

From the "House of Leda", Dion,
Macedonia. 2nd century AD.

A marble table support depicting a drunken
Dionysus supported by a young Satyr holding
a lagobolon (see Pan).

3rd century AD.
From Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.

The marble slab is decorated on both sides with Dionysiac motifs (the other side has a relief of two male goats with an amphora). The museum labelling describes this scene simply as "Satyr and Maenad". The Satyrs crouch opposite each other on the symmetrically intertwining stems of two enormous flowering vines which take up most of the height of the slab. The figure on the left uncovers a naked female who lies asleep on an acanthus leaf. She may be a Maenad, but the scene is reminiscant of the uncovering of Ariadne as Dionysus discovers her on Naxos.

Restored marble statue of a young Satyr pouring wine from a jug into a rhyton (drinking horn).

Around 150 AD. From a villa at Monte Calvo, Sabina (Italy), where it was
part of a fountain. One of a number of Roman period statues thought to
be copies of a lost Greek original made by Praxiteles circa 370-350 BC.

Marble statue of a "faun" holding up a bunch of grapes with his right hand and a wine cup in
the left. He balances delicately on his toes, although the statue is supported by a tree trunk.

2nd century AD copy of a late 2nd - 1st century BC Greek original.

A marble statue of drunken Silenos leaning against the stump of a tree trunk. The aged
Silen wears only a nebris (animal skin), fastened at his left shoulder and covering part
of his upper torso. He rests his left arm on a wineskin that lies on top of the stump.

1st centuy AD, Roman period. From Neapolis (Nablus, Jordan).

Three-lobed oinochoe (wine jug) in the form of
the head of Silenos or Dionysus. 5th century BC.

Porphyry head of Silenos or Dionysus appearing
intoxicated, wearing an ivy crown.

Middle Hellenistic period. From Rhodes.

The kylix is one of of three similar cups found in a well beneath the south end of the Stoa of Attalus in the Athenian Agora in June 1954. It was complete apart from the foot, and has been restored from several fragments. The tondo (the round painted panel in the centre of the inside of the cup) has a painting of a Maenad running to the right, with the upper part of her body twisted so that she looks behind her. She wears as sakkos (σάκκος, a soft woven cap or a piece of material wrapped around the head), a himation (cloak) over a long chiton (tunic), earrings and a necklace. Her right arm is outstretched, and in her left hand she carries a thyrsos, pointed downwards and to the right.

Marble relief of a dancing Maenad
from Pergamon.

Hellenistic, late 3rd century BC. Found in
September 1896 reused in a wall, southwest
of the Upper Agora of the Pergamon Acropolis.

A Neo-Attic marble relief of a dancing Maenad.

Pentelic marble. Part of a circular monument.
A copy of a choragic votive offering for
Euripides' play The Bacchantes, made by
Kallimachos in 406-405 BC. Found 1875
in the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, Rome.

A marble Neo-Attic fountain in the shape of a rhyton (drinking horn), with a protome (front part) of a horse
at the lower narrower end, and reliefs of dancing Maenads around the open end. The Maenad from the
fountain (photo, right) is almost identical to the one above, right and another on a sarcophagus below.

Signed by the Greek artist Pontios of Athens. 1st century AD. Probably derived from a metal prototype.
Excavated in 1874 in the area of the Auditorium, in the Horti Maecenatis (Gardens of Maecenas), Rome.
(See also the fragments of reliefs below, here and here.) Height 112 cm, length 145.5 cm.

Palazzo dei Conservatori, Capitoline Museums, Rome. Inv. No. MC 1101.

Satyrs, Silens and Satyrs dance and play music during a sacrifice to Dionysus at an altar. The Maenads are shown in poses known from a number of other reliefs thought to be modelled on late 5th century BC originals by Kallimachos. See, for example other photos above: a Maenad similar to one with a tympanon, left, on a relief from Rome now in the British Museum; figures almost identical to the Maenad to the right of the altar in three relief figures from Rome in the Barracco Museum.

The inscription, in what looks like a freehand style, just to the left of the Maenad next to the altar: "Gerostratos, gymnasiarch, farewell".

A marble cylindrical altar with reliefs of a dancing Maenad holding a hare, and a Satyr playing
double pipes. Another dancing Maenad with a hare is depicted on the other side of the altar.

1st half of the 1st century AD. From Cremona, Italy. Height 70 cm, diameter 38 cm.

The "Dresden Maenad", a marble
statuette of a dancing Maenad.

2nd half of the 1st century BC. Possibly based
on a statue by Skopas of Paros, known as the
"Goat Slayer" (χιμαιροφόνος Chimairophonos).
White, fine-grained, translucent marble. The arms
and the legs beneath the knees are missing.
Height 45.5 cm, width 14.0 cm, depth 14.0 cm.
Original height approximately 60-75 cm. [20]

Fragments of a marble relief of a dancing Maenad.

1st century BC. Restored from two fragments excavated
in the Forum of ancient Corinth, one found in the South
Stoa and the other from the Northwest Shops.

Discovered on 18th February 2009 in the House of the Dionysiac Reliefs (Casa dei rilievi dionisiaci), a luxurious residence of the North-West Insula (Insula I ISAE) of Herculaneum. It is one of the latest discoveries made at the site of the ancient town which was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. The relief had been set into a painted plaster wall of the large triclinium (dining room), as was another marble relief depicting Satyrs, found in the same room in 1997 (Inv. No. SAP 79613). It is thought that there may have been another relief on the the third wall of the room. The fourth wall was open and originally overlooked the sea.

On the left, two female figures stand before an Archaistic statue of Dionysus with a kantharos (drinking cup). One woman places her hand on the shoulder of the other in a protective gesture. The object held by the woman on the left has not been identified (perhaps a torch), but is thought to be connected with a ritual. On the right is a bearded male, probably Dionysus, with his extended right arm raised, facing a dancing Maenad.

The relief, divided into two registers, has been interpreted as a depiction of the initiation of two children (boys?) into the Dionysian Mysteries at a rural sanctuary. The scene in the upper register takes place beneath the shade of a plane tree with large leaves (in low relief), the gnarled trunk and snake-like branches of which frame the left side of the scene. The tree trunk resembles, perhaps coincidentally, a naked female torso.

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 Silenos, 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.

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 (1888 and 1905 editions) merely as "Comic marble bas-relief".

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 340-330 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.

Roman Imperial period, 2nd century AD,
perhaps after a work by Praxiteles,
around 340-330 BC. Height 183 cm,
width 78 cm, depth 47 cm.

The ancient torso is said to have been found at the
Palazzo Sessoriano, Rome, probably in 1743 during
the rebuilding of the S. Croce in Gerusalemme church.
Purchased in 1766 by the art dealer Giovanni Ludovico
Bianconi, acting as an agent for King Friedrich II of
Prussia (Frederick the Great). 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 1772 in
the Half Rondel, in the gardens of the Neues Palais,
Sanssouci, Potsdam, along with a number of other
statues. In 1825 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".
On 3 May 1828 it was set up among other restored
ancient statues of Greek and Roman deites and
mythological figures around the Rotunda, the grand
entrance hall of Berlin's Royal Museum (Königliche
Museum, later renamed the Altes Museum), where
it was given the title "Faun Praxiteles". A copy of the
statue by Eduard Stützel was set up at Sanssouci
in 1853 to replace the original.

A marble statue of a Satyr wearing a nebris (panther
skin) and playing a flute. An ox sits at his feet.

Roman Imperial period variation of a Greek 4th century BC
original attributed to Praxiteles. Parian marble. Height 129 cm.

Found in 1749 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 1764 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,
1764, page 158).

Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums, Rome. Inv. No. MC 295.

The "Faone di Campidoglio", a marmo rosso antico
(red marble) statue of a "Faun" (Satyr), wearing a
nebris, standing next to a goat. Also included are
several cult objects associated with Dionysus and
Pan: bunches of grapes, a lagobolon, syrinx (pan
pipes) and the cista mystica (sacred kiste).

Roman Imperial period, 2nd century AD, after
a late Hellenistic original. Found in 1736 in
Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli, near Rome, during
excavations by Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti
(1685-1764). Restored 1744-1746 by Bartolomeo
Cavaceppi and Clemente Bianchi. Height 167.5 cm.

Sala del Fauno (Hall of the Faun), Palazzo Nuovo,
Capitoline Museums, Rome. Inv. No. MC 657.
Donated by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746.

Some of the figures are identified by inscriptions. In the lower register Parthenopaios (named Παρθενοπαῖος), the handsome young hero from Argos or Arcadia who was one of the seven leaders of the ill-fated military expedition against Thebes, sits on a kline. He talks with an unnamed elderly man with a white beard and walking stick. Some scholars believe he may be Adrastos (Ἄδραστος), the king of Argos who organized the expedition, or perhaps Tiresias (Τειρεσίας), the prophet of Apollo who persuaded Parthenopaios to join it. On the right stands the heroine Atalanta (Ἀταλάντα), Parthenopaios' mother, and on the left an unnamed female figure.

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 750-500 BC. Parthenopaios' part in the Theban war is known from the plays Seven against Thebes by Aeschylus, produced in 467 BC, and The Phoenician women by Euripides, written around 408 BC.

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 13 line inscription below is a decree of the Attic deme of Aixone (Αἰξωνή, the area of modern Glyfada) concerning Auteas, son of Autokles (Αυτέας Αυτοκλέους) and Philoxenides, son of Philppos (Φιλοξενίδης Φιλίππου), two choregoi (sponsors of theatrical performances, see Athens Acropolis gallery page 35). They are honoured for having performed their choregic duties well (καλῶς, kalos) and with a sense of love for honour (φιλοτίμως, philotimos). The citizens of the deme decided to award them each a golden crown worth 100 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 mention of Theophrastos (Θεόφραστος) as Athenian archon has caused some debate about the dating of the decree. Archons served for one year, and there were two of this name during the 4th century BC, in 340/339 and 313/312. The latter date has become generally accepted.

The Greek text of the inscription:

The Dionysion (το Διονύσιον), 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 personifications of 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 theatre's semi-circular cavea (audience seating area) was built in a natural depression, between 60-80 metres above sea level, on the steep slope of the hills to the south east of the harbour, within the ancient city walls. According to Hippokrates (Epidemiai, 1, 20) the theatre already existed in second half of the 5th century BC. However, no archaeological evidence from this time has yet been discovered, although remains from the Archaic period have apparently been found in the area of the much later skene (σκηνή, literally tent or hut) stage building.

The marble skene in the Doric style was erected in the early third century BC behind the semi-circular orchestra (ὀρχήστρα, dancing place, performing area). Although little now remains on the site of this Hellenistic building, fragments of the architrave of the proskenion (proscenium, front facade of the skene) have survived, with triglyphs and metopes with low reliefs of mythological scenes, and an inscribed dedication to Dionysus by the Thasian Lysistratos son of Kodis (inscription IG XII, Supplement 399). These are now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. Originally the facade consisted of a row of 12 Doric columns with a pilaster at each end.

The small temple or shrine of Dionysus in Delos, also known as the Exedra of Dionysus, or Stoibadeion (Στοιβάδειον), is a rectangular platform which contained a statue group of enthroned Dionysus flanked by two actors dressed as Papposilenos (see photos below). 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.

According to an inscription, the phallus on the right (south) was dedicated to Dionysus around 300 BC by a certain Karystios (Καρύστιος) who sponsored a prize-winning theatrical performance. 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 1904 in the Stoibadeion, Delos. 150-100 BC.

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, 120 cm high, holds a tympanon (hand drum) in his right hand.

Silenos (Σειληνός, Seilenos; Latin, Silenus), was the oldest of the Silens, the tutor of Dionysus, in whose cult Greek theatre developed. He led the god's thiasos. He is also referred to as Papposilenos (Παπποσειληνός, Father Silenos), particularly in the context of the theatre.

One of several surviving marble statues
of Papposilenos, from the Roman period
skene (stage building) of the
Theatre of Dionysos, Athens.

1st or 2nd century AD.
Height 150 cm, width 63 cm.

Colossal marble statue of a naked
Papposilenos, probably in the pose of Atlas.

From the Roman period skene of
the Theatre of Dionysos, Athens.

1st or 2nd century AD.

Marble statue of an actor dressed as Papposilenos.

Around 100 AD. Thought to be a copy of a 4th century BC original. From the
Quirinal Hill, Rome. Pentelic marble. Height 168 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).

A comic scene from a Satyr play on the body of a Campanian red-figure amphora.

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.

From Campania, southwestern Italy, 330-320 BC.

A terracotta figurine of an actor
wearing a mask and the costume
of Papposilenos.

From Patras, northwestern
Peloponnese, Greece.
2nd century AD.

Letoon (Λητῶον) is the site of an ancient Lycian sanctuary, at the village of Kumluova, in the Fethiye district of Antalya Province, southwestern Turkey. It is about 3 kilometres east the present coastline, and 1 km west of the Xanthos River (Eşen Çayı). The archaeological site is just off the national highway D400, 46 km (as the crow flies; 63 km by road) south of Fethiye, around 4 km (6 km by road) south of ancient Xanthos (Ξάνθος), the capital of the Lycian League, and 14 km (18.6 km by road) northwest of ancient Patara (Πάταρα).

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. Despite its proximity to Fethiye, the growing tourist resort of Kaş (see Kastellorizo), and the increasingly popular Xanthos archaeological site, Kumluova and Letoon still feel quite isolated, and visited by far fewer tourists than Xanthos or other Lycian sites. There is no public transport from Kaş or Xanthos, although infrequent dolmuş minibuses run to and from Patara, where there are connections to Kaş.

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, Lydians and Persians.

It was ruled by the Persians following the conquest of the Lydian empire in 547-546 BC, and the Lycian cities surrendered to Alexander the Great in 333 BC. After Alexander's death in 323 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. In 177 BC it was occupied by Rhodes, but given its freedom by the Romans in 167 BC.

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 (117-138 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 (1777-1860) estimated the location of Letoon, and the archaeologist Charles Fellows (see above), who had discovered Xanthos in 1838, attempted to visit it on 17th April 1840, but was thwarted by the high water levels of the swamp. However, in March 1841 Richard Hoskyn (1811-1873), 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.

"I found a large theatre in very good preservation, built in the side of a low detached hill. 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 1840-1; accompanied by a map. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Volume 12, pages 143-161. John Murray, London, 1843. At the Internet Archive.

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 36-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 1990s 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 frieze above the northern vomitorium (the Latin name for the entrance/exit of a theatre; Greek, parados, πάροδος), runs along the top of a lintel above the outside of the vaulted tunnel through the retaining wall on the north side (see top photo, right). 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.

•   3 masks of bearded Dionysus (metopes 1, 10, 16)
•   3 tragic masks (2, 6, 11)
•   3 bearded male faces (3, 7, 13)
•   1 comic mask of an old woman (4)
•   2 faces of beardless youths (5, 12)
•   2 Satyrs heads (8, 14)
•   2 bald, bearded Silens (9, 15)

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 1841, 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 1884.

See: Otto Benndorf and George Niemann, Reisen im südwestlichen Kleinasien, Band I: Reisen in Lykien und Karien, pages 118-124. C. Gerold's Sohn, Vienna, 1884. At the Internet Archive.

In 1962 the French Archaeological Mission, which had begun excavations at Xanthos in 1951, 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. In 1988 Xanthos and Letoon were selected jointly as a UNESCO World Heritage site. However, in 2011 a controversial government decree revoked the permission for the French archaeologists to work at Xanthos and Letoon. This is part of the much-criticized political trend by President Erdoğan's government to restrict the work of foreign archaeologists in Turkey.

Since 2011 the archaeological work at Letoon has been carried out by Başkent University. 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 2006. Following closure for essential conservation work, reportedly costing 2.8 million Turkish Lira, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry announced in November 2017 that the Letoon site was about to be reopened, and that the Xanthos site would be reopened by 2018.

The head of Dionysus on a terracotta volute lamp.

1st century AD. Found in the hyposkenion of the theatre in Caearea Maritima,
Judaea (near Haifa, northern Israel), during excavations directed by Antonio Frova
(1914-2007) of the Italian Archaeological Mission of Caesarea, 1959-1964.

A number of relief fragments, including those in Pergamon Museum, Berlin (see below). One of these is almost identical to a Hellenistic fragment in the Museo Civico, Castello Ursino, Catania, Sicily. Inv. No. 960. Height 45 cm.

A fragmentary relief, around 125-150 AD (Hadrianic), Gaeta Cathedral, Italy.

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?) stands on an elaborate base resembling a fountain.

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). It has been suggested, for example, that the host is the mythical Attic farmer Ikarios (Ἰκάριος), the eponymous hero of the deme Ikaria, who was taught the art of winemaking by Dionysus in return for his hospitality. 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.

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?) in the background is garlanded and has a Gorgoneion on the pediment. 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.

Fragment of a marble "Ikarios relief" showing Dionysus
with two Satyrs. Early 1st century AD. Height 56.5 cm,
width 43.7 cm, depth 5 - 5.9 cm.

Fragment of a marble "Ikarios relief" showing
members of Dionysus' thiasos.

1st century AD. Provenance unknown. Recorded as being in the
Prussian Royal Collection in 1891 (Inventar der Skulpturen I,
page 265; Conze, 1891). Height 45.1 cm, width 36 cm, depth 4.6 cm.

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.

Pergamon Museum, Berlin. Inv. No. Sk 920.

Myths concerning Dionysus as the victor over Asian regions and barbarians were already current by the Classical period, and mentioned for example in The Bacchae by Euripides. The notion of the wine god as an ancient conqueror of India became popular following expedition of Alexander the Great to the Indus in 327-326 BC. In the Hellenistic mind analogies were drawn between Indian religious practices and those of the Dionysian cult, and Dionysus was seen as the saviour god who, with his mad or merry followers (his thiasos), had brought peace, the vine and other blessings to the Indians.

The subject of his triumphant return to the west became even more pertinent in the Roman Empire, when victorious generals and emperors paraded in amid great pomp through Rome and other cities. A Roman triumph was often an extravagant show with casts of thousands, including hostages, prisoners of war, captured slaves, exotic beasts and other booty, and the grand event was often followed by elaborate performances and shows for the masses.

For a short introduction to the strange tales of the military expedition by Dionysus and his thiasos army to India, read Dionysus, an introduction by Lucian of Samosata (circa 120-200 AD). Thought to have been written as an introduction to his True story Book 2 (Ἀληθῶν Διηγημάτων Β; Latin, Verae historiae II). Lucian is wonderfully entertaining author, always worth reading.

Lucian of Samosata, Dionysus, an introduction (Διόνυσος; Latin, Bacchus). In: Lucian (complete works), Volume 1 (of 8), pages 48-59. Loeb Classical Library edition in Greek and English, translated by A. M. Harmon. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and William Heinemann, London, 1913.

In the 4th or 5th century AD the Greek-Egyptian poet Nonnus of Panopolis (Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης) wrote the epic poem Dionysiaca (Διονυσιακά), narrating the life of Dionysus, his expedition to India and his return to the west in triumph. Consisting of 20,426 lines of dactylic hexameters in Homeric dialect, the 48 books of the Dionysiaca represent the longest poem to have survived from antiquity.

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, 1908) 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.

Dionysus, standing in a triumphal pose and holding his thyrsos staff like a weapon in the manner of a triumphal Roman emperor or general (a pose which can be seen on several imperial statues), rides in a chariot/ship pulled by two large cats (lionesses, female panthers or tigers?). 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. Another figure on the right, presumably another prisoner, is now missing.

Ariadne and the naked Dionysus enter the theatrical scene from the left in a golden chariot drawn by two leopards and surrounded by the god's thiasos, some riding elephants and camels, symbols of the god's victory in Asia, others dancing and playing pipes, cymbals and a tambourine (figure, far right). A winged Victoria (Nike) flies down to bring the couple a pair of victory wreaths. A young female in a dark green robe carries a basket of grapes on her head, and other figures, including one of the elephants, also hold grapes and drinking vessels. At the centre Satyrs or Silens try to help the drunken, obese Silenos mount a patiently crouching lion. To the right Pan cavorts with his companions. The goat-footed god drinks from a wineskin carried on the shoulders of a horned youth. Zeus, with his eagle, and Hera, with her peacock, recline in a cloud above to watch the progress of the procession. In the background, to the far left and right, rises an idealized mountainous landscape with groups of buildings and a round tower, perhaps meant to represent an imaginary Greece, or as an allusion to the history of the Este family or Ferrara.

The composition is punctuated by areas of rich colour - blues, greens, reds and orange - mainly on garments, but dominated by expanses of naked flesh (that of most of the males is darker than the porcelain-like skin of the females), and the surface is generally lively. However, all textures have been smoothed out, and the movements of the figures are decidely restrained, rather than orgiastically abandoned. All but Silenos are solemnly sober; only Pan and the horned youth to his right are smiling, while another horned figure, behind and to the left of them, appears to be shouting or singing.

Painted for Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, the work was exhibited in the Camerino gallery of the ducal palace in Ferrara. By the time Garofalo completed the work he was almost blind, having lost the sight of his right eye when he was about 49 (Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists Part III [21]).

Ercole's father Alfonso I d'Este (his mother was Lucrezia Borgia) had originally commissioned a painting of the subject from Raphael, who sent Alfonso a sketch in 1517 but never began the work. The drawing is thought to be lost, although the Der Triumphzug des Bacchus in Indien, in the Albertina, Vienna (Inv. No. 444), traditionally attributed to a number of other artists (Perino del Vaga, Giovanni Francesco Penni), may be the original or a copy of Raphael's sketch [22]. If this is true it bears little resemblance to Garofalo's finished work, as is the case of the relationship between Sodoma's The Wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxana and the earlier sketch of the subject by Raphael.

1. The Twelve Olympian Gods

Both parents of all other Twelve Great Gods (δυώδεκα θεῶν) of Olympus, known as the Dodekatheon (Δωδεκάθεον), were gods or other divine beings.

Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaistos, Athena, Apollo, Artemis and Hermes were considered the original twelve. Hestia, goddess of the hearth, domestic order and the family, was among the first generation of Olympians, the sister of the first four in the list, as well as of Hades, and the niece of Aphrodite. However, her place appears to have been taken later by Dionysus.

2. Hyginus on Liber, son of Jove and Proserpine

Fabulae, a collection of brief summaries of Greek and Roman myths and mythological genealogies, has been attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus (circa 64 BC - 17 AD), but may be the work of a later author, perhaps also named Hyginus, sometimes referred to as Pseudo-Hyginus or Hyginus Mythographus. For further details, see the note in Homer part 2. Liber (Dionysus) is mentioned three times as the son of Jove (Zeus) and Proserpine (Persephone).

155. Sons of Jove
"Liber by Proserpine, whom the Titans dismembered. Hercules, by Alcumena. Liber by Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia."

167. Liber
"Liber, son of Jove and Proserpine, was dismembered by the Titans, and Jove gave his heart, torn to bits, to Semele in a drink. When she was made pregnant by this, Juno [Hera], changing herself to look like Semele’s nurse, Beroe, said to her: 'Daughter, ask Jove to come to you as he comes to Juno, so you may know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god.' At her suggestion Semele made this request of Jove, and was smitten by a thunderbolt. He took Liber from her womb, and gave him to Nysus to be cared for. For this reason he is called Dionysus, and also 'the one with two mothers'."

179. Semele
"Jove desired to lie with Semele, and when Juno found out, she changed her form to that of the nurse Beroe, came to Semele, and suggested that she ask Jove to come to her as he came to Juno, 'that you may know', she said, 'what pleasure it is to lie with a god'. And so Semele asked Jove to come to her in this way. Her request was granted, and Jove, coming with lightning and thunder, burned Semele to death. From her womb Liber was born. Mercury snatched him from the fire and gave him to Nysus to be reared. In Greek he is called Dionysus."

The Myths of Hyginus, translated and edited by Mary Amelia Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies, No. 34. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, 1960.

Fabulae, sections 150-199 at the Theoi Project.

"We have a number of Dionysi. The first is the son of Jupiter and Proserpine; the second of Nile - he is the fabled slayer of Nysa. The father of the third is Cabirus; it is stated that he was king over Asia, and the Sabazia were instituted in his honour. The fourth is the son of Jupiter and Luna; the Orphic rites are believed to be celebrated in his honour. The fifth is the son of Nisus and Thyone, and is believed to have established the Trieterid festival."

3. Dionysus raised in Nysa

"... the Greek story has it that no sooner was Dionysus born than Zeus sewed him up in his thigh and carried him away to Nysa in Ethiopia beyond Egypt."

Herodotus, The Histories, Book 2, chapter 146, section 2. At Perseus Digital Library.

"I begin to sing of ivy-crowned Dionysus, the loud-crying god, splendid son of Zeus and glorious Semele. The rich-haired Nymphs received him in their bosoms from the lord his father and fostered and nurtured him carefully in the dells of Nysa, where by the will of his father he grew up in a sweet-smelling cave, being reckoned among the immortals. But when the goddesses had brought him up, a god oft hymned, then began he to wander continually through the woody coombes, thickly wreathed with ivy and laurel. And the Nymphs followed in his train with him for their leader; and the boundless forest was filled with their outcry.

So I salute you, Dionysus, god of the abundant grape clusters. Grant that we may come again rejoicing to this season, and from that season onwards for many a year."

Homeric Hymn 26, to Dionysus

4. The thiasos

In ancient depictions of Dionysus with his retinue, he is shown with male figures, mostly young, with tails and other attributes, often referred to as Satyrs, Silens and fauns. In some works a figure may be identified as a specific character, such as the Satyr Ampelos (Ἀμπελος, Vine). Although there are differences between the types of mythical beings known from Greek and Roman literature, they are not always easy to distinguish in artworks, and many modern descriptions refer to the figures generically as Satyrs. Where a mature, bearded figure appears, he is decribed as an elderly Silen or as Silenos, the oldest of the Silens and the mentor and teacher of Dionysus (see above).

„Faune Satyrn Silene Pane – wie kreuzen und vermischen sich die Vorstellungen von dieser lustigen Schaar, nicht nur bei uns, sondern theilweise schon bei den Alten!“

"Fawns, Satyrs, Silens, Pans – how the perceptions of this merry throng have become mixed up, not only by us but even sometimes by the ancients!"

Adolf Furtwängler, Der Satyr aus Pergamon, page 3. Programm zum Winckelmannsfeste der Archäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin, Band 40. Georg Reimer, Berlin, 1880. At the University of Heidelberg Digital Library.

See the report by Pausanias on his enquiries into the origins of Satyrs on Athens Acropolis page 36.

Likewise, Dionysus is often shown with one or more female figures, including Semele, Ariadne, Maenads, Thyiads, Nymphs, Muses and the Seasons (Horai). In several cases the identification of the figures remains a subject of scholarly debate (see for example, discussion of the Thyiads in the note below).

5. The statue of Dionysus from Ikaria

The Attic deme Ikaria (Ικαρία, also referred to as Ikarion), today the municipality Dionysos (Διόνυσος), on the north slope of Mount Penteli, northeast of Athens (between Kifissia and Marathon). The fragments were found during the only excavations so far undertaken there, directed by Carl Darling Buck (1866-1955) of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1888-1889. The site consists of the remains of a theatre and a number of buildings, all of which have been connected by inscriptions and other finds (including choragic monuments) with the worship of Dionysus and Apollo, including a temple of Pythian Apollo.

Some of the fragments were discovered below the walls of a Byzantine church and others at "Building D", which may have been the "Dionysion", an Archaic temple of Dionysus. If this was the cult statue of the temple, it may have been one of the earliest stone cult statues in Attica.

See:

Carl D. Buck, Discoveries in the Attic Deme of Ikaria, 1888. Sculptures (Plates VII, VIII). Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Volume V, 1886-1890, pages 109-125 and figs. 1-4. Archaeological Institute of America. Damrell and Upham, Boston MA, 1892. At Heidelberg University Library.

The volume includes all Buck's papers on his Discoveries in the Attic Deme of Ikaria, 1888, including a chronological record of the excavations (with topographical description and map), inscriptions and sculptures, as well as The Choregia in Athens and Ikaria. They have been collected as a separate PDF (except the plates): ascsapapers1886_1890__p0056-0149.pdf. Also at Heidelberg University Library.

Irene Bald Romana, The Archaic statue of Dionysos from Ikarion. Hesperia, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1982), pages 398-409, plates 93-95. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens. PDF at www.ascsa.edu.gr.

William R. Biers and Thomas D. Boyd, Ikarion in Attica: 1888-1981. Hesperia, Vol. 51, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1982), pages 1-18. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens. PDF at www.ascsa.edu.gr.

Elizabeth King Filioti, Dionysos / Ikarion. At filiotis.net.

Robert Horne, The Ikarion Sanctuary of Dionysos. At athens123.com.

6. The Plateia Eleutherias Dionysos

Many places in Greece - streets, squares, villages, towns and islands - have two or more names (e.g. Vathy/Samos town and Kastellorizo/Megisti island, etc). Just to confuse things even further, there is no standard method for transliterating Greek names into the Latin alphabet, so that spellings vary. The large square in central Athens, Plateia Eleutherias (Πλατεία Ελευθερίας, Freedom Square), is also known as Plateia Koumoundourou (Πλατεία Κουμουνδούρου) after the 19th century Greek prime minister Alexandros Koumoundouros (Αλέξανδρος Κουμουνδούρος, 1817-1883). The north side of the square faces Odos Pireos (Οδός Πειραιώς, Piraeus Street) which is also known as Odos Panagi Tsaldari (Οδός Παναγή Τσαλδάρη).

The square is on the site of an Archaic cemetery, just northwest of the Kerameikos archaeological site. This has led to debate over whether the headless statue is from a funerary monument for a mortal or a votive offering representing a god. As well as Dionysus, Zeus has also been suggested as the subject.

For the essential arguments of the debate, see:

7. Angelos Choremis on the Dionysus pediment in Corfu

The Athenian archaeologist Angelos Choremis first published details of the discovery and excavation of the pediment in:

Άγγελος Κ. Χωρέμης, Αρχαϊκόν αέτωμα εκ Κέρκυρας (Archaic pediment from Kerkyra), Αρχαιολογικά ανάλεκτα εξ Αθηνών (Athens Annals of Archeology), Volume VII, No. 2, 1974, pages 183-186.

Choremis also wrote an official guide book to Corfu and the archaeological museum there. The illustrated book is now out of date in many respects, particularly as the museum has recently been renovated, and its collection and that at the nearby Mon Repos museum have been reorganized. However, much of the information about the history of the island and its archaeology remain unchanged as well as details of many of the museum's exhibits.

8. Ivory plaque of Dionysus from Sepino

The plaque was exhibited as part of the temporary exhibition The gift of Dionysos in the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum, 13 July 2011 - 30 September 2012. So far I have been unable to discover further details of the exhibits on loan from the Molise region of south-central Italy.

The exhibition was the result of cooperation between the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, the Italian Cultural Institute of Thessaloniki and the Soprintendenza Archeologia del Molise.

9. Dionysus Sardanapalos

Ctesias (Κτησίας, Ktesias; also known as Ctesias of Cnidus), a Greek physician and historian from Knidos in Caria, who lived in the 5th century BC. He was a physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, and accompanied him on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger in 401 BC. Artaxerxes' army included Greek mercenaries led by Xenophon of Athens (see History of Pergamon). He wrote treatises on rivers and on the Persian revenues, Indica (Ἰνδικά), an account of India, and Persica (Περσικά), a history of Assyria and Persia in 23 books in the Ionic dialect, written in opposition to Herodotus, and allegedly based on the Persian Royal Archives.

Diodorus Siculus (Διόδωρος Σικελιώτης, Diodoros Sikeliotes; also known as Diodorus of Sicily), a Greek historian from Agyrion (today Agira) in Sicily, who lived during the 1st century BC. Diodorus on Sardanapalos (Sardanapallus):

Diodorus Siculus, Library, Book II, chapters 23-28. At Bill Thayer's website LacusCurtius: Into the Roman World, University of Chicago.

Ennio Quirino Visconti (1751-1818), an Italian antiquarian, art historian, who was appointed papal Prefect of Antiquities. Visconti identified the Sardanapolos type statues as depictions of Dionysus:

Ennio Quirino Visconti, Giambattista Antonio Visconti, Giovanni Labus, Il Museo Pio Clementino Volume II, pages 257-269 (in Italian) and Tavolo XLI. Presso gli editori (N. Bettoni), Milan, 1819. At the Internet Archive.

10. Winckelmann on Sardanapalos

Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Monumenti antichi inediti spiegati ed illustrati da Giovanni Winckelmann. Rome, 1767.

Text in Volume II, Parte Terza, capitolo primo, "Sardanapolo", pages 219-221.

Engraving: Volume I, plate 163.

11. Dionysus and the Thyiads on the Temple of Apollo, Delphi

It has been suggested that Pausanias was mistaken in believing that the women around Dionysus on the east pediment were Thyiads, since their poses suggest more the calm of Muses in a dithyrambic dance rather than wild, orgiastic movement.

See: Jenny Strauss-Clay, Fusing the Boundaries: Apollo and Dionysos at Delphi, Mètis. Anthropologie des mondes grecs anciens, Volume 11, 1996, pages 83-100. At persee.fr.

12. Dionysus with a kithara

The reconstruction of the relief of Dionysus holding a kithara (as "Dionysos Kitharoidos") is conjectural. According to the Delphi museum labelling: "In the centre stands Dionysos, in the rare iconographic type of the cithara (type of lyre) player... The cithara he holds in his left hand places him on equal terms with the god of music, Apollo, and reconciles the different realms of the two deities who are both depicted on the same temple."

The other well-known example of a depiction of Dionysus supposedly holding a kithara is a fragment of a statue from the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos, above the Theatre of Dionysos, Athens, dated 3rd - 2nd century BC. The headless and armless seated figure, removed by Lord Elgin and now in the British Museum (see photo, right), is thought to have originally held a kithara in its left hand.

13. Nebris

14. Maron

Maron is mentioned by several ancient authors and later Christian writers, but as usual the genealogies and stories concerning him differ. He is variously referred to as a son of Dionysus and Ariadne, or of Euanthes or Oinopion, elsewhere named as sons or grandsons of Dionysus. He was also said to be the founder of the Maroneian tribe of Dionysus, the god's chariot driver or a son of Silenos who accompanied Dionysus on his campaign in India.

The brief references are probably dim echoes of ancient tales, now lost along with the original nature and identity of the character. Whether he was a mythical, legendary or historical figure, a local Thracian or Greek hero or deity, a son or descendant of Dionysus or Silenos, a member of the Dionysian thiasos, a pioneer of viniculture or founder of Maroneia, it is clear that he became strongly connected with aspects of the wine god's cult and some of the myths surrounding him.

He was mentioned as the son of Dionysus in Euripides' satyr play Cyclops (Κύκλωψ, Kyklops), written around 408 BC. In a dialogue with Silenos, Odysseus brings wine he has been given by Maron, as in Homer's Odyssey (Book 9, lines 196-212, see Homer part 3), in which the character named Maron is referred to as the son of Euanthes (Μάρων, Εὐάνθεος υἱός).

Odysseus: It is not gold I carry but rather Dionysus' drink.
Silenus: What happy words you speak! The very thing we have lacked so long!
Odysseus: What is more, Maron, the god's own son, gave me the drink.
Silenus: The lad I once raised in these very arms?
Odysseus: Dionysus' son, to make my meaning clear.

Euripides, Cyclops, lines 139-143. In: Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs. Harvard University Press. At Perseus Digital Library.

Herodotus, when describing the route of the army of the Persian king Xerxes along this part of the Thracian coast, wrote that it belonged to Thracian tribes, including the Cicones (Κίκονες, Kíkones), but described Maroneia, Dikaea, and Abdera as Greek cities.

"All this region was once called Gallaic, but it is now called Briantic; however, by rights it also belongs to the Ciconians.

After he [Xerxes] had crossed the dried-up bed of the river Lisus, he passed by the Greek cities of Maronea, Dicaea, and Abdera. He passed by these, and along certain well-known lakes near them: the Ismarid lake that lies between Maronea and Stryme, and near Dicaea the Bistonian lake, into which the rivers Travus and Compsantus discharge. "

Herodotus, Histories, Book 7, chapters 108-109. English translation by A. D. Godley. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1920. At Perseus Digital Library.

Strabo related that there was a temple dedicated to the hero Maron at Maroneia, and also wrote that this part of the Thracian coast belonged to the Cicones.

"After the lake [Bistonis], which is midway between, come Xantheia, Maroneia, and Ismarus, the cities of the Cicones. Ismarus, however, is now called Ismara; it is near Maroneia. And near here, also, Lake Ismaris sends forth its stream; this stream is called Odysseium. And here, too, are what are called the Thasion Cephalae. But the people situated in the interior are Sapaei.

Topeira is near Abdera and Maroneia.

The aforesaid Ismarus, in later times called Ismara, is, they say, a city of the Cicones; it is near Maroneia, where is also a lake, the stream of which is called Odysseium; here too is a hero-temple of Maron, as the Geographer records."

Strabo, Geography, Book 7, Fragments, sections 43-44. Edited by H. L. Jones. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1924. At Perseus Digital Library.

According to Diodorus Siculus (Library of history, Book 1, chapters 18 and 20, at LacusCurtius), the Egyptian god Osiris (identified by the Greeks with Dionysus) took his two sons Anubis and Macedon, as well as Maron ("experienced... in the cultivation of the vine") and Triptolemos (see Demeter and Persephone) on his long campaign in Asia and Europe. He left Maron in Thrace to found Maroneia, Macedon as king and name-giver of Macedonia and Triptolemos to take care of agriculture in Attica.

15. Dimensions of the triumph sarcophagus relief in Dresden

Dimensions from the website of the Dresden State Art Collections:

skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/166376

According to Arachne, the website of the University of Köln Archaeological Institute, the dimensions are:
Height 58.5 cm, width 171 cm, depth 61.5 cm.

See: arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/5418

The website gives the dimensions of the other Dionysus sarcophagus relief in Dresden (Inv. No. Hm 293, see above) as:

Height 55 cm, width 219 cm, depth 59 cm.

See: arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/5417

Details of ancient artefacts, such as provenance, dates, artists, materials and dimensions, on some museum labels and in some publications are often based on the reports and opinions of one or two scholars published in academic books, articles and catalogues, many now more than a century old.

16. The mosaic from Halicarnassus

Charles Thomas Newton excavated the remains of the large villa in the field of Hadji Captan, known after the Turkish owner, to the west of the Mausoleum, in December 1856. The mosaic of Dionysus dancing with a panther was found in Room D. In Room B he discovered a mosaic panel depicting Meleager and Atalanta hunting a leopard and a lion, and parts of another with Dido and Aeneas hunting.

17. Dionysus/Fufluns and Lekanomanteia

See: Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Etruscan myth, sacred history, and legend, page 121, fig. VI.9. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006.

18. Derveni, Lete

19. Emil Wolff

20. The Dresden Maenad

21. Vasari on Garofalo's Triumph of Bacchus

See: Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, Part III, 1. The lives of Benvenuto Garofalo and Girolamo da Carpi, painters of Ferrara, and of other Lombards. At the website of Adrienne DeAngelis.

22. The "Raphael" Triumph sketch in Vienna

A photo of the drawing, with a description in English, claiming that it is by Raphael, followed by terse, academic references:

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