Dionysos, together with his retinue, is by far the most common subject of Greek vase painting of the 6th and 5th centuries, and a recurrent theme in iconographic studies. However, his image still remains controversial and continues to suffer from the mental reservations to which this extremely important deity of the Greek world has been exposed for many decades in traditional studies of the ancient world. In the final analysis, these mental reservations are due to the difficulties European culture has in accepting classical culture as a system based on values different from its own¹. The research presented here is...

As is well known today, the oldest certain image of Dionysos, accompanied by his name in writing, is on a majesticdinos painted by Sophilos, most probably to be dated in the period between 580 and 570 BCE¹. Apart from this, studies on iconography tend to attribute it a pioneering role for two reasons. One is that the focus of scholarly attention after about 600 BCE tends to shift towards Attic pottery, which is much richer and consistent throughout its history than its contemporary productions in other centres. The other reason is that the theory, developed in the nineteenth century...

What is the reason for this subtitle? First of all, in iconography it is essential to respect periods and development in order not to lose sight of the historical dimension. However, as I said in the introduction to this book, it is equally important to keep in mind the function of the image-bearers. Small vases, used for drinking or for containing unguents, are intended for an individual: the message of their decoration is addressed to him alone. Large vases, rather, are usually intended not for individuals but for collective use: a krater is used simultaneously by a group (for example,...

The vases with Dionysian subjects examined in this chapter are different from those just discussed in respect of their dimensions and above all their use, which is not individual but communal: for these reasons they usually have more complex and more explicit images. Even a single figure on an aryballos or three similar figures on a cup could stimulate anyone looking at them to make different associations, and evoking different events: however, for us, who do not belong to that cultural system and mindset, their emblematic nature creates problems of interpretation that are often insurmountable. Although belonging to the same...

The symposium-pottery discussed in the previous chapters has supplied a series of indications and hypotheses for reconstructing an organic and sufficiently sequenced image of Dionysos and has confinned his central position in the Athenian-and generally Greek-conceptual view of the world. We can now state that, at the latest in about 550 BCE, Dionysos, together with the characters and symbols of his world, formed an integral part of Greek life and thought. However, the masculine perspective was still clearly predominant: a logical deduction of the vases taken into consideration, all intended principally for the symposium. All the female characters of the...

These kylikes are to be dated in the decades between 560 and 530 BCE¹ and form the logical continuation of the Komast cups and cups of the Siana type of the first half of the century². The figured decoration is reduced, especially in the so-called lip cups. In most cases it consists of individual animals or hybrid beings such as sphinxes and sirens taken from the repertoire of the animal frieze³. Mythological figurations such as the birth of Athena or events from the life of Herakles are much rarer⁴. There are not many explicitly Dionysian images listed by Beazley: two...

We have now reached the end of our analysis of images on vases of the 7th and 6th centuries BCE which show Dionysos and the characters of his world. It will be useful to provide a summary of this analysis to relate it to what we know of Greek history, especially the history of Athens in the archaic period. There will be a brief reference to Dionysian iconography in red figure pottery and archaic sculpture, ending with some reflections on the new image of Dionysos proposed in this study.

Having completed our study and before providing an outline of the...

In modern culture, Apollo and Dionysos are the best known Greek gods, usually considered as opposite and complementary. By subterranean routes, this idea continues to influence Classical scholarship even though it belongs, as we shall see, to the modem rather than to ancient mythology of Dionysos. It now remains to determine whether, and to what extent, the modem myth rests on historical realities of antiquity.

Early in 1872 a book was published in Leipzig on a subject of ancient culture, destined to be famous well beyond specialist circles: “The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music”, written by...