Other Images

Dionysos and Maenads

This Athenian amphora from the early 5th century B.C., by the Berlin Painter, shows Dionysos (holding a wine cup in his right hand, and grape vines in his left) flanked by maenads (female worshippers of Dionysos). Dionysos wears a wreath of ivy around his head and the skin of an animal on his back. The women (one of whom also wears an animal skin) hold a thyrsus (a kind of Dionysiac wand tipped with ivy) in their hands.

For another view of this god, see the Dionysos Scene inside Exekias’ famous dinking cup.