Back to section: Grapes and wine in Pompeii

Panel with Dionysian scene

Late 1st century B.C. - early 1st century A.D.
Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale
Inv. 153561

 

This scene may allude to Ariadne's initiation into the mysteries. Ariadne is holding out a small vase to a maenad who is pouring from an oinochoe wine taken from the krater at her feet. A silene, his head wreathed in ivy, is dancing and holding a kantharos. Hanging from the branches of the trees are a pan-pipe and a bag with a shepherd's staff and a bunch of grapes sticking out of it.