WALL FRESCO FROM THE "CUBICULUM" OF THE HOUSE "OF AUGUSTUS", 30 BCE. PALATINE HILL In this rather unclear scene, we can make out two female figures. One, at centre left, is taller and facing away from us, her hair tied behind her head. She's wearing a white peplos and himation, and the elegant line of her neck draws our attention down to her shoulder and along her arm. Facing her is a shorter girl we see in profile, tilting her head as if listening as she looks at the woman in white. The girl has her brown hair in a bun and her white peplos leaves a shoulder uncovered. Her peplos is, however, red-brown with a flower or leopard-skin pattern on it. She carries a silver plate. I hope these two women are having a conversation that isn't about men, but we'll never know.

For #FrescoFriday I present this small #fresco from about 30 BCE, in the corner of the "cubiculum" of the so-called #HouseofAugustus on the #Palatine in #Rome. Two elegantly attenuated female figures stand outdoors in a somewhat illegible space. Perhaps a #Dionysiac scene. #AncientBluesky 🏺

IVORY PYX WITH DIONYSIAC SCENE, C4 CE (?). VATICAN MUSEUMS This worn and fragmented elephant ivory circular container was originally made as a cosmetics box, probably from the workshops of Alexandria which were the best in the empire. Here we see a beautiful relief scene of a Dionysiac procession of children in a woodland dance, a sort of innocent parody of an actual Bacchic nighttime party. A child in a beautifully-carved tunic at centre brandishes a tambourine as he dances in a group moving to the right. Behind him is a tree, a cantharos on the ground, and another ground of children heading around the pyx in the other direction. This container was considered splendid enough in the Middle Ages to contain one of the important relics in the heavily fortified chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies, which was the private chapel of the medieval popes at the Lateran.

A real banger for #ReliefWednesday from the #VaticanMuseums: a C4 CE #ivory #pyx from #Egypt, with a #Dionysiac #relief on it, reused as a #reliquary in the Middle Ages in the huge locked altar of the #SanctaSanctorum at the #Lateran, the private chapel of the medieval popes. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC EMBLEMA WITH LION, 70 BCE - 10 CE. THE BRITISH MUSEUM This mosaic emblema or central floor panel is made with small tiles, a style known as opus vermiculatum, "wormy work". This panel must once have decorated the floor of a room in a wealthy house. The panel, predominantly of tiny yellow tesseræ against a white background, with details in red and black, shows a lion with his tongue hanging out, at least three of his four limbs bound by resolute-looking Erotes of varying sizes. Behind one of his hind legs and the Eros who is binding it is a bowl on the ground: we might infer that the lion, symbol of strength, is drunk as a sailor. An Eros behind the lion seems to be about to prod or bash him with a kind of speargun. In front of the lion and above him are Erotes with cymbals and a red cloth to enrage him like a bull. In the background is a tall figure in long robes, Dionysus himself, holding a thyrsus. The message is clear: nothing is stronger than the god of wine.

For #MosaicMonday at the #BritishMuseum, an #emblema from an unknown #domus in #Naples with a #Dionysiac theme. A bound #lion is taunted by four #Erotes as the god himself watches from a hilltop. A bowl in the foreground may have contained wine. Strength cannot resist #Dionysus. #AncientBluesky 🏺

CHILD'S SARCOPHAGUS A LENÒS, C3 CE. BRITISH MUSEUM This very small "tub-shaped" sarcophagus was acquired from the earls of Carlisle in 1996. Its lid is a fake, a pastiche with a modern bed (not really a kline despite its rounded raised back and sides) supporting a possibly Claudian sleeping Silenus based on a model from the C2 BCE. The sarcophagus features two main scenes framed by two pairs of lion heads holding heavy rings. On the front of the casket at the centre Bacchus is supported by a young follower, while a maenad runs ahead with a panther. On the back is a scene of three boys pressing grapes in a vat. At the ends are shown groups of centaurs and maenads playing horns, lyres and flutes, and Pan.

For #SarcophagusSaturday we're looking at a strange but coherent #pastiche in the #BritishMuseum in #London. This sad little C3 CE child's #sarcophagus with a #Dionysiac #thiasos and two lion heads has a modern lid, into which the C1 CE figure of a sleeping #Silenus has been set. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS A LENOS, C2-C3 CE. PALAZZO BARBERINI The sarcophagus a lenos, "tub-shaped", allowed wealthier people a showier coffin without corners, capable of being put on a base and admired from all sides. Three notches on the far rim show where the heavy lid would have been attached. The form is that of an elegant tub, complete with lion heads holding marble rings in their mouths, alluding to the portability of the real tub, which would be used for stomping grapes to make wine. The strigillation is continuous, alluding simultaneously to the river Styx, the river Oceanus that was thought to gird the world, as well as the cyclical nature of time, and the ripples in the wine that brings sleep, a metaphor for death.

#SarcophagusSaturday takes us into #palazzoBarberini in #Rome to see this beautiful tub #sarcophagus in white marble surrounded by continuous #strigillation. This is an elegant #Dionysiac coffin: here the wave forms represent wine as well as the circular nature of time, and more. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Pan, against a black background, holds a thyrsus in his left arm horizontally over his head. A red jewel dangles from the pointed end of the thyrsus. Pan himself looks fun, not dangerous, despite his goat horn and ears. He's wearing a yellow tunic and may be holding a wine jug in his other hand. Atop his head is the golden flowerpot-shaped crown we usually associate with the syncretic Roman/Egyptian god Serapis, husband to the Roman version of Isis.

#FrescoFriday gives us this #Pan holding a #thyrsus, a #Dionysiac symbol, in this #fresco fragment from the Evan Gorga collection now in #PalazzoAltemps. This is of possibly #Neronian date and is all about fun and revels, rather Saturnalian, with Pan wearing the crown of #Serapis.

This white rectangular cinerary urn front was first noted in the Villa Giulia in its heyday, and found its way into the Borghese collection from which it was acquired by the National Roman Museum in 1893. It's a densely carved, rather beautiful relief crammed full of imagery. The youth, unfortunately emasculated by time, stands in a scallop-shell niche, which is usually an allusion to Venus, when the figure is female. He's wearing a lacerna or half cloak but is otherwise heroically nude. He is dressed for his trip to the Underworld. He's looking to his right (our left), his hands raised to chest level. In his right hand he holds a butterfly, symbol of the spirit, and in his left a tiny bird, possibly a peacock or even a parrot. At his feet are a dog and a monkey, symbols of attachment to earthly life. The vegetation on either side of the niche allude to the Underworld: olive, vine, and pine. At right a tall candelabrum culminates in a plaque with a Gorgoneion, an apotropaic protector.

#ReliefWednesday shows us the rich #relief work of the #cinerary #urn of one C. Iulius Saecularis, from c. 90 CE. The nude youth, a bit chubby, holds a #butterfly in his right hand, symbol of the #spirit. He doesn't want to let go of his earthly life. #Dionysiac symbols abound. #AncientBluesky 🏺

PAINTED TERRACOTTA SLAB WITH TWO DANCING YOUTHS, 520-500 BCE. MUSEO DELL'ARTE SALVATA This is one of two terracotta slabs recovered from tomb thefts in the necropoleis of Cerveteri, dating from around the time of the foundation of the Roman Republic. These slabs would have decorated the external walls of houses in Cisra, Etruscan Caere, with scenes of festivity or victorious warriors, and would later be brought into the family tomb as wall decoration. These two young men, wearing vine-leaf wreaths around their hats and loincloths that leave only the essentials to the imagination, are dancing in a Dionysiac procession. I can't explain the footwear.

"Zephyr, in the sky at night, I wonder..." This ancient #Dionysiac hymn was certainly sung during #Etruscan #Bacchanals like the one partially represented on this #terracotta slab now repatriated to #Rome and probably destined for the National #EtruscanMuseum at #Cerveteri. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO FRAGMENT WITH MAENAD, C. 30 BCE. MUSEO BARRACCO The archaeologist Ludwig Pollak (1868-1943) was the trusted expert of and buyer for the rich senator Baron Giovanni Barracco, who built up a significant collection of antiquities. Among the pieces he acquired for Barracco was this fresco of a Maenad with a goat, of which his notebooks make a terse reference in 1907. In fact this is not, strictly speaking, a fresco, as it is clearly painted on dry plaster with plenty of evidence of pigment loss. We also don't know its provenance, though earlier that year Pollak had bought a fresco of a Hermaphrodite in Capua, and this too could be Campanian. A graceful Maenad is walking toward the right, her beautiful profile evoking Greek vase painting or, indeed the frescoes from the villa of Agrippa and Julia. The Maenad, in a flowing yellow stola, is firmly gripping the horn of a goat which is preceding her. I fear the goat may not see another sunrise.

#FrescoFriday brings us to the #MuseoBarracco in #Rome, where a fragment of a wall painting a secco suggests a #Dionysiac event later on, and the #goat she's bringing may be doomed to a wild #sparagmos, a "rending limb from limb". (No goats were harmed in making this post.) #AncientBluesky 🏺

SKYTHES. RED-FIGURE KYLIX WITH LYRE PLAYER, C. 520 BCE. VILLA GIULIA This Attic wine-cup or kylix is signed by the artist Skythes, "the Scythian", whose work we know from a corpus of about 25 pieces, of which only this one has a full signature. Skythes' work is defined by his expressiveness and energy, unlike the restraint and dignity of his contemporary Epiktetos. Here we see a red-figure musician, nude, against a black hackground, his staff leaning against the red curve of the circle which defines the pictorial space. He's facing right with his knees bent, playing a lyre (more like a cithara) like a rock star, head thrown back in ecstasy, his instrument sticking out like an extension of his phallus, which we can also see as Skythes has made the body of the instrument transparent, just so we don't miss the metaphor. Sometimes a cithara is just a cithara, but this is not one of those times.

For #PhallusThursday we have a naked musician rocking out, with a vine wreath in his hair, on a red-figure #kylix in the National #Etruscan Museum of the #VillaGiulia in #Rome. The naughty vase painter #Skythes turns subtext into text - this is an ecstatic #Dionysiac image. #AncientBluesky 🏺

HOUSEHOLD SCENE, C. 30 BCE. TABLINUM, HOUSE OF LIVIA I'll be honest, I can't figure out this scene at all. Three figures appear as if seen through a window with open shutters in the painted right-hand wall of the tablinum of the house of Livia on the Palatine. At left is a woman standing and facing right, pouring an amphora into a large silver or glass bowl, but I can't tell what is being poured. At centre is a herdsman with a sheep across his shoulders, which he carries with ease. At right is a seated woman facing left but looking out at us, with her hands held in parallel before her as if she is winding wool around them, which might be the case. She has a basket beside her. As her head is at the same level as the herdsman beside her, he must be on a lower step, perhaps approaching the seated woman for her approval before shearing this sheep's wool. Maybe the standing woman is preparing a dye or a wash for the woolen skein being wound by the seated woman. These homey tasks would certainly fit in with Livia's carefully cultivated image as a classic Roman matron, spinning and weaving wool.

For #FrescoFriday, a somewhat mysterious scene from a #fresco in the #HouseofLivia on the #Palatine in #Rome. This might be a simple scene of wool-winding and washing, but I feel as if I'm missing some possibly ritual, sacred, or even #Dionysiac significance. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH DIONYSIAC SCENES, 180-190 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This is one of those "cram it all in" sarcophagi that pop up toward the end of the C2 CE and are a product of the high end of the sarcophagus market. It's divided into roughly three sections from left to right. The first scene, the largest, shows Dionysus being taken to his waiting and sleeping future bride, Ariadne, whose nakedness is being uncovered for his pleasure. At centre is a frankly baffling scene: two men are holding up a torch while looking left, at the nude form of Ariadne. A woman facing left is reaching up as if to catch the flame in her hands, while above her is a severed head being held by a heroically nude male figure with a lionskin bag over one shoulder and a little child in his other arm. Below, a panther looks upward and raises a paw. Is this a young Silenus with a baby Dionysus, and if so, what's the severed head for? Finally at right there is a scene of an Eros drinking wine from a large bucket being emptied by a satyr, and two Maenads sacrificing to a cult statue of Dionysus which is shown with a long robe and beard. But what is that central scene? That severed head doesn't look like a theatrical mask. Alnd why does the woman below the head want to grasp the flame? I have the feeling that I'm just not understanding the meaning of this sarcophagus relief. I don't like the feeling.

This busy #sarcophagus for #SarcophagusSaturday was found during the rebuilding of the #Duomo of #Orte in 1722, and bought by Pius VI in 1792 for the #VaticanMuseums. Its #Dionysiac themes have a cultic element which might explain why I can't entirely understand the relief. Or it's my ignorance.

RELIEF HEAD OF A SATYR, EARLY C2. DOMUS TIBERIANA This white marble relief head of a satyr, missing the upper part above the eyes, was found in the excavations of the Domus Tiberiana, which, despite its name, is Neronian with Trajanic and Hadrianic expansions. The palace functioned principally as a centre for the imperial bureaucracy, but there are also religious traces, from Egyptian cult images (from under Nero, Domitian, Hadrian, and especially the Severan emperors) to Dionysiac elements like this satyr head, found in an area containing other pieces related to Dionysus, including a splendid tiger in fiorito alabaster inset with black marble stripes, possibly relating to the god's triumph over the Indians. The satyr head is magnificently carved, the satyr's beard a thicket of dense curls, his lips smiling mockingly to reveal his teeth, his eyes deep-set and goatish. It is interesting to imagine religious areas within this complex where imperial bureaucrats could worship privately.

#ReliefWednesday offers us a wonderful smirking satyr face from a #Dionysiac space in the bureaucratic #DomusTiberiana, from the early C2 CE. #Tiberius neither built nor lived in the palace bearing his name on the #Palatine in #Rome - in fact it was part of #Nero's #DomusAurea.

SARCOPHAGUS WITH DIONYSIAC SCENE, C2 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN This remarkably well-preserved sarcophagus was found in 1961 during an excavation along the via Prenestina at largo Praeneste, today a nightmare of on- and off-ramps for a raised highway. It must have vanished below ground at an early date. Its Dionysiac theme evokes the transportation of the self after death, a pale shadow of which is provided by the effects of wine. At centre is a very drunk Dionysus being held up by two satyrs with two others ready to step in and help. All five are nude except for the god, who has a cloak covering one thigh. To the left, a Maenad is holding a torch, now missing, and she's conversing with a liknos-bearer: a liknos was a sort of scoop used in winnowing wheat, a symbol of prosperity. A final group on the left corner has a fully-dressed Maenad sitting on a rock facing us, and a nude satyr with his back to us, embracing. At the left corner, a Maenad is holding a pedum or foot squeeze-box, and a tambourine. To the right, a callipygian Maenad with her back to us is holding a cithara and the attention of a satyr who has two theatrical masks at his feet, and at the right corner Ariadne, lying on the ground with her back to us, is being unveiled by an Eros while Pan and a final Maenad look on. The cover shows Erotes at work gathering in the grape harvest.

#SarcophagusSaturday this week brings us to the #BathsofDiocletian where, in Aula XI, we can admire this remarkable #Dionysiac #sarcophagus from a necropolis along the ancient via #Praenestina. Dionysus and his drunken revellers were a common theme in #funerary #relief work in #Rome.