Editing Dionysus (section)

===Classical art===
[[File:Table support with a Dionysiac group (AD 170-180) (3470740119).jpg|thumb|left|Marble table support adorned by a group including [[Dionysos]], [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]] and a [[Satyr]]; Dionysos holds a [[rhyton]] (drinking vessel) in the shape of a panther; traces of [[Red hair|red]] and [[Blond|yellow colour]] are preserved on [[Hair color|the hair]] of the figures and the branches; from an [[Asia Minor]] workshop, 170–180 AD, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]], Greece]]
[[File:Antakya Archaeology Museum Drunken Dionysus mosaic in 2008 0009.jpg|thumb|Mosaic of Dionysus, 4th century.]]
[[File:10 2023 - Terme (Baths of) Caracalla, Arte Romana, Viale Guido Baccelli, Rome, Roma, Lazio, 00154, Italy - Photo Paolo Villa - FO232114 correzioni gimp - Domus Arte Romana - pitture parietali.jpg|thumb|Fresco of Dionysus from triclinium ceiling of home incorporated into Baths of Caracalla (Rome)]]
The god, and still more often his followers, were commonly depicted in the painted [[pottery of Ancient Greece]], much of which made to hold wine. But, apart from some [[relief]]s of [[maenad]]s, Dionysian subjects rarely appeared in large sculpture before the Hellenistic period, when they became common.<ref>Smith 1991, 127–129</ref> In these, the treatment of the god himself ranged from severe archaising or [[Neo Attic]] types such as the [[Dionysus Sardanapalus]] to types showing him as an indolent and androgynous young man, often [[nude]].<ref>as in the [[:File:Dionysus and Eros.jpg|Dionysus and Eros]], [[Naples National Archaeological Museum|Naples Archeological Museum]]</ref> ''[[Hermes and the Infant Dionysus]]'' is probably a Greek original in marble, and the [[Ludovisi Dionysus]] group is probably a Roman original of the second century AD. Well-known [[Hellenistic sculpture]]s of Dionysian subjects, surviving in Roman copies, include the [[Barberini Faun]], the [[Belvedere Torso]], the ''[[Resting Satyr]]''. The [[Furietti Centaurs]] and ''[[Sleeping Hermaphroditus]]'' reflect related subjects, which had by this time become drawn into the Dionysian orbit.<ref>Smith 1991, 127–154</ref> The marble [[Dancer of Pergamon]] is an original, as is the bronze [[Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo]], a recent recovery from the sea.

The Dionysian world by the Hellenistic period is a hedonistic but safe [[pastoral]] into which other semi-divine creatures of the countryside have been co-opted, such as [[centaur]]s, [[nymph]]s, and the gods [[Pan (god)|Pan]] and [[Hermaphroditus|Hermaphrodite]].<ref>Smith 1991, 127, 131, 133</ref> "Nymph" by this stage "means simply an ideal female of the Dionysian outdoors, a non-wild bacchant".<ref>Smith 1991, 130</ref> Hellenistic sculpture also includes for the first time large genre subjects of children and peasants, many of whom carry Dionysian attributes such as ivy wreaths, and "most should be seen as part of his realm. They have in common with satyrs and nymphs that they are creatures of the outdoors and are without true personal identity."<ref>Smith 1991, 136</ref> The fourth-century BC [[Derveni Krater]], the unique survival of a very large scale Classical or Hellenistic metal vessel of top quality, depicts Dionysus and his followers.

Dionysus appealed to the Hellenistic monarchies for a number of reasons, apart from merely being a god of pleasure: He was a human who became divine, he came from, and had conquered, the East, exemplified a lifestyle of display and magnificence with his mortal followers, and was often regarded as an ancestor.<ref>Smith 1991, 127</ref> He continued to appeal to the rich of Imperial Rome, who populated their gardens with Dionysian sculpture, and by the second century AD were often buried in [[sarcophagi]] carved with crowded scenes of Bacchus and his entourage.<ref>Smith 1991, 128</ref>

The fourth-century AD [[Lycurgus Cup]] in the [[British Museum]] is a spectacular [[cage cup]] which changes colour when light comes through the glass; it shows the bound King [[Lycurgus (Thrace)|Lycurgus]] being taunted by the god and attacked by a satyr; this may have been used for celebration of Dionysian mysteries. Elizabeth Kessler has theorized that a mosaic appearing on the [[triclinium]] floor of the House of Aion in [[Nea Paphos]], Cyprus, details a monotheistic worship of Dionysus.<ref>Kessler, E., ''Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus,''</ref> In the mosaic, other gods appear but may only be lesser representations of the centrally imposed Dionysus. The mid-Byzantine [[Veroli Casket]] shows the tradition lingering in [[Constantinople]] around 1000 AD, but probably not very well understood.