Unknown Maker, Italo-Greek

The large central vessel, used for mixing water with wine, is decorated with companions of the wine god, Dionysus. Maenads were women who roamed the forests, singing and dancing in a happy frenzy. Fertility spirits of the countryside, satyrs were depicted as men with donkey ears and horse tails.

Dionysus was worshipped as a bull in the Greek colonies of southern Italy, where the cup at right was made. The larger cup refers to Dionysus as god of wine and theater. In use, it becomes a mask: Dionysus’s large eyes become the drinker’s, the handles morph into ears, and the base turns into an open mouth. Inside is Medusa, a monster capable of turning people to stone, perhaps warning against overindulgence.

The Greek colony of Tarentum in Southern Italy specialized in the production of drinking cups called rhyta. This terracotta vessel, like other Tarentine rhyta, is more fragile than examples from mainland Greece and was most likely intended for funerary purposes. Although animals were a common choice for depiction in these molded vessels, the bull carried special significance in Southern Italy, where Dionysus was worshipped in the form of a bull as both the god of wine and the favored god of the underworld. The painted satyr on the body of this rhyton also carries Dionysiac attributes and is a follower of the underworld god, suggesting that this vessel was intended for ceremonial use.