CHAPTER VII. DIONYSOS IN ART. SECTION I. VASES OF THE DIONYSIAK CYCLE. THE Hellenik Vases, beautiful and remarkable in themselves, and of high value as assistants to the artist, the historian, the archaeologist, and the mythologist, do not nevertheless present much independent illustration of the concept of the central figure of the Dionysiak Myth. The Dionysos of the Vases is supplementary to, and illustrative of, the Dionysos of the Poets and Historians; and though the god of moisture, of water, and of wine, is naturally the protagonist on liquid-holding vessels,1 yet there is scarcely a feature in his character, or an incident in his life, illustrated or pourtrayed upon a Vase, which is otherwise unrecorded, aud for acquaintance with which we are in debted to the potter alone. While the number of discovered Vases is immense,2 and the treatment of the subjects represented almost infinite in its variety, the subjects themselves are comparatively few. The great myths, the Gigantomachia, the Amazonomachia, the Wars of Thebai and Troia; the most prominent divinities, Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollon, Artemis, Athene, Eros, Hermes, Nike; the 1 Keramos, after whom the Kerameikos, or Potter's Quarter, was said to have been named, is called the son of Dionysos and Ariadne, inf. X. iii. 250,000, De Witte (Etudes, 4). 20,000 in collections, Birch (Ancient Pottery, 149). Saviour-heroes, Herakles, Perseus, Theseus; and, more numerous and prominent than all, Dionysos and his train, appear again and again on the Vases, to the exclusion of an infinite number of subjects and personages deemed less worthy of delineation, and notably of scenes from actual history. Kroisos on the pyre; Homeros in the Samian pottery; Arkesilaos, king of Kyrene, weighing silphion; a love scene between Alkaios and Sappho; Anakreon the Reveller; and Dareios hunting; almost exhaust the undoubtedly historical subjects, and serve, by their introduction, to render the blank still more remarkable. Although the Vases, the great majority of which belong to a comparatively late age, do not offer any very remarkable independent illustration of the origin and character of Dionysos, yet in as much and so far as their testimony extends, it is quite in accordance with that already adduced; and as Dionysiakal subjects form such an important feature in them, it would be improper to omit their notice from the enquiry. Here, as heretofore, it will be remembered that I am writing not of Art, but of Dionysos as he appears in it, and with special reference to his origin; and that, therefore, remarks upon the manufacture, classes, uses, and general history of the Vases, are in the main foreign to the present purpose. The Dionysiak Cycle forms the third of Millingen's well-known seven divisions of the Vases according to their subjects; and includes the History of Dionysos, the Satyroi, Seilenoi, Bakchai, Mainades, the Bakchik Thiasos, the ass Eraton, Dionysiak Festivals, processions, dances, mystic scenes, and general amusements. 'So numerous,' observes Dr. Birch, 'are the Vases upon which the subject of Dionysos and his train is depicted, that it is impossible to detail them all.'1 'On them we see depicted his birth, childhood, 1 Anct. Pottery, 237. education, all his exploits, his banquets, and his games; his habitual companions, his religious ceremonies, the Lampadophorae brandishing the long torches, the Dendrophorae raising branches of trees, adorned with garlands and tablets.'1 To begin with the god himself, the following are the principal scenes and circumstances in which he appears on the Vases : arms. I. His birth from the thigh of Zeus, who, seated on an altar, holds the new-born and long-haired infant in his Poseidon, standing, near, extends his left hand to receive the child; a Vase of the finest style.2 The birth of the god is also the subject of a fine Vase in the Vatican.3 It is noticeable that at his birth the foreign Poseidon is represented as waiting to receive and cherish his brother divinity. Compare the reception and cherishing of the Oriental Hephaistos when an infant by Thetis and Eurynome. Such legends are the last historic traces of the original local connection of divinities.5 : II. Dionysos in the Gigantomachia.-The god attacks with his spear two giants, Eurytos and Rhoitos, one of whom has fallen; he is ivy-crowned, bearded, wears a panther's skin, and has buskins of the same; he holds a kanthar and two ivy branches in his left hand; his tunic is dotted his panther assists him, and has fastened on the right shoulder of the fallen giant. The same subject.-The god, overpowering the falling Eurytos, with his left hand seizes the giant's helmet and stabs him with the thyrsosspear held in his right hand; his hair flows down in ringlets; he is bearded, wears spotted buskins, and is assisted by his spotted serpent, which coils around the giant's leg.' 1 Westropp, Handbook of Archaeology, 257. 2 Brit. Mus. Vase Cat. No. 724. 5 Cf. No. xxix. 6 Brit. Mus. Vase Cat. No. 788. 7 Millingen, Anct. Uned. Mons. Pl. xxv. III. Destroyed and resuscitated in a boiling cauldron.1 -The following are parallel myths: Thetis, wishing to make Achilleus immortal, concealed him by night in fire to destroy the mortality inherited from his father, and anointed him with ambrosia; but Peleus, discovering him, cried out in terror, and so frustrated the design of the goddess. An exactly similar legend is told of Demeter and Demophoön, son of Keleus of Eleusis; 2 and Medeia, the sorceress, changes a ram into a lamb by boiling it in a cauldron, a scene depicted on three Vases in the British Museum.3 IV. Introduced to Olympos.-The principal nonAryan members of the Hellenik Pantheon are formally introduced into Olympos as being strangers. Thus Hephaistos when expelled is reintroduced by his fellow-divinity, Dionysos, in whom, according to Pausanias, he placed great confidence.5 V. At the birth of Athene.-Pallas stands on the head of Zeus, and behind several other figures stands Dionysos, holding the thyrsos, ivy-crowned, and with long hair and beard.6 VI. Conveyed by Hermes to be brought up by the Nymphs of Nysa." VII. With the Tyrrhenian pirates, who are changed into dolphins.8 VIII. With the golden amphora, which he gave to Thetis.9 IX. Discovering Ariadne, a constantly repeated sub 1 Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder. Pl. cevi. Vide inf. IX. vi. Zagreus. 2 Hom. Hymn. eis Dem. 228 et vide Poseidon, xxix. 6 Brit. Museum, Vase Cat. No. 741. 7 D'Hancarville, Vases, Grecs. iii. 105; vide inf. VIII. i. Nysios. 8 Gerhard, Auserl. Vasen. Pl. xlix. Vide inf. VIII. ii. Dolphin. François Vase, Florence Museum ; cf. Od. xxiv. 74. ject. On the older Vases this incident is depicted in the most passionless way; but on those of a later style, Dionysos is introduced by Aphrodite and Eros to Ariadne, who throws herself into his arms in the most graceful manner.'1 X. With Ariadne at Naxos.2-Dionysos and Ariadne are sitting under a bower formed by the vine and grapeclusters; he holds a thyrsos and kanthar, and she the pearl-studded crown of gold, made by Hephaistos, given her by Theseus, and placed by Dionysos in the sky; a tympanon or tambourine hangs from the tree to be taken down at sunset; when, under the auspices of the allegorical Pannychis or personified Night-time, who herself appears on late Vases, the Naxian dance can continue until Aos (Eos-Aurora) rises from the eastern sea with her dew-filled urns. Dionysos appears as on all monuments of a late time, of a youthful form.' Eros flying, bears a fillet or girdle, emblem of nuptial and amorous concerns.' The girdle, both plain and also dotted or spotted, very frequently appears on the Vases, and always in scenes more or less erotic.6 XI. With Ariadne, in a deer-drawn chariot." XII. With Ariadne, in quadriga.8 XIII. As Dionysos Pelekys on winged car with axe. -The rare and singular representation of Dionysos on a winged car like that of Triptolemos, and armed with the sacred axe or hatchet, pelekys, is an occult illustration of the spirit of kosmic life in his grandest manifestation as the Storm-god; the axe is the thunderbolt, and the winged 1 Birch, Ancient Pottery, 238. 2 Millingen, Anct. Uned. Mons. Pl. xxvi. 3 Birch, Ancient Pottery, 250. 4 Vide Millingen, Anct. Uned. Mons. Pl. vi.; cf. Soph. Antig. 1152. 5 • Vide Millingen, Anct. Uned. Mons. Pls. xii. xxxv.; Christie, Disquisitions upon the Painted Greek Vases. cap. xiii.; inf. VIII. ii. Spots. 7 Brongniart, Traité Céramique. 8 Gerhard, Auserl. Vasen. Pl. lii. Ibid. Pl. xli. 9 Millingen, Anct. Uned. Mons. 07; cf Od. xi. 245, |