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black figure kylix depicting Dionysos at sea
£150.00
The original drinking cup (kylix), dating to the mid 6th century BC, is in the Munich Antikensammlungen and is the work of Exekias. Dionysos, god of wine and drama, was sailing to Naxos and had hired some Tyrrhenian pirates to take him there. However, the pirates headed for Asia, intending to sell their passenger as a slave. Dionysos retaliated by turning their oars into serpents and by making a vine sprout from the sail and by filling the whole ship with tenacious ivy. Eventually, the pirates threw themselves overboard and became dolphins. This story is told in a Homeric Hymn. Along with the Amasis Painter, the Athenian Exekias was a pioneer and master of the black-figure technique of vase-painting in the 6th century BC. This is a lovely image of the god at ease, triumphant after outwitting the pirates. It differs from the original in that there is no exterior decoration on the underside. Diameter of bowl: 22cm Height: 9cm Width including handles: 28cm
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about Dionysos
Dionysos, son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, was the god of the vine and wine, liquid life, fertility and rebirth in nature. From his complex cult and ritual emerged Greek drama.
He was the only god to be born of a mortal mother, and he was one of the few who went to bring a dead soul back from the underworld - he brought Semele back with him to Mount Olympos.
Jealous Hera had tricked Zeus into causing Semele's death, but Zeus delivered the prematurely born Dionysos and stitched him into his thigh, from which he was born again at full term. Hera continued her campaign of revenge against the baby Dionysos, and arranged for him to be dismembered by the Titans, but Rhea, mother of Zeus, put him back together, and brought him back to life.
Dionysos rescued Ariadne on the island of Naxos, after she had been abandoned by Theseus, after she'd helped him to kill the Minotaur. They married and had several children. Dionysos would look after his half-brother Apollo's sanctuary in Delphi whenever Apollo left to spend time with the Hyperboreans.
The focal point of the Dionysia, the spring festival held in Athens in his honour, became the performances, in competition, of comedies, tragedies and satyr plays. These took place in the Theatre of Dionysos on the slopes of the Akropolis. One of those tragedies was Euripides' Bacchae, which explores the complexity and duality of this elemental and multi-faceted god.
He is often represented wearing vine leaves, even grapes, around his head. He is often accompanied by his followers, the female Maenads, and the hybrid Satyrs. He wears an animal skin cloak, and often carries a thyrsos and his signature wine-drinking vessel, the kantharos.
about this pottery collection
This pottery collection is produced in Greece in the workshop of the Lioulias family, with whom It's All Greek is proud to have been working since 2004.