Dionysus

Dionysus was an ancient Greek god associated with many things, especially things beyond the everyday. He was the son of the god, Zeus, and of the human, Semele. Sometimes he was depicted as young and smooth-chinned, and at other times he was shown older and bearded. Sometimes he is very masculine and at others very feminine. Above all he was the god of wine and of intoxication, although he himself was never drunk. Transformation was his domain; sometimes bringing joy, sometimes terror. He presided over the liberation of revels and dance, of mask-wearing and performance. He was the god of theatre, to whom all ancient Greek dramas were offered. He is often shown with companions; with satyrs who reflect the animal aspects of human nature, and with maenads, women who sing, dance, and worship Dionysus. Wild deer and fawns are associated with Dionysus and he often wears a fawn-skin.

This vase is a bell krater, made in Athens c.450-425BCE. The vase was decorated by an artist known as the Lycaon Painter. It would have been used for mixing wine and water together at symposium parties, so it's especially appropriate to have a scene showing Dionysus and a revel.

The scene shows a satyr on the far left playing the auloi – double pipes. A second satyr is pouring wine into a different kind of krater, known as a calyx krater – also used for mixing wine and water. Towards the left a maenad is listening to the music, while the maenad on the right pets a fawn. Both maenads hold a ritual staff known as a thyrsus, a wand with an ivy or pine cone top. Dionysus also holds a thyrsus. He dominates the centre of the scene and supervises the preparation of the wine.

This vase is housed in the National Museum in Warsaw, in Poland (number EXC43, formerly 142355 MNW).

In this animation we see Dionysus, god of wine and drama, create and control events like a theatre director. He sets the scene, adds the neccessary props, brings people in and sets them in motion. He is the only one who looks out at the viewer – he knows that it is a performance, but do the others?

The satyr who brings in the wine performs a special satyr dance, which was commonly seen in ancient theatre. The deer joins in as the atmosphere builds - their animal natures responding to the music.

The deer in Dionysus has a little tail. That was included after research into the history of the vase. In the image on the right you can see that the vase has been damaged and the deer's tail lost. The tail was digitally restored during the animation process, based on an old photograph in the Beazley Archive. Now the deer can appear in one piece!

Here you can see another another type of adjustment that may be made during the creation of the animation, smoothing and clarifying some details of the vase image so that they can be seen.

The music in Dionysus was created by ancient music specialist Prof Conrad Steinmann.

This animation was created as part of the European Research Council (ERC) funded project: Our Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Children's and Young Adults' Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges (Grant Agreement 681202; ERC Consolidator Grant led by Prof Katarzyna Marciniak). www.omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/

This PowerPoint file and activity sheet are designed to make it easier to integrate the Dionysus video into your teaching. Feel free to use or adapt them with your class, or if you'd like to do more by yourself :)

• Dionysus PowerPoint
• Dionysus Activity Sheet