Dionysos Attended by Dancers

Athenian red-figure hydria
Early fourth century

The god Dionysos, his legs covered by a cloak, reclines on a couch with a patterned cloth and a cushion at its head. He wears an ivy wreath, holding a thyrsos and vine in his right hand. Two women perform a slow dance, one (on the right) is fair-haired. Both wear elegant sandals. A white leopard (a pet) with a collar crouches between them. On the left sits a woman with a hare in her lap, wearing a peplos. Her hair is bound up. On the right sitting on a leopard-skin is a satyr with a white drinking horn, a wine jar balanced on its foot. Above the satyr is Eros, stretching out his hand to take Pan’s pipes. Opposite is another satyr, sitting on a skin, holding a thyrsos.