To Dionysos

[Dionysus Ref]

Okay so I made a full reference of him :)

Probably the most well-known, Dionysus Cup by Exekias, 540-530 BCE.

That's not pottery, that's a little guy.

A similar one from approximately 520 BCE.

Dated 525-500 BCE, from a Boston museum. This one just looks sad. I unironically want this in my house.

On one hand, there's an apotropaic function of averting ill (the same way that triremes would have eyes on the front parts). Some kylikes have Gorgoneia on them for the same reason!

On the other hand, as a drinking cup for a symposium, a kylix was both:

an object belonging to an inherently Dionysian space

an object used for entertainment

So there was an element of fun there too! Some kylikes have paintings on the inside, revealed once you finish your wine: scenes of sexual encounters, vomiting, Dionysian imagery, faces of Gorgon, and more. It was fun to wonder what yours was hiding.

Dionysos, the giver of plenty

normally I draw Dionysus with black hair but wanted to do something a lil different

ended up looking more like the Hades game version but that's okay lol

“There is no cure for madness when the cure itself is mad” | Illustration for Euripides’ The Bacchae