Dionysus Cup

c. 530 BCE

Black-figure terracotta, 30.5 cm diameter · Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich

An Athenian wine cup signed by Exekias, the leading black-figure artist of his day. It was exported to Etruria and found in a tomb at Vulci.

Dionysus reclines in a ship whose mast sprouts a vine with seven bunches of grapes.
Seven dolphins circle the ship, the pirates he transformed.
A coral-red ground fills the whole interior, sea and sky in one.
Outside, big eyes on each side and warriors fighting over a fallen body.
As the drinker drained the cup, the god seemed to rise out of the red wine.

Pirates kidnapped Dionysus, not knowing he was a god. He filled the ship with vines and turned them into dolphins as they leapt overboard.

Kylix: A shallow two-handled drinking cup used at the symposium, the Greek drinking party.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain