Dionysus As Seen Through The Vase Paintings In The Archaic Period

Dionysus is the god of wine in Greek myth. He is in charge of the cultivation ofgrape and the brewing of wine, meanwhile, he also admired by the ancient Greeks asthe god of cults and madness. All cults about Dionysus can be considered as one ofthe most mysterious cults.In Greek myth, Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Semele, and he belongs to theTwelve Olympian. However, base on another legend which best-known around Crete,Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Persephone, and this edition exactly explain theintimate relation between Dionysus and the lower region. Besides, Dionysian cultsreflects several background of myth in different editions. Such as, Anthesteria ofAthens and Bacchic mystery, both of them are the most typical ways which showingworship of Dionysus.The cults of Dionysus reflected by vase painting is one of the most important partamong the sphere of studying Dionysian cults, attracting many scholars put high valueon it. The archaic period is the transforming period of Greek society, and theformative period of art. Eastern culture influence on Greek art through trade contacts,while Greek art absorb the advantage of it and gradually get the rid of its influence atthe same time. The vase painting reflects what really happened during this period, andthe Greeks place their emotion on it. Tales of legend and mythological figures are theeternal theme of vase paintings, the Dionysian scene always shows on it, it is veryhelpful to get better understanding about Dionysian cults through the analysis of vasepaintings.This thesis emphasize on the analysis of the Dionysian cults which reflected byvase painting during the archaic period, and it is divided into three parts. The first partsummarize the legend of Dionysus and the main worship way of him, which isAthesteria and the cults. The second part generally combing the vase paintings of thearchaic period, firstly describing the style and development of vase painting in thisperiod, and secondly make the emphasize on the figure of Dionysus which reflectedon the vase painting. The last part discuss the difference of Dionysian figure betweenvase paintings and literature records through making cross-references betweenliterature texts and vase paintings.