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PLATE III

Dionysos and a Maenad

Dionysos is shown reclining on a very elaborate couch. In his right hand he holds a kantharos in a very fastidious manner, and in his left, a thyrsos. The long flowing ringlets of his hair, the curves of his arms and body, and the soft texture of his drapery combine to give the god a decidedly effeminate appearance. A Maenad is extending a tray of viands toward him from the right, and an Eros flies down from the left to crown him with a wreath of leaves. At the extreme left a tympanon and a thyrsos, in the hands of a second Maenad, are barely visible. From a red-figured krater of the late fifth century b.c., in Athens (Catalogue des vases peints du musée national d' Athènes, Supplement par Georges Nicole, Plate XX). See pp. 215 ff.