DionysosAriadneANCIENT

DionysosAriadneANCIENT_Vatican

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Dionysus and Ariadne Sarcophagus, ca. 180 AD, St. Peter’s basilica, Rome

Ancient Roman marble sarcophagus with mythological scenes carved in relief, depicting Dionysiac revelry and centaurs

Ariadne’s rescue by Dionysus’s arrival came to be an allegory for the divine rewakening of the soul from death, raising it to eternal life. The theme was treated frequently treated in late-antique and early Christian funerary art. The Vatican sarcophagus dates to about 180 A.D. and is found in situ beneath St. Peter’s basilica, Rome.

Dionysus arrives (left) in a musical entourage of bacchantes and satyrs. Dionysus also stands over the sleeping Ariadne (center). Pentheus (left) deals with two maenads who are about to attack him. The lid shows a bacchanalia in full swing. The burial may well have been either pagan or Christian.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.