Puteal with bacchic scenes

Puteal with bas-relief representing bacchic scenes. Foremost is a crater probably intended to hold wine, in which Silenus is mingling water which he pours out of a skin-jar. The crater stands under the shadow of a large elm-tree, clinging around which is a vine in full leaf. A Satyr is eagerly plunging his head in the crater, while another is seen lying asleep under the shadow of the tree, his left elbow resting on a vase. In front of the latter is a bacchic youth who is performing on the tibia. On the opposite side of the well is a naked figure, probably that of Bacchus reclining on a couch, with a fringed coverlet. Near him is a three legged table with wine and food. Close behind is a figure brandishing a knife, whose disordered hair, and girdle of snakes round his loins, fit him to represent the maddened Lycurgus, the violator of the feasts and rites of Bacchus. Close to the recumbent deity is a boy who calls his attention to a lascivious group to which the god himself seems to be pointing with his finger. This group is composed of an ithyphallic satyr with a flowing mantle, dragging a ram by the horns, astride which is a naked bacchante. This is a rare and remarkable work of art.

Inv. nr. 432. Found at Ostia. Limestone. H. 0. 90. Diam. 0. 63.