Wine was the original primary concern of Dionysiac ritual. At Corinth large concentrations of seventh-century drinking cups decorated with Dionysiac imagery reflect an early emphasis on organized communal drinking (Isler-Kerenyi 1993:3-5). The explosive increase in pottery associated with serving and drinking wine in sixth-century Athens is related to the same phenomenon. Dionysus and his entourage are the most popular figures on black-figure vases of the sixth century, a time of political innovation and social experimentation. One of the most successful of those experiments was the institution of the symposium. In a period of rapid political change, the symposium provided a protected arena to test new political status. Dionysus was a component of this process, and his ambiguous nature is one of the issues explored in the images on pottery.
Dionysus appears on extant Attic black-figure vases in early scenes displaying the procession of the gods to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. For Sophilos, who depicts the god carrying a vine branch, Dionysus is the god of wine. Kleitias, who portrays a more complex divinity, presents Dionysus twice, once in procession for the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and a second time, leading Hephaestus to Olympos (Florence 4209, the Francois vase; LIMC iii.2 pls 496, 567; Carpenter 1986: pls. 1b, 4a; Cristofani, Marzi, and Perissinotto 1981: pls 82, 91-2). Dionysus is a central figure in both friezes. Wine is the powerful weapon that puts Hephaestus under the god’s spell. Dionysus strides in procession with his followers (labeled on the vase as silenoi, but usually called ‘‘satyrs’’). One of these carries over his shoulder a large wineskin almost bursting with its excessive load of wine. Dionysus is followed by the drunken Hephaestus straddling a mule, an animal part-donkey and, like the silenoi, part-horse. Hephaestus is drunk, and the mule and the silenoi are in a state of openly displayed high sexual excitement. Dionysus himself, shown in profile, is the only one who exhibits self-control.
In the wedding procession on the other side of the vase Dionysus is the only divinity who walks alone. He carries a large amphora on his shoulder and is shown this time not in profile, but in full frontal view, his face like a mask staring directly at the viewer (illustrated clearly in Carpenter 1997a: pl. 38A; Henrichs 1987: 95 fig. 1; Isler-Kerenyi 1997: pl. 15.1). The wedding of Achilles’ parents was an appropriate opportunity for giving gifts, but it was also an episode in the sequence of events that led to the Trojan War. If the amphora Dionysus carries here refers to the golden amphora that received Achilles’ bones (for discussion, Henrichs 1987:94-5, 113-14 nn. 12-14; Isler-Kerenyi 1997:78-9), there is a sinister meaning in the god’s pose. Dionysus faces the viewer head on, and the amphora is slightly tipped. This instability and the god’s frontal stare mark both his presence and his gift as potentially dangerous to those who are not careful.
The amphora was a vessel used to transport wine. When diluted with water and correctly shared and consumed according to the rules of organized drinking, wine brought relaxation and encouraged pleasant and orderly conversation (see Henrichs 1982:140-1, for the benefits of wine), whether in a private home or in the pruta-neion, the dining room of the city. These conditions encouraged a shared male culture and enabled the interchange necessary for political and intellectual life. Wine, however, like Dionysus himself, could also be both seductive and destructive (see Detienne 1989a:33-40, 50, for the risks). By isolating Dionysus and showing him in full frontal view in the center of the main frieze, Kleitias converts the image into a medallion. Like the Gorgon on Athena’s shield, Dionysus issues a challenge. His pose calls attention to the benefits of his gift as well as the possible risks of abusing wine. If not managed by ritual, wine could threaten the community that made the polis possible (Isler-Kerenyi 1993:8-9).
Frontal views are not common in Greek vase painting, but when they do occur they are displayed in clearly defined contexts and carry a special meaning (Korshak 1987 collects 255 examples). The majority of the figures shown full face on Greek vases are connected to Dionysus or associated with wine. Satyrs alone are 40 percent of the total. They greatly outnumber all other subjects, and black-figure satyrs outnumber red. Satyrs are imaginary creatures, part-human, part-horse. They are bald but bearded, nude but hairy, their bodies undersized, their genitals often enormous. They are highly sexed, easily excitable, and impossible to control, yet unable to achieve sexual satisfaction (Henrichs 1987; Lissarague 1990b). They inhabit remote, wooded areas in the mountains; they do not belong in town.
Most of the depictions of black-figure satyrs in full frontal view show them engaged in frenetic dancing or wine production and consumption. Red-figure satyrs are fewer in number, but their counterparts are now drunken symposiasts. Full frontal view on red-figure vases, sometimes accompanied by vomiting, indicates that a drinker has given himself over to the power of wine, the result of imitating satyrs in the rule-bound environment of the symposium. Aristocratic bias and, after Solon, contempt for the newly enfranchised infect the images, but there is also humor in the presentation of the transgressive behavior of those who drink too much (Sutton 2000:180-1; 199-201). Nevertheless, drunkenness is out of place in the formal symposium, the male institution for controlling the effects ofwine. Drunken behavior is an insult to the god and an impediment to social interaction. Dionysus offers consumers the opportunity to abuse his gift, because it is up to the drinker to moderate consumption in order to maintain both sobriety and mental and social equilibrium.
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