The gate of the year

Marble relief, produced by a neo-Attic workshop and dating back to the Roman Imperial Age, recovered in the XVIII century near Naples and subsequently acquired by the Vatican Museums. The relic shows two Maenads, followers of Dionysus, beside a bull, which probably represents one of the various manifestations of the god himself. Dionysus was often called with the epithet of Eiraphiótes, a term of obscure meaning. It seems, however, that it could be referred to an animal form of the god and related to an Indo-European root, common to the Sanskrit rsabhá (“bull”), assuming in this way the meaning of “god who reveals himself in the aspect of a bull” (Chantraine, 1968, p.323; Cassola, 1994, p.463-64). A peculiar characteristic of Dionysos is his polymorphism, that is, his capacity to present himself under multiple aspects. He is depicted sometimes as a child, sometimes as a young adolescent, or as a bearded adult, and is deemed with the ability to turn himself into the shape of various animals, thus distinguishing him from the other Olympians. In an Homeric hymn to Dionysus, it is told how the god, in his aspect of a youth, was abducted by a ship of Tyrrhenian pirates. During the sailing, Dionysus made vine branches grow around the mast of the ship, turning himself into a fierce lion. The pirates, terrified, plunged into the sea and were transformed in their turn into dolphins.

[Source: http://www.crystalinks.com/bacchus.html]




Human-Animal Transformation

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Marble relief, produced by a neo-Attic workshop and dating back to the Roman Imperial Age, recovered in the XVIII century near Naples and subsequently acquired by the Vatican Museums. The relic shows two Maenads, followers of Dionysus, beside a bull, which probably represents one of the various manifestations of the god himself. Dionysus was often called with the epithet of Eiraphiótes, a term of obscure meaning. It seems, however, that it could be referred to an animal form of the god and related to an Indo-European root, common to the Sanskrit rsabhá (“bull”), assuming in this way the meaning of “god who reveals himself in the aspect of a bull” (Chantraine, 1968, p.323; Cassola, 1994, p.463-64). A peculiar characteristic of Dionysos is his polymorphism, that is, his capacity to present himself under multiple aspects. He is depicted sometimes as a child, sometimes as a young adolescent, or as a bearded adult, and is deemed with the ability to turn himself into the shape of various animals, thus distinguishing him from the other Olympians. In an Homeric hymn to Dionysus, it is told how the god, in his aspect of a youth, was abducted by a ship of Tyrrhenian pirates. During the sailing, Dionysus made vine branches grow around the mast of the ship, turning himself into a fierce lion. The pirates, terrified, plunged into the sea and were transformed in their turn into dolphins. [Source: http://www.crystalinks.com/bacchus.html]