The Marble Group Depicting Drunken Dionysus with Satyr from Mediana

Abstract

During archaeological research in 1932, a rectangular base with remnants of a group of sculptures was discovered in the area of the thermae in Mediana. Two pairs of human feet, the paws of a four-legged animal, a ram’s head, a tree and a rock may be recognized among the remnants of the sculpture. Previous studies resulted in the hypothesis that the marble composition might present some of the scenes from the myth of Dionysus. It was determined through several analogies that the group of sculptures presented an atypical representation of Drunken Dionysus with Satyr, because of the rare position of the satyr compared to the deity and the detail of the satyr’s foot laid on the ram’s head. It is assumed that there was some mix-up of elements from the iconography of the gods Dionysus and Sabazios in the sculpture from Mediana, and the sculpture was most likely brought to Mediana at some point after the reconstruction of the villa with a peristyle. The manner of modelling the sculpture refers to the second half of the 2nd century AD as the period of its origins, with some reservation that a later dating is also possible.