any other divinity, and myths of resistance to the arriving Dionysus have their
counterpart in the rituals designed to receive him. Ionian cities welcomed Dionysus
in springtime at theKatago ̄gia, the festival during which they ‘‘led the god down’’
from the ship that brought him and then carried him in procession throughout the
city (Tassignon 2003:81–94). In Attica, as a prelude to the Dionysia, axoanon,a
small, portable statue of the god, was taken from the temple of Dionysus to
the Academy. When it was carried back to the area of the theater, the procession
into the city guaranteed the presence of the god, marked the beginning of
the Dionysia, and replayed the conclusion of the god’s original arrival in Attica
(Pickard-Cambridge 1968:59–60).
The Gaze of Dionysus
Wine was the original primary concern of Dionysiac ritual. At Corinth large concen-
trations of seventh-century drinking cups decorated with Dionysiac imagery reflect an
early emphasis on organized communal drinking (Isler-Kere ́nyi 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 experi-
ments 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 Franc ̧ois vase;LIMCiii.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 assile ̄noi,
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 thesile ̄noi, part-horse.
Hephaestus is drunk, and the mule and thesile ̄noiare 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-Kere ́nyi 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
Finding Dionysus 331