Relief of a Closure Slab with Dionysus and Ariadne

myminifactory

The relief vividly depicts a procession with Dionysus and Ariadne, where the god of wine and Minos's daughter - also his wife in some accounts - ride triumphantly in a panther-drawn chariot accompanied by satyrs and maenads who enthusiastically make music and dance. Dionysian motifs are characteristically ubiquitous on sarcophagi from Rome until approximately 300 AD, where this slab forms an integral part of the cover plate of a large grave-like sarcophagus unearthed near the Tomb of Caecilia Metella.