Smith, Cecil Harcourt; British Museum <London> [Editor]: Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum (Band 3): Vases of the finest period (London, 1896)

INTRODUCTION. 35

Athens early in the fifth century, since Pratinas, with whose name it is
specially associated, was a contemporary of Aeschylos.* In this Satyric Drama,
the characteristic element was vested in a chorus of Satyrs (Seileni), to whom
were added certain characters borrowed from popular mythology. On E 768
we have a ckoros of Satyrs, one of whom is attired in the costume of a herald :
the Thracian character of his dress is in keeping with the Thracian origin
assigned to Dionysos and his following.

A still more marked example of this class of subject occurs on the Brygos
cup E 65 already quoted : on each side of the exterior a ckoros of Satyrs plays
the chief part, and on the obverse Dionysos, standing beside his altar, figures
as the presiding genius : it is even possible that in the raised platform shown
here we may see a suggestion of the actual thymele. Under this heading may
also be classed subjects in which Satyrs parody the action of heroes or of
daily life, such as. the foot race E 292 : on E 377 a Satyr is shown arming,
assisted by a Maenad, while on the reverse Dionysos stands beside a Maenad
pouring a libation, both scenes being based on the common type of the hero
arming and the woman pouring a libation for the warrior departing to battle
(cf. B 626). In E 532 a Seilenos appears draped in the himation of the citizen,
confronting an ephebos, possibly as a travesty of the philosopher : we are
naturally reminded of the resemblance which Socrates in Plato's Sympos.
215 B is said to have borne to a Seilenos, but it is obvious that such analogies
cannot be pressed. The best illustration of the Satyr-drama and its close
relation to the Dionysiac cult is shown in the scenes on the fine crater in
Wiener Vorlegcbl. E. pi. 7 : on one side we have the preparations for a scenic
performance, youths in the presence of Dionysos putting on Satyric masks
and dress, etc. : on the other Dionysos and Ariadne dancing in the midst of
the thiasos.

Side by side with the Seilenos-Satyr, the Maenad also shows an evolution
of her own. In the earlier representations (see again B 300) the usual dis-
tinction between her and an ordinary woman is the nebris which she wears,
with occasionally other accessories such as a lion or snake, while the thyrsos is
almost invariable. But when the artist has attained a greater technical freedom,
he is able in his drawing to express the frenzied action and the wild disorder of
hair and dress which characterise these women ; then the nebris is frequently
discarded (see the fine cup of Hieron, Wiener Vorlegebl. A, pi. 4). Towards the
end of our period the Maenad becomes an ordinary Athenian woman, and is, in
fact, so shown on the interior of E 85, where she wears an himation and saccos,
and would not, if it were not for the thyrsos, be recognizable as a Maenad. This
process of conversion in ait was probably accelerated by the introduction of

* Baumeisler, p. 384 and p. 1568. It is remarkable that the tragic drama of jEschylus and Sophocles
should have left so little trace on the vases of the fifth century : for the connection of the drama of
Euripides with vases, see Vogel, Semen Eurip. Tragbd., and vol. iv, p. 9, of this catalogue. In Bonner
Sludien, p. 88, Dummler has referred scenes on the vases of Hieron to the comedies of Epicharmus.

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