DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15100#0130
81
cited action of these riotous followers of Bacchus in the midst of
their orgies, when they were accustomed to cut or tear animals in
pieces. Upon a fine vase in the Museum3 Bacchus himself is re-
presented in a frantic mood, waving in his hands the limbs of a
kid which he has torn asunder. In the Bacchse of Euripides4
mention is made of these frantic females hanging upon trees the
reeking bodies and bleeding limbs of the animals they have thus
destroyed; and from Nonnus it appears that the Bassarides, who
figured in procession among the votaries of Bacchus, signalised
their escape from the prison in which they had been confined by
Pentheus, by falling upon the flocks and herds and tearing them
in pieces.5
This piece of sculpture is supposed to have originally ornamented
one of the sides of the triangular base of a candelabrum. Such
figures were perhaps not unfrequently sculptured by ancient ar-
tists ; and one precisely similar appears in a bas relief,6 formerly
in the Albani palace, representing a chorus of Msenades. Muller7
3 Described, De Witte, Descript. des Antiquites de feu M. Durand, p. 31, no. 8/.
4 1. 734, compare Catullus Carm. lxiv. 1. 257-
5 Dionys. xlv. 1. 285, et seqq. See also Clemens Alexandria. Protrept. fol. p. 1].
Aiovvaov jua(voX?jr opyiaZovai Bay^oi, wfiocjtayla tt;v hpofiavlav ayovrtg, kcu TeXtrr-
kovul rac Kpeiovo/j.!aQ tojv <j)6vwv, avEcrrEjU/uevoi roic 6<j)tmv, tiroXoXv^ovree Euav.
Compare Arnobius, Contra Gentes, v. 19. Epiphanius advers. Hseret. iii. Oper. fol.
p. 1092. Gail, Culte de Bacchus, p. 176. Rolle, Culte de Bacchus, iii. p. 139. St.
Croix, Sur les Mysteres du Paganisme, ii. p. 87. Nonnus, Dionys. xiv. 1. 377- It
was under the influence of like frenzy that the Bacchee destroyed Pentheus, Eurip.
Bacchce, 1. 1100-37. Theocrit. Id. xxvi, and Orpheus, Virg. Georg. iv. 1. 520.
Compare the account of the fury of the Minyades, Muller, Orchomenos und die
Minyer. p. 16'7- In the procession at Alexandria, described, Athenajus, v. p. 198,
some of the Bacchantes held daggers.
6 Zoega, Die Antiken Bas reliefe von Rom, pi. lxxxiv. Compare ibid. pi. lxxxiii.
Bouillon, Musee d'Antiques, iii. Candelabres &c. pi. 8. Visconti, Mus. Chiaramont.
tav. xxxvi-vii. Rivautella, Marmora Taurinens. p. 75. In a bas relief, Bouillon iii,
Bas reliefs, pi. x. Clarac, Musee de Sculpt, pi. cxxxv, a similar Bacchante is repre-
sented holding a portion of a stag.
7 Archaologie der Kunst, p. 114, s. 125, p. 582, s. 388. Denkmaler der alten
kunst, tab. xxxii. no. 140.
cited action of these riotous followers of Bacchus in the midst of
their orgies, when they were accustomed to cut or tear animals in
pieces. Upon a fine vase in the Museum3 Bacchus himself is re-
presented in a frantic mood, waving in his hands the limbs of a
kid which he has torn asunder. In the Bacchse of Euripides4
mention is made of these frantic females hanging upon trees the
reeking bodies and bleeding limbs of the animals they have thus
destroyed; and from Nonnus it appears that the Bassarides, who
figured in procession among the votaries of Bacchus, signalised
their escape from the prison in which they had been confined by
Pentheus, by falling upon the flocks and herds and tearing them
in pieces.5
This piece of sculpture is supposed to have originally ornamented
one of the sides of the triangular base of a candelabrum. Such
figures were perhaps not unfrequently sculptured by ancient ar-
tists ; and one precisely similar appears in a bas relief,6 formerly
in the Albani palace, representing a chorus of Msenades. Muller7
3 Described, De Witte, Descript. des Antiquites de feu M. Durand, p. 31, no. 8/.
4 1. 734, compare Catullus Carm. lxiv. 1. 257-
5 Dionys. xlv. 1. 285, et seqq. See also Clemens Alexandria. Protrept. fol. p. 1].
Aiovvaov jua(voX?jr opyiaZovai Bay^oi, wfiocjtayla tt;v hpofiavlav ayovrtg, kcu TeXtrr-
kovul rac Kpeiovo/j.!aQ tojv <j)6vwv, avEcrrEjU/uevoi roic 6<j)tmv, tiroXoXv^ovree Euav.
Compare Arnobius, Contra Gentes, v. 19. Epiphanius advers. Hseret. iii. Oper. fol.
p. 1092. Gail, Culte de Bacchus, p. 176. Rolle, Culte de Bacchus, iii. p. 139. St.
Croix, Sur les Mysteres du Paganisme, ii. p. 87. Nonnus, Dionys. xiv. 1. 377- It
was under the influence of like frenzy that the Bacchee destroyed Pentheus, Eurip.
Bacchce, 1. 1100-37. Theocrit. Id. xxvi, and Orpheus, Virg. Georg. iv. 1. 520.
Compare the account of the fury of the Minyades, Muller, Orchomenos und die
Minyer. p. 16'7- In the procession at Alexandria, described, Athenajus, v. p. 198,
some of the Bacchantes held daggers.
6 Zoega, Die Antiken Bas reliefe von Rom, pi. lxxxiv. Compare ibid. pi. lxxxiii.
Bouillon, Musee d'Antiques, iii. Candelabres &c. pi. 8. Visconti, Mus. Chiaramont.
tav. xxxvi-vii. Rivautella, Marmora Taurinens. p. 75. In a bas relief, Bouillon iii,
Bas reliefs, pi. x. Clarac, Musee de Sculpt, pi. cxxxv, a similar Bacchante is repre-
sented holding a portion of a stag.
7 Archaologie der Kunst, p. 114, s. 125, p. 582, s. 388. Denkmaler der alten
kunst, tab. xxxii. no. 140.