This study examines the development of Dionysian imagery in Greek vase painting from the first appearance of the god on an Attic vase c. 580 BC to the point at which red figure overtook black figure as the dominant style of vase painting in Attica c. 520 BC.

This is an extensive study of Dionysian imagery found primarily in scenes on red-figure vases of the fifth-century BC but also in the architectural sculpture, coins, and theatre of the same period. Thomas Carpenter seeks to define a methodology for using this imagery as evidence for cultural and religious activity, and challenges some commonly-held views about the meaning of Dionysian iconography, at the same time pointing to problems inherent in the evidence under scrutiny.

An interpretation of the god Dionysos as seen by Greek vase painters before the golden age of classical culture, which will help understand his wide popularity beyond wine consumption, which lasted until the end of antiquity.

Dionysos, with his following of satyrs and women, was a major theme in a big part of the figure painted pottery in 500-300 B.C. Athens. As an original testimonial of their time, the imagery on these vases convey what this god meant to his worshippers. It becomes clear that he was not only appropriate for wine, wine indulgence, ecstasy and theatre. Rather, he was presenton many, both happy and sad, occasions. The vase painters have emphasized different aspects of Dionysos for their customers inside and outside of Athens, depending on the political and cultural situation.

In this book the author explores the work of the fifth-century BC Athenian vase-painter, Sotades, one of the most familiar names in vase painting. Previous scholarship has dealt mainly with questions of attribution, style, and iconographic interpretation, but Dr Hoffman concentrates on inherent meaning: what does the imagery of these decorated vases really signify. He argues that, contrary to widely held conceptions, there is an underlying unity of meaning in Greek vases and their imagery, a unity rooted in the religious beliefs and ritual practices of the society from which they spring. Each chapter discusses a specific aspect of the artist's iconology, placing it in the context of fifth-century BC Greek philosophical and religious thought.

The potter and painter Myson founded the Mannerist workshop at the end of the sixth century BC. The Mannerists were his pupils and pupils of his pupils, and specialized in columnkraters, hydriai, and pelikai. The workshop was unusually long-lived and was active through the whole of the fifthcentury and the first decade of the fourth.The style of painting and the choice of some subjects are curiously old-fashioned. A number of pictures show rare themes such as the Death of Prokris, Odysseus and Nausicaa, and Orestes in Delphi. Other paintings give an unusual twist to well-known stories. The Mannerists were influenced bytheatrical productions, extant wall paintings, and the works of other vase-painters.The workshop provides important clues for the chronology of Attic vase-painting, for example drawing reflecting Pheidias' Athena Parthenos, and Aeschylos' plays Sphinx, Eumenides, and Seven against Thebes.