Dionysus
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In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus is the god of wine-making, orchards, fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known a
Second-century Roman statue of Dionysus, after a Hellenistic model (ex-coll. Cardinal Richelieu, Louvre)
Dionysus extending a drinking cup (kantharos) (late sixth century BC)
Dionysus triumph, a mosaic from the House of Poseidon, Zeugma Mosaic Museum.
Golden naiskos with Dionysus, 2nd cent. BC.
Ariadne
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In Greek mythology, Ariadne was a Cretan princess as the daughter of King Minos. There are multiple variations of Ariadne's myth, but she is best known for helping Theseus escape from the Minotaur and
Dionysus
…so, the power passed into them, and the river sands turned gold: this etiological myth explained the gold sands of the Pactolus. When Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, Dionysus found and married her. They had a son named Oenopion, but she committed suicide or was killed by Perseus. In some variants…
Ariadne asleep at Hypnos's side. Detail of ancient fresco in Pompeii
Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian: Dionysus discovers Ariadne on the shore of Naxos. The painting also depicts the constellation named after Ariadne.
Bacchus and Ariadne, Guido Reni, c. 1620
The abandoned Ariadne, ancient fresco from Pompeii, National Archaeological Museum, Naples