A puzzling iconography

It is not always easy to understand the deep meaning of images coming from Antiquity, because they imply a knowledge of texts which were well-known to the ancients, but which are often lost to us. For instance, this statue recently acquired by the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art illustrates the kind of complexities which can sometimes spice up the life of iconographers and collection curators.

This statue, which is mentioned in collection inventories as early as the 18^th century, is dated to the 1^st or 2^nd century AD. It pertains to a long series of similar depictions and even has two nearly exact parallels, one of them complete and coming from the ancient agora of Athens ¹Dontas, “Anaskaphē oikopedou Angelopoulou”, p. 94, pl. 38 e; Besques, “La représentation du Silène”, p. 270-271., the other being a head fragment found at Palazzo a Mare, the villa of Augustus in Capri ²Di Franco, Capreensia disiecta membra, p. 105-107, B 4.. The model which inspired these statues is dated to the 3^rd century BC, as suggested by the shape of the high-footed kantharos ³Di Franco, Capreensia disiecta membra, p. 76-77.. All of them stand out by their very decorative nature; the Capri statue would probably adorn the peristyle garden of the imperial residence ⁴Di Franco, Capreensia disiecta membra, p. 77-83.. But in spite of all the information we have on their dating, these statues remain enigmatic in many respects.

A hairy satyr

For the Greeks, satyrs pertain to the same kin as Centaurs or the Minotaur: the untamed. And like these creatures, they can be depicted with a body completely covered with hair, which makes these already hybrid creatures even more beastly⁵Lissarrague, La cité des satyres, p. 54.. The earliest depictions of satyrs notably include the fragment of a painted vessel attributed to Sophilos, around 580 BC, showing three of them, two of which are hairy; one of these two hairy satyrs is also holding a kantharos with both hands, a first draft of the topic discussed here⁶Lissarrague, La cité des satyres, p. 42, fig. 16 (private collection)..

Who is this little chap?

Well, who might be this slightly stooped little chap apparently scrutinizing the bottom of his cup? His chubby face and pug nose suggest a somewhat bestial being with animal ears. Sitting cross-legged, knees drawn up and ankles crossed, his elbows resting on his thighs, he is holding with both hands a kantharos or drinking cup. The thick crown on his forehead betrays his affiliation with the circle of Dionysus, god of wine and banquet. He is wrapped in a big cat skin covering his head and back and, underneath, is wearing an unusual bodysuit made of fleece. As we can notice, his right foot (which is the only one preserved) is shod in a kind of sandal, the vamp of which shows concentric strips.

His ugliness and taste for the juice of the vine enable us to identify him at first glance: it is a satyr. Because wherever Dionysus goes, whether he is going down here below to visit mortals or lounging in the vines of the upper Olympus, he is escorted by a frenzied procession writhing all around him. It is notably made of dishevelled women, the Bacchantes, and sometimes of cute winged toddlers, the Dionysiac Erotes. But the bulk of the company consists of satyrs: half-men, half-horses, or men with an equid (later caprine) tail, they also have the pointy ears of horses. If their jokes and behaviour is seldom subtle, they are full of energy and love of life. And above all, they are mad about wine! When mentioned on vases, their names are related to wine, sex, music and dance⁷Lissarrague, La cité des satyres, p. 43-44..

Silenus, an old white-haired satyr

Among these satyrs, most of whom are young untrustworthy seducers with an animal and exuberant sexuality, one of them stands out: an old and fat satyr called Silenus, to whom old age has brought wisdom – but not sobriety. He is sometimes called Papposilenus: “grandfather Silenus”. Perfect in his role of cupbearer (as shown by another statue of our collections, fig. 2), he is also a very good dancer, and even a talented singer. On a vase attributed to the painter Polion and dated to 420 BC, three white-haired Silenoi with animal ears pluck a zither in front of an aoidos (fig. 3). An inscription on the vessel ironically identifies them as the “Panathenaia singers”, depicted in different positions recalling the steps of a dance⁸New York, Metropolitan Museum, Inv. 25.78.66 (420 BC); Simon, “Silenoi”, no. 97; Seidensticker, “Dance”, p. 225-226..

Inebriation and wisdom are a good combination for him, which is why he had the privilege to become the private tutor of little Dionysus, in the nymph-haunted land of Nysa. According to Greek mythology, this magical place is where Hermes had brought the baby god to hide him from the wrath of Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus. There, Silenus initiated the divine child to the secret mysteries which will make him the god of an initiatory cult comprising the ritual mime of scenes of his myth.

Silenus, the satyr drinking on the sly

There is no possible doubt left: our little chap is a Silenus. He is sitting on the floor and drinking his wine alone, a posture and loneliness fitting a wild being who couldn’t care less about the rules of conviviality of the Greek banquet. In ancient Greece, this posture was only authorized for children and slaves⁹Lissarrague, “Vêtir ceux qui sont nus : du côté des Satyres”, in Florence Gherchanoc, Valérie Huet (eds.), Vêtements antiques. S’habiller, se déshabiller dans les mondes anciens, Errance publisher, Arles, 2012, p. 165-172, notably p. 171.. And above all, with no regard for etiquette, he is drinking alone… The theme of the drunk Silenus sitting on the floor and holding a cup is widely distributed in the classical world since the mid-5^th century BC, in Etruria, southern Italy, Sicily (on a silver drachma from Naxos dated from 461 to 430 BC, fig. 4) and Greece¹⁰This distribution was probably made possible by means of drawing compilations: Besques, “Quelques problèmes concernant les transferts”, p. 71-75..

Silenus and Euripides’ Cyclops

On later monuments from the Hellenistic and Imperial periods in the same vein as our statue, Silenus is raising the vessel to his lips, sometimes even plunging his face into it. A specific behaviour, which might suggest that it refers to oinomancy (divination by wine), as is probably the case on a fresco scene of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii¹¹Besques, “Quelques problèmes concernant les transferts”, p. 75.. But what could this clouded-eyed Silenus possibly predict about the future?

He is rather an illustration of Silenus’ immoderate taste for wine, which is notably expressed in the verses of Euripides’ play Cyclops, a very popular satyric drama composed around 413 BC. Silenus, father of a troop of satyrs, is one of its leading characters. Along with his offspring, he is looking for Dionysus, their beloved master who was abducted by pirats, and captured by the man-eating cyclops Polyphemus. Silenus and his satyrs are coerced to drink milk, as this is the only drink the cyclops knows. This is where Odysseus turns up with goatskins full of pure wine. Both of them decide to blind the cyclops, but in order to achieve this, they have to make him drunk. Wine is therefore quite important in their plan.

During the subsequent banquet, the cyclops catches Silenus drinking his wine “on the sly” and blames him for it, to which Silenus wittily replies: “The wine kissed me for my handsome looks”¹²Euripides, Cyclops, v. 552-553.. One must admit that exchanging vinous kisses can only be done very close to the cup or kantharos, and all this in the most discreet manner… Crouching under his beast skin, our little chap seems to be hiding to drink, which was probably meant to provoke laughter. But this is not the only case of a rather funny Silenus: a very tiny crouching Silenus, wearing a hairy bodysuit, is hiding under the dress of a Venus Genitrix statuette from Capua¹³Paris, Louvre, inv. Cp. 4445, 3^rd – 2^nd century BC; Besques, “La représentation du Silène au canthare”, p. 264-265.. Hidden in this way, he is busy gulping wine in a kantharos he is holding between his legs. But what is he doing there, under the skirts of Venus? And how is he related to her? This is a mystery, and another puzzle of ancient iconography…

Swimming in the oversize skin of Heracles

Our inebriated Silenus is hiding under an animal skin which is way too large for him, covering his back, arms and thighs, the large clawed paws of which can still be seen, one between his legs, the other on his right side. With its canines and snout, the animal muzzle crowns his head, which gives him some likeness to Heracles under his lion skin. Except that here the cat skin does not cover the athletic body of Heracles, but that of a podgy gnome!

This skin is also the hide of a big cat, this one without mane: it is a pardalide, or leopard pelt. Among the ancients, the panther (pardalis) was supposed to be very fond of wine¹⁴“Leopards are overcome also by the gifts of Dionysus, when crafty hunters pour for them the crafty draught, shunning not the anger of holy Dionysus”: Oppian, Cynegetica, IV, 320-353; Detienne, Dionysos mis à mort, p. 96. and to exhale a ravishing natural smell used as a bait when hunting preys¹⁵Theophrastus, On the Causes of Plants, VI, 5, 2; Pliny the Elder, Natural History, VIII, 23; Detienne, Dionysos mis à mort, p. 94-95.. This beast was also found in Dionysus’ party. Along with the nebride (or fawn skin), the pardalide is also part of the attire of Dionysus (as seen on the Dionysus Tauros applique in our collections) and of his companions. However, if these pelts are tied on the torso, the animal head is never used as headgear.

Worn in this way, the pardalide associates Silenus with Heracles, himself often mocked at the theatre for his fondness for the bottle. But if both of them are heavy drinkers, heroism is a different story… The Greek satyric play confines Silenus to the part of a friendly but ridiculous anti-hero: when he tries to behave bravely, he fails miserably¹⁶Griffith, “Satyr play and Tragedy”, p. 62..

The hairy bodysuit? An actor outfit!

Moreover, the fleece bodysuit made of horizontal strips of short locks is the other clothing feature of this character, planting seeds of doubt on his real identity. Who is he? A Silenus, or a character in the guise of Silenus? In the end of the classical period, dionysiac iconography becomes very receptive to the art of theatre, of which Dionysus is also protector. Several vases from southern Italy display depictions of actors wearing this kind of costume. On the vase painted by Pronomos, where a scene apparently represents the backstage of a theatre, two actors are facing each other. One of them, dressed as Heracles, mask in hand, the other in a hairy outfit, mask of Papposilenus in hand¹⁷Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. 81673, H3240; Mannack, “A Description”, in Taplin, Wyles, The Pronomos Vase, p. 5-13, notably p. 7.. And on a vase attributed to the Schlaepfer Painter, a woman (perhaps Ariadne, wife of Dionysus?) reclining on a banquet couch is playing kottabos, while a Silenus in hairy bodysuit (and without mask) is gesticulating and jumping in front of her¹⁸London, British Museum, inv. 1873,0820.345, from Capua, 350 BC; Simon, “Silenoi”, no. 107 a.[2] (fig. 5). These two vases of the 4^th century BC bear witness to the influence of theatre on the work of painters.

Acting the satyr in a hairy bodysuit in Asia Minor…

The link with theatre was all the stronger because in Asia Minor, a very specific Dionysus was worshipped, notably in Pergamon and Ephesus: Dionysus Kathegemon, an ancestral god of the Attalid dynasty. God of theatre, he would gather his worshippers – the mysts – organized in brotherhoods. Two inscriptions mention mysts “in hairy outfit”¹⁹Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos, II, p. 240-242 no. 142 (Ephesus, reign of Commodus, late 2^nd century AD) and 143.; an honorary relief even shows a dancing man holding the thyrsus and wearing this hairy bodysuit, very close to our Silenus²⁰Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos, II, p. 203-204, no. 113 (2^nd century AD). (fig. 6). These costumes were thus also used in brotherhoods of initiates to dress up as Silenoi and play his part in their worship of Dionysus.

In the present case, we are probably dealing with Silenus, but seen through the lens of theatre: this Silenus was the one found in Cyclops. An appearance which was meant to provoke mirth…

Dr Isabelle Tassignon
Curator of the Archaeology Collection
Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, March 2020

Translation Dr Pierre Meyrat