Dionysus and Ariadne preside over the scene. Before them is a kneeling, veiled woman who is removing a covering from the sacred basket (a liknon, discussed below). Close to the basket stands a demonic female figure who wears a short cloth around her loins and high boots. She has powerful dark wings and holds in her right hand a staff with which she is ready to strike blows. Some suggest that she represents Diki (goddess of justice) or a personification of punishments in the underworld. The blows are aimed at a woman on the south wall whose back is bared and who kneels with her head in the lap of a seated woman who makes a protecting gesture toward the demon of punishment. After the terror of punishment comes the joyous abandon of celebration. Almost completely naked, the woman swirls in a dance and clashes cymbals above her head. She is the same woman who was whipped, for the scarf that waves around as she dances is the same scarf under her arms in the flagellation scene. She represents now the joyful aspect of the afterlife. In the background is another woman (priestess?) in a dark dress holding a thyrsus. There are several recurrent features of Dionysiac art, many of which occur in the Villa Item frescoes. Most important is the liknon (Lat., vannus), the sacred wicker basket (cista mystica). Originally an agricultural implement, it was adopted in the new Dionysiac mysteries. Looking into the sacred basket apparently was a central part of the initiation ceremony, but some of the representations show the basket placed on the head of the initiate. The liknon, covered with a cloth, was filled with fruit and a phallus. The latter was carried in Dionysiac processions and was a frequent Dionysiac symbol. In an agricultural setting it had been a symbol of fertility, but in the mysteries apparently was a symbol of life.giving power. Other frequently recurring symbols of the Dionysiac cult were dancing maenads, the thyrsus, masks, and satyrs.all from the old orgiastic background.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 06:51:11 +0000
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