Archaeology & Antiquities
Dancing Satyr
SculptureCeramicsMythology & Allegory
Details
- Author / creator
- Greece, Boeotia
- Object type
- Sculpture
- Date or period
- 500–475 BCE
- Dimensions summary
- Overall: 9.5 × 8 × 5.5 cm
- Site or findspot
- Attica, Greece
- Cultural period
- Ancient
- Place of origin
- Greece
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the V&A Purchase Grant Fund, 1992
About this object
Part man and part beast, satyrs were mythical woodland creatures. In art, they were depicted with the ears and tail of a goat or horse, sometimes with hooves, and in a high state of sexual arousal. Satyrs often accompanied Dionysus, the god of wine, in his drinking bouts and other escapades. These three probably once decorated the rim of a large punch-bowl–shaped vessel for serving wine.
Materials and technique
Painted terracotta
