Statue of Dionysos

Lybia, Roman, 2nd century AD
Cyrene, Temple of Dionysos
Large-grained, white marble
H171 cm
GR 1861.7-25.2 (BM Cat Sculpture 1476)

This beautiful statue was discovered in Cyrene, a Greek colony on the Mediterranean shore of modern Libya that continued to thrive under the Roman Empire. It depicts Dionysos, the god of wine, who can be recognised by his characteristic attributes, an ivy wreath and a bunch of grapes.

His head is turned to the right and long strands of hair fall over his shoulders. The god wears sandals and a long himation (mantle) that is draped over his left shoulder and back and then forward and over his raised left arm, but leaves his soft yet muscular torso and genitals exposed. The deep folds of the himation are carved in fine detail. The back of the statue, though worked, appears flat, indicating that it was meant to stand in a niche or against a wall. It must have been made by skilled sculptors of the second century AD after an earlier Greek work of the third century BC.

Like almost all ancient sculpture, the statue was originally at least partly painted; traces of red colour are preserved in the eyes and the wreath. In antiquity the body itself would have been left untouched except for small details like the nipples, so that the soft, skin-coloured surface of the marble would have contrasted beautifully with the painted drapery.

With the statue were found a statue of a panther with a collar of vine leaves, which usually accompanies the god, and a pedestal, on which the statue is thought to have stood. The building in which it was discovered has been identified as the Temple of Dionysos.