Manuel ÁLVAREZ JUNCO

Original title: El mundo de Dioniso. Visiones de los cuerpos en diversión en la Grecia Clásica

Published in Rhythms, expressions and representations of the body

Keywords: Dionysus, Festivities, Satyrs, Symposiums, Visual insight.

The figure of the mythical Greek god Dionysus presided over the most playful aspects of classical Hellenic society, whether they were parties, banquets, comedies, or celebrations in general. The visualizations of the scenes of the divinity of wine and orgy, accompanied by his crazy cohort of satyrs and maenads, show the burlesque, critical and comic sense of a culture that laid the foundations of the West. Something as contemporary as today’s graphic humor finds images of its remote origins through the splendid figurative ceramics of the classical Greek period dedicated to this god. This article shows and analyzes some examples of that visual world where the festive, the comic and the conceptually ingenious provide the unveiling of the transgressive universe of Greek society.