Activating Dionysos: Animation, Decoration, and Experience through Fourth Century B.C.E. Silver Calyx Cups (15 min)

Presenters

Ellen Archie, Emory University

Abstract

Amid the rich array of sympotic vessels found in Macedonian tombs of the fourth and third century B.C.E., sliver calyx cups with interior omphalos bust medallions offer particular insight into the way decoration creates experience, entwining not only person and object, but also person and surrounding social space. I argue that ornamental and iconographic decoration, along with the calyx cups’ form, all work together to generate certain interactions, movements, and experiences among the people using the objects. The vessels’ round body and lack of base, cinched neck, and flaring rim encouraged and even necessitated that they be animated by the person holding them. The guilloche band around the shoulder and a rosette spreading out around the base of the cup visually and tactically inform a certain interplay between the beholder and the object they held. Moreover, the exterior ornamental decoration is paired with iconographic decoration on the interior, where most often, busts of Dionysos and his retinue burst out of omphalos medallions. This figure slowly becomes apparent to the drinker as he or she downs the wine in the cup, simultaneously feeling the god’s presence through both intoxicating drink and social interactions within the shared space of the symposium. Dionysos and his retinue are appropriate decoration for these vessels not only because of the god’s connection to wine but more broadly because of his patronage of personal feeling paired with collective experience. Just as the drinker animates the cup, the cup also animates the person, creating specific interactions. When placed as grave goods within the tomb, these cups offer a tangible link to the deceased’s lived experiences and to the societal connections they forged in life among this decoration and these objects.