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The cult of Dionysus, the god of wine, appears to have existed over three thousand years ago on the Island of Crete in the Aegean Sea. Wine, above all else, was the gift of the gods. Perhaps through intoxication, the people of Crete tried to become one with the nurturing gods of nature. |
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Dionysus, or Bacchus, was not only the god of wine but of fertility. He was also a savior who guided souls to Elysium, the land of eternal bliss. The deer represented rejuvenation and rebirth in spring and was offered as a sacrifice in secret Bacchanalian rituals. The expression of the stag, on the left, with its legs aligned and stretched out, cannot be seen among Persian-style rhyta. It perhaps symbolized the spoils of hunting. |
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| Among the sacred animals of Dionysus—the lion, the leopard, the bull, the donkey, and the deer—was the lynx. Rhyta in the shape of the upper half of wild cats, in particular, appear to have been important vessels used in secret Bacchanalian rituals. Caracal cat-shaped rhyta came to be made in West Asia, which was influenced during the Parthian dynasty. | |
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From the time of Alexander’s (356 B.C.-323 B.C.) eastward advance on, many Greeks migrated to Central Asia and introduced their culture to this area. By the third century B.C., the Bactrian kingdom, which received Greek kings, became independent. In time, the Bactrians embraced the ideal of the Greek paradise Elysium, which eventually influenced Central Asian Buddhist images of paradise. The Greek sea monster ketos came to be adopted as a creature that led souls to the paradise in the early Buddhism of Central Asia. |
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Rhyta – Beautiful vessels that lead souls to paradise Listen to their tales... | |
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