Fragment of a marble relief with dancing maenads

Fragment of a marble relief with dancing maenads


 Adaptation of work attributed to Kallimachos


Period: Imperial

Date: 1st–2nd century A.D.

Culture: Roman

Medium: Marble, Pentelic

Dimensions: H. 7 in. (17.8 cm.); width 17 1/4 in. (43.8); depth 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm)

Classification: Stone Sculpture

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1921

Accession Number: 21.88.12

Adaptation of a Greek relief of about 425–400 B.C. attributed to Kallimachos

In myth and art the wine god, Dionysos, is accompanied by dancing women known as maenads. The most famous description of them comes from The Bacchae, a play by Euripides produced in Athens in the late fifth century B.C. The most famous representations are from a relief of dancing maenads carved at the same time. This small relief is a reduced copy dating from the Roman period

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