Thiasus

In Greek mythology[1] and religion, the thiasus (Greek thiasos), was the
ecstatic retinue of Dionysus, often pictured as inebriated revelers. Many of the
myths of Dionysus are connected with his arrival in the form of a procession.
The grandest such version was his triumphant return from "India", which
influenced symbolic conceptions of the Roman triumph and was narrated in
rapturous detail in Nonnus' Dionysiaca. In this procession, Dionysus rides a
chariot, often drawn by big cats such as tigers, leopards, or lions.

The thiasos of the sea god Poseidon is depicted as a triumphal wedding

procession with Amphitrite, attended by figures such as sea nymphs and Dionysus and members of histhiasos on
hippocamps. an Attic black-figure krater-psykter (525–
500 BCE, Louvre Museum)
In historical Greek society, thiasoi (plural) were religious organizations whose
existence was protected by law.[2]

Dionysian thiasos
The most significant members of the thiasus were the human female devotees, the maenads, who gradually replaced immortal
nymphs. In Greek vase-paintings or bas-reliefs, lone female figures can be recognized as belonging to the thiasus by their brandishing
the thyrsos, the distinctive staff or rod of the devotee.

Triumph of Dionysus on a fragmentary
Roman mosaic (3rd century, Sousse
Archaeological Museum)
Roman art, especially bas-reliefs and sarcophagus panels.
Other regulars of the retinue were various nature spirits, including the sileni
(or human dancers costumed as such), phalluses much in evidence, satyrs, and
Pan. The ithyphallic sileni are often shown dancing on vase paintings.[3] The
tutor of Dionysus is represented by a single aged Silenus. The retinue is
sometimes shown being brought before a seated recipient: the tragic human
welcomer of the gift of wine, Ikarios or Semachos, and his daughter,
Erigone.[4] In the triumphal form of procession, Ariadne sometimes rides with
Dionysus as his consort. Heracles followed the thiasus for a short while
following his loss of a drinking contest to Dionysus.
On the 6th-century BC François Vase, Dionysus is accompanied in procession
by the three Horae.[5] Other notable depictions in art include the silver "Great
Dish" from the Mildenhall Treasure, the Lycurgus Cup, and in the Renaissance
Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne. The Dionysian retinue was a popular subject for

Thiasos of the sea

The marine or sea thiasos depicted Poseidon and his retinue. An original work of Skopas on this theme was taken to Rome and
lost,[6] but the scene is well represented in Roman art, from tiny decorative reliefs and large sarcophagus panels to extensive mosaics.

Notes
1. Karl Kerenyi, Dionysos: Archetypal image of indestructible life1976:123, observes that "the ecstatic band of
bacchantes and agitated male nature gods in a state of heightenedzoë ... is not reflected in Minoan art."
 2. For example the thiasos in Athens examined by Marcus N. T od, "A
Statute of an Attic Thiasos",The Annual of the British School at Athens
13 (1906/07):328-338).
3. Karl Kerenyi (Dionysos: Archetypal image of indestructible life1976),
selects as an example a 6th-century vase, figs 39/A and B.
4. See Kerenyi 1976, ch. iv. "The Myths of Arrival".
5. Detail illustrated in Kerenyi 1976 fig. 37.
Sea thiasos depicting the wedding of
6. Stephen Lattimore, The Marine Thiasos in Greek Sculpture, (University Poseidon and Amphitrite, from the
of California), 1976; extended review by A. F
. Stewart in American Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbusin the
Journal of Archaeology82.2 (Spring 1978:261-262). Field of Mars, bas-relief, Roman
Republic, 2nd century BC

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