Three Maenads, followers of Dionysos, are shown dancing in an ecstasy associated with the rituals of the god of wine and strong emotions. Maenads not only danced and sang but also indulged in omophagia, the eating of the raw flesh of wild animals. The Maenads, or Bacchae as the Romans called them, are shown here with elaborately swirling clothes and dismembered animals.
This relief is placed inside an architectural frame, such as was more commonly found on votive reliefs and grave memorials. Some traces of colour remain on the original
Florence, Uffizi 163
Purchased in 1884 from the Paris Beaux Arts
Hauser: Die Neu Attischen Reliefs (1889), 13, no.9
Amelung: Führer durch die Antike in Florenz (1896), 104, no.163
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 92, no.496
Touchette: Dancing Maenad Reliefs, 73, no.21, pl. 18a
Unknown