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Facing Dionysus at Silenus' Banquet in Tokharistan: A Possible Echo of a Greco-Roman Mystic Circle on a Fourth-Fifth Century "Bactrian" Silver Bowl in The al-Sabah Collection (LNS 1560M)

Authors
  • Dan, Anca
  • Grenet, Frantz
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2024
Source
HAL-INRIA
Keywords
Language
English
License
Unknown
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Abstract

The “Bactrian” bowl with reliefs in punch-marked frames, preserved in the al-Sabah collection (LNS1560 M) was made in Tokharistan, under Chionite or Kidarite rulers (4 th -5 th century). The major figure,Silenus assimilated to the Indian Kubera, is reclining on a wineskin and exposing his genitals whiledrinking from an animal-headed rhyton. Around him, there are eight medallions with three-quarterbusts and profile heads surrounded by rows of sunken beads: the young Dionysos (with featuresrecalling Alexander the Great) is repeated four times, facing four idealized young or middle-agedwarlords, three of whom wear Satyr masks on the back of their helmets. In our opinion, this bowl isthe first known echo of the Dionysiac mysteries of Roman imperial times in the East. It also atteststhe transmission of the 3 rd -century Roman and Sasanian model of vases decorated with medallionstowards Khotan and China, where one still finds ceramic jars with “pearl roundel design” in the 7 th -8 thcenturies AD.

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