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) - Archive ouverte HAL
Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2024

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)

Résumé

The “Bactrian” bowl with reliefs in punch-marked frames, preserved in the al-Sabah collection (LNS 1560 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 while drinking from an animal-headed rhyton. Around him, there are eight medallions with three-quarter busts and profile heads surrounded by rows of sunken beads: the young Dionysos (with features recalling Alexander the Great) is repeated four times, facing four idealized young or middle-aged warlords, three of whom wear Satyr masks on the back of their helmets. In our opinion, this bowl is the first known echo of the Dionysiac mysteries of Roman imperial times in the East. It also attests the transmission of the 3 rd -century Roman and Sasanian model of vases decorated with medallions towards Khotan and China, where one still finds ceramic jars with “pearl roundel design” in the 7 th -8 th centuries AD.
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Dates et versions

hal-04673494 , version 1 (20-08-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04673494 , version 1

Citer

Anca Dan, Frantz Grenet. 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). Henry P. Colburn; Betty Hensellek; Judith A. Lerner. In Search of Cultural Identities in West and Central Asia. A Festschrift for Prudence Oliver Harper, Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology (3), Brepols, pp.247-273, 2024, Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology, 978-2-503-60438-1. ⟨hal-04673494⟩
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