Cleveland Museum of Art

Dancing Satyr Group

Date

500–475 BCE

Medium

painted terracotta

Culture

Greece, Boeotia

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Part man and part beast, satyrs were mythical woodland creatures. In art, they were depicted with the ears and tail of a goat or horse, sometimes with hooves, and in a high state of sexual arousal. Satyrs often accompanied Dionysus, the god of wine, in his drinking bouts and other escapades. These three probably once decorated the rim of a large punch-bowl-shaped vessel for serving wine. Satyrs, or lustful, drunken woodland gods, are the biggest partiers in ancient Greek mythology.

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