The Dancing Satyr, 1st-2nd century AD,
Marble
Height: 27 cm (10⅝ in.)
The naked youthful satyr twists his torso in the ecstatic fervour of a Dionysiac or Bacchic dance. The swirling abandoned movement of the wild dance has been skilfully captured as a moment in marble by the sculptor, with the satyr rotating on his left leg and with the exaggerated torsion of the torso with its backward curving spine. Both arms were swung out and the satyr’s left shoulder is clearly upraised with his left hand likely once holding a thyrsos, a staff topped by a pinecone which symbolised fertility. His right hand may have held a kantharos or wine cup. The satyr’s head would have been flung back in the frenzied movements of the drunken dance.
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