Campanica | Monitoring Italy's Campania region around Naples

A MEGALOGRAPHY OF BACCHANTES AND SATYRS The frescos unfurl a Dionysian procession in life-sized proportions. In it are bacchantes— female followers of the god of hedonism—depicted as hunters and dancers; playful satyrs playing flutes and imbibing wine; as well as a woman, flanked by Silenus and bearing a torch that marks her out as an initiate. The ancient cult of Dionysus, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii noted, required initiates to undergo a ritual to be allowed entry. New Pompeii Excavations Yield a Lavish Frieze Depicting a Mysterious Ritual | artnet