Abstract

The relief cycle, excavated in 1997 in the theatre at the ancient Macedonian city Philippi, was produced during the Roman reconstruction of the theatre between 150 and 170 CE. It is presented on eight pylons, and its plot is attributed to the Bacchae of Euripides. One of the fve surviving fgures is identifed as the Tracian king Lycurgus, who is represented as a hunter, and four others as maenads. Te analysis of the composition and the choice of characters allow us to make an assumption that this cycle stems from a diferent storyline, namely, Aeschylus’ “Tetralogy of Dionysus”. Te iconography of the maenad that is placed on the third pylon, runs counter to the interpretation of the myth of Lycurgus and Roman (and classical) depiction formula. Tis female image serves as a semantic center of the composition and becomes a key one in the reconstruction of the cycle’s plot. Te sword and severed head in her hands indicate the paramilitary shades of the cult of Dionysus in the Roman Empire. Te iconography of the fgure has parallels with the images of the Amazons, who become new companions of Dionysus and even part of his army. Te image of the severed head, on the one hand, refers to the theme of barbarian military rite that was included in the repertoire of Roman art, and on the other hand, it might be associated with a sacred aristocratic rite adopted in Trace and related to Orphic ideas. Finally, the triumphal motives in the iconography of the fgure, its obvious link to the cult of Dionysus and the narrative’s modelling afer the Athenian drama of the ffh century BCE presumably indicate the combination of several plots in one cycle. Tus, if the general composition of the relief cycle in the theatre at Philippi reveals continuity in relation to the classical era, the female image from the third pylon is intended to indicate a new - Roman - view of theatrical drama and the cult of Dionysus.

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