Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

A 141 A
Dionysos; Athens Lysikrates Monument

Marble (Pentelic)
Frieze
H 25.4 cm
Greece, Athens, in situ
After 335/34 BC; Late Classical.

Preservation:
The surface of the relief is heavily weathered. The features of both figures are badly worn, a section of the bottom frame on the left has broken off.

Description:
The scene depicts a male human figure in three-quarter profile from the left reclining on a rock. To the left are traces of an animal with its head raised. It is seen in the right profile and turned towards the reclining figure. Both arms of the man are bent in the elbow; the lower right arm is slightly raised and touching the animal’s head, the left led horizontally over the body holding a drinking cup. Traces of drapery are visible on the rock below the left elbow.

Discussion:
The Lysikrates Monument was built to commemorate a choregic victory in 335/334 BC. The dedicant, Lysikrates Son of Lysitheides, had sponsored a boys’ choir of the Athenian tribe Akmantis that had won a competition at the festival of the Great Dionysia of that year. Lysikrates had received the traditional prize of a large bronze tripod and built this elaborate edifice to show it off to best effect. The monument itself is a small round shrine on a square base, with six Corinthian columns supporting an architrave, a sculptured frieze, and an ornate roof that originally was crowned by the tripod. It stood on the west side of the so-called Street of Tripods, just off the eastern slope of the Acropolis, where the foundations of several other monuments of similar function have been found. The frieze is carved from a monolithic block of Pentelic marble. It depicts Dionysos’ transfor-mation of the Tyrrhenian Pirates into dolphins; the god is supported by satyrs. This could be, as some scholars have suggested, an allusion to the actual topic of the dithyrambos performed by the choir. It might also be connected to a military expedition of the Athenian fleet against Dalmatian pirates in the very same year, just before the Great Dionysia. This could partly account for the differences between the scenes on the frieze and the actual myth itself (the myth does not mention satyrs at all; on the frieze, however, they are very prominent, fighting and tying up pirates). Because of the absolute date attached to it, the frieze of the Lysikrates Monument provides an important insight into the development of Greek relief sculpture during the fourth century BC. It shows a much wider spacing of the individual figures with an increasing prominence of the relief ground, pyramidal compositions and the organization of figures through symmetrical body axes that can also be found on other contemporary reliefs (cf. for example the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos [A 139-140]). The frieze is divided into two strands emanating from a central scene that depicts Dionysos accompanied by several satyrs in between two large kraters; this scene is placed over the dedicatory inscription on the eastern front of the building, above the open intercolumnium that would have allowed people on the street to view the statue inside the building. From there two sets of battle scenes unfold on both sides and converge over the western axis of the monument. This section of the frieze shows a nude Dionysos reclining on a rock over which his garment is draped. To his left is a panther, an animal emblematically connected to the god, which he strokes with his right hand. The pose is strikingly similar to the Dionysos from the west pediment of the Parthenon (A 91).

Bibliography:
H. F. de Cou, "The Frieze of the Choregic Monument of Lysicrates at Athens." (AJA 8 1893) 42-55 Discusses earlier studies and drawings of the monument and the composition of the frieze. iscusses earlier studies and drawings of the monument and the composition of the frieze.
W. Erhardt, "Der Fries des Lysikratesmonuments" (Antike Plastik 22 1993) 7-67 The most thorough discussion of the frieze so far. Excellent photographs of the original frieze, as well as documentation of early drawings and casts documenting a much better state of preservation. Extensive bibliography.