Days of wine and vases: women and feasts in Attic red-figure pottery

Abstract

This contribution aims to propose an interpretative approach to the scenes represented in the group of red-figure stamnoi (V a. C.) that form part of the so called "Lenean vases" group.  The proposed reading takes into account the analyses and interpretations of the group of vases carried out since Frickenhaus' first work (1912), which established the study corpus and introduced the debated question of the identification of the scenes as representing the Athenian festival of the Lenaia. Leaving aside the debate on the specific identification of the festival in the figurative staging of a set of images of an undoubtedly Dionysian nature and identifiable civic tone, the interpretative proposal focuses on the protagonists of the scenes -the vases and the women-, on the relationship between the figurative elements and on the mode of representation and visual narration in an attempt to unravel a type of Dionysian scene framed in a specific class of vases with a specific target audience.