Dionysus was twice-born and his rebirth was the reason why he was worshipped in mystery cults and became associated with death and salvation. This bell-krater associates a youthful, beardless Dionysus with the afterlife. Not originally a god of the dead, he came to be regarded as offering rebirth and salvation in Dionysiac cults practised in central Greece and south Italy.
A silen, another of Dionysus’ wild companions, humanlike and naked but with the ears and tail of a horse, offers the god an egg. This implies a happy afterlife for the person in whose grave the krater was placed.
