Thiasus

The grandest such version was his triumphant return from "India", which influenced symbolic conceptions of the Roman triumph and was narrated in rapturous detail in Nonnus's Dionysiaca.

In Greek vase-paintings or bas-reliefs, lone female figures can be recognized as belonging to the thiasus by their brandishing the thyrsos, the distinctive staff or rod of the devotee.

The retinue is sometimes shown being brought before a seated recipient: the tragic human welcomer of the gift of wine, Ikarios or Semachos, and his daughter, Erigone.

[7] Other notable depictions in art include the silver "Great Dish" from the Mildenhall Treasure, the Lycurgus Cup, and in the Renaissance Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne.

[10][9] Still, the theme is well represented in surviving works of Roman art, from tiny decorative reliefs and large sarcophagus panels to extensive mosaics.

Dionysus and members of his thiasos on an Attic black-figure krater - psykter (525–500 BCE, Louvre Museum )
Triumph of Dionysus on a fragmentary Roman mosaic (3rd century CE, Sousse Archaeological Museum )
Sea thiasos depicting the wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite , from the Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus in the Field of Mars , bas-relief , Roman Republic , 2nd century BCE