The painted scenes atop a red background show maenads, the female followers of Dionysus, as dancers and hunters with slaughtered ... it was also designed to decorate a banqueting area and offer ...

An extremely rare cycle of paintings depicting a raucous ritual involving the god of wine has been unearthed in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, the archaeological site said Wednesday.

Known as a “megalography,” a Greek term for grand painting, the frescos unfurl a ... as well as a woman, flanked by Dionysus’s mentor Silenus and bearing a torch that marks her out as ...