Ancient Museum Store

The Louvre Museum, Paris. 18th century This Neo-classic sculpture represents the "Lenea" or festival of the wine-pressing which is an Athenian fertility celebration in honor of Dionysos (also known as Bacchus in Rome), the Dionysian mysteries being one of the main components of the old Greek religion. As the wine was sacred to Dionysos, the grapes became one of his main attributes and symbols. The followers of Dionysos likened the plucking, crushing and pressing of the grape to form a pleasing nectar to the progress of the soul, which is formed whole and then crushed and pressed into shape by the trials of its earthly adventures, eventually to re-emerge as a refined and useful intelligence. This analogy was seen in the life of Dionysos himself, whose purification by way of madness and suffering finally gained him admittance to Olympus.