Pots & Vessels
Today, we can derive valuable info from every form of ancient art, since on many vessels, pots, coins, even statues saved, there are many details that remain intact and tell us much about this Dionysian ritual, so that they can allow us to reformulate the event as a whole.
Moreover, folkloric research reveals many surviving parts of these ancient rituals in today’s cultural events, since Hellenic tradition throughout the country has saved many of these valuable ritual particles almost intact.
Black figure pottery (approx. 550 b.C. National Archaeologic Museum of Florence, No. 387)
Depicts a phallic procession with 8 men which carry the Phallephoria procession chariot. The chariot consists of one huge wooden phallus in the shape of a plow ending up in a glans, on which an eye is painted. A huge bearded Satyr leans on the phallus, while a man seems to ride the chariot holding a white musical instrument (horn). The traditional phallus chariot was made of wild fig tree wood, which was already known as a symbol of god Dionysus, or a male symbol. Always in a Dionysian procession a phallus was leading the way.
