Dionysus and his followers

Dating to between 230 and 240 CE, this superb mosaic was uncovered on the site of a large villa in the Roman city of Virunum at the end of the nineteenth century. With a surface area of nearly 30 m², it took up almost the whole floor of the so-called Mosaic Room.

Framed by ornamental geometric elements and four Medusa heads at the corners, the centre contains strutting peacocks, maenads and satyrs in the procession following the youthful Dionysus with his cloak slung over his shoulder and holding the thyrsus staff. In this guise the god of wine and transformation was venerated at Noricum as a bearer of joy and hope, as he was in other regions of the Roman Empire.