Arts & Culture
“Ancient Splendor” brings Trajan’s artifacts to the US for the first time
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Weekend Editor Eric O. Scott reviews the new exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum, “Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan.”
The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/dionysus)
Weekend Editor Eric O. Scott reviews the new exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum, “Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan.”
Archaeologists have discovered a monumental frieze depicting worshipers of Dionysus in a newly excavated portion of Pompeii. The near-life-size paintings portray a procession of Dionysiac figures participating in an initiation ritual as part of the deity’s mystery cult.
“When I was a teenage zealot, I used to imagine what television might be like in a world that was primarily Pagan,” writes Meg Elison. “I’ll never see that world, but this year a small window opened on it. Over the last week, I got acquainted with two Netflix shows about the Pagan world as it might have been: KAOS and Twilight of the Gods.”
Perperikon, an ancient Thracian city in Bulgaria, reveals new discoveries, including Roman-era altars possibly dedicated to underworld gods. Excavations uncover connections to Dionysus worship, mystery cults, and possibly psychopomps and underworld deities.
Friday’s opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics was wild and sparked Christian outrage over a scene that had nothing to do with Christianity, but did have to do with Paganism and portrayals of deities.