Silenus as the disorderly old drunk
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 19). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Spread only
Date or witness: Representative surviving vessels: 4th–3rd centuries BCE; motif has a longer history
Region: Greek southern Italy and wider Mediterranean
Workbook date-sort bounds: 400 BCE to 200 BCE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
Silenus repeatedly appears as a dishevelled, large-bellied, drunken older satyr; the Met's flask turns the comic figure into the vessel itself.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
A recognizable mythic figure is repeatedly adapted to visual objects.
What remains uncertain
Recurring iconography alone does not identify grassroots circulation or its audiences.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria