Engraved Ring with Dancing Maenad (Main View, front)

With her head thrown back in ecstasy, a maenad or female follower of Dionysos, the Greek god of wine, dances on the engraved bezel of this gold ring. The maenad's left arm is thrown back over her head, and her right holds a thyrsos. Dancing maenads with swirling drapery were a popular motif on rings in the 300s B.C. This popularity is also found in other media and may reflect the influence of a well-known statue of a dancing maenad by the sculptor Skopas.

An artist carved the elaborate motif by hand into the soft gold of the bezel, creating a very detailed image. The leaf-shaped bezel was the most common form for rings in the late Classical period.