Arula

Greek, Sicilian or South Italian. Mold-made relief. Yellow-gray calcium carbonate deposit obscures surface. Much of top and bottom profiles broken. No trace of fire or other sacrifical use on top. This rectangular "arula", or small altar, has concave sides and simple projecting profiles at top and bottom. On the top left profile are two squares of meander pattern. The front shows, under an arching vine, a silen walking to the right, looking back, with a tall-handled kantharos in his extended right hand and a branch in his left. He is followed by a horse carrying a maenad and a small silen or satyr. His right foot is human, his left equine or incomplete. The maenad, dressed in an overgirt "chiton" rather than the customary tight "peplos," seems to drop the reins from her raised left hand as she glides off the horse. Her bent right arm is intertwined with the left arm of a small satyr, who clutches the tail of the horse with his right hand. He has a short, erect penis. The horse, with arching neck, paws the ground as a cheetah passes under his nose, chasing a hare that looks back over its shoulder.