ASSOCIATED OBJECTS

Balsamarium with satyr and maenad

Etruscan

3rd century BCE

LFRD 3029

Commonly found in Etruscan tombs dating from the 3rd Century BCE, these hollow bronze vases normally contained incense or perfumed oil. The satyr and maenad represented on this balsamarium were male and female followers of the wine god Dionysus. The Janus headed figure is suggestive of Freud’s theory of human psychical bi-sexuality and the composite figures that often appear in dreams.