The top part of the krater is decorated with motifs both ornamental (gadroons, palm leaves, acanthus, garlands) and figurative: the top of the neck presents a frieze of animals and most of all, four statuettes ( two maenads, Dionysus and a sleeping satyre) are casually seated on the shoulders of the vase, in a pose foreshadowing that of the Barberini Faun.

The vase is composed of two leaves of metal which were hammered then joined, although the handles and the volutes (scrolls) were cast and attached. When excavated, the Derveni krater contained 1968.31 g of burnt bones that belonged to a man aged 35–50 and to a younger woman. Kraters (mixing bowls) were vessels used for mixing undiluted wine with water and probably various spices as well, the drink then being ladled out to fellow banqueters at ritual or festive celebrations. The krater was discovered buried, as a funerary urn for a Thessalian aristocrat whose name is engraved on the vase: Astiouneios, son of Anaxagoras, from Larissa. Weighing 40 kg, it is made of an alloy of bronze and tin in skillfully chosen amounts, which endows it with a superb golden sheen without use of any gold at all. The Derveni krater is a volute krater, the most elaborate of its type, discovered in 1962 in a tomb at Derveni, not far from Thessaloniki, and displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. His open mouth suggests he is shouting or crying out. In contrast to those of the maenads, the hunter’s face is expressive. The tenth figure in the Derveni krater frieze, under the handle opposite the deer-carrying maenads, is a bearded male figure dressed and armed as a hunter.

Description The Derveni krater, late 4th century B.C., Pentheus dressed as an armed hunter, Archaeological Museum, Thessaloniki, Greece (7457876666).jpg

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