The aim of this paper is to reconsider and to put in its context the iconographic scheme
with the meeting between Dionysus and Ariadne. The point of departure is an Attic
black-figure amphora kept in Trieste’s Civici Musei di Storia ed Arte, which has been
attributed to the Antimenes Painter (530-510 BC). In the following, we will discuss
the beginning of this scheme by the theories of Cornelia Isler-Kerényi, which in several
papers points out the Cycladic origin of the depiction with Dionysus and Ariadne. In
greater detail, the scholar believes that there is a close connection between the scheme
depicted in the Attic black-figure and a discussed Cycladic production, the Melian pottery.
The critical review of this thesis raises interesting questions about the beginning and the development of this iconographic scheme, which are going to enjoy great fortune
for all the VI century BC.
