Richard DaddBacchanalian Scene 1862

On the basis of the satyr in the lower right corner, this picture has been identified as a scene of Bacchic revelry. Satyrs were the goat-like followers of Bacchus, the god of wine, and were accompanied by frenzied female devotees known as Maenads. The goblet from which the satyr drinks is inscribed with Latin verse which does not quite make sense. It translates as ‘Each man then has his own unlucky fate both here and beyond – like must be added to like and one’s due paid to the appointed spirit’.