Sunday 20 June 2021

ProjectBACCHAE - adding some character(s)


Following on from his leopards comes Dionysos himself, accompanied by his wee mate Eros. These two will serve as the army mage-lord and rogue respectively. 

Dionysos is, far and away, the single most expensive model I have ever bought. Lets not talk about actual real-world moneys (after all, my wife might read this one day...), but suffice to say he is a custom designed miniature from Heroforge. 

There are only two off-the-shelf Dionysioi that I know of, from Foundry and from Wargods of Olympus. Both (in my opinion) overplay the drunkenness - one is more-or-less naked with bunch of grapes and a patera, and the other is ... very robust - a modern take on the god - holding a goblet. I wanted a much more understated, youthful and lithe figure holding a thyrsos; a god of exstasis (ecstasy, or being out of mind) and fertility.

After several visits to Heroforge, I umm'd and ahhh'd for a couple of weeks before placing the order, but here is the result. The stubby horns serve a couple of purposes - they are a clear divinising attribute, they tie in with Dionysos' bullish nature as a god of fertility, the horned attributes of the Orphic Dionysos, and reflect the stubby bull horns adorning the heads of several Hellenistic kings who may be referencing Dionysos on their coin portraits. As the army mage-lord, he will certainly be casting the confusion spell with gay abandon!


Another god of exstasis, Eros frequently appears in the company of Dionysos in ancient art - sometimes as an individual, and sometimes in plural, as erotes. I figure that Eros is more a rogue than a captain, and will be used to strike down enemy characters. If I have the points, I'll give him the 'winged boots of alacrity' to let him zoom around the battlefield. The figure is from a pack of 6 cherubs from Warmonger Miniatures - the other cherubs will be erotes charioteers if all goes according to plan. The wee amphora is from Castaway Arts.

9 comments:

  1. Excellent work Nic and I like your explanation of your ideas too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey! Never belittle near nakedness with a bunch of grapes. Some of us in our later years prefer a Dionysus who reflects us. We make ourselves in our God’s image. Great work on your youthful and lithe look. 😀

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaha, I'm not exactly made in the image of the youthful, lithe Dionysos myself!

      Delete
  3. Nice :) I see on Google that D is supposed to have conquered the whole world except for Ethiopia and Britain. That’d make an interesting enemy army.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I'm hoping this will be a sort of grounded-in-myth-but-still-timeless army that I can happily use against any opponent without being worried whether the hats are the right shape for the period. :)

      Delete
  4. They are lovely, that's a superb paint job on Dionysos, you sir, are an artist as well as a scholar!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Excellent work and it is very interesting to read of the process you went through.

    ReplyDelete