A Fragmentary Wall Painting in Herod’s Theatre at Herodion: The Drinking Contest between Dionysos and Herakles

The fragmentary wall painting in question, found loose in the debris in the theatre’s royal room at Herodion, depicts two male figures. It was painted between 15 and 10 BCE, at the time of the theatre’s construction. The excavators believe that it belongs to one of the pinakes (“windows”) of the wall paintings, found in the royal room. Its high artistic quality indicates that the artist must in all probability have been trained in one of the main centres of Hellenistic art, as for example Alexandria. It seems that the depiction presents a banquet (symposium).

The key of its interpretation and significance lies most probably on a mythological narrative that is to be found (or can be found) in later visual works of art: the drinking contest between Dionysos and Herakles. If the suggested reconstruction of the scene is correct, although only half of it exists (or part of it exists) while the other with the drunken Herakles is missing, it can be said that the present drinking contest is the earliest known visual artistic example to date.