The personages with whom we have to deal in this section are, besides Dionysos himself, his spouse Ariadne, Pan, with his “double” Aegipan, and the motley rout of Satyrs, Seileni, and Maenads, who appear either in the wine-god’s company or by themselves. Dionysos is generally accompanied by one or more Maenads or Seileni, whether engaged in some definite action, such as pouring wine or playing flutes, or no; but he is also not infrequently seen as a single figure.[621] On the earlier vases he is elderly and bearded, but on the later youthful and beardless. He is occasionally represented with horns,[622] or in the form of a man-headed bull.[623] He is depicted sacrificing at an altar,[624] pouring a libation,[625] or slaying a fawn[626] or goat χιμαιροφόνος[627]; banqueting,[628] or playing on the lyre.[629] He rides on a bull,[630] goat,[631] mule,[632] or panther,[633] or in a winged chariot[634]—in one case drawn by Gryphons, in another by a Gryphon, bull, and panther[635]—or in a chariot shaped like a ship[636]; or is carried by a Seilenos.[637] On a beautiful cup by Exekias[638] he sails over the ocean in a boat, the mast of which grows into a vine. We are reminded in this scene of the Homeric hymn (xix.) and the story of the Tyrrhenian pirates, a subject which, according to one interpretation, is represented on a vase at Athens.[639] His birth is not often represented, and chiefly on R.F. vases[640]; it has been referred to already in detail, in reference to Zeus. When handed over to Hermes,[641] the newly born infant is conveyed by that god to Nysa, where he is finally delivered to a Seilenos, to be nursed by the Nymphs of that place.[642] Or he is handed directly to a Nymph by Zeus,[643] or, by a curious error or confusion on the artist’s part, to Ariadne, his future bride.[644] There is a possible representation of the Indian Dionysos or Bassareus,[645] India being the land whence he was fabled to come; and other vases represent various events connected with his first manifestation of himself in Greece: such as the madness he brought on Lykourgos, who refused to receive him,[646] and his subsequent sacrifice after his triumph[647]; the death of the similarly contumelious Pentheus (the story on which the plot of the _Bacchae_ turns)[648]; or his supposed visit to the Athenian Ikarios.[649] He sometimes appears with his mother Semele, whom he brings back from Hades[650]; in one or two instances their heads are seen rising from the ground to indicate their return from the nether world.[651] They are then solemnly introduced into Olympos.[652]