Moreover on vase-paintings substantially earlier than the Parthenon marbles the scene of his entry into Olympus is not infrequent. As we have no literary tradition of this entry, the evidence of vase-paintings is here of some importance. The design selected (fig. 114) is from a cylix signed by the potter Euxitheos[930] and can be securely dated as a work executed about the turn of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. On the obverse is an assembly of the Olympians all inscribed; Zeus himself with his thunderbolt and Ganymede about to fill his wine cup, Athene holding helmet and lance, Hermes with a flower, Hebe, Hestia with flower and a branch, Aphrodite with dove and flower, Ares with helmet and lance. We might not have named them right but for their inscriptions. Hera and Poseidon are absent, Demeter not yet come. At this time the vase-painter is still free to make a certain choice, the twelve Olympians are not yet canonical. On the obverse the gods are seated waiting, and on the reverse the new god is coming in all his splendour in his chariot with vine and wine-cup in his hand. With him, characteristically, for he is never unaccompanied, come the Satyr Terpes playing on the lyre and the Maenad Thero with thyrsos and fawn and snake, and behind the chariot another Maenad Kalis with thyrsos and lion and a Satyr Terpon playing on the flute. At the close of the sixth century when Pratinas and Choirilos and Phrynichus were writing tragedies in his honour, the gates of that exclusive epic Olympus could no longer be closed against the people’s god, and the potter knew it. But there had been a time of doubt and debate. We do not have these entries of Athene or Poseidon or even Hermes. * * * * * Homer is of course our first literary source and his main notice of Dionysos is so characteristic it must be quoted in full. The fact that the passage stands alone—elsewhere through all Homer Dionysos is of no real account—has led critics to suspect that it is of later and local origin. Be that as it may, the story glistens like an alien jewel in a bedrock of monotonous fighting. Diomede[931] meets Glaucus in battle, but so great is the hardihood of Glaucus that Diomede fears he is one of the immortals and makes pious, prudent pause: ‘I, Diomedes, will not stand ’gainst heavenly Gods in war. Not long in life was he of old who raised ’gainst gods his hand Strong Lycoörgos, Dryas’ son. Through Nysa’s goodly land He Dionysos’ Nursing Nymphs did chase, till down in fear They cast their wands upon the ground, so sore he smote them there, That fell king with the ox-smiter. But Dionysos fled, And plunged him ’neath the salt sea wave. Him sore discomfited Fair Thetis to her bosom took. Great fear the god did seize. With Lycoörgos they were wroth, those gods that dwell at ease, And Kronos’ son did make him blind, and he was not for long, The immortal gods they hated him because he did them wrong.’