Maenad and Silenus roof antefixes

These two painted terracotta heads formed terminal pieces for a tiled temple roof. Such pieces are called antefixes. Set above the eaves, they produced a repeated decoration along the building’s edge. The broad patterned surrounds would have linked one face to the next. The subjects are a maenad, a female follower of Dionysus, and Silenus, an animal-featured companion of the wine god. The maenad wears a rosette diadem and large clustered earrings. Silenus has a beard, bared teeth and horse ears, with ivy across his forehead. Lotus flowers and palmettes fill the surrounds. The two types would have alternated, with a black background behind the maenad and red behind Silenus. Much of their original colour survives. These examples came from Cerveteri and date to the fourth century BC. Clay and paint gave the roof a sequence of recognisable religious figures, repeated as part of the temple’s tiled covering rather than displayed as separate statues.