On the side B, maenads dance in Dionysian ecstasy. The woman on the right—who has thrown off her clothes—begins to collapse with fatigue into the lap of a seated maenad. The highly significant nudity indicates the altered consciousness also expressed by the gestures of the raised arms as the women touch the backs of their heads. To the left stands a Silenus, tense and erect, his glance emphatically focused. He balances a hunting stick at the small of his back lightly between the fingers of his right hand, and gestures with his left hand towards the dancers. The image of a Silenus or satyr so intensely involved in the maenads’ mania is highly unusual. He is both a participant, and an envoy of Dionysos, instilling the spell that moves the women to excess.

Source: inha.revues.org/3976

The Derveni krater is a volute krater, the most elaborate of its type, discovered in 1962 in a tomb at Derveni, not far from Thessaloniki, and displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Weighing 40 kg, it is made of an alloy of bronze and tin in skillfully chosen amounts, which endows it with a superb golden sheen without use of any gold at all.

The krater was discovered buried, as a funerary urn for a Thessalian aristocrat whose name is engraved on the vase: Astiouneios, son of Anaxagoras, from Larissa. Kraters (mixing bowls) were vessels used for mixing undiluted wine with water and probably various spices as well, the drink then being ladled out to fellow banqueters at ritual or festive celebrations. When excavated, the Derveni krater contained 1968.31 g of burnt bones that belonged to a man aged 35–50 and to a younger woman.

The vase is composed of two leaves of metal which were hammered then joined, although the handles and the volutes (scrolls) were cast and attached. The top part of the krater is decorated with motifs both ornamental (gadroons, palm leaves, acanthus, garlands) and figurative: the top of the neck presents a frieze of animals and most of all, four statuettes ( two maenads, Dionysus and a sleeping satyre) are casually seated on the shoulders of the vase, in a pose foreshadowing that of the Barberini Faun. On the belly, the frieze in low relief, 32.6 cm tall, is devoted to the divinities Ariadne and Dionysus, surrounded by revelling satyrs and maenads of the Bacchic thiasos, or ecstatic retinue. There is also a warrior wearing only one sandal, whose identity is disputed: Pentheus, Lycurgus of Thrace, or perhaps the "one-sandalled" Jason of Argonaut fame.

The exact date and place of making are disputed. Based on the dialectal forms used in the inscription, some commentators think it was fabricated in Thessaly at the time of the revolt of the Aleuadae, around 350 BC. Others date it between 330 and 320 BC and credit it to bronzesmiths of the royal court of Philip II of Macedon.

The funerary inscription on the krater reads: ΑΣΤΙΟΥΝΕΙΟΣ ΑΝΑΞΑΓΟΡΑΙΟΙ ΕΣ ΛΑΡΙΣΑΣ