In the Los Angeles County Art Museum a man dies. He winds his way down into the underworld to reach the banks of the river Acheron where he meets the ferryman Charon. He takes a coin from his mouth to pay the toll across. On the opposite bank he is greeted by a Maenad or perhaps Bacchus himself who offers him a kylix of wine. Drinking deep, the man is transformed and resurrected from death to a higher plane. Instead of living a miserable dream in the underworld he receives redemption from his god Dionysos, the Savior. In Roman imperial...
cult it is especially important in that before the Romans became more open to the emerging prevalence of the cults of the second century little is known of their funerary practices due to the cloak of secrecy surrounding the mystery cult. In fact, the cultists were persecuted by the Roman state religion prior to the acceptance of the rediscovered cults by the aristocratic class as evidenced by increasing number of such sarcophagiLehman, 24,26 In using such sarcophagi containing the portrayal of their faith and creeds, the followers of the cult were assuring themselves divine protection and a faith-ordained afterlife.