Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Icarius.
The gallery
Dionysus, Acme, and Icarius (House of Dionysos mosaic)
Unknown (Roman mosaicist, Paphos), late 2nd–early 3rd century AD
In the House of Dionysos at Paphos Archaeological Park, Cyprus, a Roman floor mosaic stages the gift that made Icarius of Attica famous: Dionysus seated with the personification Acme, while Icarius receives the vine that will bring wine — and death — to Attica. Greek labels once secured the identities; the composition is the classic visual dossier of the Attic host who first shared the god's drink with shepherds. The panel remains one of the clearest ancient images of Icarius as a named figure rather than a nameless vintner.
Dionysos and Ikarios (Farnese relief)
Unknown (Roman), 1st–2nd century AD
This marble relief from the Farnese Collection, now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum, belongs to the widespread Roman type known as Dionysos visiting Ikarios: the god arrives with his thiasos at the Attic farmer's banquet, the prelude to the gift of the vine. Icarius appears as the mortal host who will teach wine-making to Greece and die for it when drunken shepherds mistake intoxication for poison. The relief is a principal sculptural witness to the myth that also places Icarius among the stars as Boötes.
Bacchus and Attendants Visiting Icarus
Unknown (after the antique), 18th–19th century
This public-domain print after a classical relief freezes the same banquet visit in which Bacchus (Dionysus) and his attendants come to Icarius of Athens. The composition follows the Roman neo-Attic type — god, satyrs, and mortal host gathered as wine enters Attica — and circulated the story for modern readers long after the marble originals. It preserves the visual tradition of Icarius as Dionysus's first human pupil, the farmer whose hospitality founded both the vine and the Erigone tragedy.
In play
Icarius (Athenian)
Attic host of Dionysus who shared the first wine — murdered by shepherds, mourned by Erigone, and set among the stars.
Erigone (daughter of Icarius)
Daughter who finds her father's body and hangs herself — the Aiora rites and Virgo still remember her grief.
Boötes
The constellation tradition that places Icarius in the northern sky — wine's first teacher as the celestial herdsman.