Suoni e danza per l’Aldilà

This study analyzes three high-quality red-figure craters from Irsina and Montescaglioso (Magna Graecia), exploring the symbolic role of musical instruments within Dionysian funerary contexts. By examining the representation of the lyra, aulos, tympanon, and harp, the research highlights how these "musical signa" reflect the deceased's social status as an anêr mousikos and their salvific expectations for the afterlife. The instruments are interpreted as "soundmarks" of ritual transition: the aulos and tympanon evoke the ecstatic trance of the thiasos, while the lyra alludes to Orphic-Pythagorean catharsis and the heroic symposion in the underworld. Ultimately, these iconographic programs served as symbolic passports, transforming the funeral space into a musical landscape that ensured the deceased’s transition to a blessed and eternal existence.