Erigone plucks at grapes supplied by cupids. Engraving by P.C. Levesque after J.B. Deshays.

Erigone was the daughter of Icarius of Athens, to whom Dionysus, by deceiving Erigone, gave the gift of wine. Icarius shared it with shepherds, who, confused by the alcohol, killed him. Erigone hanged herself and was transformed into the constellation Virgo. The people of Attica were subjected to plague until they instituted a festival in honour of Erigone and Icarius (Reid, loc. cit.). The presnt depiction shows how Dionysus ensnared Erigone with the vine (Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.125 "Liber ut Erigonen falsa deceperit uva")

She eyes the grapes lustfully. Two cupids descend from above, while another snuggles against her on the left

[France], [between 1700 and 1799]

1 print : engraving

Jane Davidson Reid, The Oxford guide to classical mythology in the arts, 1300-1990s, New York 1993, vol. 1, p. 389 (on the myth of Erigone and its sources in Ovid, Nonnus etc.)

Wellcome Collection 2853717i