Grave gifts like this funerary lekythos had a symbolic connection with the Dionysiac mysteries and the journey to the Underworld. Many vases showing similar scenes have been found in ancient graves in Athens.
A goddess, possibly Dionysus’ mother Semele or his consort Ariadne, mounts a chariot. Behind the chariot is a female kithara player, perhaps a maenad. In front of the group sits a youth in a chair, who is probably the deceased: in the Dionysiac cult, the deceased initiate was escorted by a procession on the journey to Hades and, thus, was assured of a blessed afterlife.
