This lekythos (a vessel for storing oil) was created by a Greek craftsman in the first half of the 4th century B.C. It takes the form of a winged female figure, her head wreathed with vine and ivy leaves, who is dancing near an altar. In her hands the goddess holds small elongated pieces of wood, rounded on one side and flat on the other, that are divided in two for half their length. These are musical instruments called crotala, sort of castanets that were often played by dancers in ancient times. The crotala, like the wreath of ivy and vine leaves, invest the winged figure with a bacchantic character.
This vessel was found in 1852, in a tomb on the Taman peninsula that was part of the ancient Bosporan kingdom.