File:The Derveni krater, late 4th century B.C., Maenad carrying a human baby over her shoulder, Archaeological Museum, Thessaloniki, Greece (7457845052).jpg

The maenad with the human baby flung over her shoulder with less than gentle care suggests potential violence to the child. The image recalls the myths of a royal baby’s murder by his own mother and aunts driven mad by Dionysus in retribution for their refusal to join in revelry with his female followers. The daughters of King Proteus of Tiryns ate their own offspring in their Dionysos-induced madness, and the three daughters of Minyas left their looms and jointly slaughtered one of their sons by tearing him apart. An identical figure appears as early as the end of the fifth-century BC on a pyxis lid painted in the manner of the Meidias Painter. In its iconographic context on the krater, the daughters of Minyas may be an appropriate identification because of the way the baby Hippasos was murdered.