The island of Thasos, just off the coast of Thrace in the north Aegean Sea, was a cultic center for the worship of Dionysus. This motif is a common one for northern Greece, an area famed for its wine.
Croton was founded as an Achaean colony in 710 BCE. Croton was a very prosperous Greek colony: boasting many Olympic victors, the famous wrestler Milon, the school of Pythagoras (opened in 530 BCE), and, according to Herodotus (3.131), some of the…