Offset against a red coral background, the decoration has been enlarged from the usual small medallion to fill the entire area of the bowl. This shows that Exekias has continued to maximise all of the available space on the interior of the vase also. In the center of the vase the god Dionysus relaxes on an elaborate ship with a tall mast and a broad sail. Seven dolphins frolic in the ocean about the ship and four of them have white lines on their belly. .
The scene is probably based on Homers "Hymn to Dionysus". The story recounts how Dionysus was on his way to Greece when he was kidnapped by a crew of Tyrrhenian pirates. He then revealed himself to them, at which point grape and ivy vines began to grow and entangle the mast and sail. The terrified sailors, realising they had abducted a god, jumped into the water where they were promptly turned into dolphins. .
The Lydos vase, attributed to Lydos, also black figure, is another example of how a composition has been successfully arranged. Lydos vase is one of the earliest examples of "The Grand Style" of attic black figure. There is one large elegantly painted narrative where the figures are arranged in a more formal composition. .
The story on the vase is that of the return home of Hephaistos to Olympus, accompanied by Dionysus, satyrs and maenads. Both gods stand aloof of the festivities of the party to celebrate their arrival home. Making it clear that the focus of the artist's decoration is the drunken behavior of the satyrs and maenads. .
A satyr playing the double pipes (aulus) leads the processions; he is followed by scenes of tail pulling, snake handling and wine guzzling. Yet amid all of this action the artist has attempted to portray some artistic innovation. Although the scene is two dimensional the painter has deliberately varied the mainly profile poses of the figures by putting in three figures with either full-frontal or partly frontal features.
