Dionysus

File:Dionysos panthère satyre.jpg

Dionysus with a leopard, satyr and grapes on a vine, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy)

Dionysus or Dionysos (from the Ancient Greek Διώνυσος or Διόνυσος, associated with the Italic Liber), the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace — as well as the patron deity of agriculture and the theatre. He was also known as the Liberator (Eleutherios), freeing one from one's normal self, by madness, ecstasy, or wine. The divine mission of Dionysus was to mingle the music of the flute and to bring an end to care and worry. There is also an aspect of Dionysus on his relationship to the "cult of the souls", and the scholar Xavier Riu writes that Dionysus presided over communication between the living and the dead.

Within Greek mythology Dionysus is made to be the son of Zeus and Semele; other versions of the story contend that he is the son of Zeus and Persephone. He is described as being womanly or "man-womanish".

The name Dionysus is of uncertain significance; it may well be non-Greek in origin, but it has been associated since antiquity with Zeus (genitive Dios) and with Nysa, which is either the nymph who nursed him, or the mountain where he was attended by several nymphs who fed him and made him immortal as directed by Hermes; or both.

Origin, Etymology and Epithets

The above contradictions suggest to some that we are dealing not with the historical memory of a cult that is foreign, but with a god in whom foreignness is inherent. And indeed, Dionysus's name is found on Mycenean Linear B tablets as "DI-WO-NI-SO-JO", and Kerenyi traces him to Minoan Crete, where his Minoan name is unknown but his characteristic presence is recognizable. Clearly, Dionysus had been with the Greeks and their predecessors a long time, and yet always retained the feel of something alien.

Epithets

Sculpture of Dionysus, commissioned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Qingdao Beer. Qingdao Beer Museum, Qingdao city, Shandong province, China.

Dionysus sometimes has the epithet Bromios, meaning "the thunderer" or "he of the loud shout". Another epithet is Dendrites; as Dionysus Dendrites ("he of the trees"), he is a powerful fertility god. Evius is another of his epithets, used prominently in The Bacchae. Dithyrambos ("he of the double door") is sometimes used to refer to him or solemn songs sung to him at festivals. The name refers to his premature birth. Iacchus, possibly an epithet of Dionysus, is associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries; in Eleusis, he is known as a son of Zeus and Demeter. The name "Iacchus" may come from the iakchos, a hymn sung in honor of Dionysus. Eleutherios ("the liberator") was an epithet for both Dionysus and Eros. As Oeneus, he is the god of the wine-press. With the epithet Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan") he is a fertility god connected with the mystery religions. Other, perhaps more colorful forms of the god as that of fertility include the Samian Dionysus Enorches ("with balls" or perhaps "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the babe Dionysus into his thigh, i.e., his testicles) and the Dionysus Khoiropsalas, for which "####-plucker" has been suggested, of Sicyon. A winnowing fan was similar to a shovel and was used to separate the chaff from the good, cut grain. In addition, Dionysus is known as Lyaeus ("he who releases") as a god of relaxation and freedom from worry. In the Greek pantheon, Dionysus (along with Zeus) absorbs the role of Sabazios, a Phrygian deity, whose name means "shatterer" and to whom shattered pottery was sacrificed (probably to prevent other pottery from being broken during firing). In the Roman pantheon, Sabazius became an alternate name for Bacchus.

Imagery

The bull, the serpent, the ivy and wine are the signs of the characteristic Dionysian atmosphere, infused with the unquenchable life of the god. Their numinous presence signifies that the god is near. (Kerenyi 1976). Dionysus is strongly associated with the satyrs, centaurs and sileni. He is often shown riding a leopard, wearing a leopard skin, or being pulled by a chariot drawn by panthers and has been called the god of cats and savagery. He always carries a thyrsus. Besides the grapevine and its wild barren alter-ego, the toxic ivy plant, both sacred to him, the fig was also his. The pine cone that tipped his thyrsus linked him to Cybele, and the pomegranate linked him to Demeter.

Mythic Accounts

Unlike many of the other gods in the Olympian pantheon, tales of the Dionysus are relatively difficult to find—especially when taking the god's near-universal popularity. As Powell notes, "the myths of Dionysus myst be pieced together from many different sources. Homer has little to say about him; the aristocratic epic poet lacked sympathy for this god of drunkenness and sexual license."

Birth

Along with Athena (who emerged fully formed from her father's skull), Dionysus holds a place of honor for possessing two of the more peculiar origin stories in the mythic corpus of the ancient Greeks. The existence of these two equally well-established creation accounts is perhaps an indication of the difficulty that the early mythographers had incorporating the foreign wine-god into the pantheon.

In it, his mother Semele, who was a mortal woman (daughter of the Phoenician king, Cadmus), catches the eye of the notoriously philandering Zeus. As in numerous other tales, Hera, the oft-betrayed wife of the Sky God, discovered the affair after the woman had become pregnant. Appearing to her as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that her lover was actually Zeus. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted the seeds of doubt in the princess's mind. Curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood. Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted, eventually swearing an oath to force his compliance (much as Hera had hoped she would). Unfortunately for the young woman, it is impossible for a mortal to experience the true glory of a god. As a result, when her lover appeared in his natural form, wreathed in bolts of lightning and humming with the energy of a summer thunderhead, she perished in the ensuing blaze. Unwilling to allow all memory of this affair to perish, Zeus rescued the fetal Dionysus from the charred remains of his mother and sewed him into his thigh (or testicles). A few months later, Dionysus was born. This version explains the god's epithet Dimetor ("twice-born"), as he had been carried by two "mothers" (Semele and Zeus).

In another version of the story, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone, the queen of the underworld. A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby away from his parents with toys and sweets. By the time the child's abduction had been discovered, the Titans had already eaten everything but the heart, which was saved, variously, by Athena, Rhea, or Demeter. In an attempt to harmonize this account with the mythic version described above, Zeus used the heart to recreate the child in the womb of Semele (who is misled into consuming it).

The fact that, in both cases, the life of Dionysus begins with a death and rebirth speaks to the importance of such themes within the worship of the god (especially through the Mystery Religions). This correspondence will be [[addressed below.

Early life

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Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles

Given the precarious environment that Hera's jealous wrath created for the young god, Zeus felt it necessary to conceal the infant from the Divine Queen's machinations. While all accounts suggest that he gave the child to Hermes and instructed him to deliver it to safety, the particular destination(s) chosen by the messenger god vary considerably. One version of the story has Hermes taking the boy to King Athamas and his wife Ino, who were relatives of Semele. When depositing the child, Hermes bade the couple to raise him as a girl, in an attempt to conceal him from Hera's wrath. Another version is that Dionysus was taken to the rain-nymphs of Nysa, who nourished him in his infancy and childhood. For their care, Zeus rewarded them by catasterizing them into the Hyades among the stars (see Hyades star cluster). The responsibilities of caring for the young god are occasionally shared by the satyrs, especially Silenius, who remain strongly affiliated with the god in surviving myths and artwork. In some sources, the two accounts are woven together by suggesting that Hera discovered the child in the care of Athamas and Ino, and drove the royal couple mad. This necessitated brining the babe to the nymphs of Nysa. Intriguingly, the location of the storied mount where the nymphs nursed the young god has never been convincingly demonstrated: a fact that has allowed writers from numerous city-states (including Thebes, Euboea, Naxos, Sparta and Phrygia) to claim that Dionysus hailed from their region.

When Dionysus reached adulthood, he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious (and intoxicating) juices; but Hera struck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the earth. In Phrygia, the goddess Cybele, better known to the Greeks as Rhea, cured him and taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a progress through Asia teaching people to cultivate the fruits of the vine. Such wanderings offer an etiological explanation for the god's relationship with Eastern cults.Returning in triumph, he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed by some princes who dreaded its introduction on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it (see King Pentheus or Lycurgus below).

As a young man, Dionysus was exceptionally attractive. Once, while disguised as a mortal sitting beside the seashore, a few sailors spotted him, believing he was a prince. They attempted to kidnap him and sail him far away to sell for ransom or into slavery. They tried to bind him with ropes, but no type of rope could hold him. Dionysus turned into a fierce lion and unleashed a bear onboard, killing those he came into contact with. Those who jumped off the ship were mercifully turned into dolphins. The only survivor was the helmsman, Acoetes, who had immediately recognized the gorgeous youth as a god and had tried to stop his sailors from their impiety. In a similar story, Dionysus desired to sail from Icaria to Naxos and, resultantly, decided to hire a Tyrrhenian pirate ship. But when the god was on board, they sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending to sell him as a slave. So Dionysus turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes so that the sailors went mad, and leaping into the sea, were turned into dolphins.

Other Tales

Inclusion in the Pantheon

For more details on this topic, see Hephaestus.

Given Hera's profound dislike for the young godling, it is perhaps surprising that he was ever permitted to join the ranks of the Olympians. However, their relationship was abruptly redefined when the queen of the gods was imprisioned by the smith god, Hephaestus. While none of the other gods were able to intercede on behalf of their belaguered ruler, Dionysus appeared, spoke to the smith god about his (justifiable) grievances with Hera, and proceeded to ply him with alcohol. When suitably "lubricated," Hephaestus agreed to return to Olympus and to release Hera.

When Vulcanus [Hephaistos, still living in exile after being cast from Olympos at birth] had made golden [thrones or sandals] for Jove [Zeus] and for the other gods, he made one of adamant [for Juno or Hera], and as soon as she sat down she suddenly found herself hanging in the air. When Vulcanus [Hephaistos] was summoned to free his mother whom he had bound, in anger because he had been thrown from Heaven, he denied that he had a mother. When Father Liber [Dionysos] had brought him back drunk to the council of the gods, he could not refuse this filial duty.

In gratitude for his aid in this matter, Hera dropped her vendetta against the wine god and he was permitted to take up residence on Mt. Olympus.

Pentheus

Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian

Euripides wrote a tale concerning the destructive nature of Dionysus in his play entitled The Bacchae. In this tragic drama, Dionysus returns to his birthplace, Thebes, a city-state ruled by his cousin, Pentheus. He wanted to exact revenge on the women of Thebes, his aunts Agave, Ino and Autonoe, and his cousin Pentheus, for not believing his mother Semele when she said she had been impregnated by Zeus (which had contributed to her ultimately fatal desire to see her suitor's true form), and for denying that Dionysus was a god and therefore not worshiping him. So, he travels to the city, accompanied by the Maenads, the assembled body of his female worshipers, whose worship involved ecstatic trances, and dismemberment and consumption of the flesh of animals. When the god reached Thebes, the women of the royal house abandoned their posts to join in the ecstatic worship of the Maenads. Simultaneously, Pentheus was slowly driven mad by the compelling Dionysus, and lured to the woods of Mount Cithaeron to experience the revels of the wine god firsthand. When the women spied Pentheus, they tore him to pieces like they did earlier in the play to a herd of cattle. In the brutal finale, his head is torn off by his mother Agave as he begs for his life. Only in the aftermath of this slaughter do the various members of the royal family discover the madness that they have been a party to.

Lycurgus

When King Lycurgus of Thrace heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he feared the destructive power of his cult, and decided to imprison all the Maenads (the female followers of Dionysus). Further, using an ox-goad, he attempted to attack and drive off the god himself. Dionysus fled, taking refuge with Thetis. In recompense for the mortal's hubris, Dionysus sent a drought to the land, which caused the people to revolt. Next, Dionysus drove King Lycurgus insane, after which point he sliced his own son into pieces with an axe, thinking he was a patch of ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus. Unsure of how to proceed, the Thracian people consulted an oracle, who informed them that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus was alive. So, his people had him drawn and quartered. With Lycurgus dead, Dionysus lifted the curse.

Prosymnus and the Descent into Hades

File:Dionysus and Ampelus - bronze in private collection.jpg

Dionysos and Ampelos

A more prominent tale is that of his descent to Hades to rescue his mother Semele, who (as described above) had passed away before the god's birth. He made the descent from a reputedly bottomless pool on the coast of the Argolid, near the prehistoric site of Lerna. He was guided by Prosymnus or Polymnus, who requested as his reward to be Dionysus' homosexual lover. Prosymnus died before Dionysus could honor his pledge, so in order to satisfy the shade of his erastes, the god fashioned a phallus from an olive branch and sat on it at Prosymnus' tomb.

The Alkyonian Lake [near Nemea, Argos], through which the Argives say Dionysos went down to Haides to bring up Semele, adding that the descent here was shown him by Polymnos ... The nocturnal rites performed every year in honor of Dionysus I must not divulge to the world at large.

This tradition was widely known but treated as a secret not to be divulged to those not privy to the god's mysteries. It was the source of the custom of parading wooden phalloi at the god's festivities.

Ampelos

Another pederastic myth of the god involves his eromenos, Ampelos, a beautiful satyr youth whom he loved dearly. According to Nonnus, Ampelos was killed riding a bull maddened by Ate's gadfly, as foreseen by the god. Fortunately, the Fates granted Ampelos a second life as a vine, from which Dionysus squeezed the first wine. Indeed, this myth could be seen as an explanation of the god's love for the intoxicating juice of the grape, as the satyr's name can be literally translated as "vine".

Dionysus and Ariadne

When Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, some sources suggest that Dionysus found and married her. She bore him a son named Oenopion ("wine-faced"), but he committed suicide or was killed by Perseus. In some variants, he had her crown put into the heavens as the constellation Corona; in others, he descended into Hades to restore her to the gods on Olympus: "And golden-haired (khrysokomes) Dionysos made blonde-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and [Zeus] the son of Kronos made her deathless and unageing for him."

Cult of Dionysus

Bacchus by Caravaggio

See also: Bacchanalia

The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens were dedicated to Dionysus. Initiates worshipped him in the Dionysian Mysteries, which were comparable to and linked with the Orphic Mysteries, and may have influenced Gnosticism and early Christianity (see below). His female followers are called maenads ("mad women") or Bacchantes. The god's rebirth in both versions of his origin story is the primary reason that he was worshiped in mystery religions, which explored the liminal relationship between life and death as a matter of mystical reverence.

In Athens and the Attica of the Classical period, the main festivities were held in the month of Elaphebolion (around the time of the Spring Equinox) where the Greater, or City, Dionysia had evolved into a great drama festival - Dionysos having become the god of acting, music and poetic inspiration for the Athenians - as well as an urban carnival or Komos. Its older precursor had been demoted to the Lesser, or Rural, Dionysia, though preserved more ancient customs centred on a celebration of the first wine. This festival was timed to coincide with the "clearing of the wine", a final stage in the fermentation process occurring in the first cold snap after the Winter Solstice, when it was declared Dionysos was reborn. This event was later explicitly set to January 6, a day on which water was also turned to wine by Dionysos in a separate myth. The festivals at this time were much wilder too, as were the festivities of the grape harvest, and its "carnival-esque" ritual processions from the vineyards to the wine press, which had occurred earlier in the autumn. It was at these times that initiations into the Mysteries were probably originally held.

In sharp contrast to the daytime festivities of the Athenian Dionysia were the biennial nocturnal rites of the Tristeria, held on Mount Parnassus in the Winter. These celebrated the emergence of Dionysos from the underworld with wild orgies in the mountains. The first day of which was presided over by the Maenads, in their state of Mainomenos ("madness") in which an extreme atavistic state was achieved, during which animals were hunted - and, in some lurid tales, even human beings - before being torn apart with bare hands and eaten raw (this being the infamous Sparagmos, said to have been once associated with goat sacrifice, marking the harvesting and trampling of the vine). The second day saw the Bacchic Nymphs in their Thyiadic ("raving") state, a more sensual and benign Bacchanal assisted by satyrs, though still orgiastic. The mythographers would explain this with claims that the Maenads, or wild women, were the resisters of the Bacchic urge, sent mad, while the Thyiades, or ravers, had accepted the Dionysiac ecstasy and kept their sanity.

Dionysos was also revered at Delphi, where he presided over the oracle for three winter months, beginning in November, marked by the rising of the Pleiades, while Apollo was away "visiting the Hyperboreans". At this time a rite of known as the "Dance of the Fiery Stars" was performed, of which little is known, but appears to have been conducted to appease the dead.

These rites are thought to have influenced many subsequent forms of religious expression, from ancient to modern times. Their most direct "descendant" was, of course, the Roman Bacchanalia, a festival characterized by legendary levels of excess. As described by the Roman historian Livy:

When conducted under Roman auspices, the festival had earlier been confined to women, but in the grove of Stimula young men were being initiated into the cult, and there were allegations of both heterosexual and homosexual licence. Though previously restricted to three days a year, the ceremonies were now being conducted five times a month; moreover, the proceedings were being held in darkness. Allegations of dire misconduct were circulating, including charges of murder of unwilling initiates, forging of the wills of the dead, and perjury.

In a more contemporary context, the Dionysiac rites are also thought to have informed the modern rites of Anastenaria, still practiced in the present day by Greeks of Thracian descent. Though some scholars dispute this interpretation, most are of the opinion that the fire walking accompanied by ecstatic dancing, drumming, and forays into the woods or mountains by participants "possessed by the saint", as well as the preliminary animal sacrifice and distribution of meat to the village population, are at their origin not the Christian rites they are constructed as by the villagers who perform them, but the rites of Dionysus.

Inter-religious Parallels

Christianity

File:Dionysos Sardanapalus.jpg

Statue of Dionysus (Sardanapalus), in the Museo Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme in Rome, Italy

It is possible that Dionysian mythology would later find its way into Christianity. There are many parallels between Dionysus and Jesus; both were said to have been born from a virgin mother, a mortal woman, but fathered by the king of heaven, to have returned from the dead, to have transformed water into wine, and to have been liberator of mankind. The modern scholar Barry Powell also argues that Christian notions of eating and drinking "the flesh" and "blood" of Jesus were influenced by the cult of Dionysus. Certainly the Dionysus myth contains a great deal of cannibalism, in its links to Ino (however, one must note that Dionysian cannibalism has no correlation with self-sacrifice as a means of propitiation). Dionysus was also distinct among Greek gods, as a deity commonly felt within individual followers. In a less benign example of influence on Christianity, Dionysus' followers, as well as another god, Pan, are said to have had the most influence on the modern view of Satan as animal-like and horned. It is also possible these similarities between Christianity and Dionysiac religion are all only representations of the same common religious archetypes. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the story of Jesus turning water into wine is only found in the Gospel of John, which differs on many points from the other Synoptic Gospels. That very passage, it has been suggested, was incorporated into the Gospel from an earlier source focusing on Jesus' miracles.

According to Martin A. Larson in The Story of Christian Origins (1977), Osiris was the first savior, and all soteriology in the region borrowed this religion, directly and indirectly, including Mithraism and Christianity, from an Osirian-Dionysian influence. As with their common dying and resurrected saviors, they all share common sacraments, ostensibly grounded in their reliance on seasonal cereal agriculture, having adopted the rituals with the food itself; Larson notes that Herodotus uses the names Osiris and Dionysus interchangeably and Plutarch identifies them as the same, while the name was anciently thought to originate from the place Nysa, in Egypt (now Ethiopia).

The subject of Dionysus is complex and baffling. The problem is further complicated by the fact that he appears in at least four characters: first, as the respectable patron of the theatre and the arts; second, as the effeminate, yet fierce and phallic mystery-god of the bloodthirsty Maenads; third, as the mystic deity in the temples of Demeter; and fourth, as the divine savior who died for mankind and whose body and blood were symbolically eaten and drunk in the eucharist of the Orphic-Pythagorean celibates. Beyond this, almost all barbarian nations had their own versions of Dionysus under many names. And yet there is a simpler explanation: Dionysus, Bromius, Sabazius, Attis, Adonis, Zalmoxis, Corybas, Serapis, and Orpheus himself are replicas of their grand prototype Osiris; and the variations which appear among them resulted from the transplantation of the god from one country to another, and reflect simply the specific needs of his multifarious worshipers (37-38).

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Apollodorus. Gods & Heroes of the Greeks. Translated and with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Simpson. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977. ISBN 0-87023-205-3.
• Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical. Translated by John Raffan. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985. ISBN 0631112413.
• Dalby, Andrew (2005), The Story of Bacchus, British Museum Press, London, ISBN 0714122556 (US ISBN 0-89236-742-3)
• Dillon, Matthew. Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in Ancient Greece. London; New York: Routledge, 1997. ISBN 0415127750.
• Farnell, Lewis Richard, The Cults of the Greek States, 1896. Volume V, cf. Chapter IV, Cults of Dionysos; Chapter V, Dionysiac Ritual; Chapter VI, Cult-Monuments of Dionysos; Chapter VII, Ideal Dionysiac Types.
• Fox, William Sherwood, The Mythology of All Races, v.1, Greek and Roman, 1916, General editor, Louis Herbert Gray.
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Bibliography

• Livy, History of Rome, Book 39:13, Description of banned Bacchanalia in Rome and Italy
• Albert Henrichs, Between City and Country: Cultic Dimensions of Dionysus in Athens and Attica, (April 1, 1990). Department of Classics, UCB. Cabinet of the Muses: Rosenmeyer Festschrift. Paper festschrift18.
• Seaford, Richard. Dionysos (Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World). Oxford: Routledge, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-415-32487-4; paperback, ISBN 0-415-32488-2).

External links

• The Oracles of Dionysus
• Theoi Project, Dionysos myths from original sources, cult, classical art
• A series of casts showing Dionysos held by the Beazley Archive at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
• Hymn to Dionysus, God of All Things Wild
• Iconographic Themes in Art: Bacchus | Dionysos
• Temenos of Dionysos, Hellenic polytheist site
• Thiasos Lusios, pagan Dionysian organization
• Dionysos Links and Booklist (A huge list of links.)
• DIONYSSOS - the Greek hero

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