13: Dionysus Flashcards
Who is Dionysus the God of
- God of Wine: fermentation of grape
- God of fertility: complement to Magna Mater: life giving liquids like wine, blood, semen, sap
- God of Ecstasy: release through wine, music, and dance. Madness and irrationality and release from all restraints
- God of Theatre: loss of identity
Conception of Dionysus
- Son of Zeus and Semele
- Semele is the daughter of Cadmus, King of Thebes and from Euripedes’ Bacchae
- Zeus disguises himself as a mortal and impregnates Semele
- Hera tricks pregnant Semele and fries her to a crisp
- Hermes rescues Dionysus from pregnant Semele and Dionysis is swen into Zeus’ thigh to save him
Zeus and Persephone
Variant of Dionysus.
Zeus and Persephone have son named Zagreus, another name for Dionysus. Hera orders titans to kill Zagreus and they dismember and eat him.
Athena rescues Zagreus’ heart and gives it to Zeus. Zeus swallos the heart and Dionysus is born again through Zeus and Semele
Zeus destroys the Titans and humans are born from their ashes. Duality of human nature: corrupt and evil (titans) and pure and good (dionysus)
Historical Origins of Dionysus, Etymiology of his name, mother’s name, where it appears, and to Romans
- Either Thrace (N. Greece) or Phrygia (Asia Minor)
- Etymiology of name: Dio (connected with I.E. sky god) and Nysus (“son”, reference to Mt. Nysa, another name for Dionysus)
- Etymiology of mother’s, Semele, name: Semelo (another Phrygian name for Great Goddess)
- Name Dionysus appears on Linear B tablets in Late Bronze Aga aka Mycenaean age
- Known to romans as Bacchus (Bakivali) on Lydian inscription and Liber = “Free”
- In rome they have the Bacchanalia, wild parties in honor of Bacchus
Iconography of Dionysus
- Dionysus portrayed with ivy and panther skin
- Dionysus holding thyrsus (pole wrapped with ivy and topped with pine cone) accompanied by Satyr (half man half goat/horse. L. Faunus/Faun)
- Satyrs often confused with Sileni (plural: Silenus)
- Dionysus accompanied by Bacchae aka Bacchantes, female followers of Bacchus (Dionysus) aka Maenads, meaning Mad women
Maenad
- Ecstatic Maenad who wields thyrsus and leopard with snake wrapped around head
- Thyrsus: Hittite:tuwarsa “vine” –> N.E. connection
- female followers of Bacchus (Dionysus)
Cult of Dionysus
- Orgiastic worship
- Group of followers called Thiasus
- Followers in ecstasy and enthused
–> G. Ekstasis: “standing outside oneself”
–> G. Enthousiasmos: “having god within” - Ritual slaughter of sacrificial victims: G. Sparagmos: “tearing”
- Ritual eating of raw flesh: G. Omophagy
- Loss of personal identity–> Dionysis Lysios: “The Deliverer”
In Vino Veritas
Latin saying meaning “in wine there is truth”. Associated with Dionysus
Wanderings of Dionysus
Dionysus in Nysa, in the East and invents viticulture (tending of grape vines to make wine).
* Driven insane by jealous Hera so they wander throughout East like Egypt, Syria, Phrygia. Cybele cured his madness and he starts cross dressing
* While hes in Nysa he acquires Thiasus, a band of followers. Called Maenads, Satyrs (Fauns), Sileni (called Papposilenus: “older silenus”)
The Man with the Golden Touch
Story about Dionysus and King Midas
* Silenus, an overweight drunken satyr who is the teller of tall tales. Wisdom of Silenus: “That not to be born is best of all, and that to be dead is better than to live” –> from Plutarch: Letter of Condolence to Apollonius
* Midas captured Silenus but returns him to Dionysus. Dionysus rewards Midas by granting him any wish. Midas wishes all he touched turns to gold –> turns into a curse and he washes out gift in Pactolus river granted by Dionysus, near Sardis in Asia Minor
Dionysus and Lycurgus
- Lycurgus is the King of Thrace who defeats and makes Dionysus and Thiasus retreat. Dionysus jumps into sea and is rescued by Thetis. Zeus blinds Lycurgus for his hubris. Variant is that he is driven insane
- Lycurgus cup
List of Resistance to Dionysus (4)
- Lycurgus: King of Thrace
- Proetids: daughters of Proteus, the King of Argos
- Pirates
- Pentheus: cousin of Dionysus
Dionysus and the Proetids
The Proetids are the daughters of Proetus, the King of Argos
The Proetids refuse new religion and they are driven insane and get a nasty itch that is cured by shouting and dancing.
The Festival of Agriania is the ritual pursuit of women at night
Dionysus and Pentheus and where from
- From Euripides’ Bacchae
- Dionysus returns to Thebes to establish himself as a legitimate god but family rejects claim to divinity
- Pentheus is the King of Thebes and the cousin of Dionysus. Pentheus resists worship of Dionysus but Cadmus, the former king and Tiresias, a blind prophet, counsel Pentheus to accept divinity.
- Pentheus still rejects Dionysus so Theban women are driven insane and wander around Mt. Cithaeron.
- Pentheus assumes sexual orgies with Dionysus so he arrests a mysterious stranger (actually Dionysus). Stranger escapes and destroys the prison and drives Pentheus insane.
- Pentheus sees double and sees stranger as a bull and dresses up like a woman to spy on Theban women
Dionysus and the Pirates and where from
From Homeric Hymn to Dionysus
Dionysus is abducted and bound by sailors who is mistaken for a mortal. The rope falls off miraculously but the crew refuses to recognize divinity, only helmsman does. The ship flows with wine, ivy grows on mast, and sail is covered in grape clusters.
Dionysus transforms into a lion and a bear appears on deck. The crew jumps into sea and is transformed into dolphins but the helmsman are spared
