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DIONYSUS
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Examines god & central figure of major Greek cult celebrating ecstasy, wine, orgies.... More...

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Paper Abstract:
Examines god & central figure of major Greek cult celebrating ecstasy, wine, orgies.

Paper Introduction:
Dionysus was the central figure in a major cult of the Greek world, a cult that would have a long-term influence in mythology, religion, and literature. Dionysus was a pan-Hellenic god who was widely celebrated throughout the Archaic period and honored at dramatic contests with tragedies and comedies. His was also an orgiastic cult. Dionysus is the god of ecstasy and possession and might be called the patron saint of the drama as well as of various festivals and celebrations. In Greek mythology, Dionysus was a bastard son of Zeus. The mother of Dionysus is variously named depending on the source, and some have said she was Demeter, or Io, and some Dione, and still others Lethe. The most common story has it that Zeus disguised himself as a mortal and had a secret affair with Semele ("moon"), the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes. Zeus's wife,

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Dionysus is thegod of ecstasy and possession and might be called the patron saint of thedrama as well as of various festivals and celebrations. Dionysus is thereforecalled "twice-born" (Graves 55-56). Mt. who filled the souls of his worshippers with a sacred enthusiasm and triumphed over everything, even reason and its doubts. The Greek Adventure. Evidence is found in themythology itself, such as in stories of the resistance to the advance ofthe cult: These stories take the form of cult-myths, that is to say, although they seem to be connected with history by their location in actual cities which could have lain on the line of the god's advance into Greece, the result of the opposition is said to be that Dionysus drives the women of the place mad, and the leader of the resistance falls a victim to their frenzy and is torn to pieces like the victim which as sacrificed in the regular course of Dionysian orgia (Guthrie 159-16 ).Clearly, the story of Pentheus is such a myth. . Thus attired they ran rather than danced, accompanied by flutes, drums, and tambourines (Ker�nyi 26 ). Boston: Beacon Press, 195 .Hamilton, Edith. . The variety and contradictions inherent in the worship of Dionysushave been noted by scholars who are puzzled by the way the cult developed: It presents us with the spectacle of annual festivals in the towns or fields in spring--and with biennial festivals on the bare mountaintops in winter; with daylight celebrations and torchlit midnight rovings; it has its joyous and bountiful side and its grim and gruesome side, for the same god is haled as the giver of all good gifts and feared as the eater of raw flesh an the man-tearer. New York: Mentor, 1963..Ker�nyi, C. Participation was not confined to women,though they were the most frequent and characteristic worshippers: The greatest gift of Dionysus was the sense of utter freedom, and in Greece it was the women, with their normally confined and straitened lives, to whom the temptation of release made the strongest appeal (Guthrie 148). Direct evidence of the chronology and general history of the spreadof Dionysian religion through Greece is lacking. Indeed, our society can conjure up awhole host of Dionysian rites, from modern sexual orgies to excessivedrinking, and we have an Apollonian strain that calls for moderation andsanity in the face of such behaviors. Thewomen of Dionysus were called mainades, or Maenads: There were many portrayals of them, showing them in long robes, with heads lightly thrown back, wreathed with ivy, carrying the thyrsus--a long staff of narthex with a pine-cone on its end. Works CitedGraves, Robert. . The spread of the Dionysian cult can be discerned in the increase inrepresentations of the god and his followers in various works of art.Attic vases representing Dionysian scenes and the delirium of the Maenadsmultiplied as the cult spread. Dionysus is seen in a dual role, sometimes man's blessing, andsometimes his ruin. the maenadism or collective ecstasy of the Bacchae, drunk with the presence of their god in their hearts, breaking all bounds and triumphing in savage exaltation. Theytore him limb from limb, after which Dionysus removed the madness from themso Pentheus's mother could see what she had done (Hamilton 57-59). Just as Euripides saw perils in the cult in the Bacchae, so dowe see perils in the same sorts of ideas and behaviors today. Theyusually took place at night. After a period of relative sexual freedom,we have become less indulgent because of a real danger associated with suchbehavior. . The Dionysian cult was inits turn tamed to a degree (Guthrie 2 -2 1). Cleveland: World Publishing, 1968.----------------------- 1 Edith Hamilton points out that this story of the birth of Dionysusrelates to the subject over which he is a god: So the God of the Vine was born of fire and nursed by rain, the hard burning heat that ripens the grapes and the water that keeps the plants alive (Hamilton 55).The worshipers of Dionysus were originally all women, and they would actout the parts of the different women associated with the god. The worship of Dionysus wastherefore centered on two ideas quite far apart, the idea of ecstatic joyand the idea of savage brutality, and the God of Wine could provide eitherto his worshipers. (L�v�que 3 9).What the play depicted that had previously been ignored as the state ofmind of the followers of the cult, . Dionysus was the central figure in a major cult of the Greek world, acult that would have a long-term influence in mythology, religion, andliterature. . Each of these major strands affected theother in some degree, and the cult of Apollo became more ecstatic andcathartic as a result of exposure to Dionysian rituals, though thesechanges should not be seen as mere borrowings. It brought to the stage the women of Thebes who were inspired to ecstatic frenzy in the copses of Cithaeron during the god's festivals, and indulged in strange and barbarous rites. The motherof Dionysus is variously named depending on the source, and some have saidshe was Demeter, or Io, and some Dione, and still others Lethe. All thewomen rushed Pentheus, in their madness seeing him as a wild beast. In a time of crisis, we tend tochallenge Dionysian behaviors more directly, as we have seen recentlybecause of the AIDS epidemic. Kisco, New York: Moyer Bell, 196 .Guthrie, W.K.C. Pentheus, the King ofThebes, unaware that he was Dionysus's cousin, ordered the band arrested,but the blind prophet Teiresias warned that this man was a god and thatPentheus should not take this action. the gods of Olympus loved order and beauty intheir sacrifices and temples, but the Maenads had no temples and insteadworshipped in the wilderness, going to the wildest mountains, the deepest forests, as if they kept to the customs of an ancient time before men had thought of building houses for their gods (Hamilton 57).In the wilderness, Dionysus provided them with food and drink, herbs anberries and the milk of the wild goat. London: Thames and Hudson, 1979.L�v�que, Pierre. We might think ofdrug abuse as another instance today. Weview certain behaviors as Dionysian, seeing these behaviors as hedonistic,unrestrained, and often as dangerous as a result. Mythology. The Greeks and Their Gods. The worst story told about him relates to his mother'scity, Thebes, where he had come to establish worship, accompanied by atrain of women dancing and singing exultant songs. The Gods of the Greeks. . These women were said to be driven mad by wine. (Guthrie 145-146).Worship of Dionysus in one of his incarnations involved the orgy. The drinking of wineremains one of the Dionysian rituals indulged in by many to excess, andsuch drinking often unleashes bestial behaviors such as were decried bythose observing followers of Dionysus centuries ago. Semele followed this advice, and when Zeus refused to comply, sherefused him access to her bed. Dionysus was a pan-Hellenic god who was widely celebratedthroughout the Archaic period and honored at dramatic contests withtragedies and comedies. In Greek mythology, Dionysus was a bastard son of Zeus. This is quite different from the freedom and licenseof the followers of Dionysus. They were also knownas the Bacchantes--the Roman version of Dionysus is Bacchus--and they wouldrush through the woods and over mountains uttering sharp cries, tearing thewild creatures they encountered to pieces and devouring the bloody shredsof flesh while they sang. The last play by Euripides that has beenpreserved, the Bacchae, represents the author's misgivings on the spread ofthe cult: It depicted the victory of Dionysus. The Greek Myths. Dionysus and his followers escape from prison,and Pentheus chases the maidens into the hills where they have fled. . Pentheus doomed himself by notlistening to this warning. . The cult of Dionysus was contrasted with and stood in opposition tothe cult of Apollo, and in Apollo followers saw only what was sane andhuman and moderate. They wouldbe seen by outsiders as being in the throes of a form of rage, or madness,which may be the origin of our word "mania" but which involves all itsvarious senses at once, that of raging love as well as raging anger. It was a state of mind, which corresponds to a need for the total abandon of the soul to the divinity, that no official cult satisfied (L�v�que 3 9). These two strands appear in opposition in our own day as well. In anger, he appeared in thunder andlighting, and Semele was consumed. The mostcommon story has it that Zeus disguised himself as a mortal and had asecret affair with Semele ("moon"), the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes.Zeus's wife, Hera, was jealous. She disguised herself as an old neighborand advised Semele to ask her lover to do her a favor by not hiding hisidentity any longer but to reveal himself to her in his true nature andform. Hermes saved her six-month-old unbornchild, however, by sewing him up inside Zeus's thigh to mature for anotherthree months, at which time the child was delivered. Mostof the Theban women had joined them, including Pentheus's mother. His was also an orgiastic cult.

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