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DIONYSUS.
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Greek god. Traits, Positive & negative qualities, myths, masks, powers, dismemberment, compared to Orphic religion & related to Christianity.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Greek god. Traits, Positive & negative qualities, myths, masks, powers, dismemberment, compared to Orphic religion & related to Christianity.
Paper Introduction:
Greek mythology scholars have called Dionysus the most cosmopolitan of the Greek gods. According to the ambassador of King Seleucus, who, like Alexander, discovered India and its divinities, only Dionysus could match the power of the god Siva. Both Dionysus and Siva were thought to be benevolent as well as terrible. They were viewed as terrible because they reaped death in every victim sacrificed. Also, when some contemporaries of Plutarch, the Gentiles, evoked the god of Israel, they named Dionysus as the overseer of the harvest and the gathering of fruits (Detienne, 1989, p. 1).
Of all the Greek gods, Dionysus is the least sedentary. Dionysus was conceived in Thebes by the mortal woman, Semele, who carried him there in her belly for several months. Since he was a nomadic god, he never resided in his birthplace. However,-
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Creation and salvation in ancientorphism. 17). Then Zeus shot down an angry thunderbolt and killed theTitans, and the race of men sprang from their ashes. One thing which Orpheus believed, which was later adopted byPlato, was that there are three elements in life. According to an Orphic poet, the Titans tore Dionysus to piecesand ate his flesh. 5). Even Plato wrote about the elements of Orphic religion which areconcerned with being reborn. Also, when some contemporaries ofPlutarch, the Gentiles, evoked the god of Israel, they named Dionysus asthe overseer of the harvest and the gathering of fruits (Detienne, 1989, p.1). Orpheus was also linked to Argo during existence of classicalcivilization. But Dionysus has clouded Lykourgos'vision, and so Lykourgos has really just chopped at Lykourgos' own son, avine child, instead of the vine. So, the name of the god Orpheus arises in the myth of thedismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans. The mad Lykourgosraised a two-headed hatchet and tried to chop the vine. The Dionysian artificers. Of all the Greek gods, Dionysus is the least sedentary. But the disciples of Orpheus (butno other renouncers) believe that Dionysus' heart was somehow hidden justbefore Dionysus was devoured, and that his heart was contained in the bodyof a strangled child. In contrast, Dionysus required the sacrificingof children in rituals as opposed to establishing teaching methods andphilosophies, as in Orphic religion. (At that time,Greek medicine was unaware of how contagious diseases spread, and soDionysus was thought to have done convulsive dancing in the villages andspread dionysism in the form of diseases) Dionysus was a god who spilledblood and madness. In Greek mythology, Orpheus appears before Homer and Hesiod, andOrpheus was apparently regarded as more ancient and venerable than theywere. Mothers who were afflicted with his mysterious epidemic diseaseswould gather to decide which one of them would chop the limbs from a childand offer that child to satisfy the desire of Dionysus. 4). Thus it is orphism, more than thedionysiac religion, that is the predecessor to Christian beliefs. This myth is regarded as the very core and genesis of Orphicreligion. Berkeley and LosAngeles: University of California Press. Dionysus fell from heaven, and his ship loomed on thesea's horizon. Dionysos at large. But the Proitos refused to give Melampous two-thirds of his kingdom aspayment for Melampous' services, and so the malady which affected theking's three daughters became worse. xxii). Wuellner, Wilhelm. Orphismmaintained that the body and soul are divisible; thus they could be dividedmany times into many bodies and souls. But Dionysus is not all bad. 16). Whenever Dionysus started to bear resentment toward someone whorecognized him too late, the priest of Dionysus chased the Minyades womenand was "permitted to kill any woman whom he catches in the chase"(Detienne, 1989, p. However, Orphic religion and poetrysuggested that the mind was a unified organ which always remained united.For Orpheus, the mind was an organ which perceived all things as one andwhich comprehended all intelligible things by a single thought or act.According to Orphic poems, the mind came from the single heart of Dionysus,which resided in the cosmos after Dionysus was gone. The arts of Orpheus. He wasalmost always called a stranger, even when visiting his birthplace, Thebes. Some scholars report that Orpheus was the god who first broughtEastern religion to the Greeks (da Costa, 1936, p. Dionysus disguised himself as a young girl andpleaded with them to engage in god's rites and mysteries, but they did notpay any attention and thus provoked his wrath. 6). Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press. Villagerstold many stories about him, and most of the tales were more terrifyingthan joyful. Dionysus wasalways on the move, and Dionysus also loved to change form so as to add anelement of surprise to his visits. Warden, John. Lykourgos responded by turning all the land sterile. da Costa, Hippolyto Joseph. And, the new element which the Orphics introduced toGreece was the belief that the world was created, and that the world'screator existed prior to the creation of the world (Alderink, 1981, p. 5). The Orphic poetry contained manyallegories, and their style was fanciful and elaborate. (1989). So, after Orpheusand his poetic illusions had disappeared, his imaginative style wasrecounted by the Neoplatonists, who also incorporated ancient myths intotheir poetry. Greek mythology scholars have called Dionysus the most cosmopolitanof the Greek gods. 2). In Dionysian religion, the heart is a muscle that stays in the bodyof a possessed person and constantly leaps within that body. Orphism isdistinct from the Greek god Dionysus because according to Greek mythology,Dionysus was a Greek god who had been destroyed by the Titans, whereasOrpheus and the Orphic poetry maintain that Dionysus had been reborn usingthe same soul. The guilty kingwas then left to die in one of Dionysus' territories. Dionysus wasconceived in Thebes by the mortal woman, Semele, who carried him there inher belly for several months. According to followers of orphism, after the Titans slaughterDionysus on a table, they eat him whole. After most of the women in thekingdom disappeared in the woods, Melampous was paid his two-thirds shareof the kingdom. Orphism and Bacchic mysteries.Berkeley, CA: Center for Hermeneutical Studies in Hellenistic and ModemCulture.----------------------- 1 But, according to author Wilhelm Wuellner, in his book, Orphism andBacchic Mysteries, Orpheus is a Greek mythological figure who, in the lightof Neoplatonic tradition, is viewed as a founder of mysteries in whichhighest spiritual insights were expounded in an enigmatic, allegoricallanguage (1977, p. 3). Other myths depict Dionysus being denied his rights in several placesas he wanders the countryside. Orphicsascribed a soul to humans alone. Detienne, Marcel. The name Orpheusindicates that he was a dark person. p. Greek myths portrayed Orpheus as a religious teacher (although he waslater portrayed in folklore as a lover who braved the power of darkness tofind his loved one). Even as late as the firstcentury A.D., Greeks were still making sacrifices of human flesh to appeaseDionysus. 14). However,- when he wears the mask of the god, he is notvery mobile because he dons many medals and becomes shrouded in incense(Detienne, 1989, p. But Dionysus is not confined to Tmolos; Dionysus also visits Argos,Lesbos, Eleutherai, Olympia, Thasos, Delphi, Orchomenos, and a mysteriousisland off of the Atlantic coast (Detienne, 1989, p. And he has a second mother, the goddessRhea. (1982). In essence, Dionysus was the god who arrives: he appears,manifests himself, and makes his presence known. The heart isviewed as an organ that forms because blood which flows through itcondenses and forms life itself--or ends life. Many times his arrivals were marked by confusion, hostility,and conflict. Instead, they abandoned their father's palace andwandered throughout his kingdom. Greek mythologists credit him withextending the doctrine which was created by Dionysus, called Dionysianreligion. As the god who ruled over fountains of wine, he attended manyofficial feasts, and none of the other gods was surprised by his arrival.He is clearly both the god of wine and the god of the vine. Orphism is distinct from Dionysiac religion insofar as the Orphics did notcenter around cultic practices. Thediseased women need to be purified from disease. This story was told in many Orphic poems as well as bythe Neoplatonists (Linforth, 1941, p. Another distinction between orphism and the dionysiac religion isthat the followers of Orpheus believed in the idea of a postmortemexistence. I). xxiii). Rhea lived on the outskirts of Sardis and the slopes of Tmolos, andDionysus would visit her there and mix water with wine before giving it toher. The earliest texts which detailthis myth are found in Diodorus and Philodemus, although the myth itself isthought to be older than some of these third century writings (Linforth,1941, p. Whereas the Dionysiac experience appearsto aim at the transcending of time, "in the Orphic case there was theawareness of a body, allied to the universe, which receives a soul whichpre-exists and post-exists that body" (Alderink, 1981, p. This is another distinction between dionysiacreligion and orphism: in the former religion, Dionysus dies at the hands ofthe Titans, whereas in the mythology of the latter religion, Dionysus isborn a second time, but with the same soul. Dionysus was the god who appeared in the form of a maladywhich first attacked the king's daughter. He would often lead a female army which would storm thegates of any city (Detienne, 1989, p. Wuellner believes that the pagan Orphic religion had an influence onearly Christian literature, yet it was older, at least in parts, than theGreek god Homer. According to the ambassador of King Seleucus, who, likeAlexander, discovered India and its divinities, only Dionysus could matchthe power of the god Siva. Plato believed that an Orphic rebirth led tothe perfection of a person's inner consciousness through the learning ofspecific religious principles (da Costa, 1936, p. Thus Dionysus isa god with a split personality; and each personality has separate anddistinct powers which make him a double god. This wasthe case with King Orchomenos' three daughters, who refused to recognizeDionysus' divine nature. This theory is only upheld inorphism. And, unlike Orpheus, Dionysus couldwear a mask of any strange power that he chose, so he was never surewhether anyone would recognize him when he went from village to village.The only drawback to wearing these different masks of strange powers wasthat Dionysus was also never sure whether he would be allowed membership inthe race of gods. This myth explains the Orphicbelief that man is divine (or at least the part of man that came fromDionysus). The chasing ritual was also used by the disciplesof the god Orpheus, who also gave prominence to Dionysus (Detienne, 1989,p. In 462 B.C., Pindar listed Orpheus as one of the crew whosailed from Greece to save the Golden Fleece on the voyage of Argo. Victims weresacrificed to Dionysus on alters. Melampous was summoned to bring hismedicinal herbs, perform incantations, and purify the women in the kingdom. (1977). Greek mythsportray him dancing, leaping, grabbing, and sowing madness. Also, Orpheus appears differently in later centuries,for example, some legends say that he was a historical figure, a musician.And one Roman poet, Horace, perceived Orpheus as a spokesman of the godswho existed during the times when men lived wild; Horace wrote: "The sacredOrpheus, scared them from their foul and murderous ways; and so the legendssays: Ravening lions and tigers Orpheus tamed" (Warden, 1982, p. Dionysus is a wandering god who roams freelythroughout villages and provinces. 88). Although Orphism is only one part of the complex Greekmysteries, it is unique because that religion believed in a postmortemworld which is different from the present world. The mind was thought to be something that was created by Dionysus,the god who was divided. Orphism emergedas a kind of church with sacred books, priests, and even doctrines aboutoriginal sin and salvation. What makes Dionysus distinct from the other gods, like Orpheus, isthat Dionysus was often unrecognized by the people who needed his help.For example, on one occasion, Dionysus arrived at the home of Lykourgos inthe city of Thebes. In this tale, not a woman in thekingdom was spared the malady. WhenLykourgos regained his faculties, he realized that he had murdered his ownson. Lykourgos choppedviolently at the vine again and again. They were viewed as terrible because theyreaped death in every victim sacrificed. As Greek myths tell it, the three daughters of Proitos, king of theArgolid, grew up and went mad. Whenever Dionysus is denied his godlyrights, women go mad with disease and flee their villages in a frenzy. This myth explainsthat men have two sides to them: an evil side that comes from the Titans,and a good and divine side that comes from the parts of Dionysus which theTitans ate immediately before their death. Proitos was distraught and called arenowned soothsayer, Melampous. Unlike othergods, Dionysus bad no lair, no throne, no sanctuary entrance or well-littemple to call home. According to author Ivan M.Linforth, in his book, The Arts of Orpheus, the myth of Dionysus'dismemberment appeared more than once, including references to it in Orphicpoetry. Orphism can thus be viewed as a pre-Homeric and quasi-Christian form of religion, whereas the god of Dionysus and the sacrificeswhich he required were purely products of Greek mythology. Chico, CA: Scholars Press. (1941). However, although all of thestories agree on the dismemberment theory, many of them differ in thedetails surrounding the death of Dionysus. Thus, the story of Dionysus' dismemberment became an important partof Orphic religion. He is the godwho snatches his victim by surprise, and trips his prey before murderingand defiling it. Dionysus waited until Lykourgos cut thelimbs from his son before Dionysus restored Lykourgos' reason. The disease brought by Dionysus took onepidemic proportions in the kingdom (Detienne, 1989, p. When the women are notcured, they return to their homes and murder their own children. Orpheus: The metamorphoses of a myth.Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Gradually this ritual changed and wasreplaced by another ritual which was performed by the descendants of theMinyades. Lykourgos did notrecognize the stranger who came with a vine in his hand. Then the stranger,Dionysus, threw a cloud in front of Lykourgos and blocked his vision;Lykourgos struck what he believed to be the vine. Then the daughters refused to honor thewill of Dionysus. Since Dionysus' heart had not disappeared, as theTitans had intended, Dionysus was reborn. Dionysus often traveled with a panther, with whom he also shared hiswine. Dionysus also got a lot of attention wherever he went. (1936). The Orphic poems form a considerable body of literature, and Platoderived much of his work from them. Dionysus also rules overfountains of wine that are effervescent and intoxicating. (This aspect of orphism seems similar to Christianity'sheaven and hell.) In orphism, evil may exist in the world, but it does notexist in the cosmos. LosAngeles: Philosophical Research Society Press. Villagers and kings would not recognize him and could accusehim of being a foreigner; sometimes he was rejected outright and othertimes he was persecuted as a fake god (Detienne, 1989, p. The line of demarcationbetween the two worlds consisted of a judgment, and after the judgmentthere were two destinations: one for souls whose penalty was paid for byPersephone's grief and another for souls still tainted by failure to followan Orphic life. The presence of Dionysus in a province signified that he was takingsome action. References Alderink, Larry J. Dionysus could be presentanywhere--all geography was suited to his mobile activities. Since he was a nomadic god, he never residedin his birthplace. The three elements tolife that Orpheus believed in were the body, mind, and soul. Both Dionysus and Siva were thought to bebenevolent as well as terrible. (1981). 323). 6 ). 3 9). After he arrived, the royal palace began to totter andits roof began to dance. The first thing that iscreated by the embryo is the heart, even before other parts of the body.And even after death the heart continues to beat--up until the second that,it disappears in the same manner that it mysteriously appeared at birth.The palpitating heart is so closely associated with Dionysus and his powerthat, in orphic theology, the heart is responsible for the rebirth ofDionysus (after he had already been killed and devoured by the Titans)(Detienne, 1989. 3 8). Linforth, Ivan M. Linforth explains what the Orphic religionperceived the mind to be: "since the cosmos, which is the result ofdivision, is the body of Dionysus, that part of the body which is undividedmust be in the cosmos and not transcendent" (p. He also is the god of vinesthat miraculously ripen in a single day. 2). Lykourgos was thentom apart by wild horses (Detienne, 1989, p. But,in the early centuries of the Christian era, a poem called OrphicArgonautica is supposedly sung by Orpheus (Warden, 1982, p. Then Lykourgos went mad. 91).
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