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Cult of Dionysus

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Egyptian garment panel featuring Dionysiac themes, 5th century. The popularity of the cult of Dionysus, introduced to Egypt by the early Ptolemaic rulers in the 3rd century BC, continued into early Byzantine times (4th-7th century),
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The cult of Dionysus consisted of devotees who involved themselves in forms of ecstatic worship in reverence of Dionysus. An ecstatic ritual performed by the cult included the orgeia, a forest rite involving ecstatic dance during the night.[1] The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens were dedicated to Dionysus, as well as the phallic processions. These processions often featured villagers parading through the streets with large phallic representations.[2] The cult of Dionysus traces back to at least Mycenaean Greece, since his name is found on Mycenean Linear B tablets as 𐀇𐀺𐀝𐀰 (di-wo-nu-so).[3][4][5] However, many view Thrace and Phrygia as the birthplace of Dionysus, and therefore the concepts and rites attributed to his worship.[6] Dionysian worship was especially fervent in Thrace and parts of Greece that were previously inhabited by Thracians, such as Phocis and Boeotia.[6] Initiates worshipped him in the Dionysian Mysteries, which were comparable to and linked with the Orphic Mysteries, and may have influenced Gnosticism. It is possible that water divination was an important aspect of worship within the cult.[7]

The cult was strongly associated with satyrs, centaurs, and sileni, and its characteristic symbols were the bull, the serpent, tigers/leopards, ivy, and wine. One reason for Dionysus's association with the silent is that Silenus, a chief figure among them, was said to have taught Dionysus the art of wine-making.[8] Dionysus himself is often shown riding a leopard, wearing a leopard skin, or in a chariot drawn by panthers, and is also recognized by his iconic thyrsus. Besides the grapevine and its clashing alter-ego, the poisonous ivy plant, both sacred to him, the fig was another one of his accredited symbols. Additionally, the pinecone that topped his thyrsus linked him to Cybele, an Anatolian goddess. The Dionysian effect the god had on women also bores a resemblance to Krishna, an Indian god who enchanted female gopis with music to venture into the forest in the night.[1]

History of Practice

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The exact historical basis of the Cult of Dionysus and Dionysian rites still remain unknown, however there are some speculations. Dionysus may have traveled throughout Greece as an orpheotelestae, or a traveling healer, curing illnesses through ecstatic dance.[1] Dionysian worship in Rome was also said to have arrived via a traveling magician-priest.[1] Dionysus's ecstatic dances and drumming of the tympana, a common drum depicted on vases with maenads, is then speculated to have been the origin of the cult's own rituals.

Others speculate that the Dionysian cults sprung from the wishes of Dionysus himself. During the Hellenistic period, an inscription from Magnesia on the Meander details of the image of Dionysus being found in a plane tree.[2] The people interpreted this image as Dionysus himself seeking the establishment of his worship there.[2] Maenads were brought from Thebes to participate in the orgeia and the Bacchic thiasoi in Magnesia in the fifth century.[2] Some believe that Dionysus exists through these rites and can be evoked from dance, explaining his instigations for cult worship.[1]

Cult rituals generally included ecstatic dancing to the point of exhaustion, music, and night-wandering in nature. Delphi, Magnesia, and Miletus were cities that held active activity for the Cult of Dionysus during the first through the third centuries.[1] During the Hellenistic period, Dionysiac worshippers were often organized into three different groups named Semele, Agave, Ino and Atonoe.[2] These groups met periodically to dance and participate in rituals together in reverence of Dionysus.[2]There is an association with tragedies that occurred during these celebrations, often times they are miscontrued or associated with beliefs that these tragedies were actually part of practicing rituals.[9]

Women in the Cult of Dionysus

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Women played an especially prominent role in the cult of Dionysus, in part due to the Dionysian effect he had on women. Homer's Hymn 1 references Dionysus as "gynaimanes", or "he who drives women insane."[2] Known as maenads, women followers of Dionysus performed ecstatic forms of worship, including participation in the orgeia. Human maenadic dancers engaging in ecstatic worship were popularly depicted on Greek vases.

Maenads by Rupert Bunny, oil on canvas, c. 1913-1921. Lucien Lefebvre-Foinet, Paris.

The oreibaia, or winter dance, was a popular form of maenadic Dionysian worship that was scheduled biannually in winter. Oftentimes, for these forms of worship, Maenads would dress in fawnskin and ivy wreaths.[2] Maenads would run into the woods and, imbued with enthousiasmos, call for Dionysus or yell "ewoi", a Bacchic cry of frenzy.[1] Hair tossing, dance, and thyrsos wielding was also a common occurrence during the oreibaia.[1] In the second century, Pausanius referenced maenads who summitted Mount Parnassus, and Plutarch's De primo frigido discussed maenads worshipping and getting caught in a snowstorm,[1][2] illustrating that maenads were not mythological figures in Greek culture, but rather real women.

Violence was a prevalent facet of maenadic frenzies. Maenads would catch, kill, and eat wild animals, from snakes to bears and wolves, in the forest during their ecstatic trances, engaging in sparagmos and omophagia.[1] The Bacchae by Euripides also references the violent tendencies of maenadic worship, in which maenads mistook King Pentheus for a lion and killed him. The maenads usually killed their prey by hand, but depictions of weapons, such as a sword, have been portrayed on pyxes.[1]

The appeal the Cult of Dionysus had towards women specifically also captures the reversal of the socio-biological realm of ancient Greece. Women could not participate in much of public life, including drinking and hunting, and were forced towards domestic obligations centering the home and children.[1][2] Participating in ecstatic and violent rites suggests the subversion of the established division of labor and the occupation of a dominant role, a notion common in other festivals like the Roman Saturnalia.[1]

Bacchanalia

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Main article: Bacchanalia
Bacchus by Caravaggio

Introduced into Rome (c. 200 BC) from Magna Graecia or by way of Greek-influenced Etruria, the bacchanalia were held in secret and attended by women only, in the grove of Simila, near the Aventine Hill, on 16 and 17 March. Subsequently, admission to the rites were extended to men, and celebrations took place five times per month. The notoriety of these festivals, where many kinds of crimes and political conspiracies were supposed to be planned, led in 186 BC to a decree of the Senate—the so-called Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, inscribed on a bronze tablet discovered in Calabria (1640), now at Vienna—by which the Bacchanalia were prohibited throughout all Italy except in certain special cases which must be approved specifically by the Senate. In spite of the severe punishment inflicted on those found in violation of this decree, the Bacchanalia were not stamped out, at any rate in the south of Italy, for a very long time.

Dionysus is equated with both Bacchus and Liber (also Liber Pater). Liber ("the free one") was a god of fertility, wine, and growth, married to Libera. His festival was the Liberalia, celebrated on 17 March, but in some myths the festival was also held on 5 March.

Appellations

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Marble head of Dionysus in the Capitoline Museums, Rome

Dionysus sometimes has the epithet Acratophorus', by which he was designated as the giver of unmixed wine, and worshipped at Phigaleia in Arcadia.[10][11] In Sicyon he was worshiped by the name Acroreites.[12] As Bacchus, he carried the Latin epithet Adoneus', "Ruler".[13] Aegobolus, "goat killer", was the name under which he was worshiped at Potniae in Boeotia.[14] As Aesymnetes ("ruler" or "lord") he was worshipped at Aroë and Patrae in Achaea. Another epithet was Bromios, "the thunderer" or "he of the loud shout". As Dendrites, "he of the trees", he is a powerful fertility god. Dithyrambos is sometimes used to refer to him or to solemn songs sung to him at festivals; the name refers to his premature birth. Eleutherios ("the liberator") was an epithet for both Dionysus and Eros. Other forms of the god as regarding fertility include the epithet in Samos and Lesbos Enorches' ("with balls"[15] or perhaps "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the infant Dionysus into his thigh, i.e., his testicles).[16] Evius is an epithet of his used prominently in Euripides' play, The Bacchae. Iacchus (Greek: Ἴακχος), 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 iacchus, a hymn sung in honor of him.[17] With the epithet Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan"), he is a fertility god connected with the mystery religions. A winnowing fan was similar to a shovel and was used to separate the chaff from the grain. In addition, Dionysus is known as Lyaeus ("he who unties") as a god of relaxation and freedom from worry and as Oeneus, he is the god of the wine press.

In the Greek pantheon, Dionysus (along with Zeus) absorbs the role of Sabazios, a Phrygian deity. In the Roman pantheon, Sabazius became an alternate name for Bacchus.[18]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Ehrenreich, Barbara (1 January 2006). Dancing in the Streets. United States: Metropolitan Books (published 2025). pp. 33, 35–37, 39, 40–41. ISBN 978080505723270718693. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kraemer, Ross S. (April 1979). "Ecstasy and Possession: The Attraction of Women to the Cult of Dionysus". Harvard Theological Review. 72 (1–2): 55–80. doi:10.1017/S0017816000029783. ISSN 1475-4517.
  3. ^ Raymoure, K.A. "di-wo-nu-so". Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean. Archived from the original on 16 March 2014.
  4. ^ Adams, John Paul (2005). "Dionysos". California State University.
  5. ^ Kerenyi (1976).
  6. ^ a b Otto, Walter F.; Palmer, Robert B. (1995). Dionysos: myth and cult. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20891-0.
  7. ^ Edson, Charles (1948). "Cults of Thessalonica (Macedonica III)". The Harvard Theological Review. 41 (3): 153–204. doi:10.1017/S0017816000019441. ISSN 0017-8160. JSTOR 1508109.
  8. ^ Poliakova, O. O.; Asotskyi, V. V. (28 May 2019). "Dionysus Cult as a Prototype of Autonomous Gender". Anthropological Measurements of Philosophical Research (15): 155–165. doi:10.15802/ampr.v0i15.168865. ISSN 2304-9685.
  9. ^ Scullion S. ‘Nothing to do with Dionysus’: tragedy misconceived as ritual. The Classical Quarterly. 2002;52(1):102-137. doi:10.1093/cq/52.1.102 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/classical-quarterly/ article/abs/nothing-to-do-with-dionysus-tragedy-misconceived-as-ritual/5DAA79F27A1487E1122CD9EC6356C584
  10. ^ Pausanias, viii. 39. § 4
  11. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Acratophorus", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, MA, p. 14{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Ακρωρεία
  13. ^ Ausonius, Epigr. xxix. 6
  14. ^ Pausanias, ix. 8. § 1.
  15. ^ Kerenyi 1976:286.
  16. ^ Jameson 1993, 53. Cf.n16 for suggestions of Devereux on "Enorkhes".
  17. ^ Ἴακχος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  18. ^ Rosemarie Taylor-Perry, The God Who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited. Algora Press 2003, p. 89, cf. Sabazius.

References

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