Myth Topic 10
Fertility: Dionysus / Bacchus
god
of wine, life force,
instinct
replace Hestia
to become one of the twelve?
Male fertility –
IVY, phallus, horns of the bull
Sources—
little
in Homer (and he's always presented as a “new god”)
people
used to take this literally
BUT, he shows up in Linear B tablets (c. 1300 BC)
Two
Homeric Hymns
Apollodorus
gives details, and Ovid tells some of his stories
Most important—Euripides Bacchae,
c 406BC
Life:
Zeus in love with Semele, princess of Thebes,
daughter of Cadmus
Semele asks to see Zeus in his glory, and is burnt to a
crisp
fetus
is saved; Zeus' thigh—twice born god
Given to aunt Ino
and king Athamas
dresses
him in Girl's clothes
Hera finds them and drives
them insane
Athamas
kills son
Ino
boils son—becomes sea-goddess
Zeus makes him a goat
gives
him to the nymphs of Nysa
(somewhere
exotic—Ethiopia, India, Far East)
Wandering of Dionysus
He discovers wine making
Hera makes him mad—
in
a delirium he spreads the art of wine
making
Comes to Phrygia
Cybele
cures him and teaches him her rites
orgiastic,
dancing, music of tambourines and flutes
wears
effeminate clothing
heads
east with Bacchae
(Bacchantes) –crazed women
aka
Thyiades, Maenads
orig.
horse like; later goatish; erect phalluses
Carry the Thyrsus—staff
with ivy topped with pine
cone
Cart drawn by panthers (like Cybele)
Stop in Phrygia on their way back
west--
reward
Midas for his hospitality with one
wish
golden
touch; gets cured
Marries Ariadne,
daughter of King Minos
Resistance to
Dionysus
theme of many of
his myths
he is associated
with the EAST—like Aphrodite
his religion is
seen as NEW
in
Homer—story of Lycurgus
Illiad 6.124-146
successfully
expels Dionysus and Bacchae
but
he's struck blind and dies
Resistance by
women:
Minyads resistance: (daughters of king Minyas)
fills the
room with freakiness- an acid trip
ivy,
myrrh, cymbals, nectar and milk dripping
they
cast lots and tear a child to pieces and eat him, and join the Bacchae
Proetids daughters of King Proetus
refuse to
accept
struck
with leprosy—extreme itching
think
they are cows
Proetus
refuses to pay Melampus 1/3 the kingdom
Proetids
start eating their infants
now the price in 2/3
Dionysus and the Pirates (Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, c. 7th
c BC)
Thinks he's a good looking rich boy, try
to tie him up for ransom
ropes
won't hold him
helmsman suspects
he's a god
captain
tells him to shut up
Wonders appear
wine
gurgles
Ivy—flowers; Lion, bear
captain's
slaughtered
men
jump overboard—dolphins
to
the helmsman he's revealed
Euripides
Bacchae—know
this; read carefully
Thebes—his home
returns
with his cult; to spread it; and to get REVENGE
Agave – Autonoe (“Aftinoe”) — Ino
→ aunts who denied Semele's claim to
sleep with Zeus
spell
of madness they join the Bacchae
King Pentheus--
reason against disorder-- refuses to accept
Dionysus tells his story
Pentheus—a
godless man (line 50)
Old Cadmus and Tiresias
accept the cult
try
to persuade Pentheus
Dionysus vs Pentheus-- agon
fast
paced dialogue
cuts
off his hair, takes his thyrus
Clap of thunder-- Dionysus is freed
–palace collapses
Messenger's image of the Bacchae:
not
indecent, but wearing fawnskin held with snakes
nursing
baby animals
water and wine flowing from rocks and the ground
messenger
and men flee
Bacchae
ripe cattle to shreds with their bare hands
steal babies
line 770
ff.
Dionysus casts spell over Pentheus; he goes along
I'd like to go watch,
“disgust at seeing all those women drunk”
okay—dress
like a woman; wig
let
me fix your hair; “is this right?”
Messenger reports:
“Bacchae,
I bring you enemy and mine
who
mocks our sacred orgies. Avenge our
wrongs”
Agave, in particular, his mother
tears him to shreds
“look,
mother, it's me!”
She celebrates with his head
thinking
that it's a mountain lion
presents
it to Cadmus, but the madness goes away
Cadmus, etc. are punished,
but ultimately forgiven
Rationality vs.
ecstatic passion in Athens 405 BC
Observations
EASTERN: names Semele;
thyrsus; Bacchus
from
Thrace, or Phrygia?
But is it really a new myth?
Linear B
Foreign, yes, but
well established by historical period
Homer's just not
interested
Meanings:
etiological
to explain the spread of vine-growing?
Many folktale elements (Midas;
stepmother (Hera)
God of fertility: god of blossoms;
vine; animals known for their virility
cf. Demeter: fertile, but
dry
Dionysus is all wet –
liquids; water, blood, semen, milk, wine
Fertility: of the Dumuzi-type –death and rebirth
“twice
born god”
Unique: Stories of Rejection of his Cult
his
stories take place on EARTH, with humans, who don't like him
and
he brings revenge
but
none of the myths blame him
Even his supporters can end
up mad or dead
disaster
lies in his wake
Destruction, but life and
resurrection as well
“destroyer
of men” “he who eats raw flesh”
“god
of many joys” giver of riches” “the benefactor”
Madness as punishment; but also
gift
These are foreign to the Athenian Greeks
– rationality
Greek aversion to the violent,
irrational side of human nature
The Cult of Dionysus
His very real presence on earth, among
human beings
“he who
comes”
intense
emotional reaction to his presence
enthousiasmos
ekstasis
“standing outside of oneself”
direct
communion with god
cf. charismatic Christianities
—speaking in
tongues
Crowd-based experience-- mob mentality
tearing of
flesh/eating of flesh
(originally
cannibalistic?)
Special appeal to women
because
they're more irrational?
Because of the freedom it allows
from an oppressive limiting life
Sexual freedom, for women
really
angers Hera
Genuine political threat at various times
in Greece and Rome
Christians later associate Dionysus with
the devil
(goatish –Pan)
But, early Christianity
almost certainly borrowed many of its themes from Dionysian cults:
·
Twice born god—death and rebirth
·
flesh-eating; wine drinking
·
Direct experience of God by ALL (big
diff from ancient Judaism)
·
Images of Dionysus were often
reinterpreted as Christ images
12th c
AD play Christus Patiens: make a play about Jesus with words from the Bacchae
Dionysus and
Theatre
many of his
myths are best preserved in play
Spring festival of Dionysus in Athens
tragedies
performed here
Tragedy general traced to Dionysian
cults?
“goat
song?”
Although, Aristotle tells us about
Thespis (late 6th BC)
added
prologue and speech to a chorus
invented
tragedy?
Introduced the “protagonist”
Aeschylus added the “second actor”
Sophocles added the third
Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy
“rebirth” of Dionysian
interest in Greeks
rationality
is not the whole story
Aristotle is not the typical
Greek
Comedy—a separate (older?) development
generally
not mythical—political and social
