Dionysus
God of Wine , Music &
ecstasy .
Birth of Dionysus
Dionysus is the only god
to have a human mother.
Semele was the daughter of
Cadmus, king of Thebes.
Zeus sewed the embryo
into his thigh and birthed
it himself.
Seduced by Zeus, she
inspired Hera’s jealousy.
Hera tricked her into
asking Zeus to show
himself to her in his true
form. Exposed to divine
reality, she was burned up.
Only the glowing embryo
of Dionysus remained.
Birth of Dionysus
As Athena’s birth from
Zeus’s head signifies her
intellect and purity,
Dionysus’ birth from Zeus’s
thigh associates him with
physical sensation and
chaotic sexuality.
Also a little bit of gender
bending.
Dionysus was raised by various nymphs and other
woodland creatures. Here Hermes brings him to Silenus,
the old, forest-living, wine-loving satyr often shown in
the god’s retinue.
Appearance of Dionysus
Dionysus may be shown as a
bearded older man . . .
. . . or as a sensual, even
effeminate, beardless
youth.
Flexible age image, as
with Hermes.
The Nature of Dionysus
This dual nature,
especially the
effeminate aspect, was
a little scary.
The wild, effeminate portrayal
of Dionysus emphasizes the
threat of ecstatic experience to
what is dignified and proper.
Greek mythology
emphasized the foreign,
Eastern origins of
Dionysus, but
archeological evidence
suggests he is as old as
the other Greek gods.
“The East” was a symbol
of decadence and
extremes.
The Nature of Dionysus
On the other hand, the Greeks
regarded a little drunken partying
as a good thing.
In the Anthesteria, a 3-day
Athenian festival, much of the
second day was devoted to wine
tasting and drinking contests,
open to all men above the age of
three, slave and free alike.
Dionysus matched Demeter’s gift of grain, with wine. He turned
the grapes into a flowing drink and offered it to mortals, so when
they fill themselves with the liquid vine, they put an end to grief.
Euripides, Bacchae
The Nature of Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of drama, which embodied aspects
of ecstasy (“standing outside oneself”): the actors
impersonated mythological characters, and the audience
experienced feelings and emotions incited by the plays.
catharsis, or
emotional
release, is
one of the
things
Dionysus
offers.
The Nature of Dionysus
But
drama
was also
a civic,
community
thing.
Major civic festivals, such as the dramatic festivals of Lenaia
and Dionysia, as well as the more “sober” parts of the
Anthesteria, emphasized Dionysus’ role as a god whose
power supported a well balanced life, both family and civic.
Dionysus & the
Pirates
First of all a sweet and
fragrant wine flowed
through the black ship,
and a divine ambrosial
odor arose . . .
immediately a vine spread
in all directions from the
top of the sail, with many
clusters hanging down . . .
the sailors escaped an evil
fate and leaped into the
shining sea and became
dolphins. Homeric Hymn to
Dionysus
Dionysus & his retinue
Dionysus is thought of
as accompanied by
not-quite-human
satyrs (half-man, halfgoat). Satyrs are
another symbol of the
mysterious powers of
nature and the wild.
Satyrs are a little bit
crazy, often oversexed, fond of wine.
Pan is the
quintessential satyr.
Dionysus &
his retinue
Satyrs and nymphs
accompany the god.
The satyrs play
musical instruments
and the nymphs are
shown dancing with
krotala (castanets).
Attributes:
•wine cup
•music &
dance
•nymphs &
satyrs
•trailing ivy
Music and dance are
essential to
Dionysiac
celebration.
Dionysus &
his retinue
Maenads are a
key feature of
Dionysus’
retinue.
Attributes:
•fawn skin or
panther skin
(dappled,
“camouflage”)
•thyrsus
(pinecone or
ivy-tipped rod,
kinda phallic)
•mastery over
& connection
•wild, ecstatic
with wild
dancing, head
animals
turned up or back
Ariadne
Dionysus married Ariadne, the daughter of the king of
Crete, when he found her sleeping on Naxos
Euripides’ Bacchae
Major characters:
Dionsysus: The god is
disguised as his own priest.
Pentheus: The young king
of Thebes. He wants to run
his city in a strict, orderly
fashion.
Euripides wrote the
Bacchae at the end of his
life. It is one of his most
masterful plays and shows
the tension between the
drive to live a normal,
controlled life, and the
divine power of chaos that
Dionysus brings.
Bacchae: the chorus, a
group of women who
followed their god from
Asia, sleeping in the woods,
dancing, and hunting.
Euripides’ Bacchae
Cadmus, the oldking of
Thebes (Pentheus’ &
Dionysus’ grandfather)
Tiresias, the old blind
seer: two old men who,
ridiculous though it is,
have recognized the
god’s power and are
dancing in celebration of
him.
Chorus: What is wisdom? What is beauty? Slowly but surely the
divine power moves to annul the brutally minded man who in his
wild delusions refuses to reverence the gods. . . Euripides, Bacchae
Euripides’ Bacchae
It’s a foregone
conclusion: Pentheus
cannot fight the
power of the god;
brainwashed and
driven insane, he
participates in his
own sparagmos . . .
The innocent suffer
too, as his mother
and grandfather are
bereaved, despite
accepting the god.
•What principles fuel
the conflict between
Pentheus and
Dionysus?
•Are these inevitable
conflicts of the
human soul?
•What is wisdom,
according to the
Dionysiac
perspective?
•Maenads’ speech p. 277 ff – what is happiness?
What are the driving forces of their lives?
•How do Tiresias and Cadmus feel about
Dionysus? What are their reasons for following
him despite the fact that it makes them
ridiculous?
•What views about morality and how to
enforce it, arise in the conversation of
Dionysus and Pentheus on p. 281-2?
•What does the end of the play, with the
destruction of Pentheus, say about the nature
of Dionysus in specific, and the gods in general?
So hail to you,
Dionysus, rich in
grape clusters; grant
that we may in our
joy go through
these seasons again
and again for many
years. Homeric Hymn
to Dionysus
Dionysian
Dionysian is a philosophical and literary concept, or
dichotomy, based on certain features of ancient Greek
mythology. Several Western philosophical and literary
figures have invoked this dichotomy in critical and
creative works, including Plutarch, Friedrich Nietzsche,
Carl Jung, Franz Kafka, Robert A. Heinlein, Ruth
Benedict, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, singers Jim
Morrison and Iggy Pop, literary critic G. Wilson
Knight, Ayn Rand, Stephen King, Michael Pollan,
Diane Wakoski, Umberto Eco and cultural critic
Camille Paglia.
In Greek mythology, Apollo and Dionysus are both
sons of Zeus. Apollo is the god of the Sun, dreams,
reason, and plastic visual arts while Dionysus is the
god of wine, music, ecstasy, and intoxication. In the
modern literary usage of the concept, the contrast
between Apollo and Dionysus symbolizes principles
of collectivism versus individualism, light versus
darkness, or civilization versus primitivism. The
ancient Greeks did not consider the two gods to be
opposites or rivals. However, Parnassus, the mythical
home of poetry and all art, was strongly associated
with each of the two gods in separate legends.
German philosophy
Although the use of the concepts of Apollonian and
Dionysian is famously related to Nietzsche's The Birth of
Tragedy, the terms were used before him in Prussia.[1]
The poet Hölderlin used it, while Winckelmann talked
of Bacchus, the god of wine.
Nietzsche's usage
Nietzsche's aesthetic usage of the concepts, which was
later developed philosophically, was first developed in his
book The Birth of Tragedy, which he published in 1872.
His major premise here was that the fusion of Dionysian
and Apollonian "Kunsttrieben" ("artistic impulses") forms
dramatic arts, or tragedies. He goes on to argue that that
has not been achieved since the ancient Greek tragedians.
Nietzsche is adamant that the works of above all
Aeschylus, and also Sophocles, represent the apex of
artistic creation, the true realization of tragedy; it is with
Euripides, he states, that tragedy begins its "Untergang"
(literally "going under", meaning decline, deterioration,
downfall, death, etc.). Nietzsche objects to Euripides' use
of Socratic rationalism in his tragedies, claiming that the
infusion of ethics and reason robs tragedy of its
foundation, namely the fragile balance of the Dionysian.
Nietzsche claimed in The Birth of Tragedy, in the interplay
of Greek Tragedy: the tragic hero of the drama, the main
protagonist, struggles to make order (in the Apollonian
sense) of his unjust and chaotic (Dionysian) Fate, though
he dies unfulfilled in the end. For the audience of such a
drama, Nietzsche claimed, this tragedy allows us to sense
an underlying essence, what he called the "Primordial
Unity", which revives our Dionysian nature - which is
almost indescribably pleasurable. Though he later dropped
this concept saying it was “...burdened with all the errors
of youth” (Attempt at Self Criticism, §2), the overarching
theme was a sort of metaphysical solace or connection to
the heart of creation, so to speak.
Different from Kant's idea of the sublime, the Dionysian is all-inclusive
rather than alienating to the viewer as a sublimating experience. The
sublime needs critical distance, whereas the Dionysian demands a
closeness of experience. According to Nietzsche, the critical distance,
which separates man from his closest emotions, originates in
Apollonian ideals, which in turn separate him from his essential
connection with self. The Dionysian embraces the chaotic nature of
such experience as all-important; not just on its own, but as it is
intimately connected with the Apollonian. The Dionysian magnifies
man, but only so far as he realizes that he is one and the same with all
ordered human experience. The godlike unity of the Dionysian
experience is of utmost importance in viewing the Dionysian as it is
related to the Apollonian because it emphasizes the harmony that can
be found within one’s chaotic experiences.
Post-modern reading
Nietzsche's idea has been interpreted as an expression of
fragmented consciousness or existential instability by a
variety of modern and post-modern writers, especially
Martin Heidegger in Nietzsche and the Post-modernists.
According to Peter Sloterdijk, the Dionysian and the
Apollonian form a dialectic; they are contrasting, but
Nietzsche does not mean one to be valued more than the
other. Truth being primordial pain, our existential being is
determined by the Dionysian/Apollonian dialectic.
Extending the use of the Apollonian and Dionysian onto an
argument on interaction between the mind and physical
environment, Abraham Akkerman has pointed to
masculine and feminine features of city form.
‫نیچه یکی از نمونه های عالی خرمندی بینای دیونوسوسی را در حافظ‬
‫می یابد‪.‬نام حافظ ده بار در مجموعه ی آثار وی آمده است‪.‬در نوشته‬
‫های نیچه حافظ را به عنوان قله ی خردمندی شادمانی انسانی می‬
‫ستاید‪.‬حافظ نزد او نماینده ی آن آزاده جانی شرقی ست که با وجد‬
‫دیونوسوسی‪،‬با نگاهی تراژیک‪،‬زندگی را با شور سرشار می ستاید‪،‬به‬
‫ّلذت های آن روی می کند و ‪،‬در همان حال به خطرها و بالهای آن‬
‫پشت نمی کند ‪.‬این ها‪ ،‬از دید نیچه‪،‬ویژگی های رویکرد مثبت و‬
‫دلیرانه‪،‬با رویکرد"تراژیک" به زندگی ست‬
‫به حافظ‪،‬پرسش یک آبنوش" "'‬
‫‪An Hafis. Frage eines‬‬
‫"‪Wassertrinkers‬‬
‫بهر خویش بنا کرده ای‬
‫آن می خانه ای که تو از ِ‬
‫گنجاتر از هر خانه ای ست‪،‬‬
‫می ای که تو در آن پرورده ای‬
‫همه‪-‬عالم آن را َسر کشیدن نتواند‪.‬‬
‫آن پرنده ای که[نام اش] روزگاری ققنوس بود‪،‬‬
‫میهمان توست‪،‬‬
‫در خانه‬
‫ِ‬
‫آن موش که کوه زاد‪،‬‬
‫همان‪ -‬خود تو ای!‬
‫همه و هیچ تو ای‪،‬می و می خانه تو ای‪،‬‬
‫ققنوس تو ای‪،‬موش تو ای‪،‬کوه تو ای‪،‬‬
‫که هماره در خود فرومی ریزی و‬
‫هماره از خود َپر می کشی‪-‬‬
‫فرورفتگی بلندی ها تو ای‪،‬‬
‫ژرف ترین‬
‫ِ‬
‫روشنی ژرفناها تو ای‪،‬‬
‫روشن ترین‬
‫ِ‬
‫مستی مستانه ترین مستی ها تو ای‬
‫ِ‬
‫‪-‬تو را‪ ،‬تو را‪-‬با شراب چه کار؟‬
Pegah Khalesi