Birth, Childhood, Origins of
Dionysus
• Dionysus- Bacchus
• Son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus.
• Hera appeared to Semele as an old woman and
convinced her to ask her lover to appear in full
glory.
• Semele was burned, the unborn child, divine, was
not destroyed, Zeus sewed him up in his thigh,
from which he was born.
• Hermes rescued the baby from the ashes and
brought the baby to the nymphs of Nysa.
Death of Semele, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), painting of
1636, Brussels, Musees Royaux des Beaux Arts
Meaning of his birth-Features of
Dionysus
• Definitely a latecomer to the Olympian
pantheon.
• Origins lie in northern Greece- Thrace, and
possibly in Phrygia.
-God of vegetation, particularly the wine
-Followed by Satyrs, Maenads.
Hermes delivers the infant Dionysos to Papposilenos and
nymph: Phiale Painter, ca 430 BC
Statue of Silenus with baby Dionysus Roman copy after a
statue attributed to Lysippos, original ca 310-300 BC
Euripides’Bacchae
• Play opens with Dionysus, who comes with
anger to Thebes, as his mother’s integrity
and his own divinity are questioned.
• Sisters of Semele claim (and Pentheus
agrees) that she became pregnant with a
mortal
Family of CADMUS
CADMUS-HARMONIA
AUTONOE
INO
AGAVE
SEMELE (m. ZEUS)
PENTHEUS
DIONYSUS
Euripides’BACCHAE-Structure
• Cadmus-retired king, and Teiresias, seer/priest
welcome the new god
• Pentheus- a cousin of Dionysus- challenges the
new god
• A guard brings the exotic stranger
• Progression from political to psychological to
physical fragmentation SPARAGMOS.
• Ferocious finale as Agave with the maenads kills
her son
• Agave returns to her senses, and recognizes her deed as
she holds the head of her son, not of the lion.
• Conclusion affirms power of Dionysus.
• The play and nature of Dionysian religion
• Ecstasis, trance. Religious congregation (thiasos)
• Bacchae or maenads are female devotees, women who
become possessed. In mythology, nymphs rather than
real women. Attribute: they carry the thyrsus, a pole
wreathed with ivy or wine leaves.
• Male counterparts are the SATYRS (horse’s tails.ears,
goat’s beard and horns), later art has them more
humanized. Sexuality and dance.
• Sileni-not easily distinguished from satyrs. Silenus, the
tutor of Dionysus.
• Dionysus marriage with Ariadne, after she is deserted by
Theseus.
Nature of Dionysiac Religion
• Dionysus not only the god of wine. He is referred
to as “blossom-bringer, fruit-bringer”.
• Significance of his marriage to Ariadne (=very
holy one). Ariadne was deserted by Theseus in the
island of Naxos, and Dionysus takes her. In myth
Ariadne is a Cretan princess, the daughter of
Minos and Pasiphae. Abandoned by a man to be
found by a god
• In religion, Ariadne was an archetypal goddess of
feritility> significance of this “archetypal”
marriage.
• “Orgia” not orgies, but acts of devotion,
experience of communion with the divine, which
transformed the human into a bacchus.
• Mountains/dancing/ritual/sympathetic magic
• Comparative study on ecstatic dance
• (American Shakers, Jewish Hasidim, Siberian
shamans, south italian tarantati)
Nature of ecstatic dance
• Possession
• Spreads like “wildfire” Bacchae 778, and becomes
obsession
• Tanzkrankheit (dance illness) in Europe 14th-17th
centuries.
• Religious connections with cults (e.g. St. Paul, St.
John cults).
• Communication with the divine, communication
of the personal, trance. Political implications.
Psychological explanation.
Sparagmos (tearing to pieces)
• Referred to in the regulations of the Dionysiac cult at
Miletus (Asia Minor) 276 B.C. Late writers explain that it
commemmorates the day when the infant Dionysus was
himself torn into pieces.
• Usual victin was a bull, or wild goats.
• Frazer’s view that the victim transfers vital powers to the
worshipper.
• By NO means does that constitute evidence of
cannibalism. The play at the extreme. Myth vs history
• 11th -12 th century Byzantine play Christus patiens (the
Suffering Christ) crucifixion story in tragedy form, lines
from the Bacchae.
Dionysus, god of theater
• God of transformation
• Festival of Dionysia
• Group of three tragedies and a satyr play
(burlesque of mythic theme, satyrs were the
chorus).
• Comedies on the 4th day
Birth of tragedy
• Aristotle Poetics: From those who “led off the dithyramb”
The dithyramb a hymn to Dionysus, later any hymn.
Chorus was composed of satyrs, tragedy =goat song
Tragedy from ritual celebration of god Dionysus
• Tragedy grew of mystery cults
• Of cult of the dead, ritual mourning
• Politics/religion. Thespis introduced prologue, speech, a
first actor.
• Use of mask
• Nietsche (Apollonian vs. Dionysiac, dialogue vs choral)
Dionysus and Maenad (Univ. of
Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia)
Dionysos on a ship- kylix by Exekias, ca 540 BC
- Museum Antikes Kleinkunst of Munich-Read Homeric
Hymn to Dionysus (hymn 7)
Dionysos on a donkey-archaic
Dionysos- Harvard University Museum
Dinoysos, Satyrs, and Maenads: Late Archaic
Dionysos and Maenad: Early Classical
- Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum
Dionysos seated: Classical
Dionysos Pursuing Ariadne-
Dionysos and Ariadne. University of Mississipi Collection
Dionysos and Ariadne - Detail
Head of Dionysos: Roman mosaic, 1st century AD
Birth of Dionysos: Pompeiian wall painting, 1st century AD
Dionysos and Herakles: Antioch (Roman) mosaic, ca 50-115
AD Marble, limestone, and glass tesserae, 189.2 x 111.8 cm.
Worcester Art Museum
Drinking contest between Dionysos and Herakles: Antioch
(Roman) mosaic, ca 250-300 AD
Dionysos: Roman relief, 2nd century AD
Michelangelo Bacchus
1497
Bacchus and Ariadne: Titian, 1520-23, London National
Gallery. Titian follows closely narratives of Catullus and
Ovid. Note the statue of satyr twisted with snakes (modeled
after Laokoon statue)- Dionysus effeminate
Laokoon by Agesandros, Polydoros, and Athanadoros of
Rhodes (150-50 B.C., 50 A.D.?)
Ariadne, Venus and Bacchus 1576, by Tintoretto, Palazzo
Ducale, Venice
Staatsgallerie in Stuttgart- Giambattista Pittoni 1678-1767
Bacchus and Ariadne: Bertin, Nicolas, c 1710-15