Plato and the mania
• According to Plato, the dementia (anoia)
is a complex concept related to the
diseases of the soul. It includes both
ignorance (amathia) than madness
(mania).
• There are two types of mania (madness):
one arising from human diseases,
another arising from a divine state.
• The divine mania is divided in four
different categories, each inspired by
different divinities:
• mantic mania or mediumship (Apollo)
• Telestic or ritual mania (Dionysos)
• Poetic and musical mania (Muses)
• Erotic or love mania (Aphrodite, Eros)
• The divine mania was a positive madness
• In the Pheadrus, Plato wrote:
• "our greatest blessing come to us by
the way of mania, which indeed is a
divine gift".
• The divine mania gave enthusiasm, that
was a signal of the presence of the
divinity in the mind of the possessed.
• The possessed was called entheos,
”engodded”, ”full of god”: the god was in
him.
• The possessed was called also
mainomenos ”enmadded”: he was prey
of frenzy.
• The prophetic mania was extremely
important
• Of the Delphic Pythia and the priestess of
Dodona, Plato wrote that ”when they were
maianeisai (mad or in trance) they
conferred great benefits on Hellas, both
in public and in private life, but when they
were within their senses few or none”.
• Also music and poetry, or the poetic mania,
proceed from love madness and from divine
enthusiasm.
• Socrates (in Plato’s Ion) asks: ”When you recite
epic verses correctly and thrill the spectators
most deeply … are you not beside yourself, is
your soul not transported with enthusiasm?”.
• Ion answers: ”Whenever I recite a tale of pity,
my eyes are filled with tears, and when it is one
of horror or dismay, my hairs stands up on end
with fear, and my heart goes leaping”.
• Origins of the telestic trance:
• people suffers from diseases that are consequences of
certain offences to Dionysus
• The divinatory trance, for example the mediumship of
the oracle of Delphi, discover the origin of the offence
and prescribes the right prayers, purifications and rites
• the rite brings recovery
• who is correctly entranced is released from his troubles
• So Dionysus can bring madness, but can also free from
the madness that he have caused, by the way of the
dionysiac rituals: a kind of controlled and ritualized
trance, expressed by dance. Is important that the trance
is the correct one, because a spontaneous trance bring
only to convulsion, mental confusion and crisis.
Signs of telestic trance
•
•
•
•
Foaming of the mouth
Rolled back eyes
Flung-back head
Arched body
• Dance, music
Thiasos
• The thiasos was a college of possessed
women
• The telestic trance force the god and the
deities to reveal their precence
• Their arrival provoke trance
• During the trance the possessed was
acting imitating the behaviour of gods or
their animals
Baccheuein
• Verb: act as Bacchus / identification with
Bacchus / dance as Bacchus
• Abstract dance: without figuration,
movement of agitation and frenzy
• Figurative dance: imitation of Dionysus,
pans, satyrs, sileni, oxes, snakes,
panthers
• According to the healing theories and documents, the
telestic trance was a way to heal the soul.
• Plato himself in the Laws, tell about the therapeutic
elements of the trance dance of the Bacchantes. He
pointed out the importance of the movement and
melody as a way to heal the child from
sleeplessness: the baby who dances, sings and hears
music falls out of senses like a bacchant.
• An external power (the movement and the shaking of
the dance and the music) overpowered the internal
movement of fear and craziness.
• For Plato is important that the movements followed the
divine parts in men: the harmonies and the revolutions
of the Universe.
• The movement should be harmonic: for this reason also
the trance dance should be the correct one.
• In Ion Plato tells that the bacchantes had a sharp ear
for one tune of the flute: they responded with
gesture and speech to this tune.
• The tune of the flute is a signal, and the music is only a
part of a complex trance ritual, which includes dance,
rites, movements, culture, knowledge of the mythical
patterns.
• The music and dance re-established harmony with the
Universe and provoked identification with the god.
Gilbert Rouget: Music and
Trance
• Chapter 5: Music and Trance among the
Greeks
• Jeanmarie: the Greek and the irrational