CC 303/352: Lecture Outline, October 4, 2001

Dionysus=Bacchus

A. Features of the god

• wine, fertility, life-giving liquids (wine, blood, sap, semen), release from restraints, theater
• attributes/iconography: thyrsos, vines, grapes and wine, kantharos, maenads (=Bacchae), satyrs, sileni (or Silenus), panthers, aulos
• possible origin: vegetation god

1. cf. Osiris, Duzumi, Adonis, Attis, Persephone
2. note myths suggesting death and rebirth
3. Semele may have started as an earth goddess

• principal partner: Ariadne

B. Elements of Dionysian cult: Ritualized ecstasy and release

• leaving city, especially women
• sexual freedom
• wine (Bacchanalian)
• but worship of Dionysus is not a party: serious worship
• enthousiasmos
• ekstasis
• omophagy
• tearing animals apart
• suckling animals
• thyrsus
• these rituals institutionalized into festivals

1. Athens: Festival of Dionysia: includes procession, theater, other rites
2. Elsewhere: element of leaving city remains

C. Major myths

• Myths surrounding Dionysus' birth

1. Semele
2. Ino, Athamas, and Melicertes
3. Nymphs of Nysa

• Myths of Dionysus' travels

1. picks up elements of cult from Cybele
2. Midas
3. conquests
4. rescue of Semele from Hades

• Myths of rejection and punishment

1. Lycurgus
2. Minyads
3. Proetids
4. pirates
5. Euripides' Bacchae

D. Some perspectives

• Are the rejection myths a reflection of history?

1. Dionysus has many eastern associations
2. but note that name appears in writing very early (1400 BC)

• Nature vs. culture
• The power and danger of the irrational
• Nietzsche: Apollonian vs. Dionysian

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