I have a thing for Greek Mythology so from time to time I cannot help but to write about one of my favorite subjects outside of sex, art, sex, poetry, sex, lingerie, sex, world events, sex, and... well, you get the idea.
Dionysos and his Thiasos are a hedonistic bunch not unlike some friends I have! I realize my writing here is a little on the academic side, but it is my hope you will enjoy this introduction to a few of my favorite beings nevertheless!
"DIONYSOS : You, whoever you are,
man, woman or child:
I am Dionysos.
I ask only this:
accept."
from the play, Bursting the Grape; A Ritual for Dionysos by Paul Wignall, © August 2003
pic - from the play shows satyrs and Dionysos (in back) in his form of a bull
According to Greek authors, Dionysos first came into Greece as a stranger, (he was not of the original pantheon) and was mostly unrecognized (not acknowledged). However, his name is found in Mycenean (pre-Greek, Bronze Age) tablets and he later rose to popularity during the Sixth Century BC. Originally he was the god of vegetation, later of grapes and wine and even later of ecstatic ritual and the theatre.
The first hymn written of Dionysos is, of course, from the Homeric Hymns, (once singularly attributed to the Greek Poet, Homer, which is now considered to be false)and is roughly dated to have been written across a span of three centuries from the Eighth Century B.C. to the Fifth. Popular Dionysian 'themes' or 'stories' include his meeting Ariadne as told in Hesiod's Theogony, from the Seventh Century BC, the inciting of the Maenads to kill Pentheus as told by Euripides in his play, Bacchae from the Fifth Century BC (Bacchus is the common Roman name for the god - they also spelled Dionysos with a 'u' - Dionysus) and finally, the often visually depicted Triumph of Dionysos, in which the god travels to India and other lands.
There are several intriguing versions of Dionysos' birth but it is said he was born of Zeus and the mortal Semele. The greatest intrigue has to do with the conception of the god and there are many discrepancies as to how Semele became pregnant. One version tells of Zeus offering her a drink made from a lover's heart, another claims Zeus came to her in one of his many assumed forms. Either way, Hera (Zeus' wife) was extremely jealous of their love and tricked Semele into asking Zeus to sleep with her in his revealed godly form. When this happened Semele was smitten with a thunderbolt and died (being a mortal she could not endure divine presence)giving birth to Dionysos prematurely. Zeus then placed the fetus in his thigh and carried Dionysos to term. After birthing the god, Zeus entrusted him to the care of woodland nymphs to be raised.
The first depictions of the god show him as a stately, older bearded man in contemporary aristocratic Greek dress painted or etched on amphoras, hydrias and craters much like the image above. He is often shown wearing an ivy wreath, later the wreath consisted of grape leaves and sometimes grapes. He sometimes holds a large drinking cup or horn and occasionally holds a thyrsus (a staff topped with ivy or other vegetation). In early antiquity his thiasos (entourage and/or companions) consisted of satyrs and woodland nymphs.
By the time the Parthenon had been completed circa 300 B.C. the physical depiction of Dionysos changed greatly. On the east pediment he is shown in his new form, young, shaven, with soft musculature and nude much like the sculpture shown here from about the same time (this is a Roman copy from a Greek cast). (Note that on the frieze of the Parthenon he is shown in his classical physique. I would guess to say the frieze was sculpted prior to the pediment.)
Through the centuries the Dionysian Thiasos expanded greatly and included panthers, maenads, satyrs, humans and other wild animals. Around the mid Fourth Century B.C. Maenads replaced the nymphs and Dionysos was now sometimes shown wearing a leopard skin. Later he would acquire a new attribute, a panther. The Maenads were also sometimes shown wearing leopard skins and making an offering of a small deer or faun to the god. It is said that Dionysus loves the panther because it is the most excitable of animals and leaps like a Maenad.
It is unclear how the Maenads came into being. They may have evolved from groups of living Greek women who danced in ecstatic rites honoring Dionysos and were called maenads. (The Greek word, 'maenad' meaning 'mad women' and 'women transformed through worship of their god'.) Ancient artisans depicted both contemporary cults and mythical groups and it can sometimes be difficult to determine which is being depicted. One clue is if the women are looking at or interacting with Dionysos, or cavorting with satyrs it is likely they are mythical Maenads.
The image to the left is a relief sculpture which depicts a Maenad and a Satyr rocking a baby satyr.
Mythical Maenads were said to have magical powers; they could tap the earth with their thrysus and wine would flow, milk sprang forth from dirt when they scratched their fingers over it and from their thrysus honey dripped. They were protected by the muses and therefore they could not be pacified nor could their playing and dancing be quelled. They often wreaked great havoc because no one could resist them. Under the inspired intoxication of Dionysos they would dance in ecstatic frenzy and were said to have ripped small animals and even children in half. They were also the protectors of Dionysian ritual bringing wrath upon those who opposed the god. Pentheus, the king of Thebes, was torn apart limb by limb because of his opposition to the god and his rites. The image below is a relief sculpture depicting two ecstatic Maenads with a faun which has been torn in half.
The following image is the famous 'Skopas Maenad' depicting an ecstatic dancing Maenad. This is a Roman copy of a Greek cast by Skopas 340BC. This picture shows the statue as she would have looked painted.
The Plough
