Dionysus
In Greek mythology, Dionysus (in ancient Greek Διώνυσος / Diốnysos or Διόνυσος / Diónysos) is the god of junctions of opposites and ambiguities (death-life, man-woman, vine, wine and its excesses-supporific ivy, underground god- sun god, foreign god, Greek barbarian-god quasi-master of Olympus). He is the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. The Romans equated him with the pale Bacchus. Depending on the lists, he may or may not be one of the Twelve Olympians, although he does not live on Mount Olympus (he is essentially a wandering god).
The myth
Excited by the jealousy of Hera, Semele, daughter of the king of Thebes, wants to contemplate her lover Zeus in all his majesty. Bound by an oath, Zeus cannot escape it, and Semele, a mere mortal, dies struck down. Zeus then pulls his son from his mother's womb, and cutting his thigh, sews the child there, to bring his gestation to term.
This is the origin of the expression "to be born from the thigh of Jupiter". It is also a proposed etymology for Dionysus ("twice born"). The thigh could be a euphemistic designation for the sexual organs (a common process, see for example the French "bas-ventre"), Dionysus can therefore be considered to have descended directly from the sperm of Zeus.
To save him from Hera's revenge, he is entrusted to his aunt Ino (Semélé's sister) and her husband, Athamas. But Hera drives them mad and they kill their children. Ino throws herself into the sea with the corpse of one of her sons:they are transformed into sea deities, Leucothée and Palémon. Dionysus is then entrusted to the nymphs, under the direction of Silenus, on Mount Nyséion, in Thrace, that is to say, for the Greeks, in Asia. To escape Hera, he is transformed into a kid.
He led a turbulent adolescence:according to the Iliad, he was first pursued by Lycurgus, then was taken prisoner by Tyrrhenian pirates, from whom he escaped only by performing frightening wonders (Homeric Hymns). His worship excites at first ridicule, and he must chastise the daughters of Eleutherius as well as Pentheus, king of Thebes, for it. Dionysus is, with Apollo, a god who manifests himself through epiphanies (appearances):an eternal traveler, he arises by surprise. He always presents himself as a stranger, running the risk of not being recognized.
Desiring to visit his mother in the Underworld, Dionysos asks for the help of a guide, Prosymnos, who agrees to show him the way by diving with him into Lake Lerna, which communicates with the kingdom of Hades. This plunge is associated with many initiation rites in ancient Greece, generally linked to the passage from adolescence to adulthood, and therefore also to love between an elder (erastes) and a younger (eromenos). Prosymnos thus agrees to help the young god but in exchange demands that the latter, when they return, grant him his favors. But when Dionysus returns from Hell, Prosymnos is dead. The god decides to keep his commitment despite everything:he cuts a piece of fig tree in the shape of a phallus and pays his debt on the tomb of Prosymnos[1].
In the Greek pantheon, Dionysus is a god apart:he is a wandering god, a god of nowhere and everywhere. Both vagabond and sedentary, it represents the figure of the other, of what is different, disconcerting, disconcerting, anomic.
The return of Dionysus to his home in Thebes was met with incomprehension and aroused drama as long as the city remained unable to establish the link between the locals and the foreigner, between the natives and the travellers, between his desire to always be the same, to remain identical to himself, to refuse to change, and, on the other hand, the foreigner, the different, the other.
It is rarely associated with the Olympian gesture. He is content to take part in the Gigantomachy, and negotiates with Hephaestus the release of Hera trapped by the latter.
Functions
Dionysus is above all a god of arborescent vegetation and of all vital juices (sap, urine, sperm, milk, blood), as evidenced by his epicleses of Φλοῖος / Phloĩos (“spirit of the bark”) or even of Συκίτης / Sukítês (“protector of the fig trees”). He then specializes in the vine, which he is supposed to have given to men, as well as in drunkenness and mystical trance. Its attributes include everything related to fermentation, regeneration cycles. He is the son of Semele, avatar of the Phrygian goddess of the earth, lover of Ariadne, Minoan goddess of vegetation, and the companion of nymphs and satyrs. It is also frequently associated with the goat and the bull, animals considered particularly prolific.
Above all, he is the father of comedy and tragedy (from the Greek τράγος / trágos, “goat”). At the start, these were sorts of “illustrations” of the cult, which were given to the Greek theater during the Dionysia, in the presence of its priests (like the mysteries that were played in the Middle Ages on the forecourts of cathedrals). They had a particular punctuated literary form, the dithyramb. Dionysian songs and music use percussion and flutes. They are dissonant, syncopated, cause surprise and sometimes fright. In this sense, he is the antithesis of Apollo, who patronizes lyrical art and harmony. Moreover, flautists (auletes) were perceived as jugglers and not musicians, because the use of the instrument deformed their mouths, which offended Greek aesthetics and gave rise to jokes.
Jane Ellen Harrison[2] points out that Dionysos, god of wine (drink for well-to-do) and drunkenness replaced Dionysos, god of beer (drink for popular layers) or Sabazios, whose emblematic animal among the Cretan was the horse (or centaur). Athenian beer happened to be spelled beer, trágos in Greek. Thus, the “odes to spelled” (tragedies) could later be considered, by homonymy, as “odes to goats” (the animal that accompanied the god and associated with wine among the Cretans).
The liturgy and worship
The Greeks considered Dionysus a foreign deity, as indicated by the attribute of the Phrygian cap, which he shares with Mithras. We have spoken of an Indian and Mesopotamian origin. Evans' decryption of the Linear B tablets discovered in Mycenaean palaces, however, revealed that the name of Dionysus was included in the list of Greek deities from the Archaic period.
It seems that in the pre-Olympian period, his cult was to be compared to the agro-lunar and chthonian cults. Eusebius of Caesarea, a Christian author, spoke of sacrifices during which the living victim was cut up (hence the epiclesis of Omadios) to be consumed.
Dionysus is a very widespread and very popular god throughout Antiquity. There are many temples all around the Mediterranean basin, which are close to those of the greatest gods.
Its public cult gave rise to the festivals of the "Dionysia", but there was also an important secret cult, represented by Mysteries, comprising initiation ceremonies. He is often accompanied by a group of satyrs, maenads, panthers, goats, donkeys and old Silenus, forming the "Dionysiac procession".
The private cult took place between initiates, it is a Mystery cult. The grouping of these initiates is called thiase. The thiases practiced a hidden and initiatory cult, often in caves and at night, during which new members of the thiase were initiated, and who officiated in the esoteric dimension of the resurrection of the god. We lack sources to know what happened there exactly, but these secret and nocturnal ceremonies continued until the Roman Empire. They included sacrifices, but also delusions due to drunkenness or the consumption of vegetable drugs, and excesses of all kinds, particularly sexual. A resounding scandal caused these cults to be banned by a senatus-consultum in 186 BC. AD
Finally, we must point out the existence of a contemporary resurgence of the cult of Dionysus. There are thus several thiases in the United States, and a few in Europe, but which have nothing to do with those of Antiquity.
Iconography
There are countless statues of Dionysus from when he was a revered god. There are also many riddle mosaics, as it was common for a somewhat wealthy insider to let it be known on the floor of a public room in his home. Finally, scenes evoking his adventures are often present on sarcophagi or bas-reliefs, because he had an importance in the perception of death and rebirth.
When his cult died out, his representations often resumed confusion with Bacchus, and it was not until Symbolism that he reappeared with the thyrsus in the painting of a Simeon Solomon.
Epicleses, attributes &sanctuaries
* epiclesis :
o Δενδρίτης / Dendrítês, protector of trees;
o Ὠμάδιος / Omádios, who loves raw flesh;
o Φαλληνός / Phallênós, guarantor of fertility;
o Φλοῖος / Phloĩos, spirit of the bark;
o Συκίτης / Sukítês, protector of the fig trees;
*epithets :"to the noisy procession"
* attributes :The major and personal attribute of Dionysus is the thyrsus, which he holds in his hand or is found at his feet or in his procession. Its main plants are the pine and the ivy, as well as their fruits, the pinecone and the ivy berries, with which it is often crowned. These plants are an apparent exception in nature, as they are always green during the year, and do not seem to lose their leaves, which refers to the resurrections of the god. It should also be noted that the real fruits of the pine are hidden in the apple, and that the ivy berries, toxic, were used in the production of a beer that the maenads consumed, and which contributed to their trance. We also find the pomegranate tree and the pomegranate, the fig tree and the figs (the pomegranate tree comes from the blood of the god, its fruits ripen in winter, and Persephone remains bound to hell for having eaten it; the fig tree is associated with the hidden life in the Mediterranean world, because it grows spontaneously where there is underground water and reveals the springs).
As he brought the vine and the wine to men, we also find the vine and the grape, the drinking cup. But it is rather a contamination with Bacchus, his Roman equivalent.
The Phrygian cap recalls its Asian origin. We also find the flute, the cymbals and the tambourines.
*associated animals :the goat, the panther, the donkey.
* major temples :Athens, Eleusis, Smyrna, Ephesus.
* festivals in his honor :Dionysia, Anthesteria