Classics 10: Chapter 11 Myths of Fertility: DionysusI. The Many Facets of Dionysus (Bacchus)The Many Facets of Dionysus (Bacchus)Dionysus’ Birth and Early YouthBirth and Early YouthThe Wanderings of DionysusSlide 7The ThyrsusSlide 9Resistance to the GodSlide 11Dionysus and the PiratesSlide 13Dionysus’ Journey to the Land of the DeadDeath and the PhallusInterpreting the Myths of DionysusDionysus as Fertility GodThe Vengeance of DionysusII. The Cult of DionysusThe Cult of Dionysus: Some Key Greek TermsThe Cult of DionysusIII. Dionysus and Tragedy: Euripides’ BacchaeEuripides’ BacchaeSlide 24Slide 25Slide 26Slide 27Slide 28Slide 29Slide 30Slide 31Classics 10: Chapter 11Myths of Fertility:DionysusI. The Many Facets of Dionysus (Bacchus)II. The Cult of DionysusIII. Dionysus and Tragedy: Euripides’ BacchaeI. The Many Facets of Dionysus (Bacchus)•Most basic role: God of Wine–Taught humans how to turn grape juice into wine–Greeks drank wine every day, usually heavily diluted with water•Replaced Hestia among the 12 Olympians•Male fertility god: complements Demeter–Yet Dionysus inspires passion in the short term, while Demeter grows grain over a whole season•Symbols: ivy, phallus, horns of a bull–Wears leopard skin, panthers pull his chariotThe Many Facets of Dionysus (Bacchus)•Cult of Dionysus celebrates his divinely inspired madness–Drinking, sex, violence as sensual pleasures•Often resisted, with violent results•Hard for rational Greeks to embrace their irrational selves in exuberant excess•Mythic biography must be pieced together from various sources– Most significant source (a tragedy): Euripides’ Bacchae (first performed 406 BCE)Dionysus’ Birth and Early Youth•Semelê, Princess of Thebes, gets pregnant by Zeus, who appears to her disguised as a mortal•Jealous Hera visits her in disguise and plants seed of doubt: Is it really Zeus?•Semelê then extracts one wish from Zeus: that he appear to her as he appears to Hera •Zeus is bound to honor her wish, which burns her to crisp; Hermes saves the fetus•Zeus sews the fetus into his thigh and gives birth to Dionysus three months laterBirth and Early Youth•Dionysus then given to Ino, sister of Semelê and queen of Orchomenus (another city in Boeotia)•Dionysus disguised as a girl (feminine attire often associated with this male fertility god)•Hera not fooled, she drives Queen Ino and King Athamas insane; they kill their own children•Self-destructive violence already a major theme•Zeus changes Dionysus into a goat; Hermes then delivers him to the Nymphs of Nysa–Where Nysa is, nobody knowsThe Wanderings of Dionysus•In Nysa, Dionysus discovers how to turn grape juice into wine•Hera finds him and strikes him into drunken delirium•Dionysus wanders to Egypt, Syria, and Phrygia•In Phyrgia, he meets their Mother Earth goddess Cybelê, who cures him of Hera’s madness–She also reveals to him her secret orgiastic rites, accompanied by tambourines and flutes–Decks him out with long flowing feminine robes (but no castration! Remember Attis …)The Wanderings of Dionysus•Dionysus now heads east (all the way to India) with band of followers, who have many names:•Bacchae = “women possessed by Bacchus”–Also called Thyiades = “the frenzied ones”–Also called Maenads = “the raging women”•Bacchantes = “men and women of Bacchus” •Other male followers = satyrs–Part human, part horse or goat, usu. with huge penis–Silenus (in plural = Sileni) = another name for a satyr, or the chief satyr, known as fat, ugly, and drunkThe Thyrsus•Followers of Dionysus carry the thyrsus, a staff wound with ivy leaves and crowned with a pine coneThe Wanderings of Dionysus•Returns west to Phrygia on his chariot drawn by panthers (Cybelê has one, too!)•Destroys all who oppose his cult•Gives Midas (son of Cybelê ) any gift for having helped him find a drunken satyr–Midas asks that anything he touches turn to gold–Starving and thirsty, he soon regrets it; Dionysus tells him how to come clean in the Pactolus River–The washed off gold makes Lydia very wealthy later•Marries Ariadnê, discovers her right at the (very dramatic) moment she realizes Theseus has abandoned her (Theseus = Chapters 15-16)Resistance to the God•After Dionysus returns from the East to Greece, several stories of resistance to him and his cult•Lycurgus (Thrace)–Tried to run Dionysus off with a ox-goad–Zeus struck him blind (and likely mad)–Killed by his own people to appease the god•The Proetids (Argos)–Daughters of King Proetus, refused to worship with Dionysus’ band–Afflicted with leprosy, itching heads–Went insane, thought they were cowsResistance to the God•The Minyads (Orchomenus again)–The 3 daughters of King Minyas–Refused to join the rest of the city’s party–Behaved as noble women should (?!)–Dionysus appears to them, they reject him–He changes into animal shapes–Drums, flutes, smells, ivy, nectar and milk–They eat one of their children and then joyfully join the other Bacchae–Dionysus later turns them into batsDionysus and the Pirates•Told in the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus (7th Century BCE)•Etruscan pirates abduct Dionysus•Helmsman soon realizes they have a god on board, but the captain rejects his advice•Dionysus performs miracles on the ship–Wine fills hull, vines grow out of the mast•Then he exacts vengeance (spares helmsman)–He turns into a lion and kills the captain –The other sailors jump ship, are turned into dolphinsDionysus and the Pirates•Good story for a symposium, as on this drinking cup of 550 BCE•When the wine in the cup swirls, the dolphins appear to swimDionysus’ Journey to the Land of the Dead•Having introduced wine and his cult to all of Greece and the East as far as India, he prepared to ascend Olympus to be with Zeus•Wants his mother Semelê to come with him, so decides to get her from House of Hades•Shown the entrance to the underworld by a shepherd from ArgosDeath and the Phallus•Dionysus successfully persuades Hades to give his mother back, but when they return, the shepherd has since died–One soul in exchange for the other?•He adorns the shepherd’s grave with a wooden phallus carved from branch of fig tree (fig = a luscious fruit for the Greeks)–Fertility symbol in exchange for resurrection of the mother•Dionysus and Semelê then ascend OlympusInterpreting the Myths of Dionysus•Near