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Elyzabeth Nagode Paper Two - Dionysus GRK332U Ancient Greek Religion Instructor: Laurie Cosgriff 03/07/2012 Ordered Chaos: Paradox in Celebrations of the Paradoxical My only wish is to use my skill to save you. Dionysus, from the Bacchae by Euripedes, line 806 For the ancient Greeks, Dionysus personified the paradoxical nature of existence itself. Myths stressed the duality of his conception, gestation, upbringing, appearance, character, province, and power. Festivals dedicated to his worship were ritual exercises in paradox: on the one hand, simple celebrations of his presence and providence; on the other, highly-regulated expressions of those baser human impulses considered as dangerous to the common good as the god himself when denied or perverted by cult practice. In him, the ancient Greeks saw uniquely residing both an experience and understanding of those dynamic forces held in balance that shaped the world in which man lived, on the judicious appropriation of which they believed the very stability of their civilization as a whole actually rested. Literary references to Dionysus in the Greek canon, dating as far back as Homer and Hesiod, establish the essential duality of his nature. He was the product of a mortal and divine union. He died before being born in the thunderbolt that consumed his mother's body,

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and was resurrected from the ashes by his father to be carried to term in his thigh. He was raised in secret by nymphs in a cave, yet freely haunted the surrounding forests and mountaintops. He was considered, at once, both native and foreign. He was a god who took human form. He was the embodiment of masculine strength, intelligence, cunning, and virility whose appearance was distinctly soft and effeminate. He was a lover of peace, celebrant and bringer of life, protector of the dead; he was the hunter of goat-kill blood, raw, flesheating joy (Bacchae, line 139). He had province on earth through the fruit of his vine, in the heavens through his acceptance by the gods, and in the underworld through his precedence over the mysteries (Woodruff, xxi). He possessed the power to both deceive and illuminate. Through him, unbridled human passion was transformed into art, and grapes into wine that brought joy, sleep, and relief from suffering when used propitiously (Bacchae, lines 279-283), and loss of self-control, brooding anger, violence, indolence, and dissipation when abused. Festivals honoring the duality embodied by Dionysus are among some of the oldest, most widespread, and enduring in the ancient world. Oreibasia, or nocturnal torch-led processions that were an integral part of welcoming the god to the city, are mentioned as early in seventh century BCE (Rice and Stambaugh, 197). They were held in

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both the city and the countryside throughout mainland Greece, with cult associations as far away as Thrace, Asia Minor, and Egypt that lasted, at least in Rome, well into the second century BCE (Rice and Stambaugh, 197-199, 206-207, and 230; Woodruff, xv). The most significant, and best documented of these festivals, are those of the Athenian Anthesteria and City Dionysia. Each, in its own way, is specifically designed to welcome the god, honor his presence, and recognize his providence: in the Anthesteria, by celebrating the gift of wine; in the City Dionysia, by celebrating the gift of music, dance, and theater. Despite their differences in focus, both featured elements that simultaneously honored and celebrated the dual nature of the god himself. Traditions of normal city life during both festival were intentionally abandoned. Distinctions between men and women, citizen and slave, living and dead, day and night, public and private, mortal and divine were blurred. Fawn skins, garlands, and thyrssoi replaced customary dress for all. Women led processions and performed rituals on behalf of the entire city. During the Anthesteria, sanctuaries were closed and the taking of oaths suspended as the souls of the dead were welcomed to walk the streets, the god was joined in ritual marriage to a human bride, slave was allowed to feast with master, and food set out, not to satiate the living, but to propitiate the cthonic divine (Rice and Stambaugh, 201-207, and Cosgriff,

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02/29/12). During the City Dionysia, plays written and performed to please the god were dominated by narratives driven by the expression of feminine passion staged, designed, acted out, and presumably viewed by an audience consisting only of men. The consumption of wine, as a physical embodiment of Dionysus himself, figures prominently in both festivals. It was a substance generally considered by the Greeks as too powerful in its effect to be consumed without dilution. Both acts were formalized in the pithoigia and choes rituals conducted during the first two days of the Anthesteria, the latter of which, despite its almost singular focus on drinking, was approached with solemn reverence and conducted in silence (Cosgriff, 02/29/12). Conversely, during the City Dionysia, bowls of wine were set on the streets, drinking began after breakfast, continued through the watching of the competitions and into the evening's feasting concluding on at least one occasion in a revel that lasted until dawn of the following day (Rice and Stambaugh, 207-209, and Cosgriff, 02/29/12). Festival celebrants taking Dionysus into their bodies in this manner may simply be a ritualized reference to his consumption by the Titans from whose ashes man was made (Rice and Stambaugh, 39, and Athanassakis, The Homeric Hymns, 63). Rice and Stambaugh, however, are careful to ascribe the origin of this particular myth to an

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Orphic tradition of beliefs derivative, in part, from Hesiod, but not widely held as authoritative by the ancient Greeks in general. More likely, this emphasis on arriving at, and maintaining a manageable level of intoxication throughout the Dionysian festivals was intended to serve as an hierophany a direct experience of the god himself the apprehension of whose nature, purpose, and significance could not be obtained in any other way. As Woodruff notes, Dionysus is that paradoxical god of both obfuscation and illumination who make[s] himself known by becoming truly present to those who follow him (Woodruff, xiii and xv). While Woodruff is referring specifically to the ecstatic state reached through the frenzied dancing of the maenads in the Bacchae, that same immediacy of the god's presence would, by accepted tradition, be more readily and reliably found for most Greeks in a simple state of inebriation particularly if entered into discretely for that purpose, and intentionally directed toward that end through their collective engagement in organized ritual practice. The authorization of this particular experience in festival form was considered vital to the very existence of civilized life in ancient Greece. Woodruff notes that, for the Athenians, the worship of Dionysus supported an orderly civic life (Woodruff, xvi). Its establishment and conduct there were dictated by ancient custom, oracle, and law (Rice and Stambaugh, 207-208). Failure to provide for

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it had historically been established, with the events that transpired in Thebes retold by Euripedes in the Bacchae, as leading to the complete collapse of the political and social institutions that hold a city together. The rites it involved are repeatedly described as being performed, not on behalf of the individual, but the city as a whole (Rice and Stambaugh, 202-203 and 208; Woodruff, xiii and xvi; Euripedes, Bacchae, lines 39, 61, 207-208, 271 and 963). Through the performance of those rites, impulses and ideas, otherwise suppressed to maintain civic order, found expression in ways that uplifted rather than undermined the social good: women were given power; slaves, equity; ancient custom, modern context; and passion, reason. In this way, the festivals dedicated to Dionysus actively and intentionally exerted on their celebrants a civilizing force, not unlike the force possessed by that god that turned grapes into wine and coldblooded murder into high art. Essential to that process, for the Greeks, was balancing the needs and desires of the individual with those of the city as a collective. The paradoxes inherent in that relationship found unique register in the character, province, and power of Dionysus. And, through the direct experience of those attributes, cultivated by the rituals that constituted the Dionysian festivals, the ancient Greeks believed they could acquire the understanding they needed to actually arrive at that balance.

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