Cult of Dionysus

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Cult of Dionysus

The Cult of Dionysus is strongly associated with satyr

Satyr

In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus ? "satyresses" were a late invention of poets ? that roamed the woods and mountains....
s, centaur

Centaur

In Greek mythology, the centaurs are a race of creatures composed of part human and part horse. In early Attica Pottery of ancient Greece, they are depicted with the torso of a human joined at the waist to the horse's withers, where the horse's neck would be....
s, and sileni

Sileni

Sileni may refer to:* Lunacy , the original foreign title for Jan ?vankmajer's film Lunacy* Ipotane, Ipotanes who were followers of Dionysus in Greek mythology...
, and its characteristic symbols are the bull

Bull (mythology)

Appearances of the Bull in mythology and worship are widespread in the ancient world. It is the subject of various cultural and Religion incarnations, as well as modern mentions in new age cultures....
, the serpent

Serpent (symbolism)

Serpent is a word of Latin origin that is commonly used in a specifically mythology or religion context, signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some symbolic value....
, the ivy

Ivy

Hedera is a genus of 15 species of climbing or ground-creeping evergreen woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to the Macaronesia, western, central and southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan....
, and the wine. The Dionysia

Dionysia

The Dionysia was a large religious festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central event of which was the performance of tragedy and, since 487 BC, Greek comedy....
and Lenaia

Lenaia

The Lenaia was an annual festival with a dramatic competition but one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in the month of Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January....
festivals in Athens

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
were dedicated to Dionysus

Dionysus

In classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos , is the God of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, among whom Greek mythology treated Dionysus as a late arrival....
, as well as the Phallic processions

Phallic processions

Phallic processions, or Penis Parade, originally called phallika in the Ancient Greece, were a common feature of Dionysiac celebrations; they were procession that advanced to a cult center, and were characterized by obscenities and verbal abuse....
. Initiates worshipped him in the Dionysian Mysteries

Dionysian Mysteries

The Dionysian Mysteries probably began as an ancient initiation society, or family of similar societies, centred on a primeval nature god , apparently associated with horned animals, serpents and solitary predators , later known to the Greeks in the eclectic figure of Dionysus....
, which were comparable to and linked with the Orphic Mysteries, and may have influenced Gnosticism

Gnosticism

Gnosticism refers to diverse, syncretistic religious movements in antiquity consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a Nature created by an imperfect god, the demiurge; this being is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God, and is contrasted with a superior entity, ref...
. Orpheus was said to have invented the Mysteries of Dionysus.

The Cult of Dionysus traces back to at least Minoan Crete, since his name is found on Mycenean

Mycenaean language

Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the Mycenaean period, before the Dorian invasion....
Linear B

Linear B

Linear B is a script that was used for writing Mycenaean language, an early form of Greek language. It predated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean Greece civilization....
tablets as "DI-WO-NI-SO-JO", and Karl Kerenyi

Karl Kerényi

One of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, K?roly Ker?nyi was born in Temesv?r, Hungary , and then lived in Hungary....
Dionysus is often shown riding a leopard

Leopard

The leopard is a member of the Felidae biological family and the smallest of the four "Panthera" in the genus Panthera; the other three are the tiger, lion and jaguar....
, wearing a leopard skin, or in a chariot drawn by panthers

Panther (legendary creature)

A Panther is a creature out of ancient myth that resembles a big cat with a multicoloured hide.Under medieval belief after feasting the panther will sleep in a cave for a total of three days....
, and may also be recognized by the thyrsus

Thyrsus

In Greek mythology, a thyrsus was a staff of ferula covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine conifer cone....
he carries.

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Encyclopedia

The Cult of Dionysus is strongly associated with satyr

Satyr

In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus ? "satyresses" were a late invention of poets ? that roamed the woods and mountains....
s, centaur

Centaur

Sileni

Bull (mythology)

Serpent (symbolism)

Ivy

Dionysia

Lenaia

Athens

Dionysus

Phallic processions

Dionysian Mysteries

Gnosticism

Mycenaean language

Mycenaean is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the Mycenaean period, before the Dorian invasion....
Linear B

Linear B

Karl Kerényi

One of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, K?roly Ker?nyi was born in Temesv?r, Hungary , and then lived in Hungary....
Dionysus is often shown riding a leopard

Leopard

Panther (legendary creature)

Thyrsus

In Greek mythology, a thyrsus was a staff of ferula covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine conifer cone....
he carries. Besides the grapevine

Grapevine

The term Grapevine may refer to:* Grapevine Talk, a online software product used for collaboration and voice communications with groups of people...
and its wild barren alter-ego, the toxic ivy plant, both sacred to him, the fig

FIG

FIG may refer to:* F?d?ration Internationale de Gymnastique* International Federation of Surveyors...
was also his symbol. The pinecone that tipped his thyrsus linked him to Cybele

Cybele

Cybele , was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother. As with Greek Gaia , or her Minoan civilization equivalent Rhea , Cybele embodies the fertile Earth, a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals ....
, and the pomegranate

Pomegranate

The pomegranate is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to between five and eight metres tall. The pomegranate is native to the region from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and has been cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean Basin region and the Caucasus since ancient times....
linked him to Demeter

Demeter

File:Demeter in horse chariot w daughter kore 83d40m wikiC Tempio Y di Selinunte sec VIa.JPGDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of cereal and fertility, the pure....
.

Bacchanalia

Introduced into Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
(c. 200 BC) from the Greek culture of southern Italy

Magna Graecia

Magna Graecia is the name of the area in Southern Italy and Sicily that was Colonies in antiquity#Greek colonies by Greek settlers in the eighth century BC, who brought with them the lasting imprint of their Hellenic civilization....
or by way of Greek-influenced Etruria

Etruria

Etruria — usually referred to in Greek language and Latin language source texts as Tyrrhenia — was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria....
, the bacchanalia were held in secret and attended by women only, in the grove of Simila, near the Aventine Hill

Aventine Hill

The Aventine Hill is one of the Seven hills of Rome on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa , the twelfth rione, or ward, of Rome....
, on March 16 and 17. Subsequently, admission to the rites were extended to men and celebrations took place five times a month. The notoriety of these festivals, where many kinds of crimes and political conspiracies were supposed to be planned, led in 186 BC to a decree of the Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic. According to the Greek historian Polybius, our principal source on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate was the predominant branch of government....
—the so-called Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, inscribed on a bronze tablet discovered in Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , is a Regions of Italy in Southern Italy Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea....
(1640), now at Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the Capital of Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million...
—by which the Bacchanalia were prohibited throughout all Italy except in certain special cases which must be approved specifically by the Senate. In spite of the severe punishment inflicted on those found in violation of this decree, the Bacchanalia were not stamped out, at any rate in the south of Italy, for a very long time.

Dionysus is equated with both Bacchus and Liber

Liber

In Roman mythology, Liber was originally associated with husbandry and crops, but then was assimilated with Dionysos. He is the consort of Ceres and the father of the goddess Libera ....
(also Liber Pater). Liber ("the free one") was a god of fertility, wine, and growth, married to Libera

Libera (mythology)

In Roman mythology, Libera is a goddess of fertility and the Earth. She is the daughter of Liber and Ceres . Libera is associated with Persephone of Greek mythology....
. His festival was the Liberalia, celebrated on March 17, but in some myths the festival was also held on March 5.

Appellations

Dionysus sometimes has the epithet

Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
Acratophorus, by which he was designated as the giver of unmixed wine, and worshipped at Phigaleia in Arcadia

Arcadia

Arcadia, Arkad?a , or Arcady is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas....
. In Sicyon

Sicyon

Sikyon was an ancient Greece city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth, Greece and Achaea. The king-list given by Pausanias comprises twenty-four kings, beginning with the autochthonous Aegialeus; the penultimate king of the list, Agamemnon, compels the submission of Sicyon to Mycenae; after him comes the Dorian usurper Pha...
he was worshiped by the name Acroreites. As Bacchus, he carried the Latin epithet Adoneus, "Ruler". Aegobolus, "goat killer", was the name under which he was worshiped at Potniae in Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, Beotia, or B?otia , formerly Cadmeis, was a region of ancient Greece, north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It was bounded on the south by Megaris and the Kithairon mountain range that forms a natural barrier with Attica, on the north by Opuntian Locris and the Euripus Strait at the Gulf of Euboea, and on the...
. As Aesymnetes
Dionysus Aesymnetes

Aesymnetes was an epithet of the Greek mythology Dionysus, which signifies the "Lord", or "Ruler", and under which he was worshipped at Aro? in Achaea....
("ruler" or "lord") he was worshipped at Aroë and Patrae

Patras

Patras is Greece's third largest urban centre and the capital of the prefecture of Achaea, located in northern Peloponnese, 215 kilometers west of Athens....
in Achaea

Achaea

Achaea is an ancient province and a present prefectures of Greece of Greece, on the northern coast of the Peloponnese, stretching from the mountain ranges of Erymanthus and Cyllene on the south to a narrow strip of fertile land on the north, bordering the Gulf of Corinth, into which the mountain Panachaicus projects....
. Another epithet was Bromios, "the thunderer" or "he of the loud shout". As Dendrites, "he of the trees", he is a powerful fertility god. Dithyrambos is sometimes used to refer to him or to solemn songs sung to him at festivals; the name refers to his premature birth. Eleutherios ("the liberator") was an epithet for both Dionysus and Eros. Other forms of the god as that of fertility include the epithet in Samos

Samos Island

Samos is a Greece island in the North Aegean sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the Ionian coast of Turkey....
and Lesbos Enorches
Enorches

In Greek mythology, Enorches was a son of Thyestes by his sister Daeta. He was born out of an egg and built a temple to Dionysus, who was hence called Dionysus Enorches, though Enorches may also describe the god as the dancer....
("with balls" or perhaps "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the babe Dionysus into his thigh, i.e., his testicles). Evius is an epithet of his used prominently in Euripides

Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
' play, The Bacchae
The Bacchae

The Bacchae is an Classical Greece tragedy by the Classical Athens playwright Euripides. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BCE as part of a tetralogy that also included Iphigeneia at Aulis, and which Euripides' son or nephew probably directed....
. Iacchus
Iacchus

In Greek mythology, Iacchus is an epithet of Dionysus, particularly associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries, where he was considered to be the son of Zeus and Demeter....
, possibly an epithet of Dionysus, is associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries

Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremony held every year for the Cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance....
; in Eleusis, he is known as a son of Zeus

Zeus

Zeus in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky father and List of thunder gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull , and oak....
and Demeter

Demeter

File:Demeter in horse chariot w daughter kore 83d40m wikiC Tempio Y di Selinunte sec VIa.JPGDemeter , in Greek mythology, is the Goddess of cereal and fertility, the pure....
. The name "Iacchus" may come from the ?a???? (Iakchos), a hymn sung in honor of Dionysus. With the epithet Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan") he is a fertility god connected with the mystery religion

Mystery religion

Mystery Religions, Sacred Mysteries or simply Mysteries, were "religious Cult of the Graeco-Roman world, full admission to which was restricted to those who had gone through certain secret initiation rites."...
s. A winnowing fan was similar to a shovel

Shovel

A shovel is a tool for lifting and moving loose material such as coal, gravel, snow, soil, or sand and is an extremely common tool which is used extensively in agriculture, construction and gardening....
and was used to separate the chaff from the grain. In addition, Dionysus is known as Lyaeus ("he who unties") as a god of relaxation and freedom from worry, and as Oeneus he is the god of the wine press

Wine press

A wine press is a device used to extract juice from crushed grapes during wine making. There are a number of different styles of presses that are used by wine makers but their overall functionality is the same....
.

In the Greek pantheon

Pantheon (gods)

A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a pantheon of gods and the development of monotheism....
, Dionysus (along with Zeus

Zeus

Sabazios

Sabazios is the nomadic horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians. In Indo-European languages, such as Phrygian language, the '-zios' element in his name derives from dyeus, the common precursor of 'deus' and Zeus....
, a Phrygia

Phrygia

In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the Southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges, changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont....
n deity. In the Roman pantheon

Roman mythology

Roman mythology, or more appropriately, Latin mythology, refers to the mythology beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Rome....
, Sabazius became an alternate name for Bacchus.

Cult of Dionysus

Bacchanalia

Appellations

See also