Dionysus

The centrality of Bacchus’ role in Statius’ Thebaid is unprecedented in the epic tradition. Of Statius’ predecessors, only Ovid had accorded him a signif- icant on-stage role, while others, such as Virgil, made him important in indirect ways that are associated with the creative energies that drive the narrative. Sta- tius responds to his predecessors mainly by subverting the traditional Bacchic imaginary. The god emerges as largely ineffectual, neither a fully-fledged culture hero, nor a terrible punisher of hybris. As if to work athwart the god’s traditional role as ‘most terrible but also most sweet to mankind’ (Eur. Ba. 861) or ‘a mediator of peace but midmost in the fight’ (Hor. Odes 2.19.27–28), the poem oscillates be- tween war and peace, between deferral and continuation of its own action. This chapter examines the presentation of Bacchus in the Thebaid and some of the implications of this presentation for the poem’s poetic and ideological texture. There is particular discussion of Bacchus’ main interventions: in book 4 to fore- stall the Argive alliance’s assault on Thebes; and again in book 7 when he up- braids Jupiter for his complacency in allowing Thebes to be attacked, in both of which Bacchus emerges as unwarlike relative to his models and antagonists. Bac- chic manoeuvres proliferate: Venus encroaches on the territory of Bacchus by staging her own Bacchae in the Lemnian episode of book 5; Statius’ matrona (4.377–405) replays Lucan’s sibyl (1.679–95) in her Bacchic enthusiasm, which in the revised version signals the furor of civil war, and yet remains ineffective as a plot-motivator. Leaving aside Virgil and Ovid, Statius takes most closely after the sublime Dionysian furor of Lucan and Seneca, and yet what we find in the The- baid is an attenuated Bacchus, metamorphosed into the antithesis of the sublime aesthetic, a reduction of which the poem at several points shows metapoetic awareness. The chapter brings together the different strands of its argument by examining the role of Bacchus in the conclusion of the Thebaid.

Carnival versus Thélème: The Question of ‘Freedom’
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The best vantage point for understanding ‘transgressive sacrality’ as a universal phenomenon is the principle of ‘freedom’ (svātantrya), the central concern of Rabelais (1494–1563), Bakhtin (1895–1975), and Abhinavagupta (c. 950–1020).2 The medieval Christian dispensation revolved around the opposition, alternation, and complementarity between the stern, ascetic, otherworldly spiritual ideal of the Church and the periodic extended license of the popular carnival that rejuvenated this world of piety by rendering it topsy-turvy. Through Rabelais—the erudite monk and priest, who embodied the transition to the ‘humanist’ era—the unschooled obscene clamor of the primordial folk and festive marketplace found unvarnished exaggerated expression in early Renaissance literature. No longer capable of appreciating much less endorsing such celebration of the beast in Man, post-Enlightenment critics, severing his essential links with the ‘unofficial’ world of debasing folk humor, had sought to minimize the ‘Rabelaisian’ by reducing its thrust to negative anti-clerical satire or rebuked its capricious author wherever his excesses seemed too gratuitous.3 By rehabilitating carnivalesque laughter as intrinsic, readers, the aspiring new elites, from the surviving oral mass culture (Berrong 52-78).4 Princely Pantagruel himself embodies—especially after meeting the disconcerting Panurge—the values, ideals, temperament and comportment of the Renaissance Man par excellence.
Is ‘aristocratic’ Thélème therefore, pace Bakhtin, a (definitive) repudiation by Rabelais of his own earlier celebration of generalized antinomian license, or rather a (necessary, though guarded) reformulation that permits a better understanding of the presuppositions, parameters, and finality of that elusive ‘liberation’? Juxtaposing the medieval Christian carnival to its still surviving counterpart in the Hindu subcontinent—the traditional excesses of which have not been wholly smothered by the recent cultural passage of its (especially anglophone) elites to Westernizing modernity—may allow us to propose a more dialectical understanding of how such (systemic and not only carnivalesque) transgression could culminate in (inner) spiritual freedom.

THE CULT OF DIONYSOS IN ASIA MINOR
IN THE ROMAN IMPERIAL AGE

Making his presence, which can be traced long before the Archaic Age, deeply felt mainly in Hellas, Asia Minor and then in Rome throughout the ancient world, Dionysos, depending on the place and time, appears before us sometimes as a god of grape-wine, sometimes as a god of theatre and acting arts and sometimes as a religious power shaped according to the local needs, however, he has generally been a god of nature representing the fertility and abundance. According to the inscriptions, Dionysos was mentioned with many epithetons in Asia Minor of the Roman Imperial Age, and that he was a god of nature bringing abundance-fertility and his many other features can be observed by these epithetons. Depending on the long stated customs, the cult of Dionysos in Asia Minor survived throughout the Roman Imperial Age (especially in the II-III. Century A.D. with festivals, cult associations and structuring, artists (musicians, players, dancers) that served his cult. According to the written records, festivals such as Dionysia, Lēnaia, Anthestēria, Trietēris organized in the name of Dionysos were celebrated. Dance, music and play competitions were made in these festivals maintained by the rich citizens or directors and not commonly known cult rituals were performed. Besides the associations of synodos artists called by different names in different times in the large cities of the west, cult associations broad in scope such as thiasos, speira or cult member groups with large audience in various names were active both in worshipping and these festivals. In order to achieve this, undoubtedly, both artist associations and cult associations had to have a well organized governing structure. Names were given to the cult members according to the task taken. These members also had to pay a membership fee in order to be a member or to continue to be one. Actually, these fees were as important as the epimeletes in the mainta-nance of these associations. In addition, they were supported both mate-rially and spiritually by the Roman emperors or provincial governors. Although the paganic religious activities in the lands of Asia Minor under the control of Rome were left to the free will of the cities, they would not be strong without the respect shown for the cults of the emperors, emperor and the Roman goddess (Dea Roma). The worshipping of Dionysos could only develop with the close relations with the emperors and the Roman Empire. Correspondingly, supporting a paganic cult significant for the people, the Roman Empire gained the sympathy of the people and also kept them loyal to Rome. The deification of the Roman emperors began with General Marcus Antonius, who was wellcomed as “New Dionysos” on his arrival to Ephesos, and continued in the Roman Imperial Age. During this period the associations in Anazarbos, Ankyra, Ephesos, Teōs, Aphrodisias and Sardeis characterised Emperor Hadrianus, Commodus and Caracalla by this epitheton. Thus, they deified them by considering them equal with Dionysos. Dionysos also had common worship with imperial or Dea Roma cult besides the common paganic worship of Zeus and Dēmētēr. Like all other paganic religions, the cult of Dionysos broke down with the strengthening Christianity with which it had opposite doctrines and finally with the acceptance of Christianity as the official religion of the state. However, many features of the Dionysos cult continued to exist in Asia Minor both in Christian features and local cultures and traditions. Today it still continues this effect.

Arkaik Çağ’dan çok daha eskilere götürebildiğimiz varlığını, coğrafi olarak başta Hellas, Küçükasya ve sonraları Roma olmak üzere tüm Antik Çağ coğrafyasında etkin bir şekilde hissettiren Dionysos, yer ve zaman farkına bağlı olarak, bazı yerlerde üzüm-şarap tanrısı, bazılarında tiyatro ve sahne sanatlarının tanrısı, bazılarında ise yerel ihtiyaçlar doğrultusunda şekillendirilmiş dinsel bir güç olarak karşımıza çıkmıştır. Ama genel olarak bereket ve bolluğu temsil eden bir doğa tanrısı kimliğine sahip olmuştur. Yazıtlardan anlaşıldığına göre Roma İmparatorluk Çağı Küçükasyası’ nda birçok epitheton ile anılan Dionysos’un, bolluk-bereket getiren bir doğa tanrısı olduğu ve diğer başka özellikleri gene bu epitheton’larından anlaşılmaktadır. Küçükasya’daki Dionysos kültü Roma İmparatorluk Çağı boyunca (bilhassa M.S. II-III. yüzyılarda), öncesinden gelen bir geleneğe bağlı olarak şenlikleri, kült dernekleri ve yapılanması, kültüne hizmet eden sanatçıları (müzisyenler, oyuncular, dansçılar) ile varlığını sürdürmüştür. Yazılı belgelerden bu dönemde büyük ve zengin kentlerde hâlâ Dionysia, Lēnaia, Anthestēria, Trietēris gibi Dionysos adına tertiplenen şenliklerin kutlandığını; masrafları, epimeletes olarak bildiğimiz kentin zengin vatandaşları ya da yöneticileri tarafından karşılanan bu şenliklerde külte ilişkin dans, müzik ve oyun yarışmaların yapıldığını ve herkesçe bilinmeyen kült ritüellerinin uygulandığını öğrenmekteyiz. Bilhassa batı kesimlerdeki büyük kentlerdeki, farklı dönemlerde farklı isimlerle anılan synodos sanatçı derneklerinin yanında thiasos, speira gibi daha geniş kapsamlı kült dernekleri ya da en yaygını mystai olan çeşitli adlar altında toplanan geniş kitleli kült üye grupları hem tapınımda, hem de bu şenliklerde aktif olmuşlardır. Şüphesiz ki bunu gerçekleştirebilmek adına gerek sanatçı dernekleri gerekse kült dernekleri, iyi organize olmuş bir idari yapılanmaya sahip olmak durumundaydı. Bu derneklerde üstlendikleri görevlere göre adlandırılan kült üyelerinin, üye olabilmeleri veya üyeliklerini sürdü-rebilmeleri için ödemek zorunda oldukları aidatlar da vardı. Esasen bu derneklerin finansmanının karşılanmasında bu aidatlar, en az epimeletes’ ler kadar önemliydi. Ayrıca Roma imparatorlarının ya da eyalet yöneticilerinin hem manevi hem de maddi desteğini alıyorlardı. Zira bu dönemde Roma egemenliği altında bulunan Küçükasya topraklarındaki pagan dinsel yaşam her ne kadar kentlerin özgür iradesine bırakılmışsa da, imparatorlara, imparator ve Roma Tanrıçası (Dea Roma) kültüne gösterilen saygı olmaksızın güçlü kalamazdı. Küçükasya Dionysos tapınımı da, tamamıyla imparatorlar ve Roma İmparatorluğu ile kurulan güçlü bağlar sayesinde gelişebilmiştir. Bununla paralel olarak da Roma İmparatorluğu, halk için önemli olan pagan bir kültü destekleyerek, hem halkın sempatisini kazanmakta, hem de böylece onların Roma’ya olan bağlılığını sürdürmek amacını gütmekteydi. General Marcus Antonius’un Ephesos’a gelişinde “Yeni Dionysos” olarak karşılanmasıyla başlayan Romalı devlet adamlarını tanrılaştırma geleneği, Roma İmparatorluk Çağı’nda da sürmüş; bu dönemde özellikle Anazarbos, Ankyra, Ephesos, Teōs, Aphrodisias ve Sardeis’teki dernekler, İmparator Hadrianus, Commodus ve Caracalla’yı bu sıfatla nitelendirmişler, böylece onları Dionysos ile bir tutarak tanrılaştırmışlardır. İmparatorluk veya Dea Roma kültü ile ortak tapınımı da görülen Dionysos’un Zeus ve Dēmētēr gibi pagan tanrı-tanrıçalarla da ortak tapınımı söz konusudur. Diğer pagan dinler gibi Dionysos kültünün yıkımı da, öğretilerinin birbirine tamamen ters düştüğü Hıristiyanlık dininin güçlenmesiyle ve nihayetinde M.S. 391’de imparatorluğun resmî dini olmasıyla gerçekleşmiştir. Ancak Dionysos kültünün birçok unsuru, Küçükasya topraklarında, gerek Hıristiyanlık unsurlarında gerekse halk kültür ve geleneklerinde yaşamaya devam etmiştir. Bugün de bu etkisini göstermeye devam etmektedir."

SEG 60-1998. Religion. Dionysos: his cult in Asia Minor, Imperial period:
On the basis of archaeological, numismatic, and (mainly) epigraphic attestations, B.Öztürk,Roma imparatorluk çağı Küçükasaysı’nda Dionysos kültü (Istanbul 2010), studies the cult ofΔιόνυσος in Roman Asia Minor. After general remarks about the god, he presents a geographically arranged catalogue of the relevant inscriptions with brief comments (ph. of some texts). On 196-209, Ö. provides a register with explanations of the most important terms found in the inscriptions, and on 210/211 a list of epithets.

This paper examines the Dyonisian and Orphic symbolic and ritual iconographical aspects of a Centuripe vase from Southern Italy from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Measuring 70.5 by 34.5 centimeters, the basic form of the vase is that of a bell krater without handles set on a high foot and surmounted by a domed lid ending in an egg-shaped finial (Richter 188), formed of separate sections that have been assembled in production. The vase has been assembled from broken pieces, showing little surface damage. In order to facilitate description and analysis, two very similar Centuripe vases, one in New York, the other in Princeton, are  referred to.
A.Description of the iconographic and decorative aspects of the vase, which depicts a scene of three woman and a man in a ritual scene. One woman holds a thyrsus and tympaneum and there is a tripod.
B. Analysis of the elements in relation to the history and development of Greek vase art. Mayo has observed that ‘’death, marriage, and the mysteries is a frequent triad in South Italian and Sicilian vase-painting’’ (283). These aspects will be examined, in the context of feminine themes, to see if they can shed light on the imagery and function of the vase.
1. Feminine aspects
2. Marriage aspects
3. Funerary aspects
4. Dyonisian aspects
5. Orphic aspects
C. Interpretation.  Ariadne has often been linked  with Aphrodite (Otto 182-85).  Figure 29 (de Grummond 92)  is a wall painting from Pompeii depicting Dionysus and Ariadne watching a contest between Pan and Eros, aptly illustrating the combination of the worlds of Dionysus and Aphrodite. Figure 30 (Lissarague in Masks 21),  from a fifth century Bell krater, depicting what could be a puberty initiation scene,  illustrates  Dionysus and Ariadne in a ritual context. The Maenad holding the rabbit, a well-known fertility symbol could be an aspect linking Ariadne to Aphrodite. 
The portrait on the Montreal Centuripe vase could serve to indicate that the deceased identified herself with Ariadne, as her features resembles the Ariadne figure on the body. The head can be related to the ascension of Aphrodite in a  role of chthonian goddess (Calinescu in Mayo 143), and possibly related to Ariadne’s divinization after her revival  by Dionysus, where Zeus placed her crown in the heavens (Seyffert 64). As shown in figures 11-14, Centuripe imagery has been related to the Dionysus and Ariadne figures of the frieze of the Villa of Mysteries.

The author's many years of research has led to two main conclusions: Firstly, in Keros was worshiped a pair of gods, the great Goddess of the earth and the wild beasts, who, depending on the people that arrived to the island, took the names Ishtar, Semele, Demeter, Artemis Maa, and her associate, who was also mentioned as Attis, Pappas (besides, the highest mountain of Keros is still called so), and Dionysus.
Secondly, after the submersion  of the narrow land corridor between Keros and its cape (or the elevation of the sea) due to an earthquake, people who resorted to the island named the cape "Δασκύλλιον" (today Daskalio).
Since 2700 B.C., specialized metals craftsmen were installed, who processed imported raw materials and made tools and objects. Because of their specialty, they needed goat and wild animal skins, animal protein to live on, and protection from god Dionysus (see Κουτελάκης, Θέατρο και μεταλλωρύχοι-μεταλλουργοί / Koutelakis, Theater and Miners - Metallurgists, Athens 2016), whom they continued to worship, as did the previous ones.
The abandonment of Daskalio is probably due to the collapse of the ecosystem, as the amount of fuel for the metallurgical furnaces was huge, and secondly because the population of goats and chamois (Kri-Kri) that lived for centuries in Keros went extinct.

This chapter examines Italian images of Dionysus with a view to exploring the dynamics of acculturation of a Greek figure. The aim is to show that images provide major evidence not only for studying art history, but also religious and cultural history; and that far from being representations of cultic ritual, or being mere adaptations of imported iconographic schemes, Roman and Italian images of Dionysus furnish a figurative and reflexive discourse on the very processes of appropriation and domestication. In the case of each representation, the chapter specifies the ways in which Greek forms acquire local inflections, and
identify the ways in which these respond and correspond to Roman or Italian rituals as well as to social and political realities. Where possible, the images are put in the context of Roman literary treatments of related phenomena. Two sets of images are subjected to scrutiny: a miscellaneous cluster from the archaic period, and a more homogeneous body of sacro-idyllic landscapes from the Augustan
era. The early images are particularly sensitive to cultural analysis. The Augustan images show landscape being marked as ritual space through Dionysian and other motifs; and the taming of nature which they evince coheres with the new Augustan view of Dionysus, which is a response to Mark Antony’s cultivation of an exuberant Dionysian persona. The main pieces of evidence on which this chapter draws are: a set of fragments of statuary believed to come from the sixthcentury
sanctuary of Sant’Omobono in the Forum Boarium; some descriptions of
the decorative programme of the late-fifth-century temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera; an image of Liber on an inscribed third-century Praenestine cista (CIL I2, 563. Berlin, Charlottenburg, inv. Misc. 6239); Liber on the fourth-century Cista Ficoroni; a Dionysian fresco from Lanuvium; and frescoes and stucco panels from the Villa della Farnesina, all dating to the early Augustan period.

El estudio de los epítetos divinos permite ahondar en diferentes aspectos que conforman las características y ámbitos de acción de dichas divinidades. Los epítetos pueden relacionarse con las historias míticas de los dioses, con sus atributos iconográficos o con alguna faceta concreta. En este trabajo vamos a analizar algunos testimonios de dos epítetos de Dioniso, Cadmeo y Coreo. Cadmeo se considera un epíteto topográfico porque se asocia a una ciudad concreta, Tebas, y además, al ser este su lugar de nacimiento, también hace referencia a los orígenes del dios. Coreo, ‘el que se ocupa de los coros’, subraya la vinculación de Dioniso con la música y los coros, pero además puede ayudar a entender algunos cultos.

The inseparable relationship between the cult of Dionysus and politics in antiquity emerged as early as in archaic poleis and continued to evolve until late-antique times. Surprisingly enough, most monographs dealing with Greek and Roman political thought pay little, if any, attention to the essential role played by Dionysiac imagery. The only exception in which the name of Dionysus comes to the fore is the Bacchanalian affair, which has been widely discussed both in relation to Roman religion as well as in relation to Roman politics. Apart from that affair, however, Dionysus/Bacchus is seldom mentioned in mainstream research on Greek and Roman political practice.To date, no monograph systematically addressing the role of Dionysus in Greek and Roman political thought has seen the light of day. In existing studies, interesting and valuable as they are, the issue has been discussed only partially or in passing. The present volume fills this important gap by introducing the political importance of Dionysus into the academic mainstream. It brings together 11 contributions from an international team of scholars, starting with four top specialists in the field, Cornelia Isler-Kerényi, Jean-Marie Pailler, Richard Seaford and Richard Stoneman. The contributors develop an interdisciplinary approach to the subject by combining sub-disciplines and types of evidence: historiography, poetry, coins, epigraphy, art and philosophy, while the chapters also follow a chronological order. Thus, the reader can follow how the political ideas and motifs rooted in Greek classical thought were continued, adapted and developed in successive periods, from Hellenistic to Imperial to late-antique times. The book therefore casts a decisive light on a still underrated aspect of Greek and Roman theological refection on politics, and greatly helps to better understand the ancient thinking on the nature of ruling.

Ancient Greek tragedy addresses a myriad of themes, from questions of identity to socio-political changes and issues. The Bacchae is a perfect example of these themes, especially regarding the question of gender (self) and the differences between women and men (other). Dionysus, returning to his mother’s birthplace, wants to come “home” and be recognized and worshiped as a god. Yet, he finds resistance and denial by Pentheus, his cousin, who is also the king of Thebes. It seems that only through utter acceptance of his deity, Dionysus can actually become a God – doubt or denial remove his god-like supremacy. Thus, transforming his wrath into action, he does not only want to take revenge upon Pentheus and punish him for his disbelief, but the whole city must suffer obliteration. Disguised – or better, masked - as a mortal, he changes his identity into what he does not want to be assimilated with in order to strategically take out his enemy.

El relato de las Bodas de Caná del Evangelio de San Juan narra cómo Jesús convirtió en vino de gran calidad el agua que se guardaba en tinajas destinadas a las purificaciones durante una boda. Este episodio, considerado el primero de los signos realizados por Jesús, se enmarca dentro de una larga tradición de prodigios de la Antigüedad en los que interviene el vino. En el presente estudio me centraré en los motivos en los que coincide la narración evangélica con varios relatos que vinculan el origen del vino con Dioniso y determinados prodigios con fiestas dionisíacas.

This collection of essays offers a rounded examination of the Roman and Italian manifestations of Dionysus. Nine essays address Bacchus at the crossroads of Greek and Roman, combining diverse sources that include art, epigraphy, historiography, poetry, and rhetorical and Christian discourse. The collection emphasizes local inflections in Italian responses to (and appropriations of) Bacchus, and the intersection of Bacchus and Roman politics and society.

Contents
Preface  V
List of illustrations  IX
List of contributors  XI

Fiachra Mac Góráin
Introduction. Dionysus in Rome: accommodation and resistance  1

Simon Perris and Fiachra Mac Góráin
The ancient reception of Euripides’ Bacchae from Athens to Byzantium  39

Stéphanie Wyler
Images of Dionysus in Rome: the archaic and Augustan periods  85

Daniele Miano
Liber, Fufluns and the others: rethinking Dionysus in Italy between the fifth and the third centuries BCE  111

Julietta Steinhauer
Dionysian associations and the Bacchanalian affair  133

Gesine Manuwald
Dionysus / Bacchus / Liber in Cicero  157

John F. Miller
Bacchus and the exiled Ovid (Tristia 5.3)  177

Alessandro Schiesaro
Alius furor. Statius’ Thebaid and the metamorphoses of Bacchus  193

Francesco Massa
The shadow of Bacchus: Liber and Dionysus in Christian Latin literature (2nd–4th centuries)  219

Index rerum et nominum  239
Index locorum  245
Index of inscriptions and visual artefacts  247

in: T. Schade – B. Schweizer – S. Teuber et al. (Hrsg.), Exploring Resources. On Cultural, Spatial and Temporal dimensions of ResourceCultures, RessourcenKulturen 13 (Tübingen 2020) 307–328.

This paper focusses on bodily practices with things and substances in sacred spaces. These are seen as crucial for turning wine into a key resource in fifth-century BC Greek culture. As a starting point serves a well-known passage of Euripides’ Bacchae, in which – next to bread – wine is adressed as a key resource for the Greek world. Pictorial representations of the gods mentioned by Euripides as well as the tragical way of describing resources are then correlated to a conceptualization of resources as parts of complex bundles of interdependent tangible and intangible elements in different social and material spaces. Resources defined as means of constructing and negotiating identities are consequently seen as subjected to processes of sacralisation in sacred spaces.
In relation to an archaeological perspective on resources, dimensions of materiality and multimodality of cultural practices as well as the concept of sensorial assemblages are adressed. Concerning wine as a resource beyond the usual view on utility and scarcity of natural products, aspects of passages of Euripides’ Bacchae and pictures of Late Archaic drinking vessels were finally taken into consideration. The aim is to approach multimodal or synesthetic practices of bodily and emotionally involved actors with things and substances in sacred spaces and, thus, the emergence of a key resource in connection to conceptions of cultural knoweldge. Furthermore the paper tries to conflate aspects of assemblage theories and questions of gendered identities or representations, which strictly speaking are often seen in opposition.


Zusammenfassung

Der Beitrag zielt auf Körperpraktiken mit Dingen und Substanzen in sakralen Räumen. Diese werden als entscheidend dafür angesehen, Wein zu einer zentralen Ressource im Griechenland des fünften Jahrhunderts v. Chr. zu machen. Den Ausgangspunkt bildet eine bekannte Passage der Bakchen des Euripides, in der – neben Brot – Wein als zentrale Ressource der griechischen Welt angesprochen wird. Bildliche Darstellungen der von Euripides erwähnten Götter sowie die ‚tragische Weise‘ der Beschreibung von Ressourcen werden dann einer Konzeptualisierung von Ressourcen gegenüber gestellt, die diese im Rahmen komplexer Bündel voneinander abhängiger materieller und immaterieller Elemente in verschiedenen sozialen und materiellen Räumen betrachtet. Die als Mittel zur Konstruktion und Verhandlung von Identitäten definierten Ressourcen unterliegen Prozessen der Sakralisierung in sakralen Räumen.
Für eine archäologische Perspektive auf Ressourcen werden die Dimensionen der Materialität und Multimodalität kultureller Praktiken sowie das Konzept der sensorischen Assemblagen angesprochen. In Bezug auf Wein als Ressource jenseits der üblichen Sichtweise auf Nützlichkeit und Knappheit von Naturprodukten werden schließlich Aspekte von Passagen der Bakchen des Euripides sowie Bilder von spätarchaischen Trinkgefäßen betrachtet. Ziel ist die Annäherung an multimodale oder synästhetische Praktiken von körperlich und emotional involvierten Akteuren mit Dingen und Substanzen in sakralen Räumen und damit die Entstehung einer zentralen Ressource im Zusammenhang mit Vorstellungen von kulturellem Wissen. Darüber hinaus wird in dem Beitrag versucht, Aspekte von Assemblage-Theorien und Fragen geschlechtsspezifischer Identitäten oder Repräsentationen zusammenzuführen, die streng genommen oft in Opposition zueinander gesehen werden.

Niniejsza praca poświęcona jest analizie dramatu Eurypidesa Bachantki pod kątem doświadczenia religijnego epifanii boga Dionizosa przez postaci dramatu. W analizie wykorzystana zostaje kategoria Numinosum Rudolfa Otto określająca doświadczenie bóstwa jako tajemnicę grozy i fascynacji (Mysterium tremendum et fascinans). Dionizos jako postać boska streszczająca w sobie przeciwieństwa objawia się jako bóstwo irracjonalne i gwałtowne w dramacie. Tym samym jego epifania przybiera charakter numinotyczny wywierając głęboki i niszczący wpływ na postaci dramatu i ich psychikę.

This article analyzes a canonical jazz album through Nietzschean and performance studies concepts, illuminating the album as a case study of multiple performativities. I analyze Charles Mingus' The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady as performing classical theater across the album's images, texts, and music, and as a performance to be constructed in audiences' minds as the sounds, texts, and visuals never simultaneously meet in the same space. Drawing upon Nietzschean aesthetics, I suggest how this performative space operates as "mental theater ," hybridizing diverse traditions and configuring distinct dynamics of aesthetic possibility. In this crossroads of jazz traditions, theater traditions, and the album format, Mingus exhibits an artistry between performing the album itself as imagined drama stage and between crafting this space's Apollonian/Dionysian interplay in a performative understanding of aesthetics, sound, and embodiment. This case study progresses several agendas in performance studies involving music performativity, the concept of performance complex, the Dionysian, and the album as a site of performative space.

Dionysus was the ancient Greek God of Intoxication, and this has generally been assumed to have been limited to his obvious relationship with the Grape, but could cannabis and other additives have played a role as well? This article will explore the evidence that indicates just that, with a thorough discussion of ancient Greek references to such infusions, and a look at the history of the cult in the ancient world.  Indications of Dionysus worship with other cultures and sects known for their use of cannabis in ancient times, will be examined, such as evidence of the Dionysian cult among the Scythians, Thracians, ancient Jews and worshippers of Shiva in India who were said to have recognized Dionysus as their own God Shiva, when Alexander the Great rolled into India!  We will follow the trail back further to the claims of a connection between Dionysus to the Vedic Soma which a number of scholars have suggested for over a century. Finally, new archeological evidence of wines infused with cannabis as well as henbane, opium and other ingredients, in regions known for the worship of Dionysus, shall be examined.

An illustrated version of this article can be accessed here - https://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2020/12/08/the-cannabis-infused-wine-of-dionysus/

Translation of Sophocles' Oedipus the Tyrant, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, with notes and commentary by Jamey Hecht. From the Introduction: "Greek tragedy is a kind ofscripture that teaches us by showing, not telling, what we need to know. I call it a scripture because it is a religious discourse about human beings and their relationships to the divine realm ofabundance and to the material world ofscarcity. But it is also drama, a scripted matrix of interpersonal words and actions, as human and social as any conversation in the audience. Like all drama, tragedy is about individuals, but it also speaks to public life — Thebes and Athens and Corinth are not just crowded places but living societies with their own crises, wounds, and needs. Oedipus himself is a gifted man, endowed with an intellectual power that exposes him to special dangers. But he is also the Everyman that Freud made him. Though most people are spared the crimes of patricide and incest, and though psychoanalysis may have been wrong to posit a repressed yearning for them in every heart, it remains permanently true that nobody is in complete control of his own destiny. Just as we, the audience, can read the very script which the characters must live out, so the gods can read the fates which we must live out. Tragedy puts us (for once!) in the
divine position of the invulnerable spectator, free to experience a safe terror as we identify with the endangered hero; free to feel a guarded pity for him insofar as we enjoy our blessed distance from his ruin. Austere as it is, the art of Sophocles comes closer to life than any treatise on ethics could. It is free ofprecepts and instruction; within it, only experience teaches."

The intent of this research paper is to trace the antiquity and significance of the rudiments of traditional masquerades still practiced in Sardinia, Bulgaria and other Balkan or Alpine countries through matrilineal ritual symbols from Neolithic Old Europe interlaced with Dionysian Bronze Age rituals based upon Thracian myths. Additionally, this research is to query accepted beliefs that Carnival origins only began with medieval Christmas, Lenten and Easter holidays, or are merely processions reflecting current popular culture. In this paper, the symbols of suppressed spiritual consciousness embedded mnemonically in the masks and gear of all-male Bulgarian Kukeri Festivals and Sardinian Carnivales participants, are presented as evolving from Neolithic times in Old Europe, then extending to Sardinia with migrations, and later, through extensive obsidian trade routes, myths and rituals carried between Sardinia-Corsica, Old Europe and the Mediterranean-at-large.

Courtney J. P. Friesen explores shifting boundaries of ancient religions by way of the reception of a popular tragedy, Euripides’ Bacchae . As a play staging political crises provoked by the arrival of the “foreign” god Dionysus and his ecstatic cult, audiences and readers found resonances with their own cultural moments. This dramatic deity became emblematic of exuberant and liberating spirituality and, at the same time, a symbol of imperial conquest. Thus, readings of the Bacchae frequently foreground conflicts between religious autonomy and political authority, and between ethnic diversity and social cohesion. This cross-disciplinary study traces appropriations and evocations of this drama ranging from the fifth century BCE through Byzantium not only among “pagans” but also Jews and Christians. Writers variously articulated their religious visions over against Dionysus, often while paradoxically adopting the god’s language and symbols. Consequently, imitation and emulation are at times indistinguishable from polemics and subversion.

See URL: Otium.Unipg

In this paper I would like to propose a re-reading experiment of the iconography of Dionysos with halo, through a description of the images repertoire of nimbated god and with an examination of the main thematic and narrative contexts in which Dionysus is depicted with nimbus. Furthermore I would like to dedicate space to examination of relationships between Dionysus and the light; the sidereal energy that compose the halo. The informations that will emerge from this study, could reevaluate the rare and mysterious iconography of Dionysos with halo, which, unfortunately, it has been underestimated by contemporary scholars.

The suppression of the Bacchanalia in Rome 186 BCE was the first major religious persecution in Europe. The essay provides a new analysis, referring to the political theory of Eric Voegelin. It shows that the suppression was a reaction of the Roman commonwealth to a cult which challgenged the meaning of political existence within the republic. Ultimately, the Bacchanalian affair is a collision of two types of religiosity, the political religiosity of the public cult and the orgiastic and apolitical religiosity of the Bacchic underground. Both types are based on particular religious experiences, the experience of gods preserving and fostering the political community and the experience of a god promoting the fulfilment of bodily desires. As the essay shows at the example of Euripides’ Bacchae, the worship of Bacchus-Dionysus had always represented the apolitical dimension of human existence; already in the ancient myths the “alien god” appears as the enemy of rulers and politicians. Finally, this reconsideration of the Bacchanalia helps to understand why the early Christians were likened to the Bacchants.

For the Greeks, the connection between Dionysus and wine is almost unanimous. The god diffuses wine-related know-how and its cultivation throughout the inhabited world. Certain myths place the birth and infancy of Dionysus in regions where wine plays a prominent role, either for its excellence, because wine-related wonders take place there, or because the existence of wine-springs is attested. The cause-and-effect relationship between the birth of Dionysus and the miraculous appearance of wine is used by some cities to support their claim to be his birthplace. In some cases, myths concerning the origins of Dionysus are combined with a ritual component that celebrates the epiphany of the god through festivals in which the focal point is wine. This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of mythology and aetiology by adopting a novel approach to the case study of Dionysus' birth, examining the extent to which the importance of wine in these areas determines whether they are linked to the origins of the god.

Dionysiac Iconography on Hellenistic relief Bowls
by
Chara Andreidou


The present study was conducted during the years 1990-1994 and submitted and approved for the degree of Doctor of Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (date of final oral examination: June 1998). The subject of this study is the Dionysiac iconographic cycle on the Hellenistic moldmade relief bowls and the study examines all the samples of the category published until the day of its submission.
Although Hellenistic relief bowls are particularly popular and well represented in all Hellenistic sites, until the date of submission of this dissertation there was no study referring to the category as a whole, just reports in the context of publication from systematic excavations as well as thematic articles. The current study is the first attempt at a holistic approach to the category throughout its extremely broad geographical range of production and not divided into individual local aggregates, as was the case previously.
The  Dionysiac iconographical cycle was selected to serve as a pilot for the study of the category, because of its popularity. The Hellenistic relief bowls served as wine drinking cups used in banquets, therefore the illustration on their exterior surface largely draws its themes from a circle related to wine, banquet, and their god, Dionysus.
The examined material includes finds from all over the Hellenistic world, from its core as well as its most remote sites. To secure a safe conclusion, the material is furthermore limited to systematic excavation finding with – when possible – precise excavation data.
The method of approach is based on the identification of three stages in organizing the production:
- ceramic workshop
- local production center
- cycle of influence,
and the study of interconnections and interactions between them.
Besides, the studying approach was based on the identification of three phases in the iconographic process:
- stamp
- mold
- relief bowl,
as well as the corresponding division of labor in:
- stamp engraver
- mold decorator
- potter
- owner of the ceramic workshop,
without of course ruling out the possibility that the whole production process was done by only one person, at least in small workshops.
The research focuses on the study of groups of vessels made in a specific local production center. The iconographic approach of the material looks for those elements that compose the group of relief bowls with Dionysian motifs within the production of the center, the special features as well as the common points with relevant groups of other production centers. Also, the studying approach looks for the factors that led to the formation of the specific iconographic language, in some points common and in some so different from that of the other production centers.
The method of examining the groups of relief bowls from proven sites enabled us to understand the powerful role of a series of factors that form the physiognomy of every local production, either artistic or “craft”, in a specific period, factors with great influence over:
- the acceptance or rejection of a ceramic category in general, as well as of iconographic cycles and their motifs in particular, within a general historical, social, religious frame
- the qualitative and quantitative features of local production, correlated with the general political and economic frame
- the formation of its iconographic language.
The ancient sources offer particularly significant help in this area, by providing valuable information and leading to a better understanding of many aspects in the different stages of the process.
The study of the material is divided into two parts. In the beginning, there is an extensive introduction including the following fields:
- description of the ceramic category
- short review of the previous research
- possible origin of the category
- chronology
- geographical range of production
- manufacturing process
- use
- issues on the name of the category and a new proposal
- iconographic cycles and organization of the decoration
The first part of the present study examines the Dionysiac iconographic cycle and its motifs in each local production center or, if this is not possible, in each excavated site. Thus, all the production centers and all the sites with samples of Hellenistic relief bowls among their finding are examined. Emphasis is placed on those elements that compose the special iconographic language of each region of the vast Hellenistic world.
In the second part, each motif of the Dionysiac iconographic cycle is examined separately, as represented in the entire production of Hellenistic relief bowls. Emphasis is placed on those elements that either differentiate or unify the way each motif is treated in the various production centers of the category. In particular:
- elements that form the particular language of each region, shaped under the strong influence of the local iconographic tradition, the traditional cults, the impact degree of other centers, the inspiration derived by other categories of art, alongside with the entire economic, social and political context of the region
- elements that managed to exceed the narrow local frame, spread throughout the Hellenistic production, and form the group of eminent, basic features of the category regardless of geographical location and centers of production.
The study also proceeded to the identification of cycles of influence in production and decoration of the category, which, to a greater or lesser extent, affect the wares of the production centers or even of individual workshops.
The conclusions derived from this study are extensively presented at the end of this paper. We believe that the results justify the approaching method of the material and shed light on the following issues of this so well represented ceramic category:
- individual workshops or even individual potters, where possible
- local production centers
- “international” – concerning the Hellenistic world – cycles of influence.
In our opinion, the present study could serve as a pilot for a more comprehensive approach of the Hellenistic era, an era where the Hellenistic «κοινή»,  the Hellenistic common language, is not so “common” as believed and the homogeneity that is considered to be the most characteristic feature of the era, should eventually not be taken for granted.
The study of the numerous unpublished at that time material and the later rich findings has of course added – and will continue to add in the future – new data on the results of this paper, which may either confirm or partly subvert our conclusion. But this is more than expected in the study of a multifaceted, multilingual, multicultural, multilevel era such as the Hellenistic period.

In the present paper I discuss the generic identity of dithyrambic poetry starting with the famous Archilochus' fr. 120 West. My approach to the subject in the first section is analytical, in which I examine the key
words of the Archilochus fragment related to the chorus and choral performance in order to establish a basis for the second part of the discussion.
I also comment on the early poets, who wrote dithyrambs in order to confirm the ritual and religious aspects of the early dithyramb. The second section is concerned with the generic identity of the dithyramb viewed from a formalistic aspect; in this section I am investigating Pindar and Bacchylides' dithyrambs. They composed lyric poetry at the beginning of the 5th century BC, when tragedy became the most popular form of performance in Athens. The approach is systematic, dealing with the performances and the performers of dithyrambs, as well as with the text of the dithyrambs as a primary source. This attempt will demonstrate conclusively which part of the dithyrambic melos (a composition of song, dance and musical accompaniment) is the most stable feature of the genre.

Since music affects emotions and dispositions,
it plays a fundamental role in
the political philosophy of both Plato
and Aristotle. This paper discusses
how education utilizes various keys
and modes, in particular how the works
Laws and Republic praise the doric
mode, while banishing representative
of the cult of Dionysos, unlike to
Aristotle’s Politics. This difference
corresponds to a peculiar production
of political order, resulting from the
control of emotional disorder. Therefore
the aim of this paper is not only
to indicate the laws of music, but to
understand music’s systematic role in
politics through an analysis of various
therapies of emotions.
Politics 7-8 displays a homeopatic
therapy according to the tragic catharsis
in Poetics: sounds and instruments
provoking enthusiasm purge one’s soul
of disorderly movements. In this way,
Aristotle frees music from merely educational
and political determination. On
the other hand, Plato chooses at first in
Republic an allopathic therapy, but accepts
later in Laws a homeopathic one
as well. Since music (and dance) is the
medium that support these therapies,
it possesses a fundamental function in
Plato’s ontological-political system.
The viewpoint of this system is the divine
Idea of the Good or nous basileus
and demands a peculiar music, which
Plato would define ‘divine’.

The critical side of Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) philosophy was aimed at modernity: he believed that with modernization came the loss of the “highest” and “noblest” types of humans and the societal conditions to produce them. The positive side of Nietzsche’s philosophy was aimed at retrieving the Worldview of ancient Greek culture. As incoherent as the critical side of Nietzsche’s philosophy may seem, the positive side of his philosophy is consistent; thus, the positive side can render both sides more coherent.
    In tracing the history of humanity’s degeneration into modernity, Nietzsche came to recognize Aristophanes’ complaints against Euripides and Socrates as an original revelation of Western culture’s steep decline. In other words, the philosophy of Euripides leads to a worldview in which human dignity is devalued, and the philosophy of Socrates leads to a worldview constituted by nihilism. Given our decadent modern position in the history of humanity, the original Western Worldview of the ancient Greeks may be difficult to envision. Yet, Nietzsche discovered that how the ancient Greeks understood tragedy reveals both how they understood existence and how they lived with the dignity of an authentic nobility.
    Ancient Greek culture honored the sense in which existence is governed by divine forces – forces which exceed the powers of mortals. Similarly, existential mysteries, such as fate, death, and love, exceed our ability to fully grasp them, and, as evidenced by their capacity to overwhelm us, they somehow involve divinity. Thus, according to Nietzsche, the ancient Greeks could exist in authentic communion with such divine forces because the Greeks had a noble relation to their own mortality. This can be envisioned from their point of view regarding tragedy, and Nietzsche called this ancient Greek perspective on existence “the Dionysian Worldview.”
    According to the ancient Greeks: Time is a circle, Dionysus is a god, and a “god” is “that which lights up a world.” Thus, on the one hand, the general response which the Dionysian Worldview calls for regarding the Eternal Recurrence of existence, including of course the tragic, may be philosophically characterized as Amor Fati. On the other hand, Full Throttle Heart characterizes the particular experience of Amor Fati in response to tragedy: a response that confirms the Dionysian Worldview by experiencing tragedy as the rapture and ecstasy of divine affectivity.
    This book is divided into three parts. The first part, “How to Read Nietzsche” shows Nietzsche’s philosophy as sufficiently consistent such that readers should be able to turn to any passage throughout Nietzsche’s writings and have their bearings. The second part presents the first edition’s frolicking, romping, and exhorting dithyrambs in light of the insight that the Dionysian Worldview is the unifying principle of Nietzsche’s philosophy. This includes a discussion of the Mysteries of Dionysus as they relate to Plato’s dialogs and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Lastly, the third part of this book provides Scalambrino’s translation of Nietzsche’s so-called “Madness Letters” from January, 1889.

Dionysus was the ancient Greek God of Intoxication, and this has generally been assumed to have been limited to his obvious relationship with the Grape, but could cannabis and other additives have played a role as well? This article will explore the evidence that indicates just that, with a thorough discussion of ancient Greek references to such infusions, and a look at the history of the cult in the ancient world.  Indications of Dionysus worship with other cultures and sects known for their use of cannabis in ancient times, will be examined, such as evidence of the Dionysian cult among the Scythians, Thracians, ancient Jews and worshippers of Shiva in India who were said to have recognized Dionysus as their own God Shiva, when Alexander the Great rolled into India!  We will follow the trail back further to the claims of a connection between Dionysus to the Vedic Soma which a number of scholars have suggested for over a century. Finally, new archeological evidence of wines infused with cannabis as well as henbane, opium and other ingredients, in regions known for the worship of Dionysus, shall be examined.

An illustrated version of this article can be accessed here - https://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2020/12/08/the-cannabis-infused-wine-of-dionysus/

This paper deals with the House of Leukaktios, which has been discovered during Polish excavations at Ptolemais, Libya, in 2001– 2007. The house has almost completely preserved mosaic pavements and the plan of Graeco-Roman type with an open central court (atrium), acting as the focal point around which the rooms were arranged. The name of one of the last owners, Leukaktios, is written twice on the mosaics in the atrium and in the triclinium. The author proposes the identification of several rooms. Room 1, a triclinium, has a mosaic with the characteristic U-shaped geometric frame around a central figural panel that depicts a personification of Victory or Nike. Room 14 is identified as an andron/triclinium with a similar U-shaped version lay out of the mosaic pavement. Room 9, which is situated in front of the andron/triclinium, could be interpreted as a gyneceum. The central panel which represents Dionysos and sleeping Ariadna has a parallel from the House of Dionysos in Cyrene, where the mosaic bears a rare Greek inscription dedicated to a woman.
Room 4 is identified as a reception hall. The mosaics are homogeneous in style and belong to the last phase of the building between AD 215 and 225.

Der Beitrag analysiert die religiöse Tiefenschicht von Camerons Blockbuster. Die Inszenierung der Außeririschen - Na'vi - produziert das Bild eines Lebens von fragloser Verbundenheit mit der Natur. Diese Vorstellung der Weltimmanenz wird allerdings von der Handlung selbst unterwandert, da die Handlung das starke Individuum erfordert, das eingebunden in kosmische Abläufe nicht denkbar ist. Das wird in Abgrenzung von Immanenzkonstruktionen des antiken Dramas (Euripides) deutlich.

À partir d’un célèbre fragment dithyrambique attribué à Archiloque (fr. 120 W, fr. 96 Lasserre), nous développons une série de considérations sur les rapports entre le culte de Dionysos et la dissémination du dithyrambe par les voies du commerce maritime – liés aussi à l’exportation de vin et de céramique – autour de l’Égée. Sans mépriser les témoignages épigraphiques et pictographiques, la lecture proposée ici s’efforce d’esquisser les réseaux culturels créés à cette époque afin de les comprendre comme des moyens incontournables pour le développement de la culture hellénique postérieure. Archiloque devient le centre d’une interprétation ample de quelques aspects de l’Antiquité archaïque à la lumière de ses rapports avec Dionysos, ce dieu venu toujours d’ailleurs.

This article explores the interdependency that existed in ancient Greece between religious and musical practices. The intimate relationship between those two cultural fields is stressed through a reading of Euripides Bakchai as a testimony for the uses of music in acts of cult foundation and cult diffusion in Classical and Archaic Greece. The Bakchai, which narrate the arriving of a new god, Dionysos, and his cult to Thebes, highlights the importance of Dionysian musical practices in the dialectic process of cult inauguration. The new God announce his arrival with music, musical are the means by which Dionysos and his entourage fights local resistance and his ultimate victory, too, becomes manifest through the embodiment of his particular mousikē by the Theban citizens. Moreover, the narrative of the play also points to a large body of Greek myths featuring the archetypical motif of the ‘musician cult founder’ thus underlining an actual Greek practice of inaugurating new cults by the use of music.

A paper done for my 19th Century Philosophy class at Indiana University Southeast in 2014.  Paper applies Nietzsche's Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy from "The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music" to the 2014 animated film "The Lego Movie", Oscar Wilde's "Salome", and other aspects of art and culture.  My overall idea is that the tragedy that Nietzsche describes in "The Birth of Tragedy" is not dead as he believed it to be and is in the process of being resurrected.  The film "The Lego Movie" is an example of how the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy and tragedy are still alive and surviving, but that people must delve into their culture to make more tragedies.