When I was a child I was very taken with the book, The Egypt Game, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. In it, some friends discover a bust of Nefertiti and immerse themselves in a game of creating rituals and building altars to Egyptian gods. This concept really inspired me and my best friend and we decided to make a Greek Game for ourselves. We decided that Dionysus was the god we wanted to worship and so we spent afternoons playing outside, building an altar on a flat-ish rock, leaving offerings of grapes drizzled with honey, which we then crushed with more rocks to make, what 10 year olds would consider, wine. It was one of the most fun we'd had and one of my core memories.
Why were we inspired by Dionysus? I'm not sure, probably it had something to do with our very limited and basic understanding of who he was, being a god of festivity, wine, and theater, which sounded like a good time to us.
So now, digging a little deeper, who is Dionysus?
Dionysus extending a drinking cup (6th century BCE)
In ancient Greek myth and religion, Dionysus is the god of wine, vegetation, fertility, festivity, ritual madness, and theater.1,2 His name, Dionysus Eleutherios, means, "The Liberator," and he is said to “free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful”.3
The Amasis Painter's Amphora, Dionysus and the Maenads, 540-535 BCE.
His origins are uncertain but he was one of the earliest gods of mainland Greek culture with the earliest mention of him dating to the 12th or 13th century BCE.4,5,6
Golden Naiskos with Dionysus, 2nd century BCE.
He is often depicted as carrying his thyrsus, a staff topped with a pinecone, wrapped with ivy and dripping with honey.7 Dionysus' followers, known as the maenads, meaning "raving ones" were his female followers and the most significant members of the thiasus, the god's retinue.8,9 Other members of the thiasus were satyrs and other hybrid creatures symbolizing the transition from civilized life back to nature, as a means of liberation.10
Epiphany of Dionysus mosaic, from the Villa of Dionysus (2nd century CE) in Dion, Greece, Archeological Museum of Dion
Our upcoming event, Dionysus: Monsters of Myth, will be a celebration of the untamed—a revelry that offers an evening of revelry and liberation! Tickets are available at lunargalas.com/events!
References:
1. Hedreen, Guy Michael. Silens in Attic Black-figure Vase-painting: Myth and Performance. University of Michigan Press. 1992.
2. James, Edwin Oliver. The Tree of Life: An Archaeological Study. Brill Publications. 1966. p. 234.
3. Csapo, Eric (2016-08-03). "The 'Theology' of the Dionysia and Old Comedy". In Eidinow, Esther (ed.). Theologies of Ancient Greek Religion. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 118.
4. Thomas McEvilley, The Shape of Ancient Thought, Allsworth press, 2002, pp. 118–121.
5. Isler-Kerényi, Cornelia; Watson, Wilfred G. E. (2007). "An Iconography in Process". Dionysos in Archaic Greece. Brill. pp. 5–16.
6. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill.
7. Olszewski, E. (2019). Dionysus’s enigmatic thyrsus. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 163(2), 153–173.
8. Riu, Xavier (1999). Dionysism and Comedy. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 105.
10. Isler-Kerényi, Cornelia; Watson, Wilfred G. E. (2007). "An Iconography in Process". Dionysos in Archaic Greece. Brill. pp. 5–16.
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