This powerpoint includes information from chapter 9 of the Classical Mythology in Context textbook.

1. Chapter 9

2. 9.1 Birth of Dionysus from Zeus’s thigh as Hermes watches. After Zeus inadvertently immolates
Semele while pregnant, Zeus removes Dionysus from her womb, stitches him in his thigh, and gives birth to
the infant himself. Detail from a red-figure lekythos. Alkimachos Painter, c. 470–460 BCE. Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA / Catharine Page Perkins Fund / Bridgeman Images, BST1762525.
Dionysus
• Dionysus was the son of Zeus and a mortal, Semele
• He is more closely associated with mortals than the rest
of the Olympians
• The infant Dionysus is torn apart and then is
reconstituted, associating him with death
• Many of Dionysus’ myths feature mortals who suffer, go
mad, and are torn apart by his worshipers, echoing the
suffering of the god

3. HISTORY
Dionysus
Classical Mythology in Context

4. 9.2 Dionysus (center) accompanied by satyrs and
maenads. Black-figure column krater. Painter of
Munich, c. 520 BCE. The John P. Getty Museum, Los
Angeles, California. 75.AE.106. Digital image courtesy
of the Getty’s Open Content Program.
Viticulture, Wine, and Fertility
• Dionysus was responsible for both
agricultural and human fertility
• His main festival at Athens was the
Anthesteria, which celebrated his gift
of wine to humanity, and linked wine
with human fertility
• The first day opened the city to both
the god and the dead, who were
believed to wander the city during the
festival
• The second day of the festival
involved a drinking contest; talking
was not allowed

5. Map 9.1 Dionysus in Greece
Dionysus in Greece

6. 9.3 Satyr pushing a young woman on a swing on the
last day of the Anthesteria. Attic red-figure skyphos from
Chiusi. Penelope Painter, c. fifth century BCE. bpk, Berlin /
Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany /
Eva-Maria Borgwaldt / Art Resource, NY, ART189509.
The Anthesteria
• The third day of the festival
was joyful
• A queen was married to
Dionysus in a sacred marriage
symbolizing the marriage
between the god and the city,
ensuring the reproduction of
the next generation
• Celebrations of Dionysus
represent his destabilizing
effect on communities

7. 9.4 Men dance and flirt at a symposium. Red-figure wine
cup. Briseis Painter, c. 480–470 BCE. The John P. Getty
Museum, Los Angeles, California. 86.AE.293. Digital image
courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program.
The Symposium
• Symposia were gatherings of
elite men
• They were framed as
discussions, but fueled by
wine
• Dionysus was accompanied
by satyrs, mythical hybrids
who engaged in humorous
and sexual activities and were
frequently drunk
• Symposia are frequently
depicted as leading to satyr-
like behavior

8. 9.5 The Theater of Dionysus at
the foot of the Acropolis in
Athens, Greece. Fifth century
BCE. Album / Art Resource, NY,
alb1462719.
Theater and Masks
• Dionysus was the patron god of theater
• The Country Dionysia were local festivals in his
honor that consisted of a parade followed by
performances
• The Dionysia included parading a large wooden
phallus through the city or town
• The City Dionysia was a more formal, grander
version held in the city of Athens which
commemorated the beginning of Dionysus’
worship

9. 9.6 Phallophoria. Attic black-figured kylix. Circa 550 BCE. Courtesy
of the Archeology Authority of Tuscany, Florence.
• In most communities,
Dionysus begins to be
worshiped only after he
punishes the community
with suffering
• Theater was an
emotional release in
ancient Greece, and so
Dionysus represents
freedom, similar to the
liberating experience of
wine
Theater and Masks

10. 9.7 Villa of the Mysteries. Pompeii, Italy. First century BCE.
Scala / Art Resource, NY, ART70620.
Mystery Cults
• Dionysus was worshiped in
mystery cults throughout the
Mediterranean
• Unlike the mystery cult of
Demeter, Dionysus’s was
informal and scattered
• Women held prominent roles
in Dionysus’s cult
• There is little evidence of
initiation rites, except that they
were much more individualized
than most Greek religious
events

11. 9.8 Pentheus with maenads. Red-figure Attic kylix. Dourisca, c.
480 BCE. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas / Art Resource,
NY, ART334333.
• Dionysian religious practices
were called orgia
• His worshipers, the Bacchae,
danced and shouted in his
honor
• Euripides’s Bacchae depicted
them tearing apart sacrificial
victims with their hands
• The Bacchae suggests that
Dionysus’s worship was joyful,
until it became violent
The Orgia
• The violence may have been symbolic of the potential dangers of the free
emotions encouraged by Dionysus

12. THEORY
Dionysos
Classical Mythology in Context

13. 9.9 Eye cup used at symposia. Red-figure drinking
cup. Circa 515 BCE. Werner Forman / Art Resource,
NY, AR9156943.
Initiations and Inversions
• Anthropologist J. W. Turner explored
theater, film, and festivals, attempting
to define how they challenged
ordinary social values
• He expanded van Gennep’s concept of
liminality from rites of passage to
include other rituals and performances
• He argued that performative genres
displayed society’s values
• Dionysian rituals included theatrical elements, which, when combined with wine, lead
• Like initiation rites, they also encouraged audiences to question them

14. COMPARISON
Dionysos
Classical Mythology in Context

15. 9.10 The goddess Cybele rides a chariot pulled by lions and Attis
leans on a pine tree. Relief on a marble altar dedicated to Cybele and
Attis. 295 CE. The portions of the inscription visible in this image
include the name of the dedicator (L. Cornelius Scipio Oreitus), a priest
(augur) who accomplished a bull-killing (taurobolium) and dedicated
this altar to Cybele and Attis. Archaeological Museum, Ferrara, Italy.
De Agostini Picture Library/A. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images,
DGA501455.
The Great Mother in Greece
• Euripides associates the ecstatic worship
of Cybele, the Great Mother, with the
worship of Dionysus
• Her companion in Greece was Attis, but
he has no counterpart in Phrygian
worship
• The Romans dedicated a temple to the
Great Mother in the third century BCE
• She was associated with fertility
• The ecstatic worship that her priests were
known for was not popular among
Romans
• They were tolerated because they were eunuchs, and therefore outside the norms of

16. Map 9.2 Dionysus from Phrygia to Rome
Dionysus in the Mediterranean World

17. RECEPTION
Dionysos
Classical Mythology in Context

18. 9.11 Birth of Dionysus. From The
Performance Group-Dionysus in ’69,
published in Oscar Brockett’s History of
the Theatre.© Photograph by Max
Waldman, Archive USA / All Rights
Reserved.
Dionysus as a God of the 1960s
• Modern artists have used Dionysus to
comment on and challenge the social order
• The themes of the Bacchae were
particularly suited to the radical social
transformation of the 60s
• Dionysus in ’69 was an adaptation of the
Bacchae which encouraged audience
participation by not dividing the audience
space from the performance space
• The play uses nudity, homosexuality, and
political commentary to question social
conformism

19. Dionysus as a God of the 1960s
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a movie adaptation of a stage play
• It used sexual idiom to question conformity and authority
• The development of audience participation rituals in the 1970s broke down
barriers between audience and performance
• The film emphasized sexual liberation and critiques American gender and
family roles
• In The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite, Wole Soyinka uses
similarities between ancient Greek and African religion to address questions
of political freedom and religious community
• At the end of Soyinka’s play, the performers drink the blood of the dead
Pentheus, which they are told is wine
• This communion unites all the performers as equals and abolishes political
tyranny