chapter 11 lecture one of two myths of fertility dionysus ©2012 pearson education inc

Chapter 11Lecture One of Two

Myths of FertilityDionysus

©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

Dionysus

• God of Wine– The life force

• Male fertility• Associated with nature

– Panthers and leopards


Dionysus

• Aristocratic Homer displeased by him• Mythic biography must be pieced together

from various sources, the most important of which is Euripides’ Bacchae, which is discussed in this chapter.


Fig. 11.1Dionysus in ecstasy.


British Museum, London; © Trustees of the British Museum/Art Resource, New York

Fig. 11.2A prostitute with a symbol of Dionysus's power.


Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, New York

BIRTH AND EARLY YOUTH


Birth and Early Youth

• Zeus – Semelê (Princess of Thebes)• Hera: “Let this ‘Zeus’ come to you as he does

to his wife Hera.”• Semelê (after extracting the hasty promise) is

burned to ash• Unborn infant son, Dionysus saved and sewed

into Zeus’s thigh



• Dionysus (the twice born) then given to Ino, sister of Semelê queen of Orchomenus (another city in Boeotia)

• Dionysus disguised as a girl• Hera drives Ino and King Athamas insane –

they kill their own children• Zeus changes Dionysus into a goat


Fig. 11.3Dionysus's birth from Zeus's thigh.


National Archeological Museum, Taranto, Italy


• Given to the nymphs of Nysa• Dionysus driven mad by his own wine and

begins his wanderings



• Dionysus now leads his Bacchae (Bacchantes, Thyiades, or maenads)– Thyrsus

• Also in his train– Satyrs– Silenus (Sileni)


WANDERINGS OF DIONYSUS


Wanderings of Dionysus

• Egypt, Syria, and Phrygia– In Phyrgia, meets their Mother Earth goddess

Cybelê (Greek Rhea)– Gets his band of followers with their tambourines

and flutes and feminine dress


Wanderings of Dionysus

• Returns west on his chariot drawn by panthers• Destroys all who oppose his cult• Come upon Midas

– gives him the “gift” for having helped him find a drunken satyr

• Marries Ariadnê, whom Theseus abandoned (See "Myths of Athens”)


Perspective 11.1Titian's Bacchus and Ariadnê


© National Gallery, London / Art Resource, New York

RESISTANCE TO THE GOD


Resistance to the God

• Lycurgus (Thrace)– Tried to run Dionysus off with a ox-goad– Later when blind– Other versions say he went mad, tried to rape his

own mother – killed his own son – later sacrificed by his own people for the outrage


Resistance to the God

• Daughters of King Minyas (of Orchomenus) resisted– Punished by being driven to devour one of their

own children

• The Preotids (daughters of King Proetus of Argos)– Thought they were cows with other women– Melampus swindles the king for the cure


DIONYSUS AND THE PIRATESHomeric Hymn to Dionysus


Dionysus and the Pirates

• Tyrsenian pirates abduct Dionysus, not recognizing that he’s a god

• Helmsmen soon realizes they have a god on board, but the captain insists they take him for ransom


Dionysus and the Pirates

• Dionysus performs miracles on the ship– Wine, vines grow out of the mast . . .– As a lion he kills the captain– The rest of the men become dolphins, except the

helmsman who is spared


Fig. 11.4Dionysus and the Pirates


Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek, Munich; Erich Lessing/Art Resource, New York

End


chapter 11 lecture one of two myths of fertility dionysus ©2012 pearson education inc

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