The
ecstatic cult of Dionysus was originally thought to be a late arrival in Greece from
Thrace or
Asia Minor, due to its popularity in both locations and Dionysus' non-integration into the
Olympian Pantheon. After the deity's name was discovered on
Mycenean Linear B tablets, however, this theory was abandoned and the cult is considered indigenous, predating Greek civilization. The absence of an early Olympian Dionysus is today explained by patterns of
social exclusion and the cult's marginality, rather than chronology. Whether the cult originated on
Minoan Crete (as an aspect of an ancient
Zagreus) or Africaor in Thrace or Asia, as a proto-
Sabaziusis unanswerable, due to lack of evidence. Some scholars believe it was an adopted cult not native to any of these places and may have been an eclectic cult in its earliest history, although it almost certainly obtained many familiar features from Minoan culture.
Role of wine and a
Satyr; Dionysus holds a
rhyton (drinking vessel) in the shape of a panther; traces of
red and
yellow colour are preserved on
the hair of the figures and the branches. From an
Asia Minor workshop, 170–180 AD,
National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece. The original rite of Dionysus is associated with a wine cult (not unlike the entheogenic cults of ancient
Central America), concerned with the
grapevine's cultivation and an understanding of its life cycle (believed to have embodied the living god) and the
fermentation of wine from its dismembered body (associated with the god's essence in the
underworld). The intoxicating and disinhibiting effects of wine were regarded as caused by possession by the god's spirit. Wine was also poured on the earth and its growing vine, completing the cycle. The cult was not solely concerned with the vine itself, but also with the other components of wine. Wine includes other ingredients (herbal, floral, and resinous) adding to its quality, flavour, and medicinal properties. Scholars have suggested that, given the low
alcoholic content of early wine, its effects may have been due to an additional
psychoactive ingredient in its sacramental form, supported by iconography showing herbs being mixed with the wine in the
kraters, especially preceding ecstatic behavior.
Poppy, from which
opium is extracted, is a likely candidate, being sometimes worn as a
wreath by the god in art. Mead and
beer (with its cereal base) were incorporated into the domain of Dionysus, perhaps through his identification with the
Thracian corn deity Sabazius. Other plants believed to be
viniculturally significant were also included in wine lore such as ivy (thought to counteract drunkenness—thus the opposite of the grapevine—and seen as blooming in winter instead of summer); the fig (a
purgative of toxins) and the pine (a wine preservative). The bull (from whose horn wine was drunk) and goat (whose flesh provided wineskins, and whose browsing pruned the vines) were also part of the cult, eventually seen as manifestations of Dionysus. Some of these associations had been linked with fertility deities (like Dionysus) and became part of his new role. An understanding of vinicultural lore and its symbolism is key to understanding the cult which emerged from it, assuming a significance other than winemaking that would encompass life, death, and rebirth and providing insight into human psychology.
Rites mosaic depicting the god
Dionysos as a winged
daimon riding on a tiger, from
the House of Dionysos at
Delos (which
was once controlled by
Athens) in the
South Aegean region of
Greece, late 2nd century BC,
Archaeological Museum of Delos The rites were based on a seasonal death-rebirth theme, common among agricultural cults such as the
Eleusinian Mysteries. The
Osirian Mysteries paralleled the Dionysian, according to contemporary Greek and Egyptian observers. Spirit possession involved liberation from civilization's rules and constraints. It celebrated that which was outside civilized society and a return to primordial nature—which would later assume mystical overtones. It also involved escape from the socialized personality and ego into an ecstatic, deified state or the primal herd (sometimes both). In this sense Dionysus was the beast-god within, or the
unconscious mind of modern psychology. Such activity has been interpreted as fertilizing, invigorating, cathartic, liberating, and transformative, and so appealed to those on the margins of society: women, slaves, outlaws, and "foreigners" (non-citizens, in Greek democracy). All were equal in a cult that inverted their roles, similar to the Roman
Saturnalia. The trance induction central to the cult involved not only
chemognosis (an altered state caused by drug use), but an "invocation of spirit" with the
bullroarer and communal dancing to drum and pipe. The trances are described in familiar anthropological terms, with characteristic movements (such as the backward head flick found in all trance-inducing cults found today in Afro-American
Vodou and its counterparts). As in Vodou rites, certain rhythms were associated with the trance. Rhythms are also found preserved in Greek prose referring to the Dionysian rites (such as
Euripides'
The Bacchae). This collection of classical quotes describes rites in the Greek countryside in the mountains, to which processions were made on feast days: :Following the torches as they dipped and swayed in the darkness, they climbed mountain paths with head thrown back and eyes glazed, dancing to the beat of the drum which stirred their blood' [or 'staggered drunkenly with what was known as the Dionysus gait']. 'In this state of ekstasis or enthusiasmos, they abandoned themselves, dancing wildly and shouting 'Euoi!' [the god's name] and at that moment of intense rapture became identified with the god himself. They became filled with his spirit and acquired divine powers. This practice is demonstrated in Greek culture by the
Bacchanals of the
Maenads,
Thyiades, and
Bacchoi; many Greek rulers considered the cult a threat to civilized society and wished to control it (if not suppress it altogether). The latter failed; the former would succeed in the foundation of a domesticated Dionysianism as a state religion in Athens. This was but one form of Dionysianism—a cult which assumed different forms in different localities (often absorbing indigenous divinities and their rites, as did Dionysus himself). The Greek Bacchoi claimed that, like wine, Dionysus had a different flavour in different regions; reflecting their mythical and cultural soil, he appeared under different names and appearances in different regions.
Dionysian paraphernalia •
Kantharos, drinking cup with large handles, originally the
rhyton (drinking horn from a bull), later a
kylix, or wine goblet •
Thyrsus, long wand with a pine cone on top, carried by initiates and those possessed by the god • Stave, once cast into the ground to mark ritual space •
Krater, mixing bowl • Flagellum, a
scourge • Minoan double axe, once used for sacrificial rites, later replaced by the Greek
kopis (curved dagger) • Retis, hunter's net • Laurel crown and cloak, purple robe, or leopard or fawnskin
nebix • Hunting boots • Persona masks •
Bullroarer •
Salpinx, long, straight trumpet •
Pan flute •
Tympanon, a frame drum • Liknon, sacred basket with fig
Traditional offerings to Dionysus Musk,
frankincense,
storax,
ivy,
grapes,
pine,
fig,
wine,
honey,
apples,
Indian hemp,
orchis root,
thistle, all wild and domestic trees.
Animals sacred to Dionysus Dionysus has numerous sacred animals, such as the
leopard or
bull. Other sacred animals include: lions and other big cats, goats, donkeys, and serpents. Dionysus's epithets connected to bulls are as follows: Taurokephalos/Taurokranos/Taurometôpos Greek: Ταυροφαγος; a surname of Dionysus in the Orphic mysteries. (Orph. Hymn. 51. 2.) It also occurs as a surname of rivers and the ocean, which were symbolically represented as bulls, to indicate their fertilising effect upon countries. (Eurip. Iphig. Aul. 275, Orest. 1378; Aelian, V. H. ii. 33; Horat. Carm. iv. 14, 25.) Tauros; a bull, occurs as a surname of Dionysus. (Eurip. Bacch. 918; Athen. xi. p. 476; Plut. Quaest. Graec. 36; Lycoph. Cass. 209.) ==Invocations of Dionysus (from the Orphic hymns)==