The heart of Dionysus is the language of the gods, a form of art. Dionysus is an ancient Greek god. Dionysus and Persephone

Originally, it was the personification of the luxurious abundance of plant power, manifested by the juiciness of herbs and fruits, producing clusters on the vine, giving a wonderful taste to the juicy fruits of fruit trees, and the juice of grape clusters the ability to make a person happy. The vine and its clusters were for the ancient Greek the most complete manifestation of this abundance of plant power; therefore they were a symbol of Dionysus, the ancient Greek god of wine. “The essence of Dionysus is most clearly manifested in this plant,” says Preller. – Grape juice is a combination of moisture and fire, the result of a combination of earthly dampness with solar warmth, and in an allegorical meaning, a combination of tenderness and courage, pleasure and energy; these are the most essential features of the concept of Dionysus.” The founder of winemaking and gardening, Dionysus, was in Ancient Greece, like Demeter, a god who taught people to lead a settled, comfortable life, which he gives fun with grape juice. In the myths of Ancient Greece, he is the god not only of winemaking, but also of joy and the fraternal rapprochement of people. Dionysus is a powerful god who overcomes everything hostile to him. In myths, he harnesses lions and panthers to his chariot, pacifies the wild spirits of the forest, softens and heals the suffering of people.

Dionysus with a drinking cup. Image on an Attic amphora, c. 490-480 BC.

Like Apollo, Dionysus gives inspiration, excites man to sing, creates poetry; but the poetry emanating from him has a more passionate character than the poetry of Apollo, his music is noisier than Apollo’s. Dionysus gives enthusiasm to thoughts, rising to the point of dithyramb, gives them vivacity, with the power of which dramatic poetry and stage art are created. But the exaltation caused by the god of wine leads to a darkening of reason, to orgiastic madness. In the ancient Greek cult of Dionysus, in the myths about him and especially in the Dionysian holidays, various feelings aroused in a person by the course of changes in plant life were expressed: the joy given to a person at that time of the year when everything turns green, blooms, and smells fragrant, the joy of the ripening of fruits, sadness at withering, with the death of vegetation. The combination of joyful and sad emotions of the soul under the influence of the mystical rites of Eastern service to the forces of nature gave rise to exaltation among the ancient Greeks, manifested by the holidays of the Maenads. In the myths of Ancient Greece, the symbol of the generative force of nature, the phallus, belonged to the cult of Dionysus.

Myths of ancient Greece. Dionysus (Bacchus). A stranger in his hometown

Initially, Dionysus was the god of the villagers, the giver of wine and fruit, and they glorified him at village feasts with cheerful songs, joked, and danced on places filled with wine. But little by little the importance of Dionysus grew. Periander, Klishairdryer of Sikyon, other tyrants transferred to his service the brilliance with which the service to the military gods of the aristocrats was performed. The songs and processions of the holidays in honor of Dionysus gradually took on an exalted character, under the influence of Eastern religions.

Dionysus. The birth of the theater. Video

Holidays of Dionysus

Everywhere in Ancient Greece, where grapes and fruit trees grew, there was service to Dionysus, holidays were celebrated to him, which had a great influence on the development of ancient Greek civilization. The festivals of Dionysus, held in Attica, Boeotia and on the island of Naxos, which were the main centers of this cult, became especially important for cultural life. The oldest temple of Dionysus in Athens was Lenaion, which stood at the foot of the Acropolis in a damp lowland called Limne (Swamp). Soon after the end of the grape harvest, the festival of the “Little” or “rural” Dionysius was celebrated in ancient Athens. It was a cheerful holiday of the villagers, who amused themselves with jokes, dressing up, and various village fun in a common, rough taste. Around the time of the winter solstice there was a holiday of “Lazyness,” “squeezing” juice from grapes, a celebration of the end of this task. While celebrating this celebration, they decorated the temple of Dionysus with ivy, put on ivy wreaths, made sacrifices, feasted, drank grape juice at the feast, walked in processions, and amused themselves with jokes.

When the first greenery of the returning spring appeared, in Attica, on the Greek islands, in the Greek colonies, Anthesteria was celebrated in honor of Dionysus; they lasted three days; on the day of “uncorking the barrels,” masters and slaves drank new wine together and had fun together; on the day of “pouring” new wine, they put on wreaths, feasted with singing, music, and symbolic rituals, celebrating the return of the gods of the earth from its depths to life in the light of day; joked and held wine drinking competitions. Women of the most noble Athenian families walked in procession to the Lenaian Temple and performed the mystical rite of marriage of the wife of the archon-king with Dionysus; This ritual acquired the patronage of Dionysus over the olive trees and vineyards of Attica. On the third day, sacrifices were made in memory of the dead. A month later, in March, the Feast of the Great, or City Dionysius, was celebrated in Athens; it was a brilliant spring festival, in honor of Dionysus, the liberator from winter poverty. Among the rituals of this ancient Greek holiday was a magnificent procession in honor of Dionysus, the procession of which was accompanied by the singing of noisy praises; the singers walked with ivy wreaths on their heads; girls carried baskets of flowers and new fruits, citizens and metics carried wineskins; they were accompanied by disguised men; orchestras thundered, in front of the procession they carried a wooden image of Dionysus and a phallus attached to a pole, a symbol of fertility. The splendor of the great Dionysius attracted the villagers of Attica and many foreigners to this holiday in Athens. With the development of ancient Greek culture, the celebration became more and more luxurious and elegant. All the dramatic poetry of the Greeks - tragedy, comedy, and satirical drama - developed from the rituals and gaiety of the Athenian holiday of the Great Dionysius.

Dionysus and the satyrs. Painter Brigos, Attica. OK. 480 BC

Holidays were celebrated in honor of Dionysus on the ancient Greek islands, rich in vineyards: Crete, Chios, Lemnos; but his holiday was especially magnificent on the island of Naxos, where Dionysus married Ariadne (Ariagno, “Most Holy”), the beautiful-haired goddess who was the personification of the earth, awakening from winter sleep, who was abandoned there by Theseus. Dionysus was the main god of folk religion on this island. His holiday began with rituals expressing sadness for the abandoned Ariadne, and ended with joyful songs of her marriage to Dionysus. Dionysus is not always the god of luxurious development of vegetation: nature temporarily plunges into the sleep of death; at this time he is a suffering, slain god, the god of the underworld. In this capacity he bears the mystical name Zagreus. In Ancient Greece, sacrifices were made to Dionysus Zagreus with the performance of symbolic rituals expressing grief over the death of the god of the generative force of nature; these mystical holidays had an exalted character. In the winter cold, women and girls from Delphi, neighboring places and even from Attica converged on the heights of Parnassus, covered with snow, to celebrate the Maenads, and whirled and ran there in sacred ecstasy, like drunken people. Waving thyrsus and torches, with snakes in their flowing hair and in their hands, these servants of Dionysus, maenads or thyiades, or, as they were also called, bacchantes, beating tambourines and accompanied by the piercing sounds of flutes, frantically scoured the forests and mountains, danced, jumped, made faces. Ancient Greek myths said that Dionysus strikes with madness all those who resist him and refuse to participate in his noisy processions. The festivals of the maenads were an imitation of the processions about which myths told.

Cult of Dionysus

The nature of the cult of Dionysus in different regions of Ancient Greece was different, according to the difference in the education of their population: in some places it was rude, in others elegant, favorable to the development of art and poetry. In the Peloponnese, especially in Argos, Achaea, Elis and Taygetos, the cult of Dionysus included nightly orgies, atonement rites, and sacrifices in memory of the dead. In ancient times, people were even sacrificed on the islands. The maenads who served Dionysus tore goats, young deer, and other animals into pieces; these were symbolic actions that meant that nature was dying a painful death from the cold of winter. Dionysus was sometimes depicted as a bull or with bull horns. During his festivals, women in Elis exclaimed: “Come, O lord, to your temple, come with the Charites to your holy temple, knocking with your bull’s foot!” In Ancient Greece, a goat, a representative of voluptuousness, was dedicated to Dionysus.

In Asia Minor, the orgiastic cult of Dionysus was combined with the exalted rites of the holiday of the “Great Mother,” Cybele. Therefore, the fantastic creatures that made up the retinue of this goddess: the Curetes, Corybantes, Cabiri, Dactyls of Mount Ida - were also transferred to the myths about Dionysus. Excellent works of art have come down to us, the motives of which are taken from the orgiastic festivals of Dionysus: artists loved to depict maenads in the ecstasy of passionate excitement. The orgiastic cult also provided the ancient Greek poets with material for legends that symbolically expressed philosophical thoughts. The festivals of the cult of Dionysus were celebrated not every year, but once every two years; That’s why it was called trieterian (two-year). All his rituals were based on the idea that the god of the luxurious development of vegetation was killed by the power of winter and that he would soon resurrect, awakening dead nature to new life.

When the ancient Greeks got acquainted with other countries, they brought all the rituals that reminded them of his holidays closer to the cult of Dionysus. They found such rituals in Macedonia, Thrace, Lydia, Phrygia. Processions, running with torches, noisy songs, loud music, frantic dancing, fantastic costumes at the holidays of the Pessinuntian “Great Mother” and the Syrian goddess of birth inspired them with the idea that this was the cult of Dionysus. The festival of Osiris made the same impression on them in Egypt: crowds walking at night with torches to look for the body of the murdered Osiris, other fantastic rituals, the phallus, seemed to the ancient Greeks to be accessories to the service of Dionysus. When the Greeks, who were in the army of Alexander, saw in India endless magnificent processions of people in colorful clothes, saw decorated animals in these festive processions, saw chariots driven by panthers and lions, when they found ivy and wild grapes on a mountain whose name seemed similar to them in the name of Nysa - all this was transferred to the myths about Dionysus and his cult. Thus, in Ancient Greece, a legend gradually formed about the victorious campaign of Dionysus across all lands from Greece to the Indus and to the Arabian Desert; it provided material for the glorification of Alexander and his successors who went to India: they were likened to Dionysus. Therefore, in Macedonian times, as many bas-reliefs of that era prove, one of the favorite objects of art was the myth of the campaign of Dionysus with his retinue (thiasos) of satyrs, silenae, centaurs and other fantastic creatures who personified the generative forces of nature and the revelry of the villagers during the grape harvest. Through the addition of foreign legends to the previous Greek ones, the myth of Dionysus acquired enormous proportions. The imagination of ancient Greek artists and poets expanded the cult of Dionysus with new episodes; Along with the legends, the number of mystical and orgiastic rituals grew. But in the teachings of the sacraments, the Greeks preserved behind the myth of Dionysus its main meaning, the idea of the eternal cycle of the emergence, death and rebirth of plant life.

Introduction

2.2 Theater of Dionysus in Athens

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

antique art cult of Dionysus

Ancient art, born in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, served as the ancestor of all subsequent Western art; it is both part of the spiritual experience of all mankind and the basis for the formation of the cultures of many countries, especially European ones. And an important role in the art of antiquity is played by the cult of Dionysus - the god of dying and reborn nature, the patron of winemaking and theater. Since its establishment in Hellas, the Dionysian cult was closely connected with almost all spheres of life of ancient Greek society: economic, political, cultural, spiritual.

The Greeks loved to repeat: “Measure, measure in everything.” But was this frequent reference to “measure” a hint that the Greeks were somehow afraid of themselves? Dionysism showed that, under the cover of common sense and orderly civil religion, a flame was bubbling, ready to burst out at any moment.

Before the discovery of the Mycenaean culture, many researchers believed that Dionysus came to Greece from barbarian lands, since his ecstatic cult with frantic dancing, exciting music and immoderate drunkenness seemed alien to the clear mind and sober temperament of the Hellenes. The Dionysian line in the history of the Greek spirit was very strong and had a deep influence on the entire Hellenic consciousness, and his ecstatic cult was reflected both in the art of antiquity and in the art of subsequent eras.

Chapter 1. Dionysus and his cult in Greece

1.1 Origin and deeds of Dionysus

The son of Zeus, Dionysus, I am among the Thebans.

Here once was Semele, daughter of Cadmus,

She brought me into the world untimely,

Struck by Zeus' fire.

From a god to a human appearance,

I approach the streams of my birthplace rivers...

Euripides. Bacchae. 1--6

Dionysus is the ancient Greek god of the fruitful forces of the earth, vegetation, viticulture, and winemaking. It is believed that this deity was borrowed by the Greeks in the east - in Thrace (of Thracian and Lydian-Phrygian origin) and spread to Greece relatively late and established itself there with great difficulty. Although the name of Dionysus appears on Cretan Linear tablets as early as the 14th century. BC, the spread and establishment of the cult of Dionysus in Greece dates back to the 8th-7th centuries. BC. and is associated with the growth of city-states (polises) and the development of polis democracy. During this period, the cult of Dionysus began to supplant the cults of local gods and heroes. From the beginning of the 2nd century BC. e. The cult of Dionysus is established in Ancient Rome.

Traditionally it is believed that Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele ("earth"), daughter of Cadmus and Harmony. Having learned that Semele was expecting a child from Zeus, his wife Hera in anger decided to destroy Semele and, taking the form of either a wanderer or Bero, Semele’s nurse, inspired her with the idea of seeing her lover in all his divine splendor. When Zeus reappeared with Semele, she asked if he was ready to fulfill any of her wishes. Zeus swore by the waters of the Styx that he would fulfill it, and the gods cannot break such an oath. Semele asked him to hug her in the same way that he hugs Hera. Zeus was forced to fulfill the request, appearing in the flames of lightning, and Semele was instantly engulfed in flames.

Zeus thundered -

The pangs of childbirth have arrived:

Without informing, she vomited

Bromia mother from the womb

And under the lightning strike

Ended her life untimely...

Zeus managed to snatch the premature fetus from her womb, Hermes sewed it into Zeus’ thigh, and he successfully carried it out. Thus, Dionysus was born from the thigh of Zeus. In the painting of Ctesilochus, Zeus, giving birth to Dionysus, was depicted wearing a miter and moaning like a woman, surrounded by goddesses. This is why Dionysus is called "twice-born" or "child of double doors."

But he accepted the ejected

Zeus immediately into his bosom,

And, melting from Hera's son,

He has it at the hip skillfully

He fastened it with a gold buckle.

100 When his time had come,

He gave birth to a cuckolded god,

I made him a wreath out of snakes,

And from then on this wild prey

The maenad wraps around her brow.

There are also alternative versions of the birth of Dionysus.

According to the legend of the inhabitants of Brasia (Laconica), Semele gave birth to a son from Zeus, Cadmus imprisoned her in a barrel along with Dionysus. The barrel was thrown to the ground by Brasius, Semele died, and Dionysus was raised; Ino became his nurse, raising him in a cave. Another of Dionysus’ teachers was Silenus, a regular participant in Bacchic festivities. On ancient monuments of art, Silenus, as a rule, was depicted as an obese, lustful and often drunken old man, with a huge belly, accompanied by satyrs and nymphs and surrounded by cheerful smiling cupids. Satyrs (Roman Fauns) are fantastic humanoid creatures, also included in the retinue of Dionysus. Their cheerful, witty character gave the name to comic poems, which became known as satyrs. Several ancient sculptures are known where Silenus nurses little Dionysus. In the ancient group from the Louvre, which is called "Faun and Child", Silenus is represented as a handsome, caring teacher, in whose arms lies the baby Dionysus.

According to the Achaean story, Dionysus was raised in the city of Mesatis and here he was exposed to dangers from the Titans.

The myths that feature Semele, the second mother of Dionysus, have a continuation about the upbringing of God.

To protect his son from Hera's wrath, Zeus gave Dionysus to be raised by Semele's sister Ino and her husband Athamas, King Orkhomenes, where the young god was raised as a girl so that Hera would not find him. But it did not help. The wife of Zeus sent madness to Athamas, in a fit of which Athamas killed his son, tried to kill Dionysus, and because of which Ino and her second son had to throw themselves into the sea, where the Nereids accepted them.

Lush-haired nymphs nursed the baby, taking

To your breast from the lord-father, and lovingly in the valleys

The nymphs raised him. And by the will of the parent Zeus

He grew up in a fragrant cave, numbered among the host of immortals.

After he grew up in the care of the eternal goddesses,

The many-sung Dionysus rushed into the distance through the forest ravines,

Crowned with hops and laurel, the nymphs hurried after him,

He led them forward. And the whole vast forest thundered.

Zeus then turned Dionysus into a kid, and Hermes took him to the nymphs at Nysa (between Phenicia and the Nile). The nymphs hid him from Hera, covering the cradle with ivy branches. Raised in a cave on Nisa. After the death of the first educators, Dionysus was given to the nymphs of the Nisei Valley to be raised. There, the mentor of the young god Silenus revealed the secrets of nature to Dionysus and taught him how to make wine.

As a reward for raising his son, Zeus transferred the nymphs to the sky, and so, according to myth, the Hyades, a cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus next to the star Aldebaran, appeared in the sky.

Many monuments of ancient art have been preserved, embodying the image of Dionysus and the plots of myths about him in plastic (statues and reliefs) and vase painting. Scenes of the procession of Dionysus and his companions and bacchanalia were widespread (especially in vase paintings); These stories are reflected in the reliefs of sarcophagi. Dionysus was depicted among the Olympians (reliefs of the eastern frieze of the Parthenon) and in scenes of gigantomachy, as well as sailing on the sea (kylix Exekia “Dionysus in a boat”, etc.) and fighting with the Tyrrhenians (relief of the monument to Lysicrates in Athens, c. 335 BC .).

During the Renaissance, the theme of Dionysus in art is associated with the affirmation of the joy of being. Artists loved to depict Bacchic celebrations, full of unbridled fun and wild revelry, in which the entire retinue of Dionysus took part. Their depiction began with A. Mantegna. The subject was addressed by A. Dürer, A. Altdorfer, H. Baldung Green, Titian, Giulio Romano, Pietro da Cortona, Annibale Carracci, P. P. Rubens, J. Jordaens, N. Poussin. In their paintings, God is presented in all the splendor of youth and beauty, surrounded by his retinue and Olympian gods, with his constant attribute - the grapevine. The same symbolism permeates the subjects “Bacchus, Venus and Ceres” and “Bacchus and Ceres,” especially popular in Baroque painting. Dionysus occupies a special place among other ancient characters in Baroque garden sculpture. The most significant works of the 18th - early 19th centuries are the statues "Bacchus" by I.G. Danneker and B. Thorvaldsen.

Accompanied by a cheerful company, Dionysus, walking across the earth, passed through all countries, right up to the borders of India, and everywhere he taught people to cultivate grapes. Probably, the eastern campaigns of Dionysus are associated with a statue with his image, which for a long time was known under the name Sardanapalus - due to an inscription made in later times. Art connoisseurs recognized it as an image of Dionysus (a type of Eastern Bacchus) in the image of a handsome, stately bearded old man, draped in long ceremonial robes.

During one of his processions, Dionysus met the beautiful Ariadne, the daughter of the legendary King Minos, whom Theseus, captivated by her beauty, took from the island of Crete. This plot formed the basis of Titian's painting "Bacchus and Ariadne", where the god is presented in rapid motion among the bacchantes and satyrs. Leopards and snakes - creatures sacred to Dionysus - accompany his cortege. The indispensable attributes of Bacchic celebrations are also placed here - tympanums and thyrsus (a thyrsus is a stick densely entwined at one end with ivy). According to legends, at a wedding feast in honor of the marriage of Dionysus and Ariadne, the bride was presented with a radiant crown. (Relief "Wedding procession"). But this union was short-lived: the god of wine and fun soon left his wife during her sleep, having once doubted her fidelity. Dionysus was also awarded the love of the beautiful Aphrodite, who bore him two sons: Hymenaeus, the god of marriage, and Priapus, the deity of the fruitful forces of nature.

Dionysus cruelly punished those who did not recognize his cult. Thus, one of the legends that formed the basis of Euripides’ tragedy “The Bacchae” tells about the sad fate of Theban women, who were struck with madness by the will of Dionysus because they did not recognize his divine origin. And the Theban ruler Pentheus, who prevented the cult of Dionysus in Thebes, was torn to pieces by a crowd of raging bacchantes led by his mother Agave, who mistook her son in a state of ecstasy for a bear.

Wherever Dionysus appears, he establishes his cult; everywhere along his path he teaches people viticulture and winemaking. The procession of Dionysus - (the mosaic "Dionysus on the Panther"), which was of an ecstatic nature, included Bacchantes, satyrs (the painting "Dionysus and Satyrs"), maenads or bassarids (one of the nicknames of Dionysus - Bassarei) with thyrsus (rods) entwined with ivy. Girdled with snakes, they crushed everything in their path, seized by sacred madness. With cries of "Bacchus, Evoe" they praised Dionysus-Bromius ("stormy", "noisy"), beat the tympanums, drinking in the blood of torn wild animals, cutting honey and milk out of the ground with their thyrses, uprooting trees and dragging crowds with them men and women. The first women who took part in the mysteries of Dionysus-Bacchus were called Bacchantes or Maenads. Art made no distinction between them. But Euripides says that there is a difference in mythology: the Bacchae are Greek women, the Maenads are Asian women who came with Bacchus after his campaign in India. Not a single holiday, not a single procession was complete without bacchantes and maenads. In a wild dance, deafening and exciting themselves with the loud music of flutes and tambourines (tympans), they rushed through the fields, forests and mountains until they were completely exhausted. The famous Greek sculptor Scopas in 450 BC. e. sculpted a dancing maenad, which we can judge from a small copy, which, unfortunately, was badly damaged. The Maenad, whose image is full of emotional dynamics, is presented in a frantic dance, straining the entire body of the Maenad, arching her torso, throwing back her head, bordering on madness.

In one of the Thracian villages, according to a Greek folk tale, there lived an old sad homeless goat. However, in the fall, amazing changes happened to him: he began to jump up cheerfully and playfully cling to passers-by. The goat remained in this state for some time, then returned to its despondency. The peasants became interested in the unexpected changes in the goat's mood, and they began to follow him. It turned out that the animal’s mood changed for the better after it walked around the vineyard and ate the remaining grapes after the harvest. As a rule, crushed, dirty grapes remained in the fields. The grape juice fermented and turned into intoxicating wine. It was this that made the goat drunk. People tried this delicacy and felt the effects of alcohol for the first time. The goat was recognized as the inventor of wine and proclaimed a god. Apparently, it was from that moment that Dionysus began to take the form of a goat.

Dionysus the goat is no different from the minor gods - Pans, Satyrs, Selenes, who were closely related to him and were also more or less often depicted in goat guise. Pan, for example, was invariably depicted by Greek sculptors and artists with the face and legs of a goat. Satyrs were depicted with pointed goat ears, and in other cases with protruding horns and a tail. Sometimes these deities were simply called goats, and the actors who acted as these gods dressed in goat skins. Ancient artists depicted Selene in the same attire.

Dionysus was also often depicted as a bull or a man with horns (Dionysus Zagreus). This was the case, for example, in the city of Cyzicus, in Phrygia. There are ancient images of Dionysus in this hypostasis, for example, on one of the figurines that have come down to us, he is represented dressed in a bull’s skin, the head, horns and hooves of which are thrown back. On another he is depicted as a child with a bull's head and a wreath of grapes around his body. Such epithets were applied to God as “born of a cow”, “bull”, “bull-shaped”, “bull-faced”, “bull-faced”, “bull-horned”, “horned”, “two-horned”.

After a little time, the cult of Dionysus and the mysteries that accompanied it spread from Thrace throughout Greece, and then (from the 3rd century BC) throughout the empire of Alexander the Great. Wherever the young god appeared, he was accompanied by explosions of enthusiasm and orgies.

Before the discovery of the Mycenaean culture, it was believed that Dionysus was a foreign god who was revered by the barbarians and one fine day began an attack on civilized Hellas. However, it has now been established that this opinion was not entirely accurate. Achaean inscriptions indicate that the Greeks knew Dionysus even before the Trojan War. Gradually, the cult of Bacchus began to supplant the cults of local gods and heroes. Dionysus, as the deity of the agricultural circle, associated with the elemental forces of the earth, is constantly contrasted with Apollo, as the deity of the tribal aristocracy. He was the antipode of the aristocratic Olympian gods, defending the interests of the communal tribal nobility. For a long time his cult was persecuted due to its orgiastic nature, and only in 536-531 BC. was equated with the official pan-Greek cults, and Dionysus himself was included in the Olympic divine pantheon.

Chapter 2. Holidays in honor of Dionysus

2.1 The emergence of ancient theater

Come with quick footsteps, O lord, to the wine press

Be the leader of our night work;

Above the knees, picking up clothes and a light leg

Having moistened it with foam, revive the dance of your workers.

And directing the talkative moisture into empty vessels,

Accept the cakes as a sacrifice along with the shaggy vine.

Quintus Mecius. The winemakers' prayer to Bacchus.

One of the most important aspects of the cult of Dionysus in Greece were holidays. In Attica (a region in the southeast of Central Greece with its center in Athens), magnificent festivities were held in honor of Dionysus. Several times a year, festivals dedicated to Dionysus took place, at which dithyrambs (songs of praise) were sung. The mummers who made up Dionysus’s retinue also performed at these festivities. Participants smeared their faces with wine grounds and put on masks and goat skins. Along with solemn and sad ones, funny and often obscene songs were sung. The ceremonial part of the holiday gave birth to tragedy, the cheerful and playful part gave birth to comedy.

Tragedy actually means “song of the goats.” Tragedy, according to Aristotle, originates from the singing of dithyrambs, and comedy from the singing of phallic songs. These singers, answering questions from the choir, could talk about any events in the life of God and encourage the choir to sing. Elements of acting were mixed into this story, and the myth seemed to come to life in front of the participants of the holiday. Initially, the praises in honor of Dionysus, sung by the choir, were not distinguished by either complexity, musical variety, or artistry. And therefore it was a big step forward to introduce a character, an actor, into the choir. The actor recited the myth of Dionysus and gave lines to the choir. A conversation began between the actor and the choir - a dialogue that forms the basis of a dramatic performance.

According to the assumptions of many scientists, the ancient Greek theater arose from rituals dedicated to this god.

At first, Dionysus was considered the god of the productive force of nature, and the Greeks depicted him as a goat or bull. However, later, when the population of ancient Greece became acquainted with the cultivation of vineyards, Dionysus became the god of winemaking, and then the god of poetry and theater.

The historian Plutarch wrote that in 534 BC. a man named Thespides showed a performance - a dialogue between the actor playing the role of Dionysus and the choir.

From this legendary year, theatrical performances apparently became an obligatory part of the Dionysus holidays.

When performing sacrifices and the accompanying magical ceremonies, those present were located in the form of an amphitheater on the slopes of a neighboring hill adjacent to the altar. This is the beginning of Greek theater. The principle of the amphitheater was maintained in the future. Greek theaters throughout history remained amphitheaters, located at the foot of the hills, in the open air, without a roof or curtain. The Greek theater was a free space that formed a semicircle (amphitheatre). Thus, the democratic principle was already embedded in the very design of the Greek theater. Not bound by an enclosed space, Greek theaters could be very large and accommodate large crowds. For example, the Theater of Dionysus in Athens accommodated up to 30 thousand spectators, but this is far from the largest theater of ancient Greece known to us. Subsequently, in the Hellenistic era, theaters were created that could accommodate 50, 100 and even more thousand spectators. The main part of the theater consisted of: 1) koilone - a room for spectators, 2) an orchestra - a place for the choir, and initially for actors, and 3) a stage - a place where the scenery was hung and later the actors performed.

In the middle of the orchestra was a richly decorated altar of Dionysus.

The back of the stage was decorated with columns and usually depicted a royal palace. The spectator areas (auditorium) were separated from the rest of the city by a wooden or stone wall without a roof.

The sheer size of theaters has led to the need for masks. The audience simply could not see the actor’s facial features. Each mask expressed a certain state (horror, fun, calm, etc.), and in accordance with the plot, the actor changed his own “faces” during the performance. The masks were a kind of close-ups of the characters and at the same time served as resonators - they amplified the sound of voices. The masks were made of wood or linen; in the latter case, the linen was stretched over a frame, covered with plaster and painted. The masks covered not only the face, but the entire head, so that the hairstyle was fixed on the mask, to which, if necessary, a beard was also attached. The tragic mask usually had a protrusion above the forehead, which increased the height of the actor.

The mask changed the proportions of the body, so the performers stood on buskins (sandals with thick soles), and wore thick ones under their clothes. Bustles made the figure taller and the movements more significant. Fabrics brightly colored with natural dyes, from which complex costumes were made, also enlarged and emphasized the figure. The color of clothing was endowed with symbolic meaning. The kings appeared in long purple cloaks, the queens in white, with a purple stripe. The color black meant mourning or misfortune. Messengers were required to wear short clothes. Attributes were also symbolic, such as olive branches in the hands of those asking.

Masks in comedies were caricatures or caricatured portraits of famous people. Costumes usually emphasized an enormous belly and a fat butt. Chorus artists were sometimes dressed as animals, such as frogs and birds in Aristophanes' plays.

In the ancient Greek theater they used the simplest machines: ekkyklema (platform on wheels) and eorema. The latter was a lifting mechanism (something like a system of blocks), with the help of which characters (gods, for example) “fly up into the heavens” or fall to the ground. It was in the Greek theater that the famous expression “God ex machina” was born. Later, this term began to mean an unmotivated denouement, an external resolution of the conflict not prepared by the development of action, both in tragedy and comedy.

Actors in Ancient Greece were considered respected people. Only a free-born man could act in the theater (they also performed female roles). At first, the performances featured a choir and only one actor; Aeschylus introduced a second actor, Sophocles a third. One performer usually played several roles. The actors had to not only recite well, but also sing and have sharp, expressive gestures. In tragedy the chorus consisted of fifteen people, and in comedy it could include twenty-four. Usually the choir did not take part in the action - it summarized and commented on the events.

Ancient Greek drama is based on myths. They were known to every Greek, and the audience was especially interested and important in the interpretation of events by the author of the play and the actors, and the moral assessment of the actions of the heroes. The heyday of the ancient theater dates back to the 5th century. BC.

Various competitions occupied a lot of space in the daily life of the Greeks: chariot drivers and horsemen competed, and sports Olympics were held every four years. Theatrical performances were also organized as competitions for both play authors and actors. Performances were performed three times a year: on the Great Dionysia (in March), the Lesser Dionysia (late December - early January) and Linea (late January - early February). Tragic poets presented three tragedies and one satyr drama to the audience and jury; comic poets performed individual works. Usually the play was staged once, repetitions were rare.

By introducing the theorikon (theater money that was paid to the poorest citizens), Pericles made theater accessible to all Athenian citizens.

Theatrical performances were given only on the holidays of Dionysus and were originally part of the cult. Only gradually did the theater begin to acquire social significance, serving as a political platform, a place of relaxation and entertainment.

The theater ensured a high general cultural level of the Greek city-states. He organized, educated and enlightened the masses. In the Celebrations in honor of Dionysus and the accompanying theatrical performances, a socio-political orientation is visible. Playwrights have always put words into the mouths of mythological heroes that relate to the most pressing problems of our time.

Along with theatrical performances, sports competitions, games, wrestling, musical, literary and many other types of physical and spiritual sports should be noted.

2.2 Theater of Dionysus in Athens

The oldest known theater building is the Theater of Dionysus in Athens, located in the sacred enclosure of Dionysus on the southeastern slope of the Acropolis, which was rebuilt several times in subsequent eras. Its excavations were completed in 1895 by Dörpfeld.

On two minor remains of the wall, Dörnfeld installed a round orchestra - a terrace with a diameter of 27 m. (E. Fichter considers the diameter of this orchestra to be approximately 20 m). It was located on the slope of the Acropolis in such a way that its northern part jutted into the mountain, and its southern part was supported by a wall that rose in the southernmost part 2-3 m above the level of the sacred fence of Dionysus and in the west was in close contact with the old temple.

There were no stone seats in this theater yet: the audience sat on wooden benches, and, perhaps, on the first bunks and just stood. The Byzantine scholar Svida reports that during the 70th Olympiad (i.e., 499-496 BC), the temporary seats collapsed and that after this the Athenians built a theatron, i.e., special seats for spectators.

Skena did not initially designate a palace or temple. However, the later plays of Aeschylus and the dramas of Sophocles already required a palace or temple as a backdrop, and on the tangent of the orchestra they began to build a wooden building, skena, on the facade of which 3 doors soon appeared.

At the same time, stage painting also came into use, and painted boards could be placed between the columns of the proscenium. Under Pericles, the theater underwent reconstruction, which probably ended after his death.

The old orchestra was moved to the north. In this way, somewhat greater space was achieved for the presentation of actors and for the stage adaptations required by the development of the drama of Sophocles and Euripides. The southern border of the terrace was completely rebuilt, and instead of the old curved supporting wall, a long (about 62 m) straight wall was built from large blocks of conglomerate to support the terrace. At a distance of approximately 20.7 m from the western end of the wall, a solid foundation extending approximately 2.7 m towards the Skene is approximately 7.9 m long. It is believed that it served as a support for machines used in the theater. But the skene itself was still made of wood.

Somewhat south of the old temple, a new temple of Dionysus was built, in which a statue of the god made of gold and ivory, sculpted by Alcamenes, was placed. The supporting walls of the spectator seats were in contact with the Odeon, a building for musical competitions, the construction of which was completed by Pericles in 443 BC. e. The seats in this rebuilt theater were still made of wood, with the possible exception of some seats of honor.

There were paraskenias. The skene building for a production that required the depiction of a palace or house was usually two stories high, with the top floor possibly receding somewhat back and leaving space for the actors in front and on the sides.

The temple could have a pointed pediment. The Periclean reconstruction was completed by the construction of the feet, a large hall running along the entire length of the new supporting wall, with an open colonnade on its southern side. The next major reconstruction of the Athenian theater took place in the 2nd half. 4th century BC. (completed c. 330) and was associated with the name of Lycurgus, who was in charge of Athenian finances.

Instead of temporary wooden structures, a permanent stone skene was built. Paraskenii performed approx. 5 m from the façade of the slope. The façade of the skena had 3 doors. Probably on the facade and on its interior. the sides of the parascenium had columns. Some scientists believe that in the stone theater of Lycurgus there was a wooden proskenium, slightly receding from the building and forming a portico

(similar to how it was later in the Hellenistic theater).

The plays were still performed at the orchestra level, in front of the skene, the facade of which was adapted (with the help of movable screens, partitions and other devices) for the presentation of individual plays.

The spectator places, a significant part of which can still be seen in Athens to this day, were built of stone. A double support wall was built to support them. In the lower tier, the space for spectators was divided by radially rising stairs into 13 wedges. In the upper tier the number of stairs doubled. There were a total of 78 rows on the hillside. The orchestra was moved somewhat further to the north. A canal was built around the orchestra to drain rainwater.

Conclusion

Ancient Greece became the cradle of ancient civilization. In Greece, from where bacchanalia came to Rome, the cult of Dionysus had two types - rural holidays (Dionysia, Lenaea, etc.) and orgiastic mysteries, which later gave rise to the development of ancient Greek theater. He gave impetus to the development of theatrical art throughout the world. Modern theaters have undergone changes, but in general the basics remain the same. Also, his cult enriched various types of art: the plots of myths about him are reflected in sculpture, vase painting, literature, painting (especially the Renaissance and Baroque), and even music. Composers of the 19th and 20th centuries turned to the cult of Dionysus - A.S. Dargomyzhsky "The Triumph of Bacchus", the divertimento by C. Debussy "The Triumph of Bacchus" and his opera "Dionysus", J. Masne's opera "Bacchus", etc.

Bacchanalian processions, accompanied by crazy dancing of maenads, replete with wine, orgies and music, inspired and inspire to this day workers of various kinds of art.

Bibliography

Sources

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Literature

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Type and attributes of the god Dionysus (Bacchus)

Dionysus(or Bacchus; Latinized form of the last name - Bacchus), the god of grapes, personified wine. The cult of the god Dionysus was established much later than the cult of the other Greek gods. It gained meaning and began to spread in ancient Greece as the grapevine culture spread. Dionysus was very often united with the goddess Demeter (Ceres) and common holidays were organized for these two representatives of agriculture.

In ancient Greece, primitive art was limited to only the image of one head of the god Dionysus (Bacchus) or his mask. But these images were soon replaced by a beautiful and majestic image of the old god Bacchus in a luxurious, almost feminine dress, with an open and intelligent face, holding a horn and a vine branch in his hands.

Only since the time of the ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles, who was the first to depict the god Dionysus as a young man, has this type of young man with soft, almost muscular forms, something between a male and female figure, appeared in ancient art. The expression on the face of such a god Dionysus represents some kind of mixture of bacchanalian ecstasy and tender reverie, long, thick hair is flowing over the shoulders in fanciful curls, the body is devoid of any clothing, and only a goat skin is carelessly thrown on, the feet are shod in luxurious buskins (ancient shoes), in his hands is a light stick entwined with grape branches, resembling a scepter.

In later times, the god Dionysus (Bacchus) appears quite often on monuments of art dressed in luxurious women's clothing. In group and individual sculptural images, Dionysus is usually presented in a comfortable reclining position or sitting on a throne. Only on cameos and engraved stones is the god Dionysus depicted walking with the unsteady gait of a drunken man or riding some favorite animal.

Bacchus the East and Bacchus the Theban

The most beautiful image of the god Bacchus with a beard is a statue that for a long time was known under the name "Sardanapalus", thanks to a later inscription, but which all experts in the history of art recognized as a statue of Dionysus. This statue is a true type of Eastern Bacchus.

In art, the most common image is of Dionysus, known as the Theban Bacchus, a beardless and slender youth.

The Greek painter Aristides painted the beautiful Bacchus. This painting was taken to Rome after the conquest of Corinth. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder says that the consul Mummius was the first to introduce the Romans to foreign works of art. During the division of war spoils, Attalus, king of Pergamon, offered to pay six hundred thousand denarii for Bacchus, painted by Aristides. Amazed by this figure, the consul, suspecting that the painting had some miraculous power unknown to him, withdrew the painting from sale, despite the requests and complaints of the king, and placed it in the temple of Demeter (Ceres). It was the first foreign painting to be publicly exhibited in Rome.

On all statues of the Theban type, the god Bacchus is depicted as a beardless youth in all the splendor of youth and beauty. The expression on the face of the god Dionysus is dreamy and languid, his body is covered with the skin of a young deer. The god Dionysus is also very often depicted riding on a panther or on a chariot drawn by two tigers. Vine, ivy, thyrsus (rod), cups and Bacchic masks are common attributes of Dionysus-Bacchus.

Grapevine, ivy and thyrsus

The vine, ivy and thyrsus are emblems of the production of wine and the effect it produces. In antiquity, it was believed that ivy had the property of preventing intoxication. That is why feasters often decorated their heads with ivy. Ivy, like the grapevine, entwines itself on many statues of Dionysus. thyrsus, at the end of which was a pine cone. In many areas of ancient Greece, pine cones were used to make wine, which must have been very different from modern wine. Judging by how easily Odysseus managed to put the Cyclops to sleep by giving him some wine, we can probably say that the wine in those days was much stronger than today. The ancient Greeks mixed honey or water into wine, and only as a very rare exception did they drink pure wine.

Many ancient coins and medals stamped in honor of the god Dionysus depict sista, or a mythical basket in which objects used during ceremonial services were stored, and also depicts a snake dedicated to the god Asclepius, as if hinting at the healing properties that the ancient Greeks attributed to wine.

The tiger, panther and lynx are the usual companions of the god Dionysus in all monuments of ancient art depicting his triumph. They point to the Eastern origin of the entire myth of Dionysus.

The presence of the donkey Silenus is explained by the fact that Silenus was the adoptive father or tutor of the god Dionysus. The donkey Silena became famous, in addition, for his participation in the battle of the gods with the Giants (gigantomachy). At the sight of the Giants lined up in battle formation, Silena’s donkey began to scream so much that the Giants, frightened by this cry, fled.

The appearance of the hare in some Bacchic groups is explained by the fact that this animal was considered a symbol of fertility by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

In addition, on antique cameos, engraved stones and bas-reliefs depicting solemn processions in honor of the god Dionysus, the following animals are also found: a ram, a goat and a bull - a symbol of agriculture. Therefore, Dionysus is sometimes depicted as a bull, then personifying the fertility of the earth.

God Dionysus and god Apollo

Light intoxication, having a stimulating effect on the human mind, causes inspiration, and therefore the god Dionysus is credited with some of the qualities of Apollo, this god of inspiration par excellence.

God Dionysus as the founder of the theater

Sometimes the god Dionysus is depicted accompanied by Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, because Dionysus was considered the inventor of the theater, that is, theatrical spectacle. At festivals in honor of the god Dionysus, plays began to be performed for the first time. Holidays in honor of Dionysus were held during the grape harvest. The grape pickers, sitting on carts and staining their faces with grape juice, uttered funny and witty monologues or dialogues. Little by little, the carts were replaced by a theater building, and the grape pickers by actors.

Bacchic masks

Numerous masks, which often decorated ancient tombstones (sarcophagi), were necessary accessories for mysteries in honor of the god Dionysus as the inventor of tragedy and comedy.

On the sarcophagi, the Bacchic masks indicated that human life, like theatrical plays, is a mixture of pleasures and sorrows, and that every mortal is only a performer of some role in life. Thus, the god Dionysus, who at first personified only wine, became a symbol of human life.

Mystical bowl

The cup is also one of the attributes of the god Dionysus and had a mystical meaning. “The soul,” explains the learned researcher of ancient myths Kreutzer, “drinking this cup, gets drunk, it forgets its high, divine origin, wants only to incarnate into a body through birth and follow the path that will lead it to an earthly home, but there, to Fortunately, she finds the second cup, the cup of reason; Having drunk it, the soul can be cured or sobered up from the first intoxication, and then the memory of its divine origin returns to it, and with it the desire to return to the heavenly abode.”

Bacchanalia - holidays in honor of the god Dionysus

Many bas-reliefs have been preserved, as well as picturesque images of holidays in honor of the god Bacchus-Dionysus - Bacchanalia. The rituals performed at Bacchanalia were very diverse.

So, for example, in some areas, children, crowned with ivy and vine branches, surrounded in a noisy crowd the chariot of the god Dionysus, decorated with thyrsus and comic masks, bowls, wreaths, drums, tambourines and tambourines.

Following the chariot of Dionysus were writers, poets, singers, musicians, dancers - in a word, representatives of those professions that required inspiration, since the ancient Greeks and Romans believed that wine was the source of all inspiration. As soon as the solemn procession ended, theatrical performances and musical and literary competitions began, which lasted for several days in a row.

In Rome, Bacchanalia gave rise to such scenes of debauchery and immorality, even leading to crimes, that the Roman Senate was forced to ban Bacchanalia.

In Greece, at the beginning of the establishment of the cult of the god Dionysus, his holiday had the character of a modest, purely rural holiday, and only later did it turn into a luxurious orgy.

The processions in honor of the god Dionysus in Alexandria were especially luxurious and magnificent. To give at least a faint idea of this procession, it is enough to mention that in addition to richly dressed representatives of all nationalities of Greece and the Roman Empire, representatives of foreign countries took part in it and, in addition to a whole crowd of disguised satyrs and silenei riding donkeys, hundreds of elephants took part in the procession , bulls, rams, many bears, leopards, giraffes, lynxes and even hippos.

Several hundred people carried cages filled with all sorts of birds.

Richly decorated chariots with all the attributes of the god Bacchus alternated with chariots depicting the entire culture of grapes and wine production - up to and including a huge press filled with wine.

ZAUMNIK.RU, Egor A. Polikarpov - scientific editing, scientific proofreading, design, selection of illustrations, additions, explanations, translations from Latin and ancient Greek; all rights reserved.

Dionysus. Myth and cult

What is this - Dionysus?

The god of enchantment and nightmare, wandering in the thickets and happy deliverance, a crazy god whose presence plunges one into madness. His conception, his birth, is mysterious and dramatic.

Son of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele. Even before giving birth, she burned in the flames of the lightning of her heavenly lover.

Poets say she wished to be a child of God,

And lightning struck the house of Semele,

And, struck by the deity, she gave birth

In the thunder and storm of the great Bacchus.

Hölderlin

The father did not abandon the child, he covered him with thick ivy in order to protect him from the destructive heat, he replaced his mother: he accepted into his divine body a still non-viable being - after the allotted moons had passed, the son was born.

Thus, the “twice-born” rose above the human and became a god - the god of joyful intoxication. And yet, suffering and death were determined for him, the giver of joy, and persecution and death descended on his mother’s house, struck by heaven. However, mother Semele, who suffered a fiery death in union with the thunder god, rose from the dust into the circle of Olympian Theon.

Semele is one of the four daughters of the Theban king Cadmus. “Peleus and Cadmus,” said Pindar, “were the happiest of people: the muses sang at their weddings, the gods ate from their dishes. The royal sons of Kronos saw them on golden benches, accepted gifts from them... But the time of difficult trials came for the three daughters of Cadmus: father Zeus came to the fourth, beautiful Tione, on the bed of love.” And in another place: “Great misfortunes befell the daughters of Cadmus, but the harsh sorrows dissipated in an abundance of good: Semele, struck by lightning, lives among the Olympians, Pallas loves her, her father Zeus loves her and her ivy-decorated son. At sea, as they say, among the daughters of Nereus, Ino leads a serene life.”

Of the four daughters of Cadmus, only Ino and Semele are mythologically significant. Others - Agave and Antonoia - are known as the mothers of Pentheus and Actaeon, who were torn to pieces by wild beasts - a motif intonationally similar to the Dionysian myth.

By the way, the number four is significant in ancient myths. In Pindar, in connection with Cadmus's daughter Semele, her three sisters are often mentioned; in Theocritus in "Lenae" Ino, Agave, Antonoia lead the thyase into the mountains to the sacred Dionysian fire and erect twelve altars there: three for Semele and nine for Dionysus. Ino, Agave, and Antonoia each lead three thyases in Euripides' drama “The Bacchae.” A famous document from Magnesia on Meander mentions that, on the advice of the Delphic oracle, three maenads from the Ino family came to Thebes to found the Dionysian cult and each brought three thyases. The cult of Dionysus and Semele correlates with the myth of the heavenly bride and her three sisters. On the sacred inscription from the Cologne Museum, next to the name of Semele are the names of her “divine sisters”.

The cult of Semele is attested by numerous testimonies, as well as the honors given to Ino, the god's adoptive mother. The ashes on the site of the house of Semele, the smoke of which Dionysus, according to Euripides, saw upon his return to the city of Thebes, were shown to surprised strangers in later centuries near the sanctuary of Dionysus Kadmeos - as it appears in the inscription of the third pre-Christian century, preserved in Delphi. They did not forget Semele at the festivities in honor of the epiphany of Dionysus, nor did they forget her salvation from the kingdom of the dead by the divine son. On the Attic lenai it was the “son of Semele” who was called upon. On the island of Mykonos, the sacrificial fire dedicated to Semele burned in the eleventh month, dedicated to Dionysus - in the twelfth. The Orphic hymns leave no doubt about this.

One of the most important was the holiday in honor of the liberation of Semele from death and the underworld - it was held, according to Plutarch, in Delphi and other places every eight years. In Lerna it was believed that it was here that Dionysus rushed into the bottomless abyss of the Alkyonian Sea in search of Semele in the kingdom of the dead, and in Trozen they even showed the place of the return of Dionysus and Semele.

Her cult is always associated with the cult of her great son. The Lines of Theocritus, which presents the three daughters of Cadmus and the terrible fate of the too-curious Pentheus, concludes with the glorification not only of Dionysus, but also of Semele and her three sisters. A marble altar was erected in honor of Dionysus and Semele in Magnesia.

The human mother of the divine son is crowned with immortality and shares cultic worship - this is one of the conclusions of the myth about the birth of the son of lightning fire from the womb of an earthly woman.

Modern research does not acknowledge this surprising finding. Semele must have been a goddess from the beginning - the daughter of Cadmus was declared by a certain poet of the seventh pre-Christian century for some current considerations, not suspecting that subsequently the human nature of the mother of Dionysus would acquire such a serious accent.

Paul Kretschmer, in one remarkable work, drew attention to the following: the name Semele is more likely of Thracian-Phrygian origin and denotes the goddess of the earth (Semele): this name on the Phrygian burial crypt is adjacent to the name of the god of the sky (duus or deos). Although Kretschmer's conclusion regarding the Phrygian source for the name Dionysus (son of Zeus) did not seem convincing due to lack of corroboration, Semele's interpretation earned the approval of Nilsson ("Kritomikenskaya Religion") and Wiljamović ("Faith of the Hellenes") in proving the Thracian or rather Phrygian origin of the cult Dionysus. It would be easier for Kretschmer to appeal to Apollodorus, who equated Semele and Gaia, or to Diodorus - the latter, as is known, believed that Tiona-Semela were earthly goddesses. Thus, according to modern theory, the mother of Dionysus appeared as a “Thracian-Phrygian goddess of the earth” - later, at the whim of the poet, she turned into a mortal woman and the daughter of Cadmus.

What can we say? According to Phrygian sources, the mentioned goddess was highly revered even two or three hundred years before our era. Probably a thousand years earlier she was revered no less highly. How, then, did the great Phrygian goddess of the earth in Boeotia, separated from Phrygia by a short sea passage, turn at someone’s whim into the daughter of Cadmus? And yet neither in myths nor in cult there is the slightest mention of her theistic greatness. Other analogies equally require argumentation.

And not only this. The legend of the daughter of Cadmus gives extraordinary power to the traditionally preserved myth. Semele, an ordinary mortal, but not a goddess, which is sharply emphasized, gave birth to a god. In the Iliad, Thebes is named as her homeland, and Hesiod not only mentions the “daughter of Cadmus,” but emphasizes: she, a mortal woman, gave birth to an immortal son. The image of “the son of the greatest father and daughter of Cadmus” (Pindar), the mortality of the mother is the focus of the Dionysian tradition. The name Semele, originally divine, later became purely human - proof of this is the second name of Dionysus' mother - Tion. Pindar named Semele as the lover of Zeus Tione. After her son freed her from the kingdom of the dead, she was exalted by immortality on Olympus. “Semele, then called Tione,” says the Homeric hymn. This name is found among the Bacchantes; Dionysus himself is sometimes called Thionides. Is it conceivable that a name, accentuated as human, would refer to a goddess? In Thebes, the deceased Semele was revered - such is the nature of her images in the space of the Theban acropolis dedicated to Dionysus. The forty-fourth Orphic hymn mentions that she owes such honors to Persephone.

The modern hypothesis, neglecting the clarity of the myth, asserts: this myth owes its striking turn to a willful correction. Such an assumption annihilates the essence of the story about the appearance of Dionysus. If the mother was not mortal, what is the meaning of the second birth? When Semele died, Zeus tore the six-month-old child out of the flames and sewed it into his thigh, so that he would mature in a heavenly body and become a god. They suggest a symbiosis of two different views. According to one, Dionysus is the fruit of the union of Semele with the heavenly father, according to another, Dionysus owes his birth to his father alone, like Athena. This introduces new confusion. If the theophany of Athena is freed from all female participation, which is consistent with the goddess of wisdom and indestructible strength, then how to explain the purely male birth of the feminine Dionysus, always surrounded by women?

Semele, a mortal, conceived a son from a heavenly god; her earthly beloved was incinerated by the passion of sparkling lightning. In the deadly flames of a thunderstorm, she prematurely gave birth to a boy, the future god. But is such a task conceivable for an earthly woman? That is why the father took his son and completed the birth.

The idea of an earth goddess torn to pieces by heavenly flames is incredible.

Why is it generally necessary to explain the greatness of a son by the equal condition of his parents? Is it not better to consider the depth and significance of the myth before attributing to some poet a whimsical clash of inequalities? Ino, the god's adoptive mother, was transformed from an ordinary woman into a goddess and received the name Leucoteia. Just as in Hesiod’s “Theogony” the human origin of Semele is emphasized, so in the “Odyssey” it is said: “Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was a mortal woman and became the deity of the waters of the sea, her name is Leucoteia.” Ino's connection with Dionysus, confirmed by the cult, is undeniable: the goddess of water is essentially close to Dionysus, judging by numerous images and legends. Among the Nereids we meet two other sisters - Agave and Antonoia.

Ino and Semele are at first earthly women, then goddesses with other names.

Dionysus - the myth of his birth, despite its dissolution in historical accidents, quite clearly reflects the character of the deity.

The appearance of Athena corresponds to the style and image of this goddess. However, the mysterious, ambivalent god of contradictions, in our opinion, should have a generic relationship with people.

Dionysus is the god of the harvest, winemaking and wine, ritual madness and fertility, theater and religious ecstasy.

Wine occupied an important part in Greek culture, so Dionysus was the favorite god of the inhabitants.

The origins of the cult of Dionysus have not yet been determined. Some historians are inclined to think that the cult of God arrived from the east, others say that the origins of the cult come from the south, from Ethiopia.

Dionysus was one of the twelve Olympian gods; he was born from a mere mortal. Large-scale holidays (mysteries) dedicated to Dionysus, with songs, dances and wine, are considered the ancestors of the theater.

In the earliest Greek artifacts, Dionysus is depicted as a mature man with a beard and clothing. He usually had a staff with him. A little later, images began to appear with a naked, young Dionysus, combining the functions of the masculine and feminine principles (hermaphrodite).

Usually the god is accompanied by maenads and satyrs with erect penises, the whole procession has fun, dances and performs some kind of music. God himself often sits in a chariot drawn by tigers and lions.

Dionysus is associated with the protector of all those who were expelled or not recognized by society, so God is associated with a certain chaotic and dangerous force, the use of which can lead to unexpected consequences (it is quite possible that this was associated with the effect of wine).

He is also known as Bacchus (Bacchus) in the Roman tradition, and the mysteries dedicated to the god were called bacchanalia.

According to legend, wine, music and dancing free a person from everyday worries, fear and sadness, and also give strength.

The cult of Dionysus is also associated with the underworld: his maenads feed the dead with special offerings, and the god himself acts as a mediator between the living and the dead.

In Greek mythology, Dionysus was conceived by a mortal woman, Semele. Hera, the wife of Zeus, was angry when she learned that the supreme god was again inflamed with passion for an ordinary woman.

Having reincarnated as an ordinary mortal, Hera convinced the pregnant Semele that she was carrying the son of Zeus the Thunderer himself. The woman, succumbing to doubts, once asked Zeus to prove his greatness to her. The Supreme God refused the woman because he knew that mortals would not be able to endure the manifestation of his higher power.

However, Semele was persistent, and Zeus proved his divine nature by unleashing thunderous lightning, shaking the earth around him. Semele could not stand this action and died on the spot.

Frustrated, Zeus saved his unborn son by sewing him into his thigh. A few months later, Dionysus was born on Mount Pramnos on the island of Ikaria, where Zeus hid the child from the all-seeing Hera.

In the Cretan version of the story of the birth of Dionysus, which belongs to the pen of Diodorus Siculus, the god is the son of Zeus and Persephone.

The name of Hera also appears here: according to legend, she sends the titans to the baby Dionysus so that they tear him into pieces. However, almighty Zeus saves the boy.

Childhood and youth of Dionysus

According to myth, Dionysus was cared for by Hermes during his infancy. According to another version, Hermes gave the boy to be raised by King Atamas and his wife Ino, Dionysus’s aunt. Hermes wanted the couple to hide Dionysus from Hera's wrath. There is another story: as if Dionysus was raised by nymphs.

When Dionysus grew up, he discovered that a wonderful juice could be extracted from the grapevine, which had amazing properties.

She doomed the young god to madness, and he had to wander all over the world. However, he found like-minded people and taught them how to make wine.

Dionysus was in, Spain, Ethiopia,. From these wanderings a legend was born that this is how wine literally conquered the whole world.

Dionysus was exceptionally attractive. One of Homer's hymns tells how, disguised as a mortal, sitting on the coast, several sailors noticed him, and assumed that he was a prince.

The fishermen wanted to steal him and sail away, asking for a large ransom for God. However, Dionysus turned into a lion and killed everyone on the ship.

Dionysus in mythology

The name of Dionysus is also associated with the myth of King Midas. Once, having discovered that his mentor, the wise Silenus, had disappeared, the god unexpectedly found him visiting King Midas. For the return of his beloved teacher, Dionysus offered the king to fulfill any of his wishes.

The greedy king wanted everything he touched to turn into gold. Dionysus fulfilled his request.

However, the king soon realized that food, water, and the people he touched became gold. The king begged Dionysus to return everything to normal; he was ready to give up his desire.

God had mercy: Midas plunged into the Pactolus River, and the spell was lifted. Dionysus is also mentioned in the myths of Pentheus, Lycurgus, Ampelus and others.