Dionysus—also known as Bacchus—is described by Jennifer March as the god of “ritual madness and ecstatic liberation from everyday identity” (March p231). Followers of the deity connect to him, and each other, through rituals of intoxication, ecstasy, and transcendence. Because Dionysus was
SINCE YOU HAVE USED A HISTORICAL PRESENT IN THE PREVIOUS PHRASE, I SUGGEST TO LOOK FOR CONSISTENCY AND WRITE “Dionysus is”
a patron of the arts and artistic expression, I posit that most—if not all—creatives find themselves making similar connections, both directly and indirectly.
Intoxication
Dionysus is most often associated with wine and intoxication. He is frequently depicted with vines, grapes, cups, and jugs—presumably carrying wine, which he made himself. Silenus, a minor rustic god of drunkenness and winemaking, was his companion and tutor. In most myths concerning his origin, Dionysus is said to have brought the art of wine making to mortals. He traveled the whole of Eurasia, spreading his knowledge with all who would listen. One of the few surviving myths about the deity is The Bacchae
NO, THE “BACCHAE” BY EURIPIDES ARE NOT A MYTH — THE WORD “MYTH” IS USED WRONGLY. YOU WANT TO REFER TO A TEXT THAT NARRATES THE MYTH. I WOULD WRITE:: “One of the few surviving mythological narratives”
which describes him as such:
“… [Dionysus] discovered the grape cluster’s liquid drink and introduced it / to mortals, that which stops wretched men / from suffering, when they are filled with the stream of the vine, / and gives sleep as the oblivion of the evils that happen by day; / nor is there any other cure against the distress.” (Euripides, 279-83)
There are few written records of Dionysian rituals—but is is well known that his rituals always included excessive drinking. For Dionysus’ followers, intoxication was a means of achieving altered consciousness
BETTER TO WRITE: NOT “altered consciousness” (A SLIGHTLY CONTRADICTORY PHRASE), BUT “an alteration of the consciousness”
wherein one’s inhibitions—or, earthly restraints—are significantly lowered. There are even records of a Dionysian ritual that included severe intoxication to the point of ripping apart animals with their bare hands, called sparagmos, and eating their raw flesh, called omophagia. Ultimately, this altered state was seen as necessary to evoke one’s most primal emotions and the first step towards connecting with the deity.
Ecstasy
Dionysus is very closely linked to ecstasy—a state of altered consciousness defined in the Oxford Dictionary
DO YOU MEAN THE “Oxford Classical DIctionary” OR THE “Oxford English DICTIONARY”?
as “an emotional or religious frenzy or trance-like state, originally one involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.” His various followers—satyrs, silens, nymphs, and maenads—are often depicted in art in this state of ecstasy. Bacchants can be seen freely dancing and drinking, usually with glowing smiles, as illustrated in William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s The Youth of Bacchus. Bouguereau painted their arms reaching towards the sky, a movement associated with joy or bliss; they dance in a circular motion, a movement sometimes associated with trance-like states or religious/occult practices (e.g., the “witchlike” dancing of the girls in the 1996 adaptation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible). But these are not the only types of ecstasy associated with Dionysus. Various scholars on
“PLEASE WRITE “of” NOT “on”
the deity suggest that his followers participated in orgies—unrestrained sexual activity—to intensify feelings of ecstasy generated through the other forms of orgia, ancient Greek religious practices to worship cult deities. The state of ecstasy, like the one depicted in Bouguereau’s painting, was seen as the second step towards connecting with Dionysus.
Transcendence
Worshippers of Dionysus were often those of low social standing: slaves, non citizens and, most often, women. He is often equated/associated to the Roman deity Liber Pater (“The Free Father”), god of wine, fertility and freedom—and understandably so. His worshippers were drawn to him because of the freedom he provided; freedom of the body, through intoxication and ecstasy, and freedom of the mind, by elevating women to dominant positions within his cult. Intoxication and ecstasy were the initial, physical means of connecting with Dionysus, but to finally and fully embrace the deity one had to connect with him in spirit. Nietzsche describes this experience of transcendence in Birth of Tragedy: THE ECUMENIC SENSE OF UNITY AND EQUALIZATION WITH THE OTHERS WHICH DIONYSIAC CULTS WOULD HAVE PROVIDED IS MAINLY AN INTERPRETATION BY NIETZSCHE. YOU SHOULD STRESS THAT IT IS NOT WIDELY ACCEPTED BY MORE MODERN SCHOLARS
“Now the slave is a free man, now all the rigid and hostile boundaries that distress, depositm, or ‘impudent fashion’ have erected between man and man break down. Now, with the gospel of world harmony, each man feels himself not only united, reconciled, and at one with his neighbour, but one with him, as if the veil of Maya had been recent and now hung in rags before the mysterious primal Oneness.” (Nietzsche, p17)
Dionysus, Parton “Patron”, NOT “Parton” of the Arts
Aside from being the god of wine and intoxication, Dionysus is also a patron of the arts. Many of the rituals and festivals in his name involved singing, dancing, and theatre. Though the two arenas may not seem connected at first glance, consider the Oxford Dictionary definition of Dionysian: “relating to the sensual, spontaneous, and emotional aspects of human nature.” Worshippers of the deity used intoxication as a means of lowering inhibitions, encouraging ecstasy,
PLEASE ADD: “promoting free creativity of even the humblest individuals”
and achieving transcendence. In a way, an artist seeks these goals as well. As Nietzsche wrote:
“Man is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art: the artistic power of the whole of nature reveals itself to the supreme gratification of the primal Oneness amidst the paroxysms of intoxication….the Dionysiac [sic] world-artist there echoes the cry… ‘Do you sense the Creator, world?’” (Nietzsche, p18)
To create genuine art, the artist seeks to lower their inhibitions in order for the audience to see and understand the artist intimately. Unsurprisingly, art and artists are often associated with one or more altered states of consciousness. The drunken or intoxicated artist is a common stereotype, but has a great deal of legitimacy to it—intoxication can give way to truths that would otherwise remain inaccessible. Artists are also often associated with ecstasy, both religious and sexual—many works illustrate or arise from a heightened emotional state, as they give art the air of realism that comes out of emotion. To many, art is the ultimate act of self-transcendence; for an artist to describe their world, they must be able to understand their place within it from a distance, or an outside perspective.
Whether or not the artist engages in the core aspects of Dionysian worship figuratively or literally, neither the artist not their art can be untied from them. Art is meant to relate to the sensual, spontaneous, and emotional aspects of human nature. At its core, art and the artists are inherently Dionysian.
Works Cited
Bougeureau, William Adolphe. “The Youth of Bacchus.” The Youth of Bacchus, 24 July 2011, www.wikiart.org/en/william-adolphe-bouguereau/the-youth-of-bacchus-1884.
“Dionysiac | Definition of Dionysiac in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dionysiac.
“Ecstasy | Definition of Ecstasy in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, Oxford Dictionaries, en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/ecstasy.
Euripides, et al. Bacchae. Nick Hern, 1998.
Hytner, Nicholas, director. The Crucible.
March, Jennifer R. Cassells Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Manitoba Education and Training, 2002.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. Birth of Tragedy. Dover, 1995.