Dionysus

16 important questions on Dionysus

Which symbols are typically associated with Dionysus?

- The thyrsus (staff crowned with ivy).
- The mitra (the ivy headband).
- Deer skin.
- Leopard skin dress.

Which animals are typically associated with Dionysus?

- Lion
- Leopard
- Tiger
- Bull
- Male goat

How was Dionysus born?

Zeus once impregnated his lover Semele, who could not see him in his true form. Juno tricked her into wanting to see it anyway, and Semele died upon viewing it. Since she was pregnant, Zeus took the baby out of her belly and sews him into his own thigh, so Dionysus is "born twice".
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What are many of the myths about Dionysus about?

About the resistance against his cult / about how he wasn't accepted as a god, and how those who deny him will be punished (like how Pentheus is killed by the women of his family for forbidding his people to worship Dionysus).

What is the tripartite structure of the Bacchae?

Reversal:
- Dionysus and the Bacchae are oppressed by Pentheus.
- Dionysus turns Pentheus into his puppet.
- Pentheus is slaughtered by the Maenads (his mother and aunts), because Dionysus is all powerful.

Which thematic oppositions can be found in the Bacchae?

Power: Pentheus - Dionysus
Gender: men - women
Culture: civilized Greece - the barbaric East
Culture - nature
Reason - Madness
Order - chaos
Blindness - seeing

How is Pentheus presented in the Bacchae?

As a young man who wants to restore order in his polis after Dionysus as driven his women wild. He is tyrant-like, stubborn, blind (refuses to see Dionysus for who he is), tries to defy the gods and can't realize his own desires.
Pentheus' name means "suffering", so it can be said that he is set up by Dionysus to fight and die.

Which messages can be seen in the Bacchae?

- A death bed conversion by Euripides, who has now started to believe in the "new gods".
- Euripides’ rationalist resistance against ‘the Evils of Religion’ / the danger of big, emotional groups, enraged by their religion.
- The claim that people suppress their natural drive / their sexuality, even though we need it in order to thrive / be happy.

What is Euripides Hippolytus about?

Aphrodite wants to punish Hippolytus, son of Thesus, who does not honour her. So, she makes Phaedra, Theseus' wife, fall in love with Hippolytus. Hippolytus is horrified by Phaedra's confession, and Phaedra is so hurt she hangs herself, leaving a letter that says Hippolytus tried to rape her.
When Theseus returns, he finds the letter and tries to invoke Poseidon to kill Hippolytus in turn. Poseidon's bulls kill Hippolytus, but in his dying breath, he tells his father the truth.
Even though Aphrodite has triumphed, Artemis sets up a cult for Hippolytus, who has always honoured her instead.

What are modern interpretations of the Bacchae?

- Repression of Dionysus = repression of human nature / sexuality.
- As the god of paradox, Dionysus inverts the norms of the polis and sets people free / makes them all live together in wild harmony.
- As part of a ritual, Dionysus is eaten by his followers, which refers to his "second birth", but also to the Christian sacrament and the internalisations of the sufferings of the god.



What is Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik by Nietzsche about?

About Apollo and Dionysus, and how their fusion could create tragic, yet beautiful art. Apollo symbolizes formality and restraint, whereas Dionysus is pure and free, and when Dionysus is chanelled by Apollo, his beauty can truly be seen.
This inverts Platonism, with the idea that Chaos is reality and form is mere illusion.
Dionysus gives art meaning, even if it is destructive.
Nietzsche spoke against nihilism and depression, and wanted the world to see beauty in cruelty and wildness.

How was Nietzsche's book about Apollo and Dionysus received?

Extremely negatively; his career as a classicist was over. He was later lauded by artists and neoclassicists, but at first, it could not be accepted that classical, perfect beauty and chaos could go hand in hand.

How were Dionysus and Apollo viewed in ancient times?

As two of the four parts of divine Madness:
Apollo was prophecy, Dionysus was mystic madness, the Muses were poetic madness and Aphrodite was the madness of love. They inspired each other, and Plato even said that poetry without madness could not be real poetry. However, that's also why poetry shouldn't be used to inspire young people, because madness could not serve as a teacher.

Which Dionysiac themes can be found in Death in Venice?

- Aschenbach is Apollonian, but repressed his Dionysiac side.
- The redhaired men resemble the vengeful Dionysus.
- The foreign Venice and his dream contain Eastern elements.
- Cholera serves as the rot that is destroying the city and Aschenbach's inner world.  
- Tadzio (the boy) seems Apollonian, but inspires a Dionysiac frenzy in Aschenbach.
- Aschenbach becomes Dionysiac instead of Apollonian when he gives in to his desires/dyes his hair/paints his face.
- Eventually, the struggle between the Apollonian and the Dionysiac side turns out to be tragic, because it is what causes Aschenbach to eat that overripe strawberry, get cholera and die.


What is Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema about?



• A young, beautiful stranger (Terence Stamp) comes to stay with a repressed, conventional, haute bourgeoisie family in Milan.
• All family members (father, mother, son, daughter and the servant girl) instantly become erotically obsessed with him and find they cannot go on living without him: they derail in various manners.

Which themes can be found in Teorema?

- The young, beautiful stranger is both like Dionysus and Christ: eroticism and religion are both animalistic drives, that together go against societal norms.
- The young man causes the family to go wild and run off into the woods/streets to die, whereas their servant girl turns into a saint as she is the only one who understands him (as she is not removed from the people, unlike the bourgeoisie).
- Society is criticized as being oppressive.

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