In Rome, Dionysus was revered under the name Bacchus (hence the bacchantes, bacchanalia) or Bacchus.
Dionysus is the god of the fruitful forces of the earth, vegetation, viticulture, and winemaking. A deity of eastern (Thracian and Lydian-Phrygian) origin, which spread to Greece relatively late and established itself there with great difficulty. Although the name Dionysus appears on the Cretan Linear B tablets back in 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. Dionysus, as the deity of the agricultural circle, associated with the elemental forces of the earth, was constantly contrasted with Apollo - as primarily the deity of the tribal aristocracy. The folk basis of the cult of Dionysus was reflected in the myths about the illegal birth of the god, his struggle for the right to become one of the Olympian gods and for the widespread establishment of his cult.
Bacchus - Dossi Dosso, ca. 1524
At the instigation of the jealous Hera, Semele asked Zeus to appear to her in all his greatness, and he, appearing in a flash of lightning, incinerated the mortal Semele and her tower with fire. Zeus snatched Dionysus, who was born prematurely, from the flames and sewed him into his thigh. In due time, Zeus gave birth to Dionysus, unraveling the stitches in his thigh, and then gave Dionysus through Hermes to be raised by the Nisean nymphs or Semele’s sister Ino. Dionysus found a grapevine. Hera instilled madness in him, and he, wandering around Egypt and Syria, came to Phrygia, where the goddess Cybele-Rhea healed him and introduced him to her orgiastic mysteries. After this, Dionysus went to India through Thrace. From the eastern lands (from India or from Lydia and Phrygia) he returns to Greece, to Thebes. While sailing from the island of Ikaria to the island of Naxos, Dionysus is kidnapped by sea robbers - the Tyrrhenians. The robbers are horrified at the sight of the amazing transformations of Dionysus. They chained Dionysus to sell him into slavery, but the chains themselves fell from Dionysus's hands; entwining the mast and sails of the ship with vines and ivy, Dionysus appeared in the form of a bear and a lion. The pirates themselves, who threw themselves into the sea out of fear, turned into dolphins. This myth reflected the archaic plant-zoomorphic origin of Dionysus. The plant past of this god is confirmed by his epithets: Evius ("ivy", "ivy"), "bunch of grapes", etc. The zoomorphic past of Dionysus is reflected in his werewolf and ideas about Dionysus the bull and Dionysus the goat. The symbol of Dionysus as the god of the fruitful forces of the earth was the phallus.
Bacchus and Ariadne - Dominico de Angelis.
On the island of Naxos, Dionysus met his beloved Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus, kidnapped her and married her on the island of Lemnos; from him she gave birth to Oenopion, Foant and others. Wherever Dionysus appears, he establishes his cult; everywhere along his path he teaches people viticulture and winemaking. The procession of Dionysus, which was of an ecstatic nature, was attended by bacchantes, satyrs, maenads or bassarides (one of the nicknames of Dionysus - Bassarei) with thyrsus (rods) entwined with ivy. Belted 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, reveling in the blood of torn wild animals, carving honey and milk from the ground with their thyrses, uprooting trees and dragging crowds with them women and men. Dionysus is famous as Liaeus (“liberator”), he frees people from worldly worries, removes the shackles of a measured life from them, breaks the shackles with which his enemies are trying to entangle him, and crushes walls. He sends madness to his enemies and terribly punishes them ; so he did with his cousin Theban king Pentheus, who wanted to ban Bacchic rampages. Pentheus was torn to pieces by the Bacchantes under the leadership of his mother Agave, who in a state of ecstasy mistook her son for an animal. God sent madness to Lycurgus, the son of the king of the Aedons, who opposed the cult of Dionysus, and then Lycurgus was torn to pieces by his own horses.
Bacchanalia in front of the statue of Pan Nicolas Poussin, 1631-33.
Dionysus entered the number of 12 Olympian gods late. In Delphi he began to be revered along with Apollo. On Parnassus, every two years orgies were held in honor of Dionysus, in which the fiads - bacchantes from Attica took part. In Athens, solemn processions were organized in honor of Dionysus and the sacred marriage of the god with the wife of the archon basileus was played out
From religious and cult rites dedicated to Dionysus (Greek tragodia, lit. “song of the goat” or “song of the goats,” that is, goat-footed satyrs - companions of Dionysus), arose ancient greek tragedy. In Attica, the Great, or Urban, Dionysias were dedicated to Dionysus, which included solemn processions in honor of the god, competitions of tragic and comic poets, as well as choirs singing dithyrambs (held in March - April); Leneys, which included the performance of new comedies (in January - February); Small, or Rural, Dionysia, which preserved the remnants of agrarian magic (in December - January), when dramas already played in the city were repeated.
In Hellenistic times, the cult of Dionysus merged with the cult of the Phrygian god Sabazius (Sabasius became the permanent nickname of Dionysus). In Rome, Dionysus was revered under the name Bacchus (hence the bacchantes, bacchanalia) or Bacchus. Identified with Osiris, Serapis, Mithras, Adonis, Amun, Liber.
Bacchanalia - Titian, 1523-25.
Bacchus - Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1638-40
Sick Bacchus - Caravaggio, c. 1593
Bacchus, Vertumnus and Saturn - Paolo Veronese, 1560-61.
The Bacchante - Adolphe-William Bouguereau
Bacchanalia - Nicolas Poussin, 1628-30.
The Bacchante - Adolphe-William Bouguereau, 1894
Bacchante - Arthur Wardle
Bacchante - Frederic Leighton.
Bacchante - Elizabeth Louise Le Brun
The Education of Bacchus - Nicolas Poussin, 1630-1635.
The Childhood of Bacchus - Adolphe-William Bouguereau, 1884
Teenage Dionysus - Guido Reni, 1615-20.
Feast of Bacchus - Diego Velazquez, 1629
Drinking Bacchus - Guido Reni, c. 1623
The Triumph of Bacchus - Cornelis de Vos
The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne - Annibale Carracci, 1597-1602.
Triumphal Procession of Bacchus - Maarten van Heemskerck, 1537-38.
Procession of Bacchus - Francesco de Mura
The painting belongs to a cycle of three mythological canvases made for Duke Alfonso d'Este. They were intended for his “Alabaster Room” in Ferrara - in other words, his office. According to legend, the Duke asked Titian, whose fame by this time had already spread throughout Italy , to finish the painting “Bacchanalia”, begun by the dying Bellini. And... together with “Bacchanalia” he presented the customer with two more masterpieces - “Bacchus and Ariadne” and “Feast of Venus”, a kind of hymn to luxurious nature and great antiquity. taken from Roman mythology and literature. The story of the most famous - “Bacchus and Ariadne” - is inspired by the poem “The Wedding of Thetis and Peleus” by the great Catullus, who wrote it based on the myth.
It is worth saying a little more about this magnificent cycle, since Titian in a completely new way European painting interpreted ancient world. For the first time in art, the music of a jubilant celebration of life, dominated by the stormy joy of a pagan bacchanalia, sounded so brightly. For him, antiquity is not a fragile, elusive dream (remember Botticelli), not a world of majestic harmony and intelligence, as in Raphael, or titanic struggle and invincible heroes (in the perception of Michelangelo), but something completely different. In a truly Venetian spirit, Titian paints spectacular, spectacular paintings, full of major and bright emotions. Filled with a pathetic atmosphere, permeated with frantic dynamics, they exude a daring spirit of hedonistic pleasure.
The painting from the London National Gallery is perhaps the most violent outpouring of feelings. Its plot tells the story of the beautiful Ariadne, the daughter of the Cretan king Minos. Having fallen in love with the Athenian hero Theseus, she helped him kill the evil Minotaur, who was supposed to destroy the young men who arrived in Crete and himself. On the way back to Athens, Theseus, by order of the gods, left Ariadne on the island of Naxos. She was destined to become the wife of another... Here Bacchus saw her. He, the god of wine and winemaking, beautiful, eternally young, was depicted with a wreath of vines and ivy on his head - a sign of immortality.
According to legend, Bacchus, returning from India, harnessed leopards to his chariot. Titian freely replaced them with cheetahs. The cortege of Bacchus is a noisy, cheerful crowd of satyrs, maenads - men, boys and women, indulging in wild fun, among whom are crafty cupids. They all dance to the sounds of timpani, tambourine and hunting horn. In this rapid chaos, the artist enthusiastically paints details: a satyr baby drags the head of a calf - this is one of the Bacchic rites. The caper flower between his hooves is a symbol of love. Here is a fat drunk old man - Silenus, the main satyr and adoptive father of Bacchus. The drunken satyr on the right is waving his calf's leg. In his hands he also has a staff entwined with a grape shoot. One of Bacchus' companions carries a vat of wine. Snakes, an indispensable part of Bacchic cults, symbolize sensual lust and fertility.
The picture is extremely rich in the expression of poses and gestures. Bacchus himself, swiftly and in a spectacular jump, tries to overtake the frightened Ariadne. But it is not only the dynamics of what is happening and the construction of the entire image (a composition combining multidirectional movements) that determines the sound of the scene. The color scheme of the picture is rich, sonorous, jubilant. Against the background of greenish-blue and brown tones that denote the landscape, the luminous naked bodies of the heroes seem pearly-delicate and golden-swarthy. Among them flash white, lilac-pink, azure clothes. Titian writes in a special, spiritually reverent manner, and builds his form with the impeccable architectonics of a mature master.
So, everything together - the vital tone of the picture, the drama of the story, the character of the painting - gives rise to an amazing feeling of harmony and sensual celebration. However, the erotic element here merges with the high poetry of the narrative, with the beauty, grace and charm of the main characters.
The spirit of dazzling and delightful Venice undoubtedly permeates this ancient cycle by Titian.
This painting was greatly appreciated by Rubens and Van Dyck. They copied it and studied the painting techniques of the great maestro.
The London painting bears a proud inscription in Latin: “Titian wrote.”
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Hedonism (Greek pleasure) - ethical teaching, which originated in Ancient Greece (IV century BC). Followers of hedonism consider pleasure to be the goal of life and the highest good. Good is what brings it, and evil is everything that entails suffering.
Ariadne awakens, sees that Theseus has abandoned her, and cries bitterly and reproaches herself for leaving her family and believing Theseus. At this time, Dionysus appears, accompanied by satyrs and maenads, and takes possession of the upset and abandoned Ariadne.
In Minoan culture, Ariadne occupied a fairly high place, because her name means “holy”, “pure” - the names that were assigned to the ruler underground kingdom. In Nietzsche’s beautiful poem “Ariadne’s Complaint,” she brings her pain and her torment to the point that she is ready to open up to sensual love, and then Dionysus appears and takes her as his wife. Ariadne's liberation comes with Dionysus, who takes her as his wife. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the Minotaur also has another name - Asterius; fans of the Minotaur revered him as a star. At the same time, Asterius is a name that is shouted out during the mysteries, wanting to evoke Dionysus as a boy and a child. In Dionysus, Ariadne again finds her brother, finds her lost connection with her family. This can be seen quite clearly in one famous fresco in a Roman gallery. Here God meets his bride, not an earthly woman, but Persephone or Aphrodite emerging from somewhere. She sleeps, but she is not abandoned. The goddess receives the god approaching her with his attendant, sitting on a rock. She hands Dionysus a cup, which Dionysus fills with wine.
Ariadne is the daughter of the Cretan king Minos and Pasiphae. When Theseus decided to kill the minotaur, to whom the Athenians, at the request of A.’s father, sent annually a shameful tribute of seven young men and seven maidens and thus rid the fatherland of the monster, he received from A., who loved him, a ball of thread that led him out of the labyrinth, where the minotaur lived. Having accomplished a heroic feat, Theseus fled with A. to the island. Naxos, where, according to one legend, A. was killed by Diana’s arrows, according to another, she was abandoned by Theseus and found by Dionysius, who married her. After her death, Dionysius became an immortal god and placed her crown among the constellations. Many works of art depict the moment of despair of A., abandoned by Theseus on the island. Naxos, then the sleeping A. is depicted and the appearance of Dionysius; Most often there is an image of A. on a chariot surrounded by bacchantes. Famous work Dannecker in Frankfurt on M. depicts A. on a panther.
Caught in a storm near the island of Naxos, Theseus, not wanting to take A. to Athens, left her while she was sleeping (Hyg. Fab. 42). The god Dionysus, in love with A., kidnapped her and married her on the island of Lemnos (Apollod. epit. I 9). When the gods celebrated the wedding of A. and Dionysus, A. was crowned with a crown donated by the mountains and Aphrodite. With it, Dionysus seduced A. even earlier in Crete. With the help of this luminous crown of Hephaestus' work, Theseus escaped from the dark labyrinth. This crown was raised to heaven by Dionysus in the form of a constellation (Ps.-Eratosth. 5).
The myth of A. was extremely popular in ancient art, as evidenced by numerous vases, reliefs of Roman sarcophagi and Pompeian frescoes (subjects: “A. handing a thread to Theseus”, “sleeping A.”, “Tesen leaving A.”, “ Dionysus discovering sleeping A.", "procession of Dionysus and A."). During the Renaissance, artists were attracted to the following subjects: “the gods present A. with a crown of stars” and “the triumph of Dionysus and A.” (Titian, J. Tintoretto, Agostino and Annibale Carracci, G. Reni, J. Jordan, etc.), in the 18th century. - plot "abandoned A." (painting by A. Kaufman and others).
On the way back, the team stopped on the island of Naxos. The tired sailors fell asleep. Theseus had a dream: the god Dionysus calls him to leave Ariadne, he himself wants to take her as his wife. “It is impossible not to obey God, and Theseus, waking up, boards the ship, leaving the sleeping Ariadne on the shore.” At dawn, the daughter of Minos wakes up and immediately realizes that she is abandoned . Despair is replaced by indifference and melancholy. But at dusk the lights are lit, they are approaching, singing in honor of the god Hymen is heard, her name is repeated along with the name of Dionysus, and here he stands in the chariot, the spring god, and smiles mysteriously at her. “Forget about him, now you are my bride,” says Dionysus. His kiss makes Ariadne forget everything that happened to her before. She became a goddess and settled on Olympus"
4. Bacchus and Ariadne. It was Ariadne, the daughter of the Cretan king Minos, who helped Theseus, whom she loved, get out of the labyrinth with the help of a ball of thread, but as a result he left her sleeping on the island of Naxos [THESEI, 2]. Here Bacchus came to her aid. Images from the ancient era show Ariadne sleeping when Bacchus appears to her, as Philostratus described it [Paintings, 1:15]. But according to Ovid [Met, 8:176-182], she at that moment sat “tearfully supplicating,” and Renaissance and later artists usually depict her awake. Bacchus took her crown, decorated precious stones, and “threw it to the constellations” so that “she would be glorified in the sky.” So she became a constellation. He easily consoled her and they soon got married. He descends to the ground or lifts Ariadne up into the chariot. Bacchus removes the crown from her head, or she is already in the sky (a luminous circle of stars). The retinue of Bacchus can perform their rites: one satyr demonstrates how snakes are entwined around him, another waves a calf's leg, while a baby satyr drags a calf's head behind him (cf. Catullus, Carmina, 64) (Titian, National Gallery, London) . Ovid [Fasti, 3:459-516] describes how Bacchus himself left Ariadne to make his journey to the East. According to this version, their meeting is therefore their new connection after his return. This is consistent with the presence of leopards, which often pulled his chariot.
On the island of Naxos, Dionysus met his beloved Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus, kidnapped her and married her on the island of Lemnos; from him she gave birth to Oenopion, Foant and others (Apollod. epit. I 9).
Written in 1520-1523. The canvas is part of a series of paintings on mythological themes, written for Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Located in the National Gallery in London.
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| Titian | ||
| Bacchus and Ariadne. 1520-23 | ||
| Bacco and Arianna | ||
| Oil on canvas. 176.5 × 190 cm | ||
| London National Gallery, London | ||
| (inv. NG35) | ||
| Media files on Wikimedia Commons | ||
Story
The painting was intended to decorate the palace of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, which was decorated with images on classical mythological themes. The canvas was commissioned from Raphael on the theme “The Triumph of Bacchus.” However, Raphael died in 1520, having only managed to write a preliminary drawing and the order was transferred Titian. The subject was taken from the works of the ancient Roman poets Catullus and Ovid. In 1806, the painting came to Great Britain and was mentioned in the poem “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats (1819).
Restoration
The canvas was folded twice during the first century after painting, which led to catastrophic consequences for the painting. In 1806, the painting came to Great Britain and, starting from late XIX century, was constantly restored to stop the fall of paint from the canvas. Restoration in 1967-1968, carried out in London national gallery, when the top layer of varnish, which had turned brown with time, was removed, the paint also began to peel off. As a result, additional painting was required, which changed the color of the sky over a large area. Removing the varnish has also been criticized for changing Titian's original color plans, but the gallery says it was necessary due to the deterioration of the varnish coating.
Plot
God Bacchus (in ancient greek mythology Dionysus) appears on the right. Having fallen in love with Ariadne at first sight, he gets out of the chariot with two cheetahs (in the original text by Catullus - with leopards). Ariadne has just been abandoned Greek hero Theseus on the island of Naxos - his ship is still visible in the distance. The canvas captures Ariadne's moment of fright at the sudden appearance of God. According to legend, Bacchus later took her to heaven and turned her into the constellation Corona, which is symbolically depicted in the picture (in the sky above Ariadne).
The composition is divided diagonally into two triangles: one is stationary blue sky, for which Titian used expensive
Bacchic Campaign: the conquest of India by Dionysus. - God Dionysus in Thebes. - Dionysus and the pirates (sailors of Aket). - Homeric Hymn"Dionysus and the Robbers." - Pentheus and the Bacchae. - The myth of the transformation of the daughters of Minias into bats. - Dionysus and Lycurgus. - Icarius and Erigone. - The myth of Dionysus and Ariadne. - Dionysus and Persephone. - Bacchic sarcophagi.
Bacchic Campaign: the conquest of India by Dionysus
Heroic legend in Greek myths about the god Dionysus (Bacchus) there is nothing more than a mythological history of the introduction of the culture of the vine and a story about the effect produced by intoxication.
The fear of intoxication and its strong effect very naturally explain the opposition and hostility to Dionysus that he, according to myths, ancient Greece, I met almost everywhere when I started introducing people to winemaking.
The cult of Dionysus has much in common with the cult of Cybele, and the noisy nature of the Bacchic orgies is reminiscent of noisy festivals in honor of the goddess Cybele. But the history of the conquest of India gives the myths about Dionysus a special character.
Many researchers ancient myths it is believed that the stories about the campaign of Dionysus in India date back to the time of the conquest of India by Alexander the Great; others believe that they belong to a more ancient period.
A whole crowd of fauns and others took part in the famous Indian campaign of Dionysus.
When the king of India Deriades (Δηριάδης) wants to rush at the god Dionysus, grape branches that suddenly appeared from under the ground wrap around the king’s entire body, legs and arms and paralyze all movements of Deriades. When the army of Deriades approaches the river, with a wave of the hand of Dionysus, the water turns into strong wine, and the warriors of Deriades, tormented by thirst, rush to this river and drink until intoxication, delirium and rage take possession of them.
Depictions of battles between the armies of Dionysus and the Indians are very rare, but very often there are monuments of art that depict the triumph of Dionysus and his army. Likewise, the return of the victorious Dionysus is often depicted in art.
At the London National art gallery there is a painting by Titian on this mythological subject.
God Dionysus in Thebes
Returning from India, Dionysus wanted Thebes, the city in which Dionysus was born, to be the first city in Greece that would recognize his cult, and so he went straight there.
In the tragedy of the ancient Greek playwright Euripides “The Bacchae,” the god of wine says the following: “I left the rich valleys of Lydia, abundant in gold, and the fields of Phrygia, I walked through the burning plains of Persia and through happy Arabia; I traveled all over Asia and entered Thebes, the first city in Greece that heard the frenzied roar of my bacchantes, shaking their thyrses and crowned with ivy.”
Dionysus and the pirates (sailors of Aket)
One day a ship coming from Lydia approached the island of Naxos. The pilot of this ship, Aket, ordered his men to search the island fresh water. The sailors returned, leading a boy of indescribable beauty, whom they found in a deserted place; he lay drunk, almost in a state of oblivion, and could only with difficulty follow them.
Pilot Aket began to persuade the sailors to release the extraordinary child, in whom he recognized God. But the sailors refused, saying that the child was their property and that, like pirates, they intended to sell him for a good price.
Despite the resistance and persuasion of Aket, the pirates weighed anchor and set off. As soon as Aket's ship entered the open sea, it suddenly stopped.
The amazed sailors pulled all the sails and began to row with redoubled force, but all their efforts came to nothing.
Tenacious ivy, emerging from the depths of the sea, wrapped itself around the oars and covered the sails, preventing the wind from inflating them. And before the astonished eyes of the sailors, young Dionysus suddenly appeared, crowned with grapes, with a thyrsus in his hand, surrounded by tigers, panthers and lynxes.
At the same time, the sailors felt their bodies being covered with fish scales, and fins appearing instead of arms and legs. Dionysus turned the pirates into dolphins, and only Aket retained his human form.
The god Dionysus ordered Aket to sail to Naxos and there make sacrifices at its altars and participate in its mysteries.
The adventure of Aket and his companions was depicted in bas-reliefs that decorated the monument to Lysicrates in Athens.
Homeric hymn "Dionysus and the Thieves"
DIONYSUS and THE BIGANTS
(Homeric hymn, translation by V.V. Veresaev)
I will remember Dionysus, born of glorious Semele,
How did he appear near the shores of the desert sea?
On a protruding headland, like a very young
To the young man. Beautiful curls waved around her head,
Blue-black. The cloak covered the powerful shoulders
Purple. Quick sea robbers suddenly appeared
On a heavily decked ship in the distance of the wine-black sea,
Tyrrhenian men. Their fate was evil. We saw
They winked at each other and, jumping out onto the shore, quickly grabbed
And they put him on the ship, his soul rejoicing.
That’s right, he was the son, they said, of the kings, Kronid’s pets.
They were going to impose heavy bonds on him.
But the bonds could not hold him back, they flew far away
Elastics from twigs from hands and feet. Seated and calm
He smiled with black eyes. Noticed all this
The helmsman immediately called out to his comrades and said:
“What mighty god, you unfortunates, have you captured?
And put you in bonds? The ship does not hold it strong.
This is Zeus the Thunderer, or Phoebus Apollo the Silver-Bowed,
Il Poseidon. He doesn't look like people born to death,
But on immortal gods, living in the Olympic palaces.
Come on, let's set sail from the black earth as quickly as possible,
Immediately! And don’t dare lay hands on him, so that in anger
He did not raise up the fierce winds and the great whirlwind!”
That's what he said. But the leader cut him off sternly:
“You see - the wind is fair! Let's tighten the sail, unfortunate one!
Grab your gear quickly! And ours will take care of him.
I firmly hope that he will come with us to Egypt, to Cyprus,
To the Hyperboreans, who knows where else, he will finally call
He will transfer his friends and relatives and wealth to us,
For the deity itself sends it into our hands.”
So he said and raised the ship's mast and sail.
The middle wind inflated the sail, the ropes tightened.
And wonderful things began to happen before them.
Sweets first of all on fast ships everywhere
Suddenly fragrant wine began to gurgle, and ambrosia
The smell rose all around. The sailors looked in amazement.
Instantly they reached out, clinging to the highest sail,
The vines hither and thither, and the clusters hung in abundance;
Black ivy climbed around the mast, covered with flowers,
Delicious fruits were everywhere, pleasing to the eye,
And wreaths appeared on everyone’s oarlocks. Having seen
They immediately ordered the helmsman to speed up the ship
Head towards land. Suddenly their captive turned into a lion.
Terrible beyond measure, he roared loudly; in the midst of the ship, revealing
Signs, he created a bear with a hairy nape.
She reared up furiously. And stood on high
Wild-eyed lion on deck. The sailors ran to the stern:
They all surrounded the wise helmsman in horror.
The lion jumped towards the leader and tore him to pieces. Rest,
As they saw, hurriedly avoiding a cruel fate
The whole crowd jumped from the ship into the sacred sea
And they turned into dolphins. And he showed pity for the helmsman,
And he held him, and made him the happiest, and said:
“You are dear to my heart, O divine pilot, do not be afraid!
I am Dionysus, the noisy one. My mother gave birth to me,
Cadmus’s daughter Semele united in love with Cronidas.”
Hail, child of bright-eyed Semele! To anyone who wants
To establish a sweet song, it is impossible to forget about you.
Pentheus and the Bacchae
Pentheus, grandson of Cadmus, king and founder of Thebes, began to oppose the return of Dionysus to his country.
The sounds of flutes and cymbals were already heard everywhere, announcing the arrival of the young god. All the people were already hurrying towards Dionysus to look at the unprecedented holiday.
The angry King Pentheus addresses his subjects, saying: “Brave children, what madness has taken possession of you?! Noise brass instruments and flutes, the vague promise of idle spectacle and miracles confused your mind. You have never been afraid of the clanking of weapons, nor the brilliance of darts and arrows; the armed enemy always found you invincible. Are you really going to allow women to defeat you, a crowd of effeminate men, maddened by drunkenness and filling the air with the terrible beating of drums? Let it be better that iron and fire destroy us than to see our city become the prey of an almost child, weak, unarmed, this pampered youth who loves neither war nor battles, does not know how to control horses and always appears perfumed, crowned with ivy and dressed in a dress of gold and purple" (Ovid).
Despite the advice of his relatives, Pentheus ordered his soldiers to take Dionysus and bring him in chains.
The soldiers obey and bring the captive, but while preparations are underway for the execution, the shackles fall off by themselves, the doors of the prison are opened by an invisible force and the captive Dionysus disappears.
Beside himself with anger, Pentheus himself goes to Mount Cithaeron, where the Bacchanalia is celebrated in honor of the god Dionysus. The first bacchante Pentheus meets is his own mother. In a frenzy, Pentheus’s mother does not recognize her son and, imagining that she sees a monster in front of her, shouts: “Here he is, a terrible boar, let’s tear him to pieces!” And all the bacchantes rush at Pentheus and tear him to pieces.
The inhabitants of Thebes, having learned about the fate of the unfortunate king, immediately recognized Dionysus as a god and began to make sacrifices on his altars. The myth of Pentheus, torn to pieces by the Bacchantes, was very often depicted in art.
The myth of the transformation of the daughters of Minias into bats
Little by little, the cult of Dionysus spread almost everywhere in Greece. Only the daughters of Minias stubbornly refused to recognize the god Dionysus.
Instead of participating in the festivals of Dionysus, the daughters of Minias sat at home, working and laughing at the mysterious rites of the Bacchanalia.
One evening, when the daughters of Minias were again laughing at Dionysus and his cult, they heard the sounds of drums, flutes and cymbals. The smell of myrrh and saffron spread throughout the house; the canvas that Minias' daughters were weaving became covered with leaves of grapes and ivy, and the threads became a vine covered with clusters.
The entire home was illuminated with thousands of lights; There was a hellish noise, roaring and growling everywhere, as if the whole house was filled with wild animals.
The daughters of Minius, overwhelmed with horror, want to hide, but while they are looking for the darkest corner of the house, they feel how their body is covered with a membrane that connects all their members, and small thin wings grow instead of hands.
The darkness that reigns in those places where the daughters of Minias wanted to hide prevents them from seeing their transformation; but now the daughters of Minias rise up and stay in the air, having no feathers; they are supported by small wings covered with a transparent membrane. The daughters of Minius want to talk and only utter a plaintive squeak.
Forests do not attract them like other birds; the daughters of Minias prefer to live in houses; light is their worst enemy.
The powerful Dionysus took revenge on them for neglecting his cult by turning the daughters of Minias into bats.
Dionysus and Lycurgus
In Thrace, where Dionysus then went, the god of wine began to be pursued by the king of this country, Lycurgus, who, fearing the intoxicating effect of wine, ordered the destruction of all the vineyards.
Dionysus, fleeing the persecution of Lycurgus, threw himself into the sea, where he was received cordially, to whom, in gratitude, he presented a golden cup made by the god Hephaestus (Vulcan).
All the bacchantes and satyrs, the usual companions of Dionysus, were imprisoned.
As punishment for this, the gods sent a crop failure to Thrace, and King Lycurgus, having lost his mind, killed his son.
The oracle asked said that the barrenness of the earth would end only when the wicked king Lycurgus died. The inhabitants of Thrace tied Lycurgus to the top of a mountain and trampled him under the hooves of their horses.
The liberated Bacchantes initiated the Thracians into all the rituals and sacraments of the cult of Dionysus.
The myth of Dionysus staying at the bottom of the sea and giving the golden cup to Tethys refers to the manufacture of wine and hints at the custom in some countries of adding sea water to grape juice to speed up the fermentation of wine.
Icarius and Erigone
During the reign of Pandion, son of Pandion, in Athens, Dionysus, accompanied by the goddess (Ceres), visited Attica for the first time.
This myth has some historical significance: he indicates that, according to the Athenians, the culture of grapes (Dionysus) and cereals (Demeter) developed in the country only after the spread of the culture of the olive tree, given to the Athenians (Minerva) at the founding of the city.
The god Dionysus, having arrived in Athens, settled with the Athenian Icarius, who received the god of wine very cordially. In gratitude for his hospitality, Dionysus taught Icarius how to make wine.
Icarius, having prepared the wine, treated it to the neighboring villagers, who found it excellent, but, having become drunk, they imagined that they were poisoned by Icarius, and threw it into the well.
Icarius had a daughter, the beautiful Erigone, who pleased Dionysus. From him, Erigone had a son, Staphylos, i.e. “grapes” translated from ancient Greek. Staphilus, the son of Erigone and Dionysus, subsequently taught people to dilute wine with water and thereby avoid the bad consequences of intoxication.
Not seeing her father, Erigona, together with her dog Mera (Μαῖρα), began to look for him. Finding Icarius' body, Erigone hanged herself in despair.
The gods turned Erigone into the constellation Virgo, and Meru into the constellation Canis, and sent pestilence and rabies to the Attic girls, who, imitating the example of Erigone, began to hang themselves.
And only when the inhabitants paid homage to Erigone by erecting a sacrificial altar to her, the disasters ceased.
The arrival of Dionysus at the house of Icarius and the grief of Erigone were often depicted on monuments of art from both ancient and modern eras.
The myth of Dionysus and Ariadne
Dionysus visited many countries, teaching people everywhere about winemaking and vineyard cultivation.
Dionysus then returned to the island of Naxos to enter into a mystical marriage with Ariadne.
Abandoned by the hero Theseus, Ariadne stayed on Naxos. Dionysus sees Ariadne sleeping on the seashore, hears her complaints and, struck by Ariadne's beauty, approaches her, and the treacherous Eros wounds her with an arrow. The beautiful Ariadne, having forgotten the unfaithful Theseus, begins to glow with love for Dionysus.
Many Roman frescoes discovered in Pompeii depict the arrival of the god of wine on Naxos.
Ariadne, immersed in sleep, served as a theme for countless works of ancient and modern art.
Titian and Luca Giordano painted several paintings based on this mythological subject.
The Ariadne type is, as it were, a complement to the Dionysus type. Ariadne seemed to personify eternal intoxication. The sleepy and languid expression on Ariadne’s face could not have been more consistent with the usual expression of the young god Dionysus.
Antique sculpture has left us several beautiful images of Ariadne. Between them greater fame uses the statue of Ariadne, now in the Vatican Museum.
The beautiful bust of Ariadne, a reproduction of which can be found in every drawing school of our era, may also be a bust of Dionysus, which, according to legend, artists often gave female forms.
Dionysus and Persephone
Ariadne is the girlfriend of Dionysus on almost all monuments depicting the triumph of this god. The mystical marriage ceremony of Dionysus and Ariadne appears in countless works of art; she is especially often depicted in antique tombstones. But at the same time, Ariadne seems to transform or incarnate into the goddess Persephone, and Dionysus is then the personification of death.
The autumn sun, whose rays contribute to the ripening of grapes, is a harbinger of winter, when the entire plant kingdom dies; Therefore, it is natural that Dionysus is in union with the goddess Persephone, who personified vegetation.
Ariadne, personifying eternal intoxication - a state that most closely corresponds to the ancient idea of death, is also naturally connected with Dionysus. The mystical union of Dionysus and Ariadne, as a symbol of death, was most often depicted on sarcophagi.
In the Eleusinian Mysteries, the ear of rye, reborn after the grain has rotted in the ground, and the wine formed from grapes pressed are symbols of the resurrection and were served to participants in the sacraments in the form of pie and drink.
Bacchic sarcophagi
On many ancient sarcophagi, Dionysus is given the facial features of a deceased person, and Ariadne is given the facial features of a deceased woman.
In antiquity, there were special workshops in which sarcophagi were made. All the sculptural decorations of the sarcophagi were made in advance, but the heads of Dionysus and Ariadne were only outlined in order to then give them the features of those faces for whom the sarcophagi were intended.
There is a similar monument in the Louvre ancient art, known as the "Sarcophagus from Bordeaux". Ariadne's head is only slightly outlined there.
ZAUMNIK.RU, Egor A. Polikarpov - scientific editing, scientific proofreading, design, selection of illustrations, additions, explanations, translations from ancient Greek and Latin; all rights reserved.