Dionysus was one of the most popular deities of antiquity. Dionysus was a god of many roles; he was the god of wine, drugs, revelry, sex, completeness, theater, and lord of the dance of life.(Hamilton-1) He also represented the creative and destructive principals of life and in general, life itself. (Kristi-1) He was compared to and seen as somewhat of an equal to Zeus, who was the most prevalent and powerful of all the gods of antiquity. Although the time had long passed since Dionysus has been a major player in Western culture, he is still a huge part of our history. After all. only by looking at the societies and beliefs systems of our past, can we rightfully interpret certain areas of our present. (Gross and Grote-1)By looking at the deity Dionysus we can see that everything that he represented does not only belong to some random pagan culture of long ago, but does have relevance in Western society today. Dionysus, like Jim Morrison wanted us all to "break on through to the other side. That is, not to remain constrained by the constructs that society has put upon us.
Dionysus wandered the world actively encouraging his cult. He was accompanied by the Maenads, wild women, flush with wine, shoulders draped with a fawn skin, carrying rods tipped with pine cones. (Kravits-1) While other gods had temples, the followers of Dionysus worshipped him in the woods. Here, they might go into mad states where they would rip apart and eat raw any animal they came upon. Dionysus was also one of the very few that was able to bring a dead person out of the underworld. (Kravits-2) Even though he had never seen Semele, he was concerned for her. Eventually he journeyed into the underworld to find her. He faced down Thanatos (Death) and brought h...
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...ghter of Cadmus and Harmonia. Zeus fell in love with Semele and consorted with her. But Hera was jealous, and in order to delude Semele, Hera took the shape of Beroe, Semele's nurse, and told Semele to ask Zeus to come to her as he comes to Hera, so that she would know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god. (Hamilton-2) At her suggestion Semele made this request to Zeus and was smitten by a thunderbolt. (Hamilton-3)
Dionysus was a very driven god who in the years of countless eras, have seen him as a roaming god of differing tastes. One with immense power and influence over men and the alike. “Raised from mortal babe, to God amongst men.” (Gross and Grote-4) He is, or was, a major influence on cultured society around the world and a symbol with differing status to different people. His role in Greek and Roman mythology is astounding in it's abundance and virility.
One day, Zeus made Hera a bit jealous (as brothers and sisters in Kentucky can be) when Zeus was sleeping around with this and that female as various wild animals. Well, Hera was enraged so much, that she spontaneously conceived a child. I would LOVE to see something like that. She conceived and when Zeus noticed that Hera was pregnant, he was very angry himself. Moments later, she gave birth to Hephaistos. However, he was so very ugly and had a bad leg, that Hera tossed him to earth and disavowed his birth.
...ty since "things could happen in the real life of Athens which were virtually unthinkable in tragedy, and vice versa." Perhaps the safest assessment of Dionysus is that while not a direct opponent of the traditional ways, his presence, and especially his effect on other characters, serves to highlight many social norms. According to Bernad Knox, "From start to finish, Euripides was 'attempting to show citizens bred in the traditional views...that such conceptions of the gods should offend them.'" Perhaps we as readers will never fully understand the Dionysus that appears in this play, but a closing look at a remark of the Chorus may bring us a step closer to this understanding:
Dionysos, also known as Dionysus, is an Olympian god of many things such as festivity, pleasure, wine, and vegetation. Dionysos is the god of wilderness and one of his attributes are large cats, helping me recognize the statue of him wearing clothes made of animal skin. According to Metropolitan Museum, it stated that, Dionysos wore panther skin over his skirt like clothes and animal head shaped like a huge cat on his high sandals that look like boots” (MET). Also, despite being a male figure, Dionysos has a petite face and is often attractive or even beautiful because he represents youth. Looking at the statue, another attribute that I recognized was that his face looked pretty and had long hair, making him look very young and feminine while having a masculine body.
...t is also important to notice that every character seems to have wide eyes and dark circles drawn under their eyes. This is perhaps one of the most important aspects because the eyes show the underlying theme of complete inebriation. This in turn, proves the impact that Dionysus had on his followers as well as those who he conquered. Wine brought great power to its creator, and made a lasting impact on history. With these devices of communication, we are able to see that the follower wanted to capture Dionysus’s legacy by creating a sarcophagus of remembrance in his honor.
According to Diodorus, Dionysius came to power by discrediting the military leaders` in order to have him appointed general with supreme power by the assembly (Diodorus 13.91-2, 95). Dionysius was now able to do whatever was necessary to win the war giving him virtually limitless power over the state. He also convinced the assembly to recall Syracusan who were in exile to help aid in the war, providing Dionysius with plenty of new supporters among the returning people (Diodorus 13.92). He then gained a bodyguard o...
Dionysus, son of Zues and Semele and Apollo, son of Zues and Leto, both were born under strange conditions. Dionysus was born from the thigh of Zues after being fully grown, and Apollo's mother, Leto, was in labor for nine days with him because Hera did not want him to be born and would not give Leto a safe place for the child to be delivered. Both these Gods have the need for power and a very creative drive. They spent their youth recruiting new worshipers for their respective cults in which they started, each cult showing their divinity. They are both associated with the phenomenon of ecstasy, meaning to stand outside oneself. In one such case, Apollo's priestess Pythia was overcome by his spirit and began speaking in tongues. Also when possessed by Dionysus, his followers similarly changed there normal actions, breaking into wild dances and "experienced a rapturous sense of union with their God." This shows how they made contact with humans, but in very different ways.
I decided to analyze the similarities and differences between the two gods: Zeus and his son Dionysus. Even though Dionysus is of the same lineage of Zeus, this does not mean they share all of the same characteristics of one another. They differ greatly in attitude, appearance and morals. Zeus is considered the king of all gods, and he proudly uses his powers for his own amusement and pleasure, often at the expense of others lives. Whereas, Dionysus is the god of wine and fertility and he uses his powers to bring both pleasure and an escape from the grief that plagues ones mind but this can come at a cost leading the consumer to become unpredictable and easily influenced through overindulgence and addiction.
Dionysus was the God of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, ritual madness, fertility, theater, and religious ecstasy. Dionysus was the son of Zeus, God of all Gods, and Semele, the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes. When Hera, Zeus’s wife, wanted to know who the father was, she disguised herself to try and convince Semele to tell her who it was. When Hera found out that it was Zeus, she was extremely jealous. She persuaded Semele to try and convince Zeus show his true form. Zeus said yes and Semele died as a result due to Zeus’ power being too powerful. But before she died, Zeus was able to take Dionysus out of the womb and stitch him in his thigh. A few months after Dionysus being born, he was raised by Ino, Semele’s sister, who dressed
Even though Zeus is the god of morality, law and order, he shows very little restraint for his carnal instincts. This weakness for his pure carnal needs is evidently shown in the myths about his extramarital affairs with mortals, nymphs and even other goddesses. One of his extramarital ...
...trated this by betraying the trust that people had in men and the gods with his foolish and reckless action against Cadmus and his family. Dionysus refuted rational thinking by letting his emotions for revenge stand in the way of his contemplating how a god should behave. In doing all the things Dionysus has destroyed the ideal way one would expect a god to conduct their self. Euripides portrays a Dionysus that single handily destroys all the cultural values of Hellenic Greece; however, Euripides is able to capture the changing values of his audience and pave the way for the culture of Hellenistic Greece to begin to dominate societal thought.
In Jupiter and Semele Moreau develops his own interpretations and vision of the mythological tale about Zeus and Semele. Semele is a mortal, and one of Zeus’s many lovers. She was a Thebian princess, and the only mortal to be a parent of a god. She is bent known as the mother of Dionysus, god of wine. Hera was Zeus’s wife and sister, when she learned of who was responsible for this birth she killed Semele. Because of his mother dying while he was in the womb. Dionysus was ripped from the womb of his deceased mother, and then implanted in Zeus/Jupiter’s thigh from which he was later reborn. The story ends with Dionysus making his way to the Underworld to save his mother whom he had never seen, and arranged for her to live with the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. In the painting Moreau has used vivid colors and intense proportions to create a magical and mysterious feeling. Moreau describes the setting in a detailed manner; “in the midst of colossal ...
When we look at Greek Mythology we often run into the gods of that era. Sometimes they are merely backdrops to the human element of the story but in stories such as The Odyssey the gods play a prominent if not vital role to the central themes of the story.
wanted to look into the eyes of her lover. She asked Zeus to grant her a boon. He made
Theater was an important part of Ancient Greek Civilization. History of Greek theatre began with religious festivals which aim to honor Dionysus, a god. During the festivals some citizens sing songs and perform improvisation plays and other participants of festivals judges this performances to decide which one of them was the best. These plays form the foundation of the Greek Theatre. Because of the competition between performers to create best performances, plays gained an aesthetic perspective and became a form of art. So, theatre as a part of religious rituals took attention of people and gained an importance in Ancient Greek Society.
Greek tragedies began at a festival in honor of Dionysius, who was the god of wine. At the early festivals, drinking, quarrels, and sexual activity occurred frequently. Later on, tragedies gained much more respect and were taken very seriously. The plays dealt with man's relationship with god(s). These plays also dealt with a specific instance of life. The chorus wore goat-skins and served a great purpose in the tragedies, themselves. Thespis, the father of the tragedy, created an actor who talked with the leader of the chorus to further make the importance of the chorus seen.