Dionysus Cult

962 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Greek culture and its influence in western society

The sexual cult of Dionysus/ Bacchus created festivals for the people; supplying an unending rivalry for the underlying evil spiritual forces to use; these cults or festivals, (leading into orgies), evolved as an immense part of Pan’s creation. Mysteriously, this cult predates Greek civilization and its origination persists of unknown beginnings; dating longer than the Mycenaean culture early development that transpired on the mainland of Greece during 1600-1100 B.C. Fig. 31. Pan and Bacchus/ Dionysus, 1497; freakishly presents Pan as a shy little no-body. An immense amount of statues dedicated to Dionysus survives today. For the ancients, the existence of gods, demons and imagined spirits took hold of its victims known as ‘the seizer.’ …show more content…

Substantially, this advantage of possession gave the priestesses authority uncommon for a woman, in the male dominating world of ancient Greece. The position of the Pythia became filled through various women from approximately 1400 B.C. to A.D. 381; usually, her talents persisted by being acknowledged by a priest at the Temple of Apollo, named Plutarch. Speculations evolved concerning Pythia's prophetic strength, proposing she accomplished her trance by chewing laurel leaves; on the contrary, others reasoned fumes rising from an abyss in the ground instigated her abilities. Unfalteringly, a person would make a sacrifice and then ask a question to her priest; which in turn would then whisper the matter to Pythia. Upon this occurrence, Apollo took possession of her spirit and in this state she prophesied. Consequently, Adamantius Origenes, A.D. 250 (a Christian writer who defended Christianity against hostile assaults by the philosopher Celsus in Contra Celsum), reasoned against Pythian paganism and along with the Christian author Chrysostom, attacking the priestess by …show more content…

She sat with parted thighs on the tripod of Apollo, and the evil spirit entered her from below, passing through her genital organs, and plunged her into a state of frenzy, so that she began with loosened hair to foam and rage like a

Show More
Related

  • Postpartum Psychosis In The Book Of Margery Kempe Summary

    1264 Words  | 3 Pages

    And in this time she saw, as she thought, devils open their mouths, all inflamed with burning flames of fire as if they should have swallowed her in, sometimes menacing her, sometimes threatening her, sometimes pulling and hailing her both night and day during the foresaid time” (Kempe 7).

    Read More

  • The Generation Of Monsters In Hesiod Analysis

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the beginning, the gods emerged from “cosmic forces” and slowly defined their individual personalities and forms, “their functions articulated in relation to each other” (Clay 105). The authority of Zeus forces the rest of the gods to keep their powers balanced by filling certain niches. In the Eumenides, Pythia begins by singing a prayer to honor the gods. Although she first honors Gaia, Pythia spends a few lines talking about Apollo and his relation to Zeus. When she calls on Zeus, she calls him “the Fulfiller, the highest god” (Aeschylus, Eumenides, p. 112, 17-19). Her approval and reverence towards Zeus is made clear immediately. Even before that, Pythia acknowledges that Apollo was “Zeus inspired” and the “spokesman of Zeus,” thus making him higher up in her hierarchy of gods (Aeschylus, Eumenides, p. 112, 17-19). Zeus is known for his many godly offspring who were all “Zeus inspired”. Along with Apollo, god of music and arts, this list also includes Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. Being made from the same cosmic forces, all of the gods developed their own strengths to fulfil certain niches (Clay 106) At the end of this individualization process, there is the “emergence of a stable, ordered, and harmonious cosmos” (Clay 106). As a result, new standards of conforming and being uniform became apparent through the

    Read More

  • The Indian Triumph of Dionysus

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    While visiting the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, I came across The Indian Triumph of Dionysus. Originating in Rome, it was created by a wealthy follower of Dionysus’s mystery cult in the late second century A.D. This worshiper evidently wanted to construct a sarcophagus in tribute of Dionysus’s accomplishments. Furthermore, Dionysus is surrounded by characters that are within the mystery cult because the creator wants the viewers to know with whom he is associated. With these two things combined, the patron hoped to shed light on a piece of history that they believed to be prominent during his life.

    Read More

  • The Beliefs Of Melissa Lynus By Melissa Dionysus

    2235 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...d when attempting to draw conclusions about religion. In focusing on Dionysus’ early role as the god of wine, the common view was that drama, too, had its origins in Dionysian religious festivals. It must also be considered that Dionysus was far from a newcomer to Greece. He is mentioned in Homer and inscriptions of his name have been found in Linear B script dating from Mycenaean times. Would he have survived all that time as a ‘minor’ deity, only to explode onto the scene with such compelling power in the fifth century? He was a fairly well-developed deity all along, and if archaic vase paintings do not convey this to the same extent that later artwork and textual evidence do, it is perhaps that vase-paintings were only a fragment of the total picture, vessels constructed for their own unknown purposes, and not intended as teaching tools for religious education.

    Read More

  • The Heaven's Gate Cult

    511 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to dictionaries a cult is 1) a system of religious worship or ritual. 2) A religion or sect considered extremist of false. 3) Obsessive devotion to a person or principle. It is believed that every cult ties into some kind of religion, and religions all have a common basis of “a leap of faith”. Whether this so-called leap of faith is going to heaven or being reincarnated, or moving on to some other planet, depends on the beliefs of the cult itself.

    Read More

  • The Medieval Crusades: Launched to Spread Worship of Dionysus

    538 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Medieval Crusades: Launched to Spread Worship of Dionysus Although it is a popular notion that the crusades of the Eleventh through Thirteenth Century Europe were launched to spread Christianity, it is a seldom realized fact that they were actually launched to spread the worship of the Greek God Dionysus. While many fundamentalist radicals and even some historians who ought to know better will dispute this,it is,nevertheless,true. During the Middle Ages in Europe,there were a series of ten religious crusades launched over a period of three centuries. It is commonly believed that these were organized and carried out by Christian religious leaders to unite more territory under the red and white flag of their cherished religion.

    Read More

  • Differences and Similarities: Apollo and Dionysus

    512 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Differences between Apollo and Dionysus are not difficult to see. Though both Gods are associated wi...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Zeus And Dionysus

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Cults and Their Leaders

    4160 Words  | 9 Pages

    For many years, cult leaders always had a psychological hold on their followers' minds. Whether it was to kill other people or to kill themselves, they did it without question. Some cult leaders used fear, violence and guilt as a means of a weapon to control the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers believe they were doing good and fulfilling God's plan. Because cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldn't normally do in their right state of mind.

    Read More

  • Apollonian and Dionysian Man

    2321 Words  | 5 Pages

    She asked Zeus to grant her a boon. He made an oath with the River Styx. This oath exclaimed she could have anything. She asked to see the god of the thunderbolt in his true splendor. She persisted and sadly he kept his word.

    Read More

  • Moral Decay in Hesiod's Tales

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is ironic that the entity in existence was the being called Chaos, for although it's Greek translation is Chasm, or emptiness, I believe that chaos and disorder will be their fate if the gods continue this eternal cycle of increasing self destructive behavior. All of this, however, was created as through the beliefs and imagination of Hesiod. Historians and mythologists still can not concretely separate, in his two stories, the Theogony and the Works and Days, which parts were of his imagination and which were not; it is therefore difficult to determine what the author's overall message was to the readers. It is possible that Hesiod wrote these stories in order to discredit the gods with gossip of their alleged human-like violence and sexual transgressions.

    Read More

  • Angels

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ncyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown, Man, Myth & Magic. Vol. One. Freeport, Long Island, 1983. 124-26. 27 Apr. 2011. Print.

    Read More

  • Greek Religion

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    The ancient Greeks with their brilliant and imaginative spirit created a complete order of things that functioned harmoniously in the infinite world that contained them. Although its exact origins are lost in time, Greek religion is thought to date from about the 2d millenium B.C., when the culture of Aryan invaders fused with those of the Aegean and Minoan peoples who had inhabited the region of Greece from Neolithic times [1]. The beginning and the genesis of this world occupied the ancient Greeks in much the same way it did the early people of every civilization. Greek religion was at the beginning a blend of Minoan, Egyptian, Asian, and other elements, but it subsequently evolved along with Greek thought.

    Read More

  • Ancient Greek Drama: A Comparison of the Euripides and Sophocles

    952 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Mental Illness Essay

    1541 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many felt that the mentally ill brought it upon themselves, through moral or religious transgressions. They felt that gods or other spirits were punishing these “criminals” with illness. Others were thought to be under the spell of evil spirits, the devil, or the vi...

    Read More

More about Dionysus Cult

Open Document