Greek Myth: Demeter and Dionysus

• - (-meter = "mother") --> mother goddess
• - goddess of the fruitfulness of crops, especially wheat; of grain and rich harvest
• - daughter is Persephone.
• - Together they are the "two goddesses" - the permanently fertile earth and the seasonal giver of grain
• - Persephone = Kore (daughter or girl), Proserpine. She is a parthenos - unmarried virgin

Persephone is playing in the field, bunches of flowers keep going --> draws her away. Mysterious figure on horse and chariot comes up from the earth and takes her away.

Demeter doesnt know where she went --> searches the earth, and distracted from her duties on earth (fruitfulness --> winter). Sits by a well in Eleusis (king Celeus and queen Metaniera); his daughters see her, offer her a place to stay, and the family ends up giving her a job caring for the baby boy Demophoon. Demeter loves him so much that she tries to make him immortal (put him in the fire), but mom is suspicious, spies on Demeter, and when she sees her baby in the fire stops Demeter. Shows who she really is, now child will never be immortal. You must set up a shrine to me here in Eleusis, b/c you didnt trust

Demeter keeps searching, situation getting worse, until finally Zeus tells her that Hades has her (symbollic of death) --> she must come above for part of the time, so D is happy, but must return for oart of the time too because she at 7 pommegranite seeds (red --> blood, seed --> semen). She has taken Hades into her body.

allegory of seasons

• etiology:
• marriage: abduction, hidden away, passes from maiden to wife (greeks viewed marriage as violent

• presence of death in the world: she has to go back down because she has eaten the seeds of death, into the arms of Hades.
• symbolically, every time she goes down, she dies

mystai - being initiated into the secrets of mystery (goddess appears to tell info) But very secret cult, not allowed to give away secres

• Telesterion - temple of Demeter, if you revealed what happened in here you could be killed
• Anaktoron - palace inside of the temple, only the hierophant can go in - shows terrible things

Demeter teaches him how to take seeds from a plant, sow the earth, plant seeds, and reap the gifts.

Gives humans the gift of Agriculture

• - son Agenor (king of Tyre)
• - king of Thebes
• - father of Semele, Ino, Agave, Autonoe
• - Grandpather of Dionysus and Pentheus

• - not Greek born, comes in and then becomes prominent --> Eastern ties to Thrace, Phrygia
• - late introduction into Greece
• - portrayed as a strange and foreign god --> unlike other Olympians, seems to come from Asia.
• - Oriental Dress (long robes)
• - Myth motifs: 1. travels --> goes back east. 2. resistance of Greeks to him as a god

1. Death of Semele (asks Zeus to show her his true form --> incinerated), born from Zeus' thigh

2. given to/nursed by Ino and Athamis / the Nymphs of Nysa. Hera persecutes them --> afflicts them with maddness --> Ino kills her baby and runs off a cliff

• - Vegetation (especially the vine, ivy)
• - wine (and other fluids)
• - animals (esp. bear, panther, lion, leopard)
• - fertility "dying god; death and rebirth

• - thiasus: groups, usually women, perform orgiastic rituals
• - thrysus: phallic symbol. Members hold this to show they are Dionysus' followers
• - Sparagmos: hunt
• - Omophagia: devour raw
• - Bacchae, Bacchantes, Maenads: wild and crazy followers

• - ekstasis "standing outside of oneself" - he comes and possesses them
• - enthousiasmos: "god within" --> enthusiasm
• - irrational behavior - liberation from constraints of reason, tradition
• - furious music and dance (ecstasy)
• - intense emotion
• - loss of personal identity
• - also the god of wine

**opposed by Hera: in charge of women's role in the family, stability

• - discovers wine making in Nysa
• - Hera strikes him with madness --> he wanders in delirium

• - through Egypt, Syria
• - Phrygia: madness cured by Cybele
• - crosses Euphrates and goes as far as India before returning

returns through Phrygia: Silenus (follower of D.) is trapped, so he goes to king Midas (horses ears). D. finds his friend in good care, offers Midas anything he wants --> he wants anything he touches to turn to gold. But happens with his food, drink, and daughter, so D takes it back. Midas must bathe in the river => gold deposits in the river.

goes to the island of Naxos, finds the beautiful Ariadne (daughter of Minos). Abandoned by Theseus, he marries her.

(she?) helped Theseus kill the Minotaur (Crete)

passes through Thrace (ruled by Lycurgus) => opposes him; assembles an army to try to drive D out of Thrace; Lyc. is either struck blind or there is a famine in Thrace and so the people stake him to a pole in the woods to be eaten by flesh-eating horses.

Argos: King Proteus and his daughters (the Proteids) are skeptical of Dionysus. while all other women are running out to go worship, they stay inside, weaving and laughing. The room changes to the outdoors, but they still dont recognize it as legit. All struck with madness --> eat one of their babies raw and run out into the wilderness

Attica (Icarium): there is a man Icarius (not Icarus) who lives humbly with his daughter Erigone and dog Maera. Icarius welcomes Dionysus, so D. shows him how to make wine. Icarius shows everyone the wine, they get sick, think that he is trying to poison them ==> kill him. Murderers must be fined; Erigone starts to look but dog Maera finds first. They both commit suicide. Festival in Athens to Erigone, Maera becomes a star.

Thebes: D. comes back to find Thebes ruled by Pentheus (son of Semele's (D's mom) sister Agave. Cadmus is still alive, but too old to rule. The sisters of Semele had been slandering her and Dionysus (D. is not really a god, Semele did not really have sex with Zeus) --> they must pay.

Most women (and Cadmus and Tiresias (most famous prophet in Thebes)) go to the fields to honor Dionysus. Pentheus has no respect for Dionysus, doesnt go. A young man (D) appears at his court and tells him to stop being stupid --> Pentheus throws him in prison. There is an EQ right after, the prison falls apart. A man (D) returns and tries to help him --> "you should go see what you're dealing with before you gather an army." So P. decides to go spy.

But D. says you must dress like a woman, and P. agrees (being taken over by god). They go to the woods and climb up a tree. Then the women see him. His mom and his sister rip him apart (think they are ripping an animal - big sacrifice, ecstasy). Bring back the head to Cadmus and then she realizes what she has done.

The body cant be buried (ripped apart) so cant go to the underworld --> punished the sisters of semele for slandering her. Dionysus exiles them. shows the power of the god

resistance by the greeks -> madness, death

god of Tragedy ("trag" = goat, "oidia" = song)

- from the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus

- D. is walking on the shore as a young boy, and some Pirates (Tyrrhenian: Etruscan) capture him and put him in chains. But then strange things happen: the chains dont stay on his wrists. The Pilot wars the capitan, capitan laughs. Then the mast/oars sprout vines, and wild animals manifest onboard. Pirates jump overboard --> turned into dolphins (supposed to rescue sailors in danger) - expiate for their crimes. Only the pilot is saved, D. promises to make him rich