Pythagoras: The Invention Of Dionysus

One of the myths, Dionysus is the “tragic god” because his wild, primal life exists in the shadow of his inevitable death every winter. He lives fully and gloriously despite his fate to be torn apart. Life in the face of a brutal fate becomes the subject of many of the later Greek tragedies, which were originally inspired by Dionysus himself.For example, when Pentheus, the king , refused to worship him and even imprisoned Dionysus. As punishment Dionysus drove Pentheus’ mother and sisters mad, so that they thought Pentheus was a mountain lion and tore him apart with their bare hands.Dionysus, like many of the gods, shares this capricious temper when it comes to being insulted by mortals. In this case the punishment is far worse than the crime. The idea of justice is shaky when it comes to the God of Wine.

The creations of Pythagoras were very powerful during the era in which he lived in. He created a community of followers (known as the Pythagoreans) who believed that mathematics was fundamental and ‘at the heart of reality’ (source 1). The people in the society were all proficient mathematicians took mathematics very seriously, to the extent that it was similar to a religion (source 1).

Arthur Miller demonstrates how a character’s obsession/fixation, can result in being manipulative while committing a grave sin of lust towards a male character. Abigail is Proctor’s past maid, who has a love affair with him. Abigail is able to persuade Proctor into thinking, that he needs sexual desires in his life since his wife is sick and is unable to sexual please him. Abigail states:

The God of wine, bearded Dionysos is crowned with a wreath of ivy. He is standing in the middle and holding a rhyton, a drinking horn, in his left hand and large grape vines in his right hand. There are two figures on the left side from him and the other two figures on the right side from him. Those figures are dancing satyrs and maenads – the God’s regular companions. The majority of the elements of the image establishes the vertical symmetry with Dionysos in the middle as a focal point, and only hands of maenads pointing at the God represent diagonal movement. The composition of the image is not unique, and we can find similar outlines with some alternations on many different vases. For example, the Athenian black-figure amphora from Ruhr University collection (Bochum) shows Dionysos with a drinking horn and ivy between dancing satyrs. The subject of the scene itself have no narrative content and may represent pleasure and joy of life or trances. Anyhow, “when joined to the theme of Herakles and his first Labor, Dionysus and his retinue may represent a premonition of the hero’s impending victory in all twelve Labors, leading to his apotheosis and eternal life among the Olympian gods — where he enjoyed Dionysian bliss and the pleasure of wine.” (Phoenix Ancient

He would share his wine with the satyrs of the forest. The satyrs would bring girls that they had seduced to share Dionysus’ wine and would have enormous parties where they would get drunk and dance. They would get so crazy drunk on wine that they would experience ecstasy and have orgies. Some of the satyrs would end without a girl and they would have horrible fights. None of them would fight against Dionysus, it was always just between the satyrs because if they would make Dionysus mad they would be without wine the next

Dionysus moved on to Thebes, which at the time was ruled by his cousin Pentheus. Pentheus did not know who Dionysus was, or that he was a god. Dionysus was with his group of followers, we were singing and dancing while drunk on wine. Pentheus did not like the strangers, and ordered his guards to imprison all of them. Pentheus insulted Dionysus, and called him a ‘cheating sorcerer’. The prophet Teiresias, who had already dressed as one of Dionysus's followers gave Pentheus a warning: "The man you reject is a new god. He is Semele's child, whom Zeus rescued. He and Demeter, are the greatest upon earth for men.” Pentheus laughed at Teiresias, and ordered the guards to continue.

The messenger is discussing Pentheus’ death and says, “... when the stranger vanished and there came a great voice out of heaven -- Dionysus’, it must have been crying: ‘ Women , I bring you the man who mocks at you and me and at our holy mysteries. Take vengeance upon him.’ And as he spoke a flash of awful fire bound earth and heaven...his own mother...fell upon him first... Ignoring his cries of pity she seized his left arm at the wrist... she pulled wrenching away the arm at the shoulder-- not by her own strength, for the god had put inhuman power in her hands...

and who was king of the Phrygia. Dionysos was trying to find his teacher, satyr Silenus, after

As the embodiment of wine, Dionysus was a prevalent god in everyday Grecian life; it is evident through archaeological findings that wine and theatre has always been an important part of life in Greece. The Greeks knew the nutritional value of wine as it became a part of their daily regimen and also played a huge role in the evolution of the Ancient Grecian economy. Many festivities were held in honour of Dionysus, such as the celebration of wine known as “Anthestiria”

The Hymn to Dionysus gives readers a general idea of who Dionysus is and what he is capable of, but a further dimension is added to his character after reading the Bacchae. The Bacchae shows readers that Dionysus is a force of nature and determined to establish himself. Euripides only adds to the intensity of Dionysus and the play in general by making him completely unrepentant for what he’s done and giving the mortals particularly harsh punishments for committing relatively insignificant acts. In the Hymn to Dionysus, he is kidnapped by pirates and uses his capture to reveal his divinity to the pirates, who are mortals.

In this play, we are reminded that Dionysus is also the god of madness. One thing this play also reminds us is that he is a god and like all the other gods he cares little for the mortals and does whatever he wants to do to them no matter what happens to him. One way that he does this is by bringing out the unconscience desires that the Greeks would have feared. Tiresias, the seer, says “For you are sick, possessed by madness so perverse, no drug can cure, no madness can undo” (537-538).

Dionysus is the god of wine and fertility, however also became considered a patron of the arts. Along with the variety of things Dionysus was associated with, he is associated with some important concepts. These are, being able to bring a dead person back from the underworld, rebirth after death represented through the symbol of his tending to vines to bear fruit for the making of his wine. There is also the feeling of being possessed by a greater power – which he demonstrated via the influence had from wine. This means that the greater power is the wine – that at these times a man might be greater than himself and do works he otherwise could not.

I watched as Odysseus took out my son’s eye. He was blinded. I just stood and watched as my youngest son was blinded. I felt more furious in my entire lifetime. “I can’t just stand by and watch my children be destroyed by mortals; it’s not what I do. For heaven’s sake, I am the God of the sea. My children can’t be picked off one by one with me sitting in the corner fretting. My god, Zeus, I can’t do anything without you nagging me about it. You believe that just because you’re the god of lightning, you’re better than Hades and I. Your only brothers and you can’t support one. It’s sad really. I work this hard and you don’t even help me avenge my son,” I boomed, almost as loud as his thunder.

Dionysus was a wanderer. During these journeys he explored the world. On these journeys he came across many different people and taught them how to keep their vines healthy. On one of his journeys he was captured by pirates. While he was in bondage of these pirates they tried to tie him down. Wherever the rope would touch him it would fall apart. In

Finally, there was Dionysos, god of wine and ecstasy, who would take the place of Hestia in the pantheon. While Semeli was pregnant with Dionysos she demanded to see Zeus in his godly form. After trying to convince her otherwise he transformed into himself causing her to burn to death. Zeus realized she was pregnant and Hermes came and rescued the baby still inside the womb. Together they would put the unborn baby into Zeus’s thigh until it was ready to be born. This made Zeus pregnant for the second time in his brief supremacy. Also, since Dionysos was not born from a woman, he was not a threat to overthrowing Zeus (Stone 117). With the pantheon in place Zeus and his Olympians could handle just about anything the world could throw at them, or so they thought.