Dionysos with a Leopard

1525

Giovanni da Udine (1487–1564)

Stucco

Roma

Dionysos and Ariadne

Italian, Rome, ca. 1815, after the Antique

Attributed to Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781–1835)

Gilt terracotta

The sun sets here by 4:30 My body, thrown by confusion Slows Sluggish And I know that soon I will meet you again

In the summer I ran wild twisted under trees and through tansy Let my hair down in the rapids of a river Let campfire smoke permeate my scent, Drank wine on a sandy river bank A hymn to you that is expected and treasured You were there; but distant. I was busy, silly, feet solidly planted amongst the conifers. This summer I fell in love, kissed a boy til I was dizzy Picked berries til the sun set Baked bread when August night had cooled the house.

This was my summer hymn To the Theoi who kept my cup full And my laughter loud A hymn to the bountiful harvest that followed

My winter hymn is new to me Like a new skin In my winter hymn I am hesitant Reflective, repentent, fatigued The cups of summer wine are replaced with winter rum And it is scary

It is a terrifying feeling YOU are a terrifying feeling You have always filled me with a thrilling uncertainty That I relish and recoil from

Who else could elicit this response? Dionysus, two-fold god. You were there, certainly, amongst the summer vines But it is in the winter that I feel you rake Your chaos over the fresh Shivering flesh That I expose - will ALWAYS expose - to you.

I am ready (I am not ready) Winter is here, and it has brought you with it.

The bloodthirstiness of the maenads is the bloodthirstiness of the god himself …  Dionysus is the god who is mad. For his sake the maenads are mad.

A god who is mad! A god, part of whose nature it is to be insane! What did they experience or see - these men on whom the horror of this concept must have forced itself? The visage of every true god is the visage of a world. There can be a god who is mad only if there is a mad world which reveals itself through him.

We know him as the wild spirit of antithesis and paradox, of immediate presence and complete remoteness, of bliss and horror, of infinite vitality and the cruelest destruction. The element of bliss in his nature, the creative, enraptured, and blessed elements all share, too, in his wildness and his madness. Are they not, then, mad just because they, too, already carry within themselves a duality, because they stand on the threshold where one step beyond leads to dismemberment and darkness?

Dionysos

Roman; 2nd century AD

After a lost Greek original 3rd century BC

Temple of Dionysos (Cyrene), Cyrenaica, Libya (Findspot)

Marble

The British Museum

Dionysus

Ancient Rome; 2nd century AD

Roman copy after a Greek original

Marble

The State Hermitage Museum

Dionysos

Greek; Classical or Hellenistic Period, ca. 340 BC

Marble probably from the Greek island of Paros

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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All praise to Dionysos, caster of shadows,

So bright you sear the eyes of men, god of all things

That touch our souls, we seek you at the edges

Of our lives, in all that we hide from ourselves,

Stepping past the threshold, past safety, past the known.

Dionysos, beacon of faith and desire,

You transcend the limits of culture, of nature;

You grant us euphoria, escape, self-knowledge;

You hold us, you transform us, you call us to you

And we follow. In you we find solace, O god,

In you we find inspiration. In you we find

Freedom within our grasp at last, dare we take it.

Dionysos, kind one, seductive one, we know you

In the body's pleasures, the mind's furthest flights,

The rhythms that shake us, that open our hearts,

The soul-deep rages that pass like summer storms,

The moments of passion, held still in space.

Dionysos, nearest of gods, I thank you

For flashes of truth, for visions of self,

For that measureless piece of life between two breaths.

Dionysos, granter of ecstasy, granter

Of growth, granter of perception, I honor you.

The deliverer, repeller of anxiety,

Found in the wild woods and orchards,

Giver of wine,

And the god of madness.

His ivy crowns the free and wild,

Bringing happiness and laughter,

Leading theatre and satyrs,

And bringing rebirth and reincarnation.

So, great lord Dionysus,

We thank you for your complexity,

For the paradoxical and the logical,

Kylix with Dionysos and a satyr

Greek; Late Archaic Period, ca. 490–480 BC

Makron Painter

Greece, Attica, Athens (Place of Manufacture)

Ceramic, Red Figure

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Dionysos with a Panther

Hellenistic or Early Roman, ca. 150 BC–AD 100

Graeco-Roman (Culture)

Marble

Yale University Art Gallery

Photograph: Dionysos and a Satyr

Bacchus et un Satyre. Vatican (Title)

1859

James Anderson (1813–1877)

Holy See (Place Created)

Albumen silver print

The J. Paul Getty Museum