#dionysian devotion

Non-Reading: Let’s Talk About Myths Baby Podcast: CXIV: Dionysus Is Everyone & Everything, Queer Theory with the Queer Classicist Yentl Love What it says in the title, a really cool chat using academic queer theory to explore the ways Dionysus was a very transgressive god in the ancient Greek pantheon, and how unusual it was that such a subversive figure was still a member of the Big 12 Olympians. I wouldn’t use it as a reference in and of itself (tbh there is ONE BIT I twitch at where Yentl references Nonnus but then also mentions that Dionysus doesnt have any sexual assault stories. Which applies to all his current known mythos...except for what Nonnus wrote.) OSP Productions: Dionysus Again, I wouldnt use it as a reference point, and as much as I enjoy their videos (minus some quibbles with the Hades/Persephone video), I do wish the OSP crew listed their sources for stuff. But this is still a great, easy watch that is like a 101 on Dionysus: Way More Than The Drunk Party Dude. It’s a nice intro jumping-off point. Also, the art is adorable. READING: Anne Carson’s Bakkhai You know all those Greek quotes that keep making the Tumblr Gays foam at the mouth? The “Not to me, not if it’s you” stuff? That’s Anne Carson. Her adaptation of The Bacchae is my favorite version of Euripedes’ play so far and tbh I just recommend it in general. It also has this wonderful line.

Hymns to Dionysus

Homeric Hymn 26 to Dionysus

I begin to sing of ivy-crowned Dionysus, the loud-crying god, Splendid son of Zeus and glorious Semele. The rich-haired Nymphs received him in their bosoms from the lord his father And fostered and nurtured him carefully in the dells of Nysa, Where by the will of his father He grew up in a sweet-smelling cave, Being reckoned among the immortals. But when the goddesses had brought him up, a god oft hymned, Then began he to wander continually through the woody coombes, Thickly wreathed with ivy and laurel. And the Nymphs followed in his train with him for their leader; And the boundless forest was filled with their outcry. And so hail to you, Dionysus, god of abundant clusters! Grant that we may come again rejoicing to this season, And from that season onwards for many a year.

Orphic Hymn to Dionysus

Dionysos I call, loud-roaring and divine, Primeval God, a two-fold shape is thine:
 Thy various names and attributes I sing, O, twice-born, thrice begotten, Bacchic king: 
 Wild, ineffable, two-form'd, obscure, two-horn'd, With ivy crown'd, howling, pure.
 Bull-fac'd, and warlike, bearer of the vine, Endowed with counsel prudent [Eubouleos] and divine:
 Triennial, whom the leaves of vines adorn, Of Zeus and Persephone, occultly born.
 Immortal daimon, hear my suppliant voice, Give me in blameless plenty to rejoice;
 And listen gracious to my mystic pray'r, Surrounded with thy choir of nurses fair.

Orphic Hymn to Dionysus Khthonios

Dionysos Khthonios, hear my pray’r, Awakened rise with nymphs of lovely hair: Great Amphietos Bakkhos, annual god, Who laid asleep in Persephone’s abode, Did’st lull to drowsy and oblivious rest, The rites triennial, and the sacred feast; Which rous’d again by thee, in graceful ring, Thy nurses round thee mystic anthems sing; When briskly dancing with rejoicing pow’rs, Thou move’st in concert with the circling hours. Come, blessed, fruitful, horned, and divine, And on these rites with joyful aspect shine. Accept the general incense and pray’r, And make prolific holy fruits thy care.

Orphic Hymn to Dionysos Lenaios

Hear me, Zeus’s son, blest Bacchus, god of wine, Born of two mothers, honor’d and divine, Lysian, Euion Bacchus, various-nam’d, Secret child of gods, holy, fam’d Fertile and nourishing, in whose liberal care Earth’s fruits increases, flourishing and fair; Sounding, magnanimous, Lenaean pow’r O various-form’d, medicinal, holy flow’r: Mortals in thee, repose from labour find, Delightful charm, desir’d by all mankind: Fair-hair’d Euion, Bromios, joyful God, Lysian, invested in the leafy rod. To these our rites, benignant pow’r incline, When fav’ring men, or when on Gods you shine; Be present to thy mystic’s suppliant pray’r, Rejoicing come, and fruits abundant bear.

Orphic Hymn to Triennial Dionysus

Bacchus frantic, many-nam’d, blest, divine, Bull-faced Lenaean, bearer of the vine, From fire descended, raging, Nysian king, From whom initial ceremonies spring: Liknitan Dionysos, pure and firey bright, Eubouleos, crown-bearer, wandering in the night: Pupil of Persephone, mysterious pow’r, Triple, ineffable, Zeus’ secret flow’r, Ericapaeus, first-begotten nam’d, Of Gods the father, and the child fam’d, Bearing a scepter, leader of the choir, Whose dancing feat, frantic Furies fire, When the triennial band thou dost inspire. Loud-sounding, Tages, of a firey light, Born of two mothers, Amphitios bright: Wand’ring on mountains, cloth’d with skins of deer, Apollo, golden-ray’d, whom all revere. God of the grape with leaves of ivy crown’d, Bassarian, lovely, virgin-like, renown’d, Come blessed pow’r, regard thy mystic’s voice, Propitious come, and in these rites rejoice.

Orphic Hymn to Dionysus Bassarius:

Come, blessed Dionysus, various nam’d, bull-faced, Begot from Thunder, Bacchus fam’d Bassarian God, of universal might, Whom swords and blood and sacred rage delight: In heav’n rejoicing, mad, loud-sounding God Furious inspirer, bearer of the Rod By Gods rever’d, who dwells’t with humankind, Propitious come, with much-rejoicing mind.

Orphic Hymn to Dionysus Liknitos:

Liknitan Dionysos, bearer of the vine, Thee I invoke to bless these rites divine: Florid and gay, of nymphs the blossom bright, And of fair Venus, goddess of delight, Tis thine mad footsteps with mad nymphs to beat Dancing thro’ groves with lightly leaping feet: From Zeus’ high counsels nursed by Proserpine And born the dread of all pow’rs divine: Come, blessed daimon, regard thy suppliant’s voice, Propitious come, and in these rites rejoice.

Orphic Hymn to Dionysus Perikionios:

Dionysos Perikionios, hear my pray’r, Who mad’st the house of Cadmus once thy care, With matchless force, his pillars twining round When burning thunders shook the solid ground In flaming, founding torrents borne along, Propt by thy grasp indissolubly strong. Come mighty Bacchus to these rites inclin’d, And bless thy suppliant with rejoicing mind.

Verses from the first Hymn to Dionysus in Euripedes’ Bacchae

O blessed is he who, happy in his heart, Knows the initiation rites of the gods, Purifies his life and Joins his soul to the cult, Dancing on the mountains, with holy purifications Celebrating the Bacchic rituals. O blessed the man who dutifully observes The mysteries of the Great Mother, Kybele. Swinging high the thyrsus And crowned with ivy He serves Dionysus. Onward you Bacchae, onward Bacchae, Escort the roaring Bromios home, A god an the son of a god! Escort him Down from the Phrygian mountains into Greece’s wide-wayed streets, Streets wide for dancing, Bromios the Roaring God! […] Sweet is the pleasure the god brings us in the mountains. when from the running revelers he falls to the ground clad in his sacred fawnskin. Hunting the blood of slaughtered goats for the joy of devouring raw flesh he rushes through the mountains of Lydia, of Phrygia. Hail to the Roaring God, Bromios our leader! Euoi! The ground flows with milk, Flows with wine, Flows with the nectar of bees. The Bacchic One, lifting high the bright-burning flame of the pine-torch, like the smoke of Syrian frankincense, springs up and rushes along with his thyrsus. Running and dancing he incites any wanderers, shakes them with shouts of joy tossing his luxuriant locks to the wind.

(Translation by Stephen Esposito)

Horace’s Hymn to Bacchus

Bacchus on the far-off rocky hills, teaching his chants – you who are still to come, believe me – I saw him and his student Nymphs and goat-footed Satyrs and their pointed ears.

Euhoë! – my soul trembles with that moment's fear, Bacchus possesses my breast and I madly rejoice. Euhoë!, spare me, god of freedom [Liber], spare me, god of the fearful thyrsus of power.

I must celebrate your inexhaustible revelers, and the fountains of wine and full rivers of milk, and mirror in song honey dripping from the hollows of trees;

I must celebrate your bride and her constellated crown, and Pentheus' palace shaken to bits in a mighty downfall, and the destruction of Lycurgus of Thrace.

You control the streams, the savage sea, you are hot with wine as on distant hilltops you bind Bistonian [Thracian] women's hair with a knot of vipers that do not harm them.

And when the rebellious army of giants tried to climb the heights to the Father's kingdom, you were the one who threw back Rhoetus and his terrible lion's claws and teeth;

Although you were said to be more suitable for dances and fun and games and were labeled unfit for a battle, yet you took your part in war as well as in peacetime.

You were graced with golden horn when Cerberus saw you: he was harmless, and softly wagged his tail, and as you were leaving, he licked your legs and feet with all three of his tongues.

(Translation by Joseph P. Clancy, University of Chicago Press, 1960)

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