Frenzy: Dionysian & Apollonian
“The Bacchanals ate ivy, and their inspired fury was by some believed to be due to the exciting and intoxicating properties of the plant....
(Source: Christopher Wordsworth [1882], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
"A certain image of Apollo, which stood in a sacred cave at Hylae near Magnesia, was thought to impart superhuman strength. Sacred men, inspired by it, leaped down precipices, tore up huge trees by the roots, and carried them on their backs along the narrowest defiles.”
The Oracle of Delphi Entranced, by Heinrich Leutemann (c. mid-late 19th century).
(Source: Heinrich Leutemann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
—J. G. Frazer, The Magic Art & the Evolution of Kings, part 1 (The Golden Bough, vol. I, p. 384; 386)
Note: Noted Welsh poet Robert Graves was a devoted Frazerian, but he had a different theory about the substance that drove the followers of Dionysus into a frenzy: “Dionysus’ Centaurs, Satyrs and Maenads, it seems, ritually ate a spotted toadstool called ‘flycap’ (amanita muscaria), which gave them enormous muscular strength, erotic power, delirious visions, and the gift of prophecy” (The White Goddess, 1966 amended & enlarged American ed., p. 45). Also see his foreword to the rev. 1960 ed. of The Greek Myths, as well as his Food for Centaurs, 1960 ed.
