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Lecture 5: Dionysus, Demeter and Hades Dionysus' Birth Zeus + Semele (A Daughter of Cadmus) = Dionysus -Jealous Hera Punishes

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Lecture 5: Dionysus, Demeter and Hades Dionysus' Birth Zeus + Semele (A Daughter of Cadmus) = Dionysus -Jealous Hera Punishes Lecture 5: Dionysus, Demeter and Hades Dionysus’ Birth Zeus + Semele (a daughter of Cadmus) = Dionysus -Jealous Hera punishes Semele…makes her ask Zeus to reveal all his glory -Semele gets Zeus to promise to grant her any wish -Zeus unwillingly kills Semele (burned), places Dionysus in his thigh -when adult, Dionysus traveled far and wide, delivering the message of his worship: you accepted him, many blessings (you didn’t, bad things) Dionysus Roman name: Bacchus God of vegetation, wine (vine and grape), the theatre (drama) One of the Olympians (but a later addition) Vengeful Often portrayed drunk (this is more popular in Roman times) Maenads and Satyrs Bacchic Frenzy The Bacchae A play by Euripides Bacchae = Maenads = Bacchants – female worshippers of Dionysus -Bacchic frenzy -Speragmos and homophagia -Semele’s sisters claim she didn’t have affair with Zeus- he punished her for lying (she had an affair with a mortal) -Dionysus is coming to punish the sisters, and one of the sisters’ sons (Agave- Pentheus) for trying to stop the Bacchae and any worship of Dionysus -Cadmus and Tiresias both “believe” in Dionysus and recommend that Pentheus at least petend (Tiresias only honest and faithful one, sounds like Cadmus may be pretending himself) Pentheus’ motives: -young king (ephebe), wants to do the best he can -illusions of orgiastic behavior -arrests Dionysus (he escapes)-still doesn’t believe -attempts to arrest the rest of the Bacchants (Dionysus stops him)- wouldn’t you like to spy on them? -convinces Pentheus to dress up like a Maenad -pulls down a humongous tree (still doesn’t believe he is divine) and perches Pentheus up on it -Pentheus tricked-Dionysus discloses him, and the women think he’s a lion (theatre action off stage) -Agave comes with Pentheus’ head on a stick, comes out of fit and discovers the truth -Dionysus gets the last word-exile (and they will turn into serpents)-Apollo later saves Agave and Harmonia and take them to Isle of Blessed *many other opponents to Dionysus, all punished *Harry Partch’s American Bacchae Icarus and Erigone -Icarus was hospitable to Dionysus, he gave them wine -his people thought they were poisoned (feeling drunk) and killed Icarus -daughter Erigone searched for him, and hung herself when she found him -Suffering for the people until (upon Apollo’s advice) a festival in Icarus and Erigone’s name was started King Midas Midas recognized the captured Satyr Silenus and gave him back to Dionysus -Dionysus gave him any one wish (the golden touch) -problem: everything he touched turned to gold (food, loved ones) -begged Dionysus’ forgiveness, was purified in a river (they say the sands there are like gold…explanation myth?) Dionysus and the Pirates Dionysus is abducted by pirates (they think he is a rich mortal) -helmsman sees that bonds do not hold him and suggests that they let him go -vine spreads over the sail, men try to go back to land, and Dionysus turns into a lion and created a bear at the other end of the ship; lion killed the commander of the ship, all the sailors jumped into the water and became dolphins, and Dionysus gave blessings to the helmsman Pan A god, part man and part goat (like the satyrs) Joins in Bacchic revels and frenzies Amorous Parents: a nymph and Apollo/Hermes (and is therefore a god of shepherds and music) Created own instrument: the panipe (Syrinx in the Greek), named after nymph that ran from Pan and was transformed into a marsh of reeds that made a beautiful sound Echo Pan fell in love with her, she ran from him, he made a band of shepherds become mad and they tore her apart, leaving only her voice OR Echo had been punished by Juno (Jove was having an affair, Juno comes down to spy and Echo distracts her while the lovers can escape…Juno punishes her by only allowing her to echo whatever anyone else says) Narcissus Very handsome young man, many men and women fell in love with him -Echo sees him, falls in love, he is curious by her echoing -when he sees her he flees, she wastes away to nothing -Another scorned lover curses Narcissus: that he would know how it feels -falls in love with his own reflection, it disappears whenever he reaches out for it -beats himself, sort of melts away to nothing, flower left behind gnothi sautone (know thyself) Narcissism: self-love and self-destruction Demeter Goddess of the harvest, the moon, the seasons The rape of Persephone Persephone picking flowers (=fertility, sex) Abducted by Hades (an arrangement made with Zeus, her father) Demeter destroyed with grief, Hecate and Helius only other ones to hear Persephone crying out, tell Demeter it was Hades Demeter removed herself from the gods’ presence, roaming the earth disguised Comes to palace of Celeus in Eleusis, is welcomed into the home to care for the infant Demophoön His mother, Metaneira, spies Demeter putting him in fire to make him immortal, yells at Demeter Demeter in anger takes away the gift and demands that a temple be built at Eleusis for her rites (the Eleusinian mysteries) Demeter still pissed about Persephone, causes the harvests to stop (the creation of the seasons) Zeus begs her to forgive them, she doesn’t relent, wants to be with daughter Zeus sends Hermes to Hades with the news Hades tricks Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds; therefore she can spend part of the year with Demeter but must return for part of the year with Hades *Persephone says Hades put the fruit in her mouth (but she took it!) Triptolemus Messenger of Demeter Taught the arts of agriculture Merges in identity with Demophoön The Realm of Hades Earliest account: Homer’s Odyssey -Odysseus takes a sword, dug a pit, poured libations -first honey and milk, then wine, then water/barley -put a black sheep and a barren heifer on sacrificial pyre to Tiresias -cut their throats, the blood went into the pit -sees the seer Tiresias, his mother Anticlea and many others (Achilles tells how he would rather live a long life as a slave than die a hero, Agamemnon tells of his brutal murder by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus The Myth of Er -in Plato’s Republic Er was a brave man, died in war On the twelfth day is put on a funeral pyre, but comes back to life He had gone to a divine place, two holes in the earth and two holes in the sky Judges sat in between these holes Er was to watch and learn Some would come back, after a thousand years, and tell of their blessings/sufferings Every sin/good deed was repaid every hundred years (a life span) ten fold Typical elements of the underworld 3 judges: Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus Five rivers: Styx (river of hate), Acheron (of woe), Lethe (of forgetfulness), Cocytus (of wailing), Pyriphlegethon (of fire) Hermes Psychopompos guides the souls Cerberus, a three headed dog, guards the entrance to the underworld Hades (Pluto): fertility, chthonic (Chthonian Zeus) Heaven and Hell in Hades (Elysium and Tartarus) Furies and Hecate live here Orpheus and Euridice Marriage and death Orpheus travels down to the underworld to beg for Euridice’s life back Appeals to Hades’ and Perspehone’s softer side Agreement: he must trust that Euridice is behind him Turns at last second, and she disappears Orpheus fled from love with women, and they are enticed by his music He is torn apart by a group of women that see him singing Orphism Orpheus: may be a true missionary with violent death The founder of a religion: prophet, disciples wrote holy words that become a dogma Different creation story, but many gods and mythical elements similar .
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