Academic literature on the topic 'Dionysus (Greek deity)'

Having elsewhere connected Walter Otto’s interpretation of Dionysus as a politically progressive deity to Huey P. Newton’s vision for the Black Panthers, I here expand this inquiry to a line of Otto-inspired scholarship. First, Alain Daniélou identifies Dionysus and Shiva as the dancing god of a democratic/decolonizing cult oppressed by tyrannical patriarchies. Arthur Evans sharpens this critique of sexism and heteronormativity, concluding that, as Dionysus’s chorus is to Greek tragedy, so Socrates’s circle is to Western philosophy. I thus call for the creation of a hybrid Dionysian-Socratic revolutionary philosophical chorus, modeled on Dionysus Lyseus (from -lysis), wielding philosophical analysis to loosen injustice’s bonds, as a vanguard of social justice. I find a handbook for this chorus’s creation in Euripides’s Bacchae, whose Dionysus is an ally of immigrant women, overthrower of Theban patriarchy, and international revolutionary. Finally, I offer a contemporary example of such a chorus that is based in my hometown in Alabama, namely, the Birmingham Philosophy Guild.

The influence that the Greek world had managed to manifest through its religion over the divinities of the Etruscan pantheon, including the god of vegetation Fufluns- Dionysus, has been universally acknowledged in the historiography, but an in-depth analysis of the ever growing number of archaeological discoveries has provided us with an important element that seems to have constituted an oversight for a long time: the autochthonous layer of the image of the divinity and the entwining of characteristics between the two elements, both Etruscan and Greek. An iconographic investigation of the representation of the god Fufluns on Etruscan mirrors, the category of archaeological sources that will be the main focus of this paper, will indicate that, within the research on the issue of the juxtaposition of Greek and Etruscan characteristics in the creation of the image of this god, an important number of purely Etruscan elements should be emphasized since they allude towards a powerful Etruscan contribution and (re)interpretation of certain aspects of this deity. Among the results, we can include not only the powerful chthonic attributes of Fufluns- Dionysus himself, but also of his retinue and of his companions, as well as his connection to purely local companions or the appearance of certain mythological episodes of a most probable Etruscan origin, episodes seemingly unacknowledged throughout the Greek world.

The paper deals with a new perspective on specific features of religious life of the population of the Elizavetovskaya settlement on Don during two different periods of its existence: the first one lasted through the 4th century BC, and the second one is connected with the existence of the Great Greek Colony in the 300—270s BC. Some recent materials have never been published or analyzed before. Emphasis has been placed on the cults of Cybele as the Great Mother and Dionysus as the male deity. The research for the first time uses materials of an elite Pyatibratny kurgan group of the necropolis of the Elizavetovskaya settlement to study the religious life of the population of the Don River Delta.

Специфика северопонтийского дионисийства рассматривается как обусловленная фракийскими влияниями: в Ольвии о них прежде всего свидетельствуют орфические таблички, на Боспоре — исключительная популярность в местной нумизматике заимствованных из Фракии изображений сатиров, культ Диониса Арея, а также необычный образ хтонического Диониса на погребальных пеликах. На Боспоре и в Херсонесе к кругу этого бога относился родственный ему фрако-фригийский бог Сабазий. Сочетание на монетах Пантикапея образов сатиров на аверсе с аполлиническим грифоном на реверсе позволяет предполагать синкретизм Диониса и Аполлона в религии боспорян, причём в контексте орфических верований. На Боспоре с дионисийским кругом ассоциируется не только целый ряд богов, культово близких Дионису и в других областях греческого мира (Деметра, Кора, Геракл, Афродита, Эрот), но и далёких от него мифологических персонажей (Парис, Европа и др.). Находки в курганах скифской и синдской знати разнообразных вещей, часто культового назначения, с изображениями персонажей дионисийского круга свидетельствуют о близости последних религиозно-мифологическим представлениям варваров. К этому кругу относится и фигурирующий на ряде памятников мужской двойник змееногой ипостаси Великой богини («Владыка зверей»), который, как и другие дионисийские персонажи, мыслился как подчиненное ей божество. The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the cult of Dionysus in the Greek colonies of the Northern Black Searegion, as well as the specificities of Dionysianism among local barbarians. These features were largely due to Thracian influences: in Olbia, they are primarily evidenced by Orphic tablets, in the Bosporus — the exceptional popularity in local numismatics of images of satyrs borrowed from Thrace, the cult of Dionysus Ares, as well as the unusual image of the chthonic Dionysus on funeral pelicеs. Both in the Bosporus and in Chersonesus, the Thraco-Phrygian god Sabazios, who was close to Dionysus in function, belonged to the circle of this god. On the coins of Panticapaeum, the combination of images of satyrs on the obverse with an Apollinian griffin on the reverse enables suggestion of the fusion of Dionysus and Apollo in the context of Orphic beliefs as well as in the religion of the Bosporans. In the Bosporus, the Dionysian circle is associated not only with a number of gods close to the cult of Dionysus in other areas of the Greek world (Demeter, Kore, Heracles, Aphrodite, and Eros), but also mythological characters not associated with him (Paris, Europa, etc.). Finds in the burial mounds of the Scythian and Sindian nobility of various cult-related artifacts, often with images of characters of the Dionysian circle, indicate the closeness of the latter to the religious and mythological ideas of the barbarians. This circle also includes the male counterpart of the snake-footed hypostasis of the Great Goddess (‘Master of Beasts’), which appears on several monuments and which, like other Dionysian characters, was thought of as a subordinate deity to her.

The Greek deity Dionysos had a particular affinity for war galleys, a relationship perhaps explained by the Homeric Hymn to Dionysos in which Tyrsenian pirates kidnap him on their galley. Soon grape vines entangle the rigging and some of the pirates attempt to escape their fate by jumping into the sea: Dionysos transforms them into dolphins. This hymn served as an occasional motif in pagan art and may explain the miniaturized replicas of seagoing oared ships that played an integral role in the ancient Dionysian cult. These flimsy Dionysian ship carts moved overland in parades, either on wheels or upon the shoulders of celebrants. While the earliest examples may date to the Late Bronze Age, they are best known from a series of three late Archaic-period representations on black-figure skyphoi, now in museums in Athens, Bologna and London. No two Archaic-period Dionysian ship-cart representations are identical in all details. While perhaps due to painters' whims, this diversity in appearance may reflect changes to the ship carts at each annual appearance, analogous to modern-day parade floats. Due to the two-dimensional nature of these ship-cart images, it is impossible today to determine whether the Dionysian ship carts reflected in them consisted of actual vessels-purpose-built and placed on wagons during the procession, employed solely for the Dionysian celebrations-or floats in the form of miniaturized galleys. This paper supplies context and explains the process of creating a three-dimensional digital reconstruction of a generic Late Archaic-period Dionysian ship cart employing contemporaneous imagery and artifacts.

This paper examines the importance of artist names and artistic identity, especially as expressed in artist signatures, to the interpretation of ancient Greek pottery. Attention is focused on a calyx krater signed ΣϒPIΣKOΣ EΓPΦΣEN [sic], and it is argued that the non-Greek ethnikon used as artist name encourages a non-Athenian reading of the iconography. The painted labels for all six figures on this vase, together with parallels from other Athenian red-figure vases—including others from the Syriskos workshop—all suggest the presentation of an alternative, un-Athenian world view. Okeanos, Dionysos, and Epaphos are read as representing faraway lands at the edges of the Ge Panteleia, or “entire earth,” while the central figure of Themis, Greek personification of divine right, is depicted pouring a libation to Balos, the Hellenized form of the Syrian supreme god Baal, thereby recognizing his status as a supreme deity. Other overtly political messages have been read elsewhere in the oeuvre of the Syriskos Workshop, where it seems that at least two distinct artistic identities were at play—the explicitly foreign “little Syrian,” and the more conventional Pistoxenos, or “trustworthy foreigner.” When explicitly signed on vessels, these artistic identities necessarily sway interpretation, whereas on the many unsigned pieces, the viewer is left to consider which identity is at play.

Abstract The “place of God” is an oxymoron, implying a spatial confinement of the transcendent deity. Gregory of Nyssa calls it “the greatest paradox of all.” It is a biblical image, applied above all to the tabernacle/temple, which inspired a long afterlife of fruitful reflection in both Jewish and Christian traditions. This paper focusses on the interpretations of the “place of God” in the writings of the fourth century theologians Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius of Pontus. They take different biblical verses as their starting points, both from the Exodus narrative of Moses’ experiences on Mount Sinai – a narrative which was to prove crucial for the development of the Christian mystical tradition. Gregory takes his cue from LXX Exodus 33:21 – “Look, a place is near me. You shall stand on the rock” – and develops an argument for divine infinity. He correlates this with the relentless nature of the Exodus narrative and Moses’ insatiable desire. Evagrius is inspired by LXX Exodus 24:10 – “and they saw the place, there where the God of Israel stood” – and takes the sapphire blue colour of heaven to represent pure prayer. He talks of the human mind (nous) as a temple of the Holy Trinity. A close examination of their interpretations illustrates what Steven Katz calls “the fertile interconnection between theology, exegesis, and mystical experience.” They have not simply started with preconceived schemes into which they have slotted scriptural proof texts, but genuinely wrestled with biblical texts. In the new theological context of the fourth century, they have produced fresh exegeses. Evagrius chooses between different Greek translations; Gregory notices a discrepancy in the scriptural record. They do not explain away or smooth over the contradictions and difficulties of the biblical text, but work with them creatively, capitalising on the paradoxes, to generate imagery worthy of the unfathomable God. Unlike Gregory’s highlighting of the darkness in Exodus 20:21, which led, via Pseudo-Dionysius, to the medieval “cloud of unknowing,” these interpretations of the “place of God” have not passed into the bloodstream of the Western mystical tradition. But they amply illustrate the crucial role of biblical exegesis in the development of Christian mystical theology.

The contemporary era is dominated by an Apollonian visual language, i.e. the visual language of mainstream cinema and the mass media, and this study concerns the role that critical cinema, as Dionysian subverter, plays under such conditions. I argue that critical cinema should not be viewed as something completely ‘new’ but rather as a new, or at least the latest, manifestation of an older subversive ‘Dionysian’ voice that has made its presence felt since the dawn of the hegemony of an Apollonian disposition in Homeric epic. (I maintain that the history of western culture can be understood in terms of the persistent tension between Apollonian and Dionysian dispositions, and I use the distinction Derrida makes in Différance, between restricted and general economies, to distinguish between them, respectively.) I begin by considering the Dionysian echoes within Homer’s Iliad and then consider the way in which they became a ‘roar’ in the tragedies of Aeschylus. After Aeschylus a predominantly Apollonian voice asserted itself once again (to various degrees) through the work of Sophocles and Euripides. This was in keeping with the trend towards a more (Apollonian) restricted economy that is reflected in the writings of Homer’s literary successors, and which reached a crucial stage in Plato’s valorisation of ‘dialectics’, or what I term ‘dialecticis m’, which saw the birth of ‘dialectical language’. Through Plato dialecticism, or dialectical language, became instantiated as the ‘language’ of western philosophy and this predisposed western culture to develop along predominantly Apollonian lines. This continued from Plato, through the Middle Ages, until in the 17th century this Apollonian trend became manifest in the concept of the stable, integral, autonomous and self -transparent Cartesian ego, which is inextricably linked to dialectical language that promises certainty of ‘truth’ and maintains the possibility of representing the world in its entirety (as a system). In the contemporary ‘age of a world picture’, the hegemonic (Apollonian) visual language of mainstream cinema and the mass media propagates and perpetuates the belief in the possibility of representing the world in its entirety through the image, and insofar as it caters to audiences’ needs for stability and certainty (of ‘truth’) through providing such ‘complete’ representations, shapes their subjectivity along the lines of the Cartesian ego. According to Baudrillard, in contemporary society and culture the hyperreal realm of visual language has become far more significant for individuals than their immediate, empirical experiences, and that, as a result, they are far less predisposed to discussion and reflection and far more prone to passive ‘watching’. Also, Adorno maintains that it is impossible to have a form of critical cinema because of the way in which features inherent to cinema predispose it towards being an ideological apparatus. However, if both Baudrillard and Adorno are correct then the future appears increasingly bleak as it involves nothing other than the continuation and propagation of the hegemony of the visual language of mainstream cinema and the mass media, with no possibility for critical resistance. I argue instead that critical cinema is possible because the move towards a more restricted economy, motivated by an Apollonian disposition, did not develop from Homer to the contemporary era without meeting Dionysian resistance. I trace the presence of a subversive Dionysian voice through Homer’s Iliad, through Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, and through Plato’s Dialogues, where it echoes in the sentiments of some of Plato’s interlocutors, such as Callicles. In addition, I maintain that a ‘Dionysian’ voice resonates through both Nietzsche’s and Heidegger’s respective criticisms of ‘dialectical language’ and the ‘validity’ of the Cartesian ego. I argue that critical cinema, particularly Aronofsky’s postmodern critical cinema, parallels their similar epistemological and ontological perspectives in the way in which it engages with the (Apollonian) visual language of mainstream cinema and the mass media, and thereby, potentially, facilitates a more porous and protean subjectivity.

Orientador: Etienne Ghislain Samain
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes
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Gloriosa, de Arthur Omar, que nos apresenta 161 imagens de rostos brasileiros em situação de êxtase carnavalesco, as quais correspondem a um projeto muito particular de execução de uma nova ciência, marcada por uma forte presença do sujeito. Tal presença é visível no método bastante subjetivo de criação dessa antropologia, que satura não apenas a imagem quanto o discurso. Para entender os procedimentos de composição dessa proposição estético-científica, estudam-se, primeiramente, conceitos relativos à percepção dionisíaca do mundo e sua relação com a percepção apolínea e, num segundo momento, conceitos artísticos e antropológicos que se relacionam com o carnaval enquanto manifestação estética e cultural. Esse percurso teórico ampara a interpretação de que a matéria discursiva e fotográfica é moldada em harmonia com relação ao aspecto temático abordado na Antropologia da Face Gloriosa, em que Apolo e Dionísio tramam, entre luz e sombras, a expressão do ethos brasileiro
Abstract: The aim of this research is to make an interpretation of the book Anthropology of the Glorious Face, written by Arthur Omar. This book presents 161 images of faces in a situation of Brazilian Carnival Ecstasy, which correspond to a very special project for the implementation of a new science, marked by a strong presence of the subjectivity. Such a presence is visible in the method of creating this very subjective anthropology, which saturates the image and the discourse. To understand the compositional procedures of this aesthetic-scientific method, it will be studied Dionysian concepts related to the perception of the world and its relation to Apollonian concepts. It will be studied as well artistic and anthropological concepts that are related to the carnival as a cultural and aesthetic expression. This theoretical path supports the interpretation that the image and the discourse levels are made in harmony with the thematic aspect addressed in the Anthropology of the Glorious Face, in which Apollo and Dionysus plot, between light and shadows, the expression of brazilian ethos
Mestrado
Multimeios
Mestra em Multimeios

Orientador: Oswaldo Giacoia Junior
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
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Resumo: Esta pesquisa visa discutir aspectos interpretativos pontuais da obra do filósofo alemão Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), mais especificamente de sua tese de Metafísica do artista desenvolvida no denominado período da juventude (1870-1876). Articulada em três movimentos nossa pesquisa iniciará por um mapeamento geral do contexto histórico e intelectual do filósofo, o que nos permitirá situá-lo no projeto de crítica da modernidade política e cultural do séc. XIX, em seguida faremos uma reconstituição das discussões que permeiam o período da juventude, visando destacar os principais alicerces teóricos e metodológicos sobre os quais erigiu a tese de Metafísica do Artista, e, por fim, empreenderemos uma análise pontual desta tese tendo como ponto de vista a teoria dos processos criativos. Mediante estes três movimentos notaremos que a Metafísica do Artista se origina a partir da articulação entre um sentido especial e um registro especial, nomeadamente o retro-sentido (Hintersinn) de artista e terceiro registro, que, segundo propomos, podem ser compreendidos como fio condutor, ou Fio de Ariadne, para interpretação do programa filosófico da juventude, que denominamos por Labirinto.
Abstract: This research aims at to argue prompt aspects of the workmanship of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), more specifically of its Metaphysics thesis of the Artist developed in the period of youth (1870-1876). Articulated in three movements our research will start for a general mapping of the historical and intellectual context of the philosopher, it will allow us to point out it in the critical project of modernity cultural politics of century. XIX, after that we will make an reconstitution of the quarrels across the period of the youth, having aimed at to detach the main theoretical foundations and methodological on which it erected the thesis of Metaphysics of the Artist, and, finally, we will undertake a prompt analysis of this thesis having had as point of view the theory of the creative processes. By means of these three movements we will notice that the Metaphysics of the Artist originates from the joint between a special direction and a special register, nominated the backwarddirection (Hintersinn) of artist and third register, that, as we consider, can be understood as conducting wire, or Ariadne's wire, for interpretation of the philosophical program of youth, that we call Labyrinth.
Mestrado
Filosofia
Mestre em Filosofia

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This final paper approaches the relation between Greek religiosity, and the Attica tragedy in the final stage of Friedrich Nietzsche’s thinking and it intends to explain the relevance of the religion within the Hellenic cultural development process. It intends, from Nietzsche’s writings during the years of 1869 to 1875, handled by interpreters, Hellenists and old Greek texts, to achieve a clearer comprehension as religion, from which soil the Greek art has come, in a special way the tragedy. It is, therefore, an investigation of how in the light of the young Nietzsche´s Philosophy would have been articulated religiosity and art in ancient Greece
A presente dissertação aborda a relação entre a religiosidade grega e a tragédia ática na fase inicial do pensamento de Friedrich Nietzsche, com a intenção de explicitar a relevância da religião dentro do processo de desenvolvimento cultural helênico. Pretende-se, a partir dos escritos de Nietzsche compreendidos entre os anos de 1869 a 1875, apoiados por intérpretes, helenistas e textos da Antiguidade grega, chegar a uma compreensão mais clara da religião como solo do qual floresceu a arte grega, em especial a tragédia. Trata-se, portanto, de uma investigação de como teria se articulado a religiosidade e a arte na Grécia Antiga à luz da filosofia do jovem Nietzsche

Orientador: Jeanne Marie Gagnebin de Bons
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: A principal questão deste estudo é pensar Dioniso como o sucessor de Zeus. A reflexão proposta sugere que no século V a.C. é Dioniso o soberano que irá ditar os nomoi, leis, que irão reger a vidas dos imortais e dos mortais. Para tal empreitada é proposta uma leitura sobre o dionisismo desde o século VII a.C., que é quando Dioniso retorna das suas viagens exterior para a Grécia trazendo o vinho, até V a.C. quando o deus se torna a divindade mais cultuada da pólis. A principal fonte para tal leitura é a tragédia As bacantes de Eurípides, pois ela narra o retorno de Dioniso e a sua afirmação como uma divindade poderosa e foi escrita no século V a.C. Os principais interlocutores teóricos para o estudo de As bacantes são René Girard e Friedrich Nietzsche ¿ em específico os livros A violência e o sagrado e O nascimento da tragédia. A metodologia apresentada é a seguinte: primeiro serão discutidas as particularidades divinas que convém a Dioniso. O deus foi gestado por uma mortal, devido a isso ele tem mais afinidade com os mortais que as demais potestades. Além disso, é um deus que passa por vários sacrifícios. A partir de tais argumentos é desenvolvida a relação entre o deus e os mortais tendo como ponto de partida os heróis da epopeia. Será defendida a hipótese de que Dioniso apropria-se do logos, um discurso que mede o tempo a partir dos homens e não dos deuses, para fortalecer-se como divindade. Uma vez esclarecido o vínculo de Dioniso com os mortais, será proposta uma interpretação de As bacantes tendo tal obra como o marco da soberania de Dioniso ¿ é ele quem sucederá Zeus. A elaboração de tal leitura levou à contestação da perspectiva teórica de Nietzsche sobre o confronto e a conciliação entre apolíneo e o dionisíaco, impulsos artísticos que Nietzsche usa para definir a religião grega, e também sobre a figura de Sócrates. Desse modo, na última parte será feito um debate teórico sobre a leitura de Nietzsche, será relativizada a perspectiva do filósofo de que entre o apolíneo e o dionisíaco houve uma conciliação. Além disso, será proposta uma imagem de Sócrates não como o principal inimigo de Dioniso, mas como uma das máscara do deus
Abstract: The main question our study poses is whether one can interpret Dionysus as being the successor to Zeus. Our project proposes that in the fifth century BC, Dionysus determined nomoi, the laws that governed the lives of both mortals and immortals. In this dissertation we explore different references to Dionysus that circulated from the seventh century BC, when Dionysus returned to Greece from his travels abroad bringing with him wine, to the fifth century BC,the point when he became the most worshiped God in polis. Our main literary source is Euripedes¿s The Bacchae, writen in the fifth century BC, this work discusses Dionysus¿s ascent to become one of the powerful gods in Greece following his return to the empire. The principal theorists we engage with in this work are René Girard and Friedrich Nietzsche ¿ specifically, Violence and the Sacred and The Birth of Tragedy.The fist part of the dissertation explores particular traits ascribed to Dionyusus as a result of having been gestated by a mortal. Due to this, Dionysus has more affinity with mortals than the other gods have. Moreover, Dionysus makes a number of sacrifices. It is from these interpretations that the relationship between God and mortals originates and it is this point that marks the creation of heroes.Our hypothesis is that Dionysus appropriates logos, which we can understand as a form of discourse that measures time from mortals, not for gods, which in turn is used by Dionysus to strengthen himself as a god. After describing the relationship between mortals and gods, we propose an interpretation of The Bacchaethat show how this text can be interpreted showing Dionysus status as a powerful god -it is he who succeeds Zeus. From here we dispute Nietzsche's interpretation on confrontation andreconciliation between Apollonian and Dionysian, artistic impulses that Nietzsche uses to define ancient Greek religion, not to mention Nietzche¿s treatment of Socrates. In the final section we engage with the theoretical debate through a close readin of Nietzsche. In it we relativize Nietzsche¿s understanding that a compromise existed between the Apollonian and Dionysian. Furthermore, we propose that Socrates was not an enemy of Dionysus, but rather he was a mask of Dionysus
Mestrado
Teoria e Critica Literaria
Mestra em Teoria e História Literária

Demeter and Persephone as Greek personifications of the decay and revival of vegetation. Dionysus was not the only Greek deity whose tragic story and ritual appear to reflect the decay and revival of vegetation. In another form and with a different application the old...