Dionysus

Dionysus is most known for being the Greek god of wine and all things associated with wine: the grape, the vine, sleep, drunkenness.  However Dionysus embodies a great deal of philosophical meaning and present a challenging and rewarding way of life through pleasure and gratification.

Dionysus did not always begin as a Greek deity.  Instead he imported from surrounding mountainous regions and evolved throughout time.  Dionysus is probably one of the most travelled of the Grecian deities in both myth and cultus.  Dionysus can be found in the deities of Zagreus  and Sabazius.  The deities were earlier incarnations of Dionysus.  Later Dionysus finds a place within the Greek mythos but then even extends himself to lands such as Turkey, Egypt and India.  Dionysus is the God of the unbounded, the traveler and the foreigner.  His appearance was written to be foreign and exotic in nature.

Dionysus is the god of all things primal and wild.  He is the god of wild cats such as panthers and leopards.  He is the god of the snake, the storm, the bull.  The bull is an ancient symbol Dionysus.  Its primal strength was used as a symbol of Dionysus as well as its breeding prowess.  The bull was seen as both a chthonic and solar image, the guiding torch through the Underworld and the fertile sun in the Heavens.  This dual nature is a paramount part of Dionysus’ personality and is represented by the dual horns of the bull. 

Dionysus is also associated with the bee and the snake, the goat, the ram and all other forms of horned creatures.

When Dionysus reached Greek society, they proclaimed him originally as Zagreus who was the son of Zeus and Persephone, the child of Heaven and Hell.  His birth angered the goddess Hera and she sent the Titans, spirit of primordial nature, to kill the infant Zagreus.  Zagreus shifted into various forms and the Titans tried to trick him with a number of toys and baubles.  It was a mirror that trapped Dionysus, who image was so intoxicating that even he was spellbound by it.  The Titans grabbed him and tore him to pieces and boiled to eat him.  This action is echoed in many spiritual practices.  The Dionysus myths would describe a ritual where a bull was brought into the nocturnal, outdoor rites of Dionysus.  So intoxicated and in frenzy were the devotees, they would tear apart the bull whilst alive and eat its flesh raw in an act of wild communion.  This act is also re-presented as bread being broken in sacred communion.

The scent of Dionysus’ flesh being cooked alerted Zeus and Athena to the atrocity.  Athena was able, in the form of an owl, to save the still-beating heart of Zagreus and Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at the Titans, obliterating all present.  The Orphic mysteries state that it was the mixing of the Titan and Dionysian blood from which humans were spawned.  This was to teach the philosophy that humanity is both animal and divine, a dualism that is wrestled with in each lifetime.

The heart of Dionysus was sewn into Zeus’ “thigh”.  Thus, an epithet of Dionysus is Enorches meaning “from the nuts”.  He formed there until Zeus impregnated the local princess Semele.  Semele was tricked into asking Zeus to reveal himself in his true form and consequently she died instantly, however the new Dionysus remained intact, wrapped in a womb of ivy.  Dionysus was full human and fully god, a trait that was unique in Greek mythology.  This made him a god of the people, of the human experience.  He was called “the God who comes” because he was a deity that could be experienced through spiritual practice and ecstatic nature.

Dionysus was raised by nymphs and satyrs who fauned (hehe) over him.  His presence brought out the pleasurable nature of these creatures even more.  They followed him wherever he went, becoming a bawdy caravan.  It is through Dionysus that we are given the idea of a sacred parade.  

Dionysus is most noted for having female devotees called maenads, usually women who had a case of the “fuck-its” when it came to oppressive, ancient, patriarchal society.  However, Dionysus was the god of not just women, but any of the outcasts or the marginalized.  Dionysus was the singularity of all existence, the primordial chaos, the sacred tone of the Universe resonating as a bellowing bovine.  This transcendence is seen as in the embrace of his duality.  Light and dark, Heaven and Hell, God and Man, Beast and Divinity.  Often he was considered effeminate and his attire was known to be traditionally that which was worn by women at that time.

Dionysus is also god of freedom.  Slaves were treated as equals at festival of Dionysus.  There were no title, no boundaries.  Masks were often worn during his worship.  Continuing with the theme on duality and paradox, the mask is normally used to conceal one’s identity but at a festival of Dionysus, the mask allows one to reveal their true selves.  Dionysus is also the god of sleep, the arts, prophesy, necromancy, trance, nature and all manner of sexuality.  He is often in the presence of his caravan but also with a number of other deities such as Ariadne (his wife and sister to the Minotaur), Semele-Thyone (his resurrected mother), Silenus (his gluttonous, licentious satyr mentor), Aphrodite, Apollo as well as the satyrs, nymphs, maenads and bacchantes of his caravan.

Dionysus is also no stranger to male sexual experience.  His travels brought him to many strange and exotic lands and all were fascinated (or fearful) of his presence.  There are many stories of Dionysus’ sexual encounters.  Often worship of Dionysus would be done with a wooden phallus in a basket.  In ancient times, the Dionysus-Phallus connection was evident.  This wooden phallus may have been adopted after the myth of Prosymnos.  When Dionysus’ mother died and Dionysus went on his many adventures, Dionysus felt that the Underworld was not good enough for the bearer of so awesome a deity.  So he went to travel to the Underworld by means of the River Styx.  The only person who was entrusted by Hades with the knowledge on how to achieve this feat was a gravely old man by the name of Prosymnos.  In exchange for guarding the Underworld entry, Hades granted Prosymnos eternal life but (perhaps in a dickish, god of the underworld kind of way) never granted him eternal youth, so Prosymnos, while never dying, continued to age.  When Dionysus approached him about the passageway, Prosymnos was so enamoured with Dionysus’ beauty that he promised to give Dionysus the secret on the condition that Prosymnos could fuck Dionysus’ tight ass.  Dionysus agreed but convinced Prosymnos to allow him to retrieve his mother first and he would fulfill his end of the bargain on the way back.  Prosymnos agreed.

Dionysus retrieved his mother however Hades, in anger for giving away the secret passageway, punished Prosymos by turning him into a fig tree before Dionysus could keep his promise. Dionysus instead carved a wooden phallus from the tree’s branches and fucked himself diligently in honor of Prosymnos.

Dionysus is the god of pansexuality, liberation and pleasure.  He is the breaker of laws and chains.  His is called “the God who comes” because unlike the other Gods of the Greek pantheon, Dionysus is a god of the people.  His cultus teaches that pleasure for self and pleasure for all is the highest good.  He teaches that before the great universal expanse of time and space, all creatures are incidentals before the void. 

Dionysus is the god of art, music, theater and all forms of self-expression.  He is the god of prophesy and trance.  Dionysus is revealed as Bakkhios and Meleikhios, respectfully the fire god of fury and the cooling god of peace.  He is Bromios, the Booming One, as the celestial bull and also as the inheritor of Zeus’ lighting-scepter.  He is the only other deity to sit upon Zeus’ throne.  His cult continues to this day, being one of the most invoked ancient Pagan deity in these modern times.  He is the inspiration of a number of musical, theatrical and film projects and many titans in those industries have been associated with being avatars or incarnations of Dionysus.  Dionysus is both phallus (1) and cosmos (0) with the added association of the throng and caravan, an aspect of Fraternity (A).  In this way, Dionysus is the epitome of the Triphallic god who name is IAO.

Dionysus is connected to a number of other deities from other pantheons such as Osiris, Pan and even Jesus.  In Greek myth, his phallic legacy continues by being the father of Priapus, god of enormous Cock and guardian of gardens, a predecessor of the common garden gnome.