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.
