Blessing:
The blessings of Dionysos are joy and passion, madness and prophecy, ecstacy and freedom. Dionysian freedom is beyond good and evil: it takes precedent over law, custom, inhibition or morality. In the worship of Dionysos, we discover who we really are, beneath all the masks and lies and compromises that society demands of us. Dionysos dissolves all boundaries and destroys every falsehood. In the ecstatic state, we feel ourselves to be whole, to be one with all of the other worshippers, with the earth and the Gods. We utter prophecy, since we are no longer constrained by our small minds. We perform miracles, since the laws of nature no longer apply. We touch the face of God, and he touches us.
Epithets:
| Agrios (The Wild One), | Aigobolos (The Goatslayer), |
| Aktaios (He of the Seacoast), | Anax Bakcheios (Bacchic Lord), |
| Anax Agreus (Lord Hunter), | Antheus (The Blossoming), |
| Anthroporraistes (The Render of Humans), | Areion (War-like), |
| Arretos (The Ineffable), | Arsenothelys (the Man-Womanly), |
| Auxites (The Grower), | Axios Tauros (The Worthy Bull), |
| Bakcheios (The Bacchic One), | Bakchos (Raving), |
| Bassareus (The Fox-God), | Botryophoros (Bearer of Clusters of Grapes), |
| Boukeros (The Bull-horned One), | Bromios (He Who Roars), |
| Bythios (The Deep), | Charidotes (The Giver of Grace), |
| Choreutes (The Dancer), | Choroplekes (The Danceweaving One), |
| Chthonios (He of the Underworld), | Dendrites (The Tree God), |
| Dikerotes (The Two-horned One), | Dimeter (He of Two Mothers), |
| Dimorphos (The Two-Formed One), | Dissotokos (Doubly Born), |
| Dithyrambos (Hymned by the Dithyramb), | Eiraphiotes (The In-Sewn One), |
| Ekstatophoros (The Bringer of Ecstasy), | Eleuthereus (The Emancipator), |
| Enorches (the Betesticled), | Eriphos (Young Kid), |
| Eribromios (The Loud Roarer), | Euanthes (The Fair Blossoming One), |
| Euaster (He Who Shouts Eua), | Eubouleus (The Good Counselor), |
| Euios (The Reveler), | Gethosynos (The Joyful), |
| Gigantophonos (Giant-Slayer), | Gynnis (Womanish), |
| Hagnos (The Pure, Holy One), | Iakchos (The Cryer at Eleusis), |
| Iatros (The Healer), | Kissobryos (The Ivy-Wrapped One), | Kissokomes (The Ivy-Crowned One), | Kissos (Ivy), |
| Korymbophoros (The Cluster-laden), | Kryphios (The Hidden One), |
| Lampter (Light-bringer), | Lenaios (He of the Wine-press), |
| Liknites (He of the Winnowing Fan Cradle), | Limnaios (He of the Marsh), |
| Lyaios (Bringer of Freedom), | Lyseus (Liberator), |
| Mainomenos (The Maddened One), | Makar (Blessed One), |
| Manikos (The Manic One), | Mantis (The Diviner), |
| Meilichios (The Gentle One), | Melanaigis (He of the Black Goatskin), |
| Morychos (The Dark One), | Nebrodes (The Fawn-form One), |
| Nyktelios (He of the Night), | Nyktipolos (The Night-Stalker), |
| Nysios (He of Nysa), | Oiketor (The Indweller), |
| Omadios (He of the Raw Feast), | Palaios (The Ancient One), |
| Perikionios (He Who is Entwined Around the Pillars), | Phanes (The Illuminator), |
| Polygethes (Bringer of Many Joys), | Polymorphos (He of the Many Forms), |
| Polyonomos (The Many-Named One), | Protogonos (The Firstborn), |
| Skeptouchos (Sceptre-Bearer), | Soter (Saviour), |
| Sykites (He of the Fig-Tree), | Taurokeros Theos (Bull-horned God), |
| Taurophagos (Devourer of the Bull), | Tauropon (The Bull-faced One), |
| Teletarches (Lord of Initiation), | Thyonidas (Son of Thyone), |
| Thyrsophoros (The Thyrsos-Bearer), | Trieterikos (The Biennial One), |
| Trigonos (The Thriceborn), | Zagreus (Great Hunter), |
| Zatheos (The Very Holy), | Zoophoros (Life Bringer) |
Symbols:
thyrsos, mask, nebrix, kantharos, phallos
Animal(s):
panther, goat, snake, bull, fox
Sacrifices:
musk, civet, frankincense, storax, ivy, grapes, pine, fig, wine, honey, Indian hemp, orchis root, thistle, all wild and domestic trees, black diamond
Primary Cult Center(s):
Thebes, Delphi, Lesbos, Thrace, Keos, Italy
Festivals:
Anthesteria: 11-13 Anthesterion (around February)
Apaturia: 3 days in Puanepsion (October-November)
Bacchanalia: (celebrated on different dates)
Greater (or City) Dionysia: 10-17 Elaphebolion (March-April)
Halao: 26 Poseidon (December-January)
Lenaia: 12-15 Gamelion (around January)
Oskhophoria: 7 Puanepsion (October-November)
Rural Dionysia: last half of Poseidon (December-January)
Liberalia: March 17
Ways to honor:
Drink wine. Attend theater. Dance. Sing. Learn a form of divination. Explore madness. Be passionate. Be creative. Enjoy every moment of living - even the harsh and unpleasant ones.
For more information:
Achilles Tatius' Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon 2.2-3
Aeschylos' Edonoi, Bassarides, Neoniskoi, Lykourgos, Backhai, Pentheus, Xantriai
Aeschylos' Eumenides 23
Apollodorus' Library 1.3.2; 1.6.2; 1.9.12; 1.9.16; 2.2.2; and the whole of book 3
Apollodorus' Epitome 1.9; 3.10
Archilochus' Fragments
Aristophanes' Acharnenses 263-279
Aristophanes' The Frogs
2 Maccabbees 6.7; 14.33
3 Maccabbees 2:29
Diodorus Siculus' Library of History 3.66.1-2, 5.79.1
Euphorion Fragments 118
Euripides' Antiope 203
Euripides' The Bacchae
Euripides' Cretans, The Cyclops
Euripides' Hippolytus 339, 555
Heraklitos' Logos 124; 127
Hesiod's Catalogues of Women 18; 86
Hesiod's Theogony 940-942; 945; 947-949
Herodotus' The Histories 1.151; 2.29; 2.42; 2.47-50; 2.123; 3.8; 4.72; 4.78-80; 8.65
Homer's Iliad 6.119-143; 14.323-325
Homer's Odyssey 11.324-325
Homeric Hymn to Dionysos 1, 7, 26
Horace's Carmina 2.19; 3.25
Hyginus' Fabulae 1-4; 7; 43; 129-134; 166-167; 169; 184; 191-92
Hyginus' Poetica Astronomica 2.4-7; 2.21; 2.23
Livy's History of Rome 39.8-19
Lucian's De Dea Syria 16
Moiro's Fragments 2
Nonnos' Dionysiaca
Orphic Hymn 1, 13, 18, 27, 29, 30, 37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 56, 87
Ovid's Fasti 3.727
Ovid's Metamorphoses 3.259-315; 3.513-4.41; 4.389-419; 5.329; 7.294-296; 8.176-182; 11.67-84; 11.89-145; 13.650-674
Pausanias's Description of Greece
Pindar's Olympian Odes 2.25-27
Pindar's Pythian Odes 11.1
Plato's Laws 672b
Plato's The Republic 2.6-7
Plautus' Aulularia 408
Plautus' Casina 979-980
Pliny the Elder's Natural History 2.106: 31.13
Plutarch's Greek Questions 299
Plutarch's In Consolation to his Wife
Plutarch's Life of Alexander 2, 9
Plutarch's Table Talk 4.6.8; 7.17
Polyaenus' Strategika 1.1
Properce 3.7
Propertius 3.17
Sappho's Fragments 3.10
Sophocles' Antigone 955-65
Sophocles' Erigone
Sophocles' Thyestes 234
Sophocles' Oedipus in Colonnus 670
Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos 209
Copyright 2002 Sannion
All Rights Reserved
Posted with permission
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