As Dirk Obbink writes in Dionysos Poured Out, "In the worship of Dionysos by private groups the eschatological message of Dionysian ritual (including sacrifice) was the imaginative acquisition of a lasting Dionysiac identity, either as a member of the God's eternal entourage or through identification with one of the God's mythical roles." (Masks of Dionysos, pg. 69)
According to Euripides, "He who leads the throng becomes Bacchus," (Bacchae 115) and Plato wrote that during the Dionysian initiations, the initiates "search eagerly within themselves to find the nature of their God, they are successful, because they have been compelled to keep their eyes fixed upon the God ... they are inspired and receive from him character and habits, so far as it is possible for a man to have part in God." Uniting with God was also an idea shared by the Stoics of that era. Seneca wrote, "God is near you, he is with you, he is within you." We know from the Inscriptions of the Iobacchoi that certain members held the title of Bakkhos, and we find a female devotee who was addressed as a Bakkhes. The Neoplatonic philosopher Olympiodoros wrote, "Our body is Dionysian, we are a part of him, since we sprang from the soot of the Titans who ate his flesh." (In Platonis Phaedonem comentarii 61C)
Often, the deceased were depicted in the form of Dionysos. For instance, the statue of M. Marius Trophimus, hierophant at Melos, was shown wearing a panther skin, holding a thyrsos, and wreathed with a crown of grape leaves. Two statues of Archelaus in this form have come to light at Lerna - one dedicated by his friends and placed in the sanctuary of Deo, the other by his wife was placed in a temple of Luaios. In Dascylium the thiasoi of mystai dedicated a relief "with the figure of Bromius", showing one of their members as Dionysos, carrying a thyrsos and standing by a tree. In Rome a mother and father showed the image of Dionysos on the sarcophagus of their child with the inscription, "I am called Saturninus; my mother and father set me up from a child to the representation of Dionysos." (IGUR no. 1324) Apuleius describes a widow who had a picture of her dead husband represented in the costume of Dionysos. (Metamorphoses 8.7) And the Emperor Caligula was even said to have had his likeness made in the guise of Dionysos. (Athenaios 4.148b-c)
E. A. Wallis Budge in The Legend of Osiris writes, "Osiris was the God through whose sufferings and death the Egyptian hoped that his body might rise again in some transformed or glorified shape, and to him who had conquered death and had become the king of the other world the Egyptian appealed in prayer for eternal life through his victory and power. In every funeral inscription known to us, from the Pyramid Texts down to the roughly written prayers upon coffins of the Roman period, what is done for Osiris is done also for the deceased, the state and condition of Osiris are the state and condition of the deceased; in a word, the deceased is identified with Osiris. If Osiris lives forever, the deceased will live for ever; if Osiris dies, then will the deceased perish."
Ancient Egyptian literature furnishes us with many examples of this identification:
"This King is Osiris, this Pyramid of the King is Osiris, this construction of his is Osiris..." - Pyramid Texts, Utterance 600.
"BECOMING THE COUNTERPART OF OSIRIS. I indeed am Osiris, I indeed am the Lord of All, I am the Radiant One, the brother of the Radiant Lady; I am Osiris, the brother of Isis." - Coffin Texts, Spell 227
Being an Osiris, Ani expects a resurrection like that of the God, and therefore addresses himself as follows: "O thou . . . whose limbs cannot move, like unto those of Osiris! Let not thy limbs be without movement; let them not suffer corruption; let them not pass away; let them not decay; and let them be fashioned for me as if I were myself Osiris'' (Ibid., XLV). The same aspirant continues: "The mighty Khu taketh possession of me . . . Behold, I am the God who is Lord of the Duat" (Ibid., X). And again: "I am the Great One, son of the Great One.... The head of Osiris was not taken from him, let not the head of Osiris Ani be taken from him. I have knit myself together; I have made myself whole and complete; I have renewed my youth; I am Osiris, the lord of eternity" (Ibid., XLIII).
But perhaps the most beautiful expression of this idea is to be found in Coffin Text 330, where we find:
"Whether I live or die I am Osiris, I enter in and reappear through you, I decay in you, I grow in you, I fall down in you, I fall upon my side. The Gods are living in me for I live and grow in the corn that sustains the Honoured Ones. I cover the earth, whether I live or die I am Barley."
Copyright 2005 Sannion
All rights reserved
Posted with permission
Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/wargod/public_html/greek/rel/diosiris/identified.php on line 91
Warning: include(http://www.wargoddess.net/includes/back.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/wargod/public_html/greek/rel/diosiris/identified.php on line 91
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.wargoddess.net/includes/back.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/wargod/public_html/greek/rel/diosiris/identified.php on line 91
