Chapter 13-Dionysus

Dionysia

• the second-largest festival in Athens at its height

Cadmus

King of Thebes, father of Semele

Euripides

Greek playwright, 5th c. BCE

Bacchae

a play about Bacchus, his power, and his followers, in 405 BCE

Pan

• Invented the panpipe, homeland of Arcadia

• Passion for nymph Echo, ended tragically; her voice was lost

archon

formal, aristocratic position

thyrsus

staff associated with Dionysian worship

Maenads

bacchic women in the mountains

ecstatic

out of one’s self

sileni

like satyrs, older and wiser, named for Silenus (famous satyr-like teacher)

thiasus

the “holy congregation” of worship

satyrs

part human, part animal (horse/goat)

• Nature, song, dance, music, sexuality, wine

Bacchae

female worshippers

omophagy

consumption of raw meat

sparagmos

the tearing apart of sacrificial victims