Dionysus - Greek God of Wine and Festivity Statue

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Wine was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus and was his earthly incarnation. [12] Wine could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness. [13] Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, the initial driving force behind the development of theatre in Western culture. [14] The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. [15] He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god. [16] Robert Parker. Athenian religion: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-19-814979-4 The Resting Satyr, Roman copy of another work attributed to Praxiteles, Capitoline Museums Papposilenus bearing the infant Dionysos, variant on the Olympia Hermes, c. 350-300 BC, Musée du Louvre Popular culture [ edit ] Clearly, Hermes was a mischievous god from the moment of his birth. Moving easily between Mount Olympus and Earth, he was very popular with mortals. He was a great liar and thief, and even became the patron saint of thieves, liars and merchants. in German) Georg Treu, Hermes mit dem Dionysosknaben: ein Originalwerk des Praxiteles gefunden im Heraion zu Olympia, Wasmuth, Berlin, 1878.

The pediments were very damaged by time and military conflicts. Considered the archetype of classical sculpture, or even the embodiment of ideal beauty, several of the statues were removed from the building by Lord Elgin's agents in the early nineteenth century and transported to the British Museum in London. Some statues and many fragments are kept at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Other groups of sculpture, both reliefs at a smaller scale, from the Parthenon are the Metopes of the Parthenon and the Parthenon Frieze. The festival itself ended with a political meeting of the Assembly in the Theatre, instead of the Pnyx. Historical Significance The messenger of the gods was also a friend to mankind and, by relaying divine messages to mortals, he became the highest ranking being that they would ever encounter on their level of existence. Mortals could relate to him much more so than to the utterly fearsome Zeus. Following the pompe, the Theatre of Dionysus was purified by the sacrifice of a bull. According to tradition, the first performance of tragedy at the Dionysia was by the playwright and actor Thespis (from whom we take the word " thespian") in 534BC. His award was reportedly a goat, a common symbol for Dionysus, and this "prize" possibly suggests the origin of the word "tragedy" (which means "goat-song").Praxitèle aujourd'hui? La question des originaux», dans Praxitèle, catalogue de l'exposition au musée du Louvre, 23 mars-18 juin 2007, éditions du Louvre & Somogy, 2007, ISBN 978-2-35031-111-1, p.97-103 et p.&120-122. Roscher, Wilhelm Heinrich. 1937. Ausführliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Römischen Mythologie. p. 1133, fig. 14, Leipzig: B. G. Teubner. Blessed is he who, being fortunate and knowing the rites of the gods, keeps his life pure and has his soul initiated into the Bacchic revels, dancing in inspired frenzy over the mountains with holy purifications, and who, revering the mysteries of great mother Kybele, brandishing the thyrsos, garlanded with ivy, serves Dionysus." During the height of the Athenian Empire in the mid-5th century BC, various gifts and weapons showcasing Athens' strength were carried as well. Also included in the procession were bulls to be sacrificed in the theatre. The most conspicuous members of the procession were the chorēgoí (χορηγοί, "sponsors", literally: "chorus leaders"), who were dressed in the most expensive and ornate clothing. After the pompē, the chorēgoí led their choruses in the dithyrambic competitions. These were extremely competitive, and the best flute players and celebrity poets (such as Simonides and Pindar) offered their musical and lyrical services. After these competitions, the bulls were sacrificed, and a feast was held for all the citizens of Athens. A second procession, the kōmos (κῶμος), occurred afterwards, which was most likely a drunken revelry through the streets. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. p. 073, New York: Phaidon Press.

Howard Kathleen. 1994. Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide: Works of Art Selected by Philippe De Montebello. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since Adolf Michaelis in 1871, [N 1] the statues are designated from left to right by a letter: from A to W for the western pediment and from A to P for the eastern pediment. [1] Ramage, Nancy H. 2018. "Pacetti at the Getty." Vincenzo Pacetti, Roma, L'Europa all'epoca del Grand Tour. pp. 30–31, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider. Another procession and celebration was held on the final day, when the judges chose the winners of the tragedy and comedy performances. The winning playwrights were awarded a wreath of ivy.In Hellenic culture, Dionysus embodied a symbol of communal cohesion and reconciliation, closely connected with the theater. Every March, the city of Athens would hold a festival known as the Great Dionysia (also called the City Dionysia). Dating as early as the sixth century B.C., this dramatic festival lasted as many as six days. On the first day, a procession would open the festival as a statue of Dionysus was borne to his theater. After the day’s performances, a bull would be sacrificed and a feast held. Hartmann, Jürgen, Prof. Dipl.-Ing and Klaus Parlasca. 1979. Antike Motive bei Thorvaldsen : Studien zur Antikenrezeption des Klassizismus. pp. 73–4, pl. 20, 1, Tübingen: E. Wasmuth.

Ramage, Nancy H. 1999. "The Pacetti Papers and the Restoration of Ancient Sculpture in the 18th Century." Von der Schönheit weissen Marmors: Zum 200. Todestag Bartolomeo Cavaceppis, Vol. 2, Thomas Weiss, ed. pp. 81–82, fig. 54, Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern. Masks are a recurring theme in Dionysian lore. Known as the “masked god” in recognition of his numerous aliases, Dionysus was widely invoked in theater and revelry—both of which boast ties to masking. Goldhill, Simon (1987). "The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology". Journal of Hellenic Studies. 107 (1): 58–76. doi: 10.2307/630070. JSTOR 630070. S2CID 145343153. which ties together the civilizing and humane force of plays in the ancient world After the pompe procession was completed, there were contests of dancing and singing, and choruses (led by a choregos) would perform dithyrambs. Some festivals may have included dramatic performances, possibly of the tragedies and comedies that had been produced at the City Dionysia the previous year. This was more common in the larger towns, such as Piraeus and Eleusis. who carried long loaves of bread), skaphephoroi (σκαφηφόροι – who carried other offerings), hydriaphoroi (ὑδριαφόροι – who carried jars of water), and askophoroi (ἀσκοφόροι – who carried jars of wine).Cured of his madness, Dionysus continues to travel, and he is not alone. In many of the tales surrounding him, he is accompanied by an entourage who worship Dionysus in a state of drunken revelry, holding lavish festal orgia (rites) in his honor. Among them are nymphs called maenads—also known as the Bacchae, or bacchantes, who form the crux of his traveling retinue (the thiasus). Noted by Alfred Emerson, "Letter from Olympia", The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of Fine Arts 3.1-2, (June 1887), p. 96. Hermes and the Infant Dionysus, also known as the Hermes of Praxiteles or the Hermes of Olympia is an ancient Greek sculpture of Hermes and the infant Dionysus discovered in 1877 in the ruins of the Temple of Hera, Olympia, in Greece. It is displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. On the fifth day comedies were performed, so as to alleviate the heavy feelings brought on by the Tragedies earlier in the festival.