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Maenadism in the Bacchae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

E. R. Dodds
E. R. Dodds
Affiliation:
Oxford University, England
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Extract

“In art, as well as in poetry, the representation of these wild states of enthusiasm was apparently due to the imagination alone, for in prose literature we have very little evidence, in historic times, of women actually holding revels in the open air. Such a practice would have been alien to the spirit of seclusion which pervaded the life of womankind in Greece. … The festivals of the Thyiads were mainly confined to Parnassus.” Thus Sandys in the introduction to his justly admired edition of the Bacchae. Diodorus, on the other hand, tells us (4.3) that “In many Greek states congregations (βακχεῖα) of women assemble every second year, and the unmarried girls are allowed to carry the thyrsus and share the transports of the elders (συνενθουσιάζειν).” And since Sandys' day inscriptional evidence from various parts of the Greek world has confirmed Diodorus' statement. We know now that such biennial festivals (τριετηρíδες) existed at Thebes, Opus, Melos, Pergamum, Priene, Rhodes; and they are attested for Alea in Arcadia by Pausanias, for Mitylene by Aelian, for Crete by Firmicus Maternus. Their character may have varied a good deal from place to place, but we can hardly doubt that they normally included women's ὄργια of the ecstatic or quasi-ecstatic type described by Diodorus, and that these often, if not always, involved nocturnal ὀρειβασíα or mountain dancing.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , July 1940 , pp. 155 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1940

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References

1 I must express my thanks to Professor A. D. Nock, whose friendly criticisms of this paper have saved me from several errors.

2 This traditional rendering of βακχεύειν has unfortunate associations. βακχεύειν is not to have a good time, but to share in a particular religious rite and/or have a particular religious experience — the experience of communion with god which transformed a human being into a βάκχος or a βάκχη.

3 Fouilles de Delphes, III. i. 195; I. G., IX. 282; XII. iii. 1089; Fraenkel, In. Perg., 248 (cf. Suidas s. v. τριετηρίς); Hiller v. Gärtringen, In. Priene 113 1. 79; I. G., XII. i. 155, 730; Paus., 8. 23. 1; Ael., Var. Hist., 13. 2; Firm. Mat., Err. prof. rel. 6. 5. Also τριετηρίδες among the half-hellenized Budini in Thrace, Hdt., IV. 108.

4 Wiegand, Milet, IV, p. 547 εἰς ὄρος ἦγε: cf. Bacch., 116, 165, 977, which suggest that εἰς ὄρος may have been a ritual cry.

5 Waddington, Explic. des Inser. d'Asie Min., p. 27, no. 57. That the title is Dionysiac is not certain. But there is literary evidence of Dionysiac ὀρειβασία on Tmolus, the eastern part of the same mountain range: Nonnus 40.273 εἰς σκοπιὰς Τμώλοιο θεόσσυτος ἤιε βάκχη, H. Orph. 49. 6 Τμῶλος … καλὸν Λυδοῖσι θόασμα (hence ἱερὸν Τμῶλον, Eur., Bacch., 65).”

6 X. 32. 5.

7 de primo frigido, 18, 953 D.

8 mul., virt., 249 E.

9 Ends and Means, 232, 235.

10 Dancing as a form of worship seems to have survived longest in certain of the American sects. Ray Strachey, Group Movements of the Past, p. 93, quotes the exhortation of the Shaker Elder 100 years ago: “Go forth, old men, young men and maidens, and worship God with all your might in the dance.” And it appears that the sacral dance is still practised by members of the Holiness Church in Kentucky (Picture Post, Dec. 31, 1938).Google Scholar

11 Reproduced by Lawler, Memoirs of the American Academy at Rome, 6 (1927), Pl. 21, no. 1.

12 Chronicle of Limburg (1374), quoted by A. Martin, Gesch. der Tanzkrankheit in Deutschland, Zeitschrift d. Vereins f. Volkskunde, 24 (1914). Similarly the Ghost Dance, for which North American Indians developed a passion in the 1870's, went on “till the dancers, one after another, fell rigid, prostrate on the ground” (Benedict, Patterns of Culture, 92).

13 Quoted by Martin, l. c., from various contemporary documents. His account supplements, and in some points corrects, the classic work of J. F. K. Hecker, Die Tanzwuth (1832: I quote from the Eng. trans, by Babington, Cassell's Library, 1888).

14 Hecker, op. cit, 152 f.

15 Hecker, 156.

16 Martin, 120 f.

17 Hecker, 128 ff.; Martin, 125 ff.

18 Hecker, 143 f., 150. Martin, 129 ff., finds a formal and regulated survival of the Rhenish compulsive-curative dances in the annual dancing procession of Esternach, which is still believed to be a cure for epilepsy and similar psychopathic complaints.

19 Perhaps expressed in Laconia by the term Δύσμαιναι (the title of a tragedy by Pratinas, Nauck, T. G. F.2, p. 726). Failure to distinguish the “black” maenadism described by the Messengers from the “white” maenadism described by the chorus has been responsible for much misunderstanding of the Bacchae.

20 Cf. Rohde, Psyche, IX, n. 21; Farnell, Cults, V. 120. Others explain Λύσιος and Λυαῖος as the liberator from convention (Wilamowitz) or the liberator of the imprisoned (Weinreich, Tübinger Beiträge, V (1930), 285 f., comparing Bacch., 498).

21 In vase paintings of maenads Lawler, l. c., 107 f. finds 38 occurrences of the flute and 26 of the tympanum, also 38 of crotala or castanets (cf. Eur., Cycl., 204 f.). She notes that “tranquil scenes never show the use of the tympanum.”

22 For the flute cf. Ar., Pol., 1341a 21 οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ αὐλὸς ἠθικὸν ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ὀργιαστικόν, and Eur., Her., 871, 879. For the τύμπανον in orgiastic cults at Athens, Aristoph., Lys., 1–3, 388.

23 Cf. the passages about corybantism collected by Rohde, IX, nn. 18, 19.

24 Martin, 121 f. So too the Turkish drum and shepherd's pipe were used in Italy (Hecker, 151).

25 Cat., Attis, 23; Ovid, Metam., III. 726; Tac., Ann., xi. 31.

26 For further examples see Rapp in Roscher's Lex. Myth., II. 2274. Lawler, l. c., 101, finds a “strong backward bend” of the head in 28 figures of maenads on vases.

27 Quoted in Frazer, Golden Bough, V. i. 19. Similarly in voodoo dances “their heads are thrown weirdly back as if their necks were broken” (W. B. Seabrook, The Magic Island, 47).

28 Frazer, ibid., V. i. 21.

29 P. Richer, Études cliniques sur la graude hystérie, 441. Cf. S. Bazdechi, Das Psychopathische Substrät der Bacch., Arch. Gesch. Med., 25 (1932), 288.

30 For other ancient evidence on this point see Rohde, Psyche, VIII, n. 43.

31 Benedict, Patterns of Culture, 176.

32 O. Dapper, Beschreibung von Africa, quoted in T. K. Oesterreich, Possession, 264, Eng. trans.

33 J. Warneck, Religion der Batak, quoted, ibid., 270.

34 A. Bastian, Völker des Östlichen Asiens, III, 282 f.: “When the Chao (demon lord) is obliged by the conjurations to descend into the body of the Khon Song (a person dressed as the demon lord), the latter remains invulnerable so long as he is there, and cannot be touched by any kind of weapon” (quoted, ibid., 353).

35 Czaplicka, Aboriginal Siberia, 176.

36 Binswanger, Die Hysterie, 756.

37 A. van Gennep, Les Rites de Passage, 161 f.

38 J. H. S., 26 (1906), 197; cf. Wace, B. S. A., 16 (1909–10), 237.

39 E.g. C. H. Smith, B. M. Vases, III. 368 (E775), about contemporary with the Bacchae; Pfuhl, Malerei u. Zeichnung, Abb. 581.

40 Cf. the passages quoted by Sandys on Bacch., 102.

41 Demos., de cor., 259. Cf. below p. 174.

42 Plut., Alex. 2.

43 Cf. Rapp, Rh. Mus., 27. 13. Even Sabazius, if we may believe Arnobius, eventually spared his worshippers' nerves by allowing them to use a metal snake (see n. 45). The snakes in the Dionysiac procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria (Athen., V. 28) were doubtless sham ones (like the imitation ivy and grapes described in the same passage), since the ladies were ἐστεϕανωμέναι ὄϕεσιν: a wreath of live snakes, however tame, would come undone and spoil the effect.

44 Picture Post, Dec. 31, 1938. I am indebted to Mr. R. P. Winnington-Ingram for calling my attention to this article.

45 Protrept., II. 16 δρακών δέ ἐστιν οὗτος (sc. Σαβάζιος) διελκόμενος τοῦ κόλπου τῶν τελουμένων; Arnob., V. 21 aureus coluber in sinum demittitur consecratis et eximitur rursus ab inferioribus partibus atque imis. Cf. also Firmicus Maternus, Err. prof. rel., 10.

46 Mithrasliturgie2, 124. The unconscious motive may of course be sexual in both cases.

47 Collected in Farnell, Cults, V, p. 302 f., nn. 80–84.

48 Def. orac., 14, 417C ἡμέρας ἀποϕράδας καὶ σκυθρωπάς, ἐν αἷς ὠμοϕαγίαι καὶ διασπασμοί.

49 Milet, VI. 22.

50 Kindly communicated to me by Miss N. C. Jolliffe.

51 See n. 48.

52 Cf. Benedict, Patterns of Culture, 179: “The very repugnance which the Kwakiutl (Indians of Vancouver Island) felt towards the act of eating human flesh made it for them a fitting expression of the Dionysian virtue that lies in the terrible and the forbidden.”

53 Schol. Clem. Alex. 92P. (vol. i, p. 318, Stählin); Photius s. v. νεβρίζειν; Firm. Mat., Err. prof. rel., 6. 5.

54 Frazer, Golden Bough, V. ii, chap. 12.

55 Plut., Q. Rom., 112, 291A.

56 Bacch., 743 ff., cf. Schol. Aristoph., Ranae, 360.

57 Bacch., 138, cf. Arnob., adv. Nat., 5. 19.

58 Photius s. v. νεβρίζειν. Cf. the art type of the maenad νεβροϕόνος, most recently discussed by H. Philippart, Iconographie des “Bacchantes,” 41 ff.

59 Galen, de antidot., I. 6. 14 (in a spring festival, probably of Sabazius).

60 Griech. Myth. u. Rel., 732.

61 As argued by Rapp, Rh. Mus., 27. 1 ff., 562 ff., and accepted e.g. by Marbach in Pauly-Wissowa s. v. and Voigt in Roscher s. v. Dionysos.

62 V. 272, cf. 219, 467.

63 Vv. 201–3. Cf. Tierney, Proc. Royal Irish Academy, 44 (1937), 70: “some such contradiction must clearly have struck observers of contemporary Attic mystery-cults. It is, in fact, not at all unusual for a semi-secret religion to claim at once high wisdom and popularity, hoary age and novelty.” It is not clear to me, however, what cults Tierney has in mind.

64 Thuc., II. 38.

65 Cf. K. Deichgräber, Die Kadmos-Teiresias Scene in E.'s Bakchen, Hermes, 70.

66 Perdrizet, Cultes et Mythes du Pangée, 75 ff.; F. Ribezzo, Riv. indo-greca-italica, 9 (1925), 108, 10 (1926), 141; H. Philippart, Les Thèmes mythiques des B., Revue de l'université de Bruxelles, 31 (1925–26), 527.

67 Perdrizet, 99, Philippart, l. c.

68 Notes on his translation of the Bacchae, p. 86.

69 H. Weil, Études sur le Drame Antique, 110 ff.; P. Masqueray, E. et ses idées, 149.

70 Cf. R. Nihard, Le problème des Bacchantes d. E., Paris-Louvain, 1912, 31 ff., 62.

71 “Les vieux mystères bacchiques étaient réservés aux femmes,” Nilsson, Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni, 10 (1934), 3; contra, Festugière, Revue Biblique, 44 (1935), 195. Nilsson seems to me to be right, at least as regards the ὀρειβασία. For Delphi, cf. Eur., fr. 752, Ar., Nub., 605, Plut., mul. virt., 249C, Paus., X. 4. 3; Eur., Ion, 550 ff. does not prove that men took part in the actual ὀρειβασία —Xuthus apparently met his maenad in his host's house, not on Parnassus. At Miletus the priestess “leads the women to the mountain on behalf of the whole state” (Milet, IV, p. 547). At Methymna we hear of an official called the γυναικονόμος who is to see that no other male is present at the παννυχίς; he must be over forty (I. G., XII. ii. 499). Euripides in his description of the normal rite (Bacch., 135 ff.) appears to recognize only one male celebrant, who is identified with the god; he corresponds to the Μιμαντοβάτης at Erythrae.

72 Cf. Zielinski, Tragodoumena, 226.

73 How much less we do not know. He was presumably still in Athens in the spring of 408, when the Orestes was played; he was dead by the spring of 406, when Sophocles' chorus wore mourning for him.

74 Cf. Xen., de vect., II. 3, Λυδοὶ καὶ Φρύγες καὶ Σύροι καὶ ἄλλοι παντοδαποὶ βάρβαροι πολλοὶ γἀρ τοιοῦτοι τῶν μετοίκων. On eastern slaves in Athens, P. Foucart, Des associations religieuses chez les grecs, 151. On the growth of superstition at Athens during the Peloponnesian War, O. Kern, Religion der Griechen, II, 287 ff.

75 Plut., Nic., 13, Alc., 18. Plutarch may have exaggerated the proximity in date of the Adonia to the sailing of the expedition, but I see no reason to dismiss the whole story as “a romantic fiction” (Deubner, Attische Feste, 221). Cf. J. Hatzfeld, R. E. G., 50 (1937), 293; F. R. Walton, Harv. Theol. Rev. 31 (1938), 65 ff.

76 Ar., Lysist., 387–97. Sabazius is first mentioned in the Wasps (422 B.C.) v. 9 f.; the Adonia in Cratinus fragm. 15 Kock and Ar., Peace 420 (though Adonis as a mythological figure appears already in Hesiod, fragm. 32 Rzach).

77 Julian, Orat., V. 159AB; Schol. in Ar. Plut. 431; Suidas and Photius s. v. μητραγύρτης. For the women's part cf. Strabo, VII. 3. 4, p. 297 ἅπαντες τῆς δεισιδαιμονίας ἀρχηγοὺς οἴονται τὰς γυναῖκας αὗται δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας προκαλοῦνται πρὸς τὰς ἐπὶ πλέον θεραπείας τῶν θεῶν.

78 Ar., Aves, 875 (414 B.C.); Soph., Phil., 391 ff. (409 B.C.). On the relationship of the Greek to the Asiatic “Mother” and of both to the Minoan see Farnell, Cults, III, chap. vi. Cybele's associate Attis is first mentioned by the comic poet Theopompus, fr. 27 Kock, probably in the last years of the fifth century (Geissler, Chronologie der Alt-Att. Kom., 67).

79 I. G., I2, 310, 208 (429/8). In Athenian literature she is first mentioned by Cratinus, fr. 80 Kock.

80 An increase of popular interest in orgiastic scenes appears to be attested also by the vase painting of the period. Lawler, l. c., p. 84, notes that representations of dances of an ecstatic kind are commonest between 440 and 400 B.C. Towards the end of the century the maenad with tympanum begins to be a favorite type, perhaps under the influence of the cult of Cybele (Rapp, Rh. Mus., 27. 571, cf. Bacch., 130 ff.). See also Webster, Greek Art and Literature 530–400 B.C., p. 174, and Furtwängler on Collection Sabouroff, pl. 55.

81 The shorter form, which is perhaps the more primitive, is preserved by Hesychius and Photius s. v. and H. Orph., xlix. 2.

82 Sabazius Phrygian, Ar. fragm. 566; Aves, 874 and Schol.; Strabo, X. 3. 18 (470); Hesych., s. v. Thracian: Schol. in Ar., Vesp., 9; Alex. Polyhistor apud Macrob., I. 18. 11.

83 Cf. Schol. in Ar., Aves, 874; Perdrizet, Cultes et Mythes, 79.

84 E.g. In. Perg. i. 248; Bull. Corr. Hell. 1877, 308 (Philadelphia). Jupiter Sabazius often in Roman inscriptions.

85 Plut., Q. Conv., 4. 6. 2; Photius s. v. Σαβοί; Schol. Ar., Lys., 388, Av., 874, Vesp., 9; Macrobius, l. c.

86 Plut. and Photius l. c., Schol. Ar., Av., 874.

87 Phot., s. v. κύβηβος.

88 Dem., de cor., 259; Ar. fragm. 566, Lysist., 388; Iamb., de myst., III. 9.

89 Snake, Dem. l. c.; Theophrastus Charact., 16; cf. n. 45. Bull, Diod., IV. 4. 2, cf. Euphorion fr. 14. νεβρίζων, Dem. l. c.

90 de cor., 259–60, de f. leg., 199, 281.

91 This is clearest in the case of Phryne, who was accused as κωμάσασαν ἀναιδῶς, καινοῦ θεοῦ εἰσηγήτριαν, θιάσους ἀνδρῶν ἐκθέσμους καὶ γυναικῶν συναγαγοῦσαν (Euthias fr. 2 Baiter-Sauppe). Her “new god,” Isodaites, was according to Plutarch Dionysus himself under one of his many aliases; certainly he was a deity of Dionysiac type. Moral prejudice against foreign cults probably had something to do also with the condemnation of the two priestesses, Ninus and Theoris. For the evidence see Foucart, Associations, 80 ff., 132 ff.

92 Laws, X. 910BC.

93 Cf. Plato, Rep., 364BC., Eur., Hipp., 1038.

94 Strabo, X. iii. 15. Cf. ibid., 18 ταῦτα γάρ ἐστι σαβάζια καὶ μητρῷα, of the rites described in the de corona.

95 Fragm. 586, Διονύσου … ὃς ἀν᾽ Ἴδαν τέρπεται σὺν ματρὶ ϕίλᾳ τυμπάνων ἐπ᾽ ἰαχαῖς. This must be the Idaean Mother — what would the Theban princess Semele be doing on Ida?

96 We might add the ivy, if the reading κιττοϕόρος is right in de cor., 260; and the τύμπανα appear ibid., 284. For Sabazius as a god of purifications cf. also Iamb., de myst., III. 10 ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Σαβαζίου εἰς βακχείας καὶ ἀποκαθάρσεις ψυχῶν … οἰκειότητα παρεσκεύασται.

97 V. 430 ff. Cf. Murray, Essays and Addresses, 84 f., E. and his Age, 194 f.; F. Wassermann, Die Bakchantinnen des E., N. Jbb. f. Wiss. u. Jugendbildung, 5 (1929), 272.

98 The Religious Teachers of Greece, 316 f.

99 Cf. W. Kranz, Stasimon, 235.

100 Cf. the much quoted remark of Wilamowitz that in the Bacchae Eur. tried to rid himself of the spirits which tormented him by giving them bodily shape (Heracles, I. 379 n.).