New evidence for the Dionysiac Mysteries

SIo0O New Evidence for the Dionysiac Mysteries. In two previous papers I have treated the Dionysiae mysterics in the Roman age! ‘The reason why I come back to this subject is a recently published inscription from Smyrna which gives valuable information concerning the contents of the mysteries and is the more Valuable as it comes from a Creek city? When HEBERDEY copied it the stone was in a private collection at Smyrna, it is now in the museum at Leiden. The inseription is written in good letters of the second century A. D. and is composed in hexameters. It was set up by a man whose name is lost except the ending -14:, son of Menandros. He styles himself Oro deryz. We come back to this title below (p. 32). The editor suggests ip. 18) that the inscription comes from the sanctuary of Dionysos Breiseus which was situated outside the town, for we know that mysteries were attached to this old cult in the Roman age? This is passible, not more. de la Societe des lettres at Ss . Dn ANT ry Tom late Untere e . er. ret sos There EEN > st >, was another mystery cult 7 a . , = thot . konnten hounselron CUR YPOREL meten H B i . . Fabeunb ssi, tase, Heilt pos . ~ ’ Suppl, epigr. . Graceum, . iv gee vit. Phe werd is peculiar BUS as a eowrse cloth of hair, esp. Boats’ haar, a garnuent of sack | made of such cloth, Perhaps it may be wentione chat the geat 35 especially connected with Dionysos. El erheen in this age initiated into the Bacchie mysteries! Whoever exposed a child deprived it af the boon ola happy atterhte, promised even to children by the Dionysiae mysteries. Perhaps the crime of the Titans against the child Dionysos (cf. below p. 42) lurks in the background. The following lines, vv. 6u, preseribe the nul periods for anyone who has come into contact with a death in his family, the third part of a month, or elsewbere, three divs. The editor makes the pertinent remark (p. 14) that the periods usually prescribed after sexual intercourse are missing. “This is perhaps not accidental. The pleasures of Aphrodite were not absent from the happy afterlife promised to the Bacehie mystac aud they may not have been averse to them in this life, The most interesting part of this inscription is the following lines which contain certain prescriptions especially referring to the mystery cult. It is a pity that precisely these lines are mutilated at the end, but the sense is clear in most of them. The editor rightly mentions Orphie influence, but there is also a Lund Ian especially The Isacelie Mysteries of the Ronan Age, Harvard Pheolopical Review. AVE 1053, bp. 177 Tt. 7 J Ken, Puschriften aus Smyrna, Anzeiger d. Öösterrvieh. Akal. Wien Ne 19054, pp. roth Noa. | See mey Deseh do griech, Religion LL p. 311. This was un associatio n ot telers who called themseives toystue, 2) think that increasing love of children in the Roman age, but there is a more special reason, Small children, even babies, were Tunes Universitet. Rell. MYSTERIES asks (p. IN u. 4) if this is due to a condemnation ol Uus usage which was common in ancient times. One may also refer to the Martin P. Nilsson. Liknites, DIONYSTAU prescribed for a wonton whoa haas tiasegied: (woop. By Erin sos FOR ‘THE After the preamble the text begins preseribing the periods ul time which must elapse before anyone who has contracted an impurity is allowed to enter the sanctuary of the god, here called Bromios. The first of these prescriptions is remarkable and uniques IF anyone has exposed a child, the time prescribed is lorty days, the longest period ever mentioned ame as lene an that \\s® | x. EVIDENCE Pythagorean influence. Pythagercanisn and Orplhisn went together in this age. I See amy Bacehie mysteries, pp. 170 6 I bake the opportunity: of calling attention to a monument, rerentiy published, a relict st Merops saad te ie, Arch. Tall Invii, have been found at Alexandris, Ko SCHALEN 1953. pe 7e, with hijg. 24 A boy, whose age, uveordune te the Iuseripliven, was three years sul Uwer months. is Iping ou a couch beldang a thytea, and a kantharos. ‘This suggests the happy altertte promised to the my star of Bacehus, and it is teasonalle te think that the boy biel been nutiates into these mysteries before he diel.

The first of these prescriptions, v. 11, not to approach the altars of the god in black clothes (geedurpágovs) needs no comment. Black was the colour of sorrow and the mysteries ought to be a joyous feast. Vin. up’ dÜéroi: Ovolarz Îroov Eni yioas iddfdew. The editor’s supplement seems certain because of the allusion to a Homeric phrase. This line and the following give prescriptions for the sacred meal. Sacred meals were parts of other mysteries tool, e.g. those of Mithras. It may be surmised that they were not much more than a plentiful dinner to the mystae of Bacchus who were fond of the pleasures of life. The preseriptions seem to aim at preventing such a desacralization. The word äfloros may signify either awliat has not been sacrificed» or »what is not allowed to be sacrificedr. Lf the former sense is preferred it is forbidden to begin the meal until the dishes have been sacrificed, Le, devoted to the god, sacralized. If the latter sense is preferable, the sentence refers to the following prohibitions of certain food stuffs.? In every case the sacred character of the meal is stressed against misuses which might be feared. The interesting result is that our knowledge of the Dionysiac mysteries is enriched by the fact that they comprised a sacral meal. In line 12, 470° Er Baxyelots bor ori duita Tecla, the mysteries are called Baccheia and the meal is expressly mentioned, It is forbidden to serve an egg at the sacred meal. Eygs are mentioned among the food prohibited by the Pythagereans,? but this prohibition has a deeper ground in Orphic doctrine. The PCE Cumont, Gaionas, le decmoxelty:, Compte-rendu de lAcad. des inscriptions, 1917, pp. 275 ff. 2 CE the Pythagorean preseription: Ovale yoy Eadienr pévor, Aristotle in Jamblichus, vita P’ythag, 85. 2 In the review of the Pythagorean prohibitions in Diogenes Laertius, vill, 32, together with eertain fish, avimals which key eps, beans. Also in the schehen on the Taloa ta Luciunns, dial mer, vii, 4, published by Route, Klein. Mas, xxv, 1870, pp. 558 tf. {p. 279, 24 Ramet reprinted by DUBNER, Attische Feste, p. 01, u. 5). It concerns a women’s festival localized in Eleusis, but the origin is certainly Vythagorean, Vlenty of food is served except such us is prohibited by the inysties (ép TH wortizip): pomegrauates, apples, fowl, eggs, und certain fish. EVIDENCE FOR THE DIONVSIAC 41 MYSTIERIES Bacchic mysteries had taken over the cosmic egg from Orphisin and it was sacred to them because, as Plutarch says, it was an imitation of that which produces and in itself encloses all! As it was highly venerated by the mystae of Dionysos it ought not to be served and eaten, although it was otherwise a common and well-liked food. The following three lines refer to Pythagorean customs. L. 03, zul XeudlyY xupronr roots Bwgols... A negative word must be supplemented, e.g. Gdéaobae, zagroör signifies vburno® A much quoted Pythagorean sentence forbade eating the heart} much less ought it to be offered to the god himself. One may perhaps he reminded of the myth that Athena saved the heart of the Dionysos child and brought it to Zens, Vv. 14 fl. nde dop T° Anfgroduu, Ov WIN hd - * - U ÉxÜporatip diger xoapow Er one - ~ To try and supplement these verses is of no use, The supplement of the editor omé{uputos| is very dubious, He takes the two verses to form one sentence but even this may be doubted, He takes the word doués to signify ostelly (p. 20) and says that he does not understand its reference. Nor did I, until Professor WIFSTRAND helped me and sagaciously solved the riddle, The word is extremely rare and never recorded in the significance of vsmell». It occurs only once in an addendum to the Herbarium of Dioscurides. It is said to designate the same plant as prior. As this is a leguminous plant like the bean, it is understandable that this too was prohibited by the Pythagoreans. ‘The phrase othe most odious root of the beans» is, according to Professor WikstRAND, only a poetical metaphrasis, and this seems to be right. I See any Bueehie Mysteries, pp. 180 ff. 2 pP. Weenen, Oplerhrauche der Griechen, pp. oie fb 3 See 1% Bonus, De symbolis Pythagercis, Dias. Berlin voos, pp 2g 1 with references. 4 Joioscurides, ELS 147: in the latest edition by WELLMANN T, p. 413, is conjectured deruypos. This will be the reason why the word ts Jett vaut in the latest edition of LibpErt and Scott. Our inscription proves that the conjecture is crroncous.

MARTIN NEW ÉVIDENCR POR CHI DHONVOLAU MN NILSSON What is left of Lib, Peerdvor mpodéyen porta: — — —, is clear, although the end is missing. Something is to be expounded to the ınystae about the Titans. This cannot be anything but their crime against the child Dionysos. It is extremely important to know that this main myth of Orphism was taken over by the Pionysiuc mysteries in the Roman age, although, of course, we are uot entitled to conclude that it was part of them everywhere. This lends some colour to the information that dances performed by Titans, Corybants, Satyrs, and Boukoloi were popular in Asia Minor! The lines 17 and 18, xad xudaprourt zo où Wolken — —, yam oli teren Door — — - , seem tess important, It is foibidleu to use reeds as castinets, which happened sometiues,4 The inyatac had to use other instruments af a stile: kind. On die great painting in Villa Item a nude dancing girl clashes cyiubals over her head. Only a few letters are left of the last line, We cannot tell whether the inscription continued or not, The discussion of the title Orogdytys, which the priest who ER IE AN to suggest that the Qeogdrty: as well as the aeppuototj urtıj; showed the power of the god Dionysos or the emperor respectively praising them, their power and their deeds in words. We know the Öurwdot in the cult of the emperor in Asia Minor, associations of prominent men who sang hymns in the honour of the emperor, As to Dionysos we read in the Orphic hymnbouk, which certainty emanated front some mystery cult, probably at Pergamen, ten hynins to Dionysos, more than to any other gad.! Lathe mysteries of Dionysos Kathegemon at Pergamon a éperoòuMiazuÂus appears. Such hymns were a constant element of the cults of this aye, The part of the Grogdrtys was that af a Denis as Chose ate salle who preach the god's virtues? The exphinition of the title Grogs may be, var Keun (p. 18 on. 3), that the god has to aunounce tumsell, but that at is not certain if we are allowed to conclude from the title that the priest uppeured iu the vole of the god sul anneunecd sommets te the mystae in sacred ceremonies, In certain Bacchie associations, at least in that of the fobacchi in Athens, the tenders played set up the inscription gives to himself, was deferred until now. the role of some gods;? we may also remember the Bavchie dances This word and others like it are well known. fegogdrty: is the oldest of them. It designated the highest functionary of the Eleusinian mysteries, who showed the fegd, the holy things, and was the leader of the mysteries. Accordingly the words dupiog.dyTye, telemyeartys were coined. The concrete significance is which were very popular in Asia Minor. a little obscured in these words, for the orgia are not objects. The duytogartys is the man who performs the rites of the orgia, + * There is an unpublished relief in the Cal Milles collection at Lidingö near Stockholm (lg. 1) whieh may dend some colour to this suggestion. I owe the photograph aud an exact de- The word oefustogdyty:, which was coined in the so-called scription to Dr A. ANDREN, sometime keeper of this colleetion.! nivsteries devoted to the emperor in the Roman age, can be understood as meaning that he showed an image of the emperor to the mystac, and the word Geog arrays likewise; this would mean that this man showed an image of the god, i.e. Dionysos, Lihink that this is hardly likely. We do not hear of any such vA marble plaque, breadth 35.5 em, height 46 em. The main figure has naked feet and is clad in a chiton reaching down to the feet with half-length sleeves; over this he wears a bide which is fastened on the left shoulder and round the waist a broad yirdle; ceremouy in these mysteries, but, having regard to our scanty knowledge of them, this is not decisive. However, I am inclined bemesten, de salt, zo, ep. my Gesch, d. griech. Religion ii, po 444. = Sechs. Außsteph. Nubes, v. 200, quoted by the author Le. p. to, me 7. > Quetobly Kerst, Le, po as, ag. ICH my Geseh. d. griech, Religion, di, py 347 ame quai sce uso my Dionysos Liknites, pp. tet and 14. 2 See any Gesell. do priceh. Religion ii, pp. glee fda tle neystertes of Demeter at Smyrna two sisters are mentioned as Oe uÂss tot, bel pe epe 3 See ibid. di, po 46 4 Cf his Guide to the Cullection of aneient Sculptures, Stockbudlur boas, No. 74. beranos

OEVIRBENVE FOR TIE BIONVSENC MSSTERIDS Hi is poured on the altar before him. The altar is square and profiles at the top and the bottom and decorated with a garlanıl. A heap of round fruits is laid on the top of it and on this the head of a goat with long, curved horns, striated transversally! At the corner of the altar stands the base of a much smaller figure of Priapus. The lower part of the figure is formed as a tapering: Square pillar or tena without beet, the opper peut ace nalid man, ithyphallie and with a bearded head it wears ae heal geese similar to a tutulns and on the shoulders a bide on ante whieh hangs down over the atts sul is Knolle on the bread. The figure holds in its raised right hand a cornucopia aud in the lowered Left hand an object which on close vonshlenation ie net te be taken for a Pedi? but tor a gardeners konnte ol the ty pe nue is seen e. g. on the Antinoos teliel® and on two reliefs in the VatiGun, teptesenting shops where kuiven ate made ot sold! Staite knives are still used in Italy today. Behind Dienysos {or bis priest) is a palin tree and behind the ligure of Mitepus a tree of another kind. The phallus of Priapus is broken oth, se alsa a bit of the left arm of the main fipuie, this part ds, levier, tue on again with gypsum. Traces of the drill in the touts, the garkanıd, the cornucopia, the tree, and the grape cluster as well as the archaic type of Dionysos seem to date the relief in the seco century A. D» At the first glance one would say that Dionysos is represehted sacrificing to Priapus, but there ure very serious objections to such an interpretation. Miss Simon has given the title »Opfermile Götter» to au interesting book it is misleading, for it suggests a god offering a sacrifice to some other god. In Fact such a god ’ ZANCANL Monitor (quoted below po 36, nm 5) explains the curved abject, seen on the burning altar ou some vise pietures (her tips 0 7 and 8), which generally is tukeu to be the tail ot the scored saatad an a goals horn. the head and the forepaws hang down on the breast, His hair wut beard are stylized in archaic fashion, long, spiral-form locks hang down on the back and the shoulders and shorter ones on the forehead; around the head is a diadem. The lowered left hand holds a cluster of grapes, the right a hora from which a libation The Keraten at Delos and the altar at Botero prove that special attention was paid Lo poate horns at the ven ritter, bat, cen bar un I know, they were not sided up dike the buerianm. 4 As I have douce in my Guide, Le. (ANDRENI. °? Dverrr, Karte in Romie dalle oripind ah veeel VEER Tar (ANDUEN). SUR, Paort, Das Leben im alten Rous pl ® RA SIMON, Opternde Gotler, lis Ames), ens ant

is never represented; the gods of the vase paintings which she treats pour out libations holding a phiale in their hands. They are not comparable to our relief. The book ought to have been allee »Spendende Götter in der attischen Vasenmalercis, Two examples seem to be more relevant, showing other sacrificial implements than the phialae À Hellenistic relief represents Artemis Kuprasis, carrying a sacrificial basket and kindling the fire on the altar with a torch! but here too there is no god who receives the sacrifice, The vase painting which shows ‘Themis Bendis.’ with a sacrificial basket and a torch before Bendis is allegorical: it is right to venerate the newly introduced goddess That a god should sacrifice to another god implies a contradiction. If then it is impossible to take the said representations as sacri- The Greeks felt so. When Alexander the Great offered to the Kphesians to dedicate the temple of Artemis, they auswered that it was not becoming for a god to make offerings to another god? lives in the vonnnon sense of offerings brought to a god, another 1621, pl. to explanation must be found. In certain cases the representations are similar to a libation at a farewell or a banquet, but this is not a sufficient explanation for the scenes quoted. Vase paintings sometimes represent statues of gods with phialae in their hands.i It cannot be meant that the statues are pouring out libations. Likewise a cup or a kantharos is the common attribute of the gods on the votive tablets from Locri in South Italy. The gods are standing or seated, sometimes a sacrifice is brought to them.® EMRENBERG, Die Rechtsidee im triihen Griechentum, 1 Figured Arch. Jahcb., xl, 1025, p. 285, Fig. 1. 2 NV p. 32, better ©. WaTAINGER, Grieeh. Vasen in Tübingen, 1924, pl 40. Cp, a. al ed. p. Bon. 6, ay Geseh ch griech Religion TP, po zi 3 Strabo, xiv, p. opt. dt does mot matter if the anvedote is historical or not, it shows what the Greeks thought. U X vase picture recently published by HK, BIELEFELD, Zur griech, Vasenmuiderer des 1. bis yg. Fadidts, 1952, pl xxvii, shows a avanon between two thymiateria bokling « phiale in each hand, ® Ser eg tae tablet published by Paola ZANCANT MoNTUoko, Fubella fittile harese con seena del culte, Rivista del R. Instituto d'archeologia e storia dell arte, vit, raggen. pp. Zoo HE, phot Geconstruction), figs 2 und 4. More in Q. QuacuiatTi, Rilievi votivi areniei in terracotta di Lokroi Epiévphyrioi, Ausonta ili, 1908, pp. 130 ff., fig.s 29, 31, 32, 33, 47, 5. EW EVID CH FOR THE DIONVSIAC MYSTERIES 37 Dionysos ssteritie ingg to Dring They cannot possibly be sacrificing or pouring out libations, One is reminded of the words of Aristophanes that when we pray to the gods for something good their statues stand stretehing out the hand upturned, not as to give anything but to get something? I think that the most common act by which veneration was paid to a god was transferred to the representations of the pods themselves in order to show their divine mature. The god's attitude is, so to speak, a projection of the worshipper’s The idea of the great pod attitude, seems to me to be really too strange to be accepted. IT this sersningly obvious interpretation is rejected it must needs be supposed that the majestic figure is the priest who has donned the attire of the god. We remember that in certain Bacchic associations members of these appeared in the roles af certain pods; even Dionysos himself is mentioned among these in the statutes of the Jobacchi ‘Phere are a few instance in Wiehe a woman appesis in the attire of a goddess in a processions they aie hardly vonparable. In the mysteries at Pheneos the priest put on the mask of Demeter Kidaria and beat: the éaeglurtons with a stick.’ Only this example is really relevant and belongs probably to the Hellenistic age. I know only one monument comparable to the relief in the Landsdowne collection (Fig. 2).4 The attitude and the dress ol Carl Milles collection, a relief on a round base, formerly in the ! Aristophanes, Beeles. vv. 780 ff. 2 Artemis at Patrac and Delphi, Paus, vii, 18, 7, Helicdorus, Acthicpica, Cp. 1% Back, De Gruvcorum enerlmonts in uate viii, 15, Apon, hesuines cleorui wire iii, 4: Athena at Pellene, Polyaenus, Strateg., vill gu, a doubtial anvedote. Paus, tunguntur, Diss. Berlin 1895. To awe a copy te the zeal ot Mr 4 Finteerre, Secretary 4 It is published by © Rizzo, Thamen, Tntssipediewt prod di sop tbo dionisiaco, 1934. This is à sumptuous pubheation, prsvately printed) in only 250 copies. dy a M. bee Hentique Mare veer, of our Institute in Rome, and the kindness of the Dottoressa Matis SANT ANGERS. The figure of Den voos again reprodmeed by fo Trenevailtes de fiicésons cite à Pileriuce ‚Hulk de carntesp The base is now ta the collection of 1 Ixvii, 1933. p. 507, ligt. 1 WilTTHaALL at Haslemere,

EVIDENCE FOR THE DIONYSIAC MYSTERIES So the surface of the altar, seem to be the ends of billets; what rests on these is indistinet, but a flame seems to be rising from it. Behind the altar there is no Priapus, a Maenad comes immediately before the god. Especially important is that Dionysos is surrounded by three ecstatically dancing Maenads.! They are taken from a series of eight Maenads of which certain are well known. R1Zz0 advances the opinion that the original composition representing the eight Macnads aal Dionysos as the central figure, wits due to the seulptor Kallimachos, 6 zutarij&it gros, who lived in the later part of the fifth century DB. © and Moantarr sites with him, The sculptor, who in the second century A, D. made the relief in the Carl Milles collection, changed Ins model too snit the Dionysiae cult of his time. He separate the jet brows his Maenads and added a Priapus to whom the sacrifice is made, This being so, colour seems to be lent to the opinien that not the god himself is meant but his priest who in this age sometimes donned the attire of Dionysos. The cult of Dionysos was very widespread in the Roman empire and is especially prominent in the provinces in which Diouysos was fused with indigenous gods, Africa and Pannonia, Its frequency in Thrace and the neighbouring districts depended of course on old traditions, Generally the inscriptions inlor ts only of its existence and at most of associations and their funetiouaries, This is not the place to enter into this vast sulject.4 I want only to point to two publications which show that the Bacchie ideas of the afterlife had penetrated the northern provinces. One is a tombstone found at a place in Bulgaria not far from Solia and published by Hyper? The reliefs are poor aud the Diotvsos are almost identical, but ou the Landsdowne relief he holds a kantharos from which he pours out a libation on the altar and he wears boots with upturned toes, while on our relief he is barefooted. The altar too is very similar, but it seems that a burnt sacrifice is offered. Four round objects, resting directly on tT Rizzo, he. figures so. tr, cal og. pp. zo, 21. at 24 resp. * Kor a survey see A, Brean, Biber pater, 195%, pp. 204 thy the asso: ciations pp. 208 ff. SR. Wiss, Keur Der Grabstein Schritten der von Cckancevra, Balkankemnmssion, Onterseie bevscdee Antiquariehié Abt, XA Abad

MARTIN NILSSON 1054. LAMSRECHT, L'exaltation de la tele clans Ta pensée et Vart 2 A. Anvenot, Chars funéraires bacchiques dans les provinces «ceidentales de L'empire romain, L'Antiquité classique viii, 1939, pp. 349 ft. then Celtes, heal see also PD. Ob pass over the other symbols, referring to the editor. For the detached ‘Thrace, ‘This mode of sepulture is indigenous, but that the cars are ornamented especially with Bacchie emblems shows that the men, carried to their tombs in these cars, and their people believed in the happy afterlife promised by the Bacchic ınysteries. real cars found in tombs in Belgica, Germania, Pannonia, and by the priestess, being introduced to the god.} The other publication is a paper by Alföldi? treating some fune- Latin inscription very difficult to read and to understand. According to the editor’s interpretation the stone is set up for a woman who at the age of ten years was initiated into the mysteries of Dionysos, became a servant of the local god (domi Biacusti atitjcensita), died twenty-three years later and joined the thiasos of the god (exritor iapm) savis fice, aaßar, the Thracian name of the followers of the god], Filina comite matre (the priestess], Nist ancilla iservant of Nysius, i.e. Dionysos]). The relief on the top of the stone is interpreted as showing the woman, accompanied