A Presentation of

Dionysus & Dionysus & TheaterTheater

Man’s benefactor -- Man's destroyer

Le QiMarch 20, 2000

Spheres of Influence:

• God of wine

• God of wild nature

• God of ecstatic possession

• God of dance

• God of mask and illusions

• God of “pleasurable” afterlives

Source: A Show for Dionysus

Split personality/Binary Opposition

• Male vs. female

• Joy from freedom vs. savage brutality

• Man’s blessing vs. Man’s ruin

Because his “product” wine can make Because his “product” wine can make you both happy and sadyou both happy and sad

The Great Dionysia

• The poets were the prophets and priests

• Actors and singers took part in the sacred performances

• All ordinary business was stopped

• No one could be put into prison (?????)

-- To purify emotions

The greatest poetry in Greece was written in tragic plays and was never equaled except by Shakespeare.

-- http://www.dl.ket.org/latin1/mythology/1deities/gods/lesser/dionysus.htm

The Theater

• Developed from the ceremonial worship• Public in nature• The focal point:level, circular space at the foot of

a hill • Orchstra: auditorium raised in a large semicircle • Skne(SP?):A building where actors change custom• Proskenion: Between Orchstra & Skne, the stage

http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/12780AncientGreece.html

But, but…why Dionysus??

• Most plays don't contain too much reference to Dionysus – except the Bacchae!!

““Theater had nothing to do with Dionysus." Theater had nothing to do with Dionysus."

--Some Ignorant Athenian--Some Ignorant Athenian

Spheres of influence

Let’s revisit…

God of wine

God of wild nature

God of ecstatic possession

God of danceGod of mask and illusions

God of “pleasurable” afterlives

Also…

Theater “Goat Song”Showed mostly Tragedies Which meant

And goats

were the sacred animals to DionysusThat wereSacrificed in his cult

Thus, tragedy theater could have been originated with the song sung during the sacrifices to Dionysus.

--http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dilorenz/myth/dionysus.html

http://web.uvic.ca/grs/bowman/myth/images/haifa/h45.jpg

http://www.belinus.co.uk/mythology/images/BacchusbyCaraglia1771.jpg

http://www.belinus.co.uk/mythology/images/BacchusbyCaraglia1771.jpg

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?arch=1990.01.0377&type=vase

http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~perlman/myth/images/penthprts.jpg

AND Finally…

http://www.dionysuskitchen.com/