If you think about Ancient Hellas, then most of all we are familiar with its gods and heroes. However, it should be emphasized that they did not arise suddenly, not simultaneously. And the opinion that the gods lived on the low Mount Olympus is a very ancient idea, which the Greeks quickly overcame and settled their gods in sky-high heights.
One of the oldest gods was Dionysus. His cult is related to the cult of the dark and mysterious Hecate. The Greek religion began, like all archaic religions, with shamanistic initiations in which women participated, holding the rod of Dionysus in their hands. These were the prayers of the gods for fertility and luck.
These were orgiastic cults - the rural holidays of Dionysus. The ancients were fascinated by the unpredictable nature of man. They decorated themselves with wreaths of
grape leaves, and the rod of Dionysus helped, leaning on it, to quickly move through the mountains and hills and plains.
The appearance of Dionysus
His appearance to the world is tragic: he was born three times. He was conceived by Zeus from the beautiful mortal woman Semela, daughter of the Theban king Cadmus. Zeus Semele swore an indestructible oath to fulfill her any request. And the cunning jealous Hera, wanting to destroy Semela and her child, said: "If Zeus loves you as he assures, then let him appear to you in all his greatness." Zeus could not refuse and appeared in all its splendor. Lightning strokes shocked the palace, a fire broke out from the bright lightning in Zeus' hands. Semele died, but gave birth to a weak boy. He was supposed to die in a fire. But instantly around the child grew thickets of thick green ivy, closed off the fire and saved him from death.
Zeus sewed the boy into his thigh, in which he grew up and was born a second time. Zeus gave him upbringing to Sister Semela and her husband Atamant. Hera sent madness upon Atamant, and he killed his son and already wanted to kill Dionysus. But Zeus did not allow this. Hermes transferred Dionysus to the education of nymphs.
So Dionysos three times escaped death. And he grew up as a beautiful god, always beautiful and young, who taught people how to grow grapes and make wine out of it. He gave people strength, joy and fertility. The rod of Dionysus became his symbol. And all the women who participated in the Dionysos had in their hands an ivy-wrapped rod of Dionysus.
Dionysian Mysteries
In the cold season - in late autumn, and even in winter, obedient Greek women abandoned their homes and families. They began to gather in the streets and squares, drink undiluted wine, dance to rhythmic music, swaying slowly at first, and then faster and faster. Each had a rod of Dionysus in his hands. At this time, men did not dare to approach them: it was a special magic of worship of Dionysus, for a plentiful harvest, for protection from hunger, disease and death. To begin with, dancing and laughing wildly, they feasted and violated all conceivable and inconceivable prohibitions: they drank strong undiluted wine (it was supposed to reveal the truth to them, give way to other worlds), scattered food at random. They likened themselves to the gods to whom no laws were written, and they all can.
Where did the mysteries go
They were held in gloomy tracts, on the hills on the seashore. Dionysus was a dark god, unlike a clear harmonious Phoebe, in whom everything is clear, sunny, calibrated, calculated. And initially the cult of Dionysus dominated as the god of wine, winemaking, fun, ecstatic dancing and mystical delight.
Collective delight and very powerful hallucinations arose. This tells a terrible legend. King Pentheus does not recognize Dionysus as a god. But he appears to the tsar under the guise of a wanderer and very cruelly jokes at the tsar: Dionysus carries the tsar to a bacchanal, on which men cannot appear at all. Bacchus, under the influence of hallucinations, take Pentheus for a lion. They tear him to pieces, and his mother raises her son's head on a rod and solemnly carries it to the palace. And then the mother becomes clear.
The retinue of Dionysus
Throughout Greece, all its islands and settlements, young Dionysus walks in a wreath of grapes. Around him revolve in a dance with singing and cries of rapture of maenad and bacchante, drunken satyrs with goat legs jumping. Behind everyone, they drive a very hungry Silen on a donkey - he himself can no longer move. Next to it is a wineskin with wine. God walks merrily on earth. He walks to the sound of music on green valleys and lawns, on mountains and copses in olive groves filled with fruits. All the joy of a full-blooded life in his power.
The rod of Dionysus, entwined with ivy and leaves of grapes, recalls how he was saved from the flame and how he taught people winemaking.