We Dionysians are creatures of extreme complexity.

There’s a lot to genuinely admire about Demetrios Poliorketes …

… and a couple things that make even me cringe.

It takes a lot to make me cringe. If nothing else, he gets an A for effort.

You should read the rest of his Bios by Plutarch. Here are some choice excerpts:

Accordingly, the ancient Spartans would put compulsion on their helots at the festivals to drink much unmixed wine, and would then bring them into the public messes, in order to show their young men what it was like to be drunk. And though I do not think that the perverting of some to secure the setting right of others is very humane, or a good civil policy, still, when men have led reckless lives, and have become conspicuous, in the exercise of power or in great undertakings, for badness, perhaps it will not be much amiss for me to introduce a pair or two of them into my biographies, though not that I may merely divert and amuse my readers by giving variety to my writing. Ismenias the Theban used to exhibit both good and bad players to his pupils on the flute and say, you must play like this one,” or again, “you must not play like this one”; and Antigenidas used to think that young men would listen with more pleasure to good flute-players if they were given an experience of bad ones also. So, I think, we also shall be more eager to observe and imitate the better lives if we are not left without narratives of the blameworthy and the bad.

[...]

But just as among the elements of the universe, according to Empedocles, love and hate produce mutual dissension and war, particularly among those elements which touch or lie near one another, so the continuous wars which the successors of Alexander waged against one another were aggravated and more inflamed in some cases by the close proximity of interests and territories, as at this time in the case of Antigonus and Ptolemy. Antigonus himself was tarrying in Phrygia, and hearing there that Ptolemy had crossed over from Cyprus and was ravaging Syria and reducing or turning from their allegiance its cities, he sent against him his son Demetrius, who was only twenty-two years of age, and was then for the first time engaging with sole command in an expedition where great interests were at stake. But since he was young and inexperienced, and had for his adversary a man trained in the training-school of Alexander who had independently waged many great contests, he met with utter defeat near the city of Gaza, where eight thousand of his men were taken prisoners and five thousand were slain. He lost also his tent, his money, and in a word, all his personal effects. But Ptolemy sent these back to him, together with his friends, accompanying them with the considerate and humane message that their warfare must not be waged for all things alike, but only for glory and dominion. Demetrius accepted the kindness, and prayed the gods that he might not long be indebted to Ptolemy for it, but might speedily make him a like return. And he took his disaster, not like a stripling thwarted at the outset of an undertaking, but like a sensible general acquainted with reverses of fortune, and busied himself with the levying of men and the preparation of arms, while he kept the cities well in hand and practised his new recruits.

When Antigonus learned of the battle, he said that Ptolemy had conquered beardless youths, but must now fight with men; however, not wishing to humble or curtail the spirit of his son, he did not oppose his request that he might fight again on his own account, but suffered him to do it. And not long after, up came Cilles, a general of Ptolemy, with a splendid army, intending to drive Demetrius out of all Syria, and looking down upon him because of his previous defeat. But Demetrius fell upon him suddenly and took him by surprise, put him to rout, and captured his camp, general and all; he also took seven thousand of his soldiers prisoners, and made himself master of vast treasures. However, he rejoiced to have won the day, not by reason of what he was going to have, but of what he could restore, and was delighted, not so much with the wealth and glory which his victory brought, as with the power it gave him to recompense the kindness and return the favour of Ptolemy. And yet he did not do this on his own responsibility, but first wrote to his father about it. And when his father gave him permission and bade him dispose of everything as he liked, he sent back to Ptolemy both Cilles himself and his friends, after loading them with gifts. This reverse drove Ptolemy out of Syria, and brought Antigonus down from Celaenae; he rejoiced at the victory and yearned to get sight of the son who had won it.

[...]

And now Seleucus, who had once been expelled from Babylonia by Antigonus, but had afterwards succeeded in recovering the realm and was now wielding the power there, went up with an army, designing to annex the tribes on the confines of India and the provinces about Mount Caucasus. Demetrius, accordingly, expecting that he would find Mesopotamia unprotected, suddenly crossed the Euphrates and invaded Babylonia before Seleucus could stop him. He expelled from one of its citadels (there were two of them) the garrison left there by Seleucus, got it into his power and established in it seven thousand of his own men. But after ordering his soldiers to take and make booty of everything which they could carry or drive from the country, he returned to the sea-coast, leaving Seleucus more confirmed than before in his possession of the realm; for by ravaging the country Demetrius was thought to admit that it no longer belonged to his father. However, while Ptolemy was besieging Halicarnassus, Demetrius came swiftly to the aid of the city and rescued it.

The glory won by this noble deed inspired father and son with a wonderful eagerness to give freedom to all Greece, which had been reduced to subjection by Cassander and Ptolemy. No nobler or juster war than this was waged by any one of the kings; for the vast wealth which they together had amassed by subduing the Barbarians, was now lavishly spent upon the Greeks, to win glory and honour. As soon as father and son had determined to sail against Athens, one of his friends said to Antigonus that they must keep that city, if they took it, in their own hands, since it was a gangway to Greece. But Antigonus would not hear of it; he said that the goodwill of a people was a noble gangway which no waves could shake, and that Athens, the beacon-tower of the whole world, would speedily flash the glory of their deeds to all mankind.

[...]

But there are things hotter even than fire, as Aristophanes puts it. For some one else, outdoing Stratocles in servility, proposed that whenever Demetrius visited the city he should be received with the hospitable honours paid to Demeter and Dionysus, and that to the citizen who surpassed all others in the splendour and costliness of his reception, a sum of money should be granted from the public treasury for a dedicatory offering. And finally, they changed the name of the month Mounychion to Demetrion, and that of the last day of a month, the “Old and New,” to Demetrias, and to the festival called Dionysia they gave the name of Demetria. Most of these innovations were marked with the divine displeasure. The sacred robe, for instance, in which they had decreed that the figures of Demetrius and Antigonus should be woven along with those of Zeus and Athena, as it was being carried in procession through the midst of the Cerameicus, was rent by a hurricane which smote it; again, all round the altars of those Saviour-gods the soil teemed with hemlock, a plant which did not grow in many other parts of the country at all; and on the day for the celebration of the Dionysia, the sacred procession had to be omitted on account of severe cold weather that came out of season. And a heavy frost followed, which not only blasted all the vines and fig-trees with its cold, but also destroyed most of the grain in the blade. Therefore Philippides, who was an enemy of Stratocles, assailed him in a comedy with these verses:—

Through him it was that hoar-frost blasted all the vines,
Through his impiety the robe was rent in twain,
Because he gave the gods’ own honours unto men.
Such work undoes a people, not its comedy.

But to resume the story, when Demetrius was getting ready to return to Athens, he wrote letters to the people saying that he wished to be initiated into the mysteries as soon as he arrived, and to pass through all the grades in the ceremony, from the lowest to the highest (the “epoptica“). Now, this was not lawful, and had not been done before, but the lesser rites were performed in the month Anthesterion, the great rites in Boëdromion; and the supreme rites (the “epoptica“) were celebrated after an interval of at least a year from the great rites. And yet when the letter of Demetrius was read, no one ventured to oppose the proposition except Pythodorus the Torch-bearer, and he accomplished nothing; instead, on motion of Stratocles, it was voted to call the current month, which was Munychion, Anthesterion, and so to regard it, and the lesser rites at Agra were performed for Demetrius; afterwards Munychion was again changed and became Boëdromion instead of Anthesterion, Demetrius received the remaining rites of initiation, and at the same time was also admitted to the highest grade of “epoptos.” Hence Philippides, in his abuse of Stratocles, wrote:—

Who abridged the whole year into a single month

and with reference to the quartering of Demetrius in the Parthenon:—

Who took the acropolis for a caravansery,
And introduced to its virgin goddess his courtesans.

Dver provides an account of our Antroneia festival here:

Last weekend Sannion and I celebrated the Antroneia, an every-other-year festival we do for Dionysos of the Caves. We drove three hours to the Bend area of Oregon to visit the lava caves, or rather one cave in particular that we have started to form a relationship with.

Something to add: one of the girls with the family that showed up towards the end of the rite was named Arianna. Which is the modern Greek form of Ariadne. I took it as a good sign.

Here’s a great piece by Jack Faust regarding the dead:

As I ventured down the street with my unseen companion, I began to notice something strange. Around me figures were emerging from the mist. They didn’t seem to move “normally,” which is to say that as they walked their bodies seemed to stretch or elongate. They were dressed normally, and seemed to take no notice of me. They just “walked sideways,” which is the closest I can come to describing what I saw. It wasn’t so much they they weren’t moving along the sidewalks or through the street as the average citizen of the city might. It was more that the visual image of their bodies elongating or stretching as they did made them appear as if they were walking sideways.

“Why are those people moving so strangely?” I asked my unseen companion – although I’m not sure whether or not I spoke the words aloud.

The response was almost instantaneous. “They are the dead.”

Mr. Faust will be our guest on the next episode of Wyrd Ways Radio, airing Wednesday September 18th at 7:00pm PST / 10:00pm EST. We’ll be discussing chaos magic, spiritism, ancient Greco-Roman necromancy, the goddess Hekate and a host of other interesting topics. Be sure to tune in, everyone! And if you’d like to call with a question for Mr. Faust the number is 347-308-8222.

Here’s what we’ve got so far for the hymn of the kōmastaí. I’m going to let this simmer until the noumenia of Staphylion (October 5th) and then the final form of it will be compiled. Feel free to add anything else you’re inspired to contribute. I am really blown away by how well this has turned out.

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

World’s scourge, wreathed in vines
Mask of comedy, mask of tragedy
You turn the ship to vines, king’s son, masked god.
Child born of divine radiance and sorrow
Harrower of Hades
Leader of Bacchanates, wielder of the thyrsos
The old man turned Maenad for you
The great king turned mad
Runner on the mountain
Dancer, laugher, leaper
We weep blood for you,
torn to pieces,
reunited
reborn.
Leopard skin, slashing smile
Evoe! Evoe!
We are drunk with You
we fly for You
we receive your scourge
we receive your touch
The hillside calls your name,
the echoes
Evoe! Evoe!
Khaire Dionysos!

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

O Intoxicator,
Seize Inhibition
Restore my vision
Come to fruition
And bind fast with my blood
Your fire eyes like fireflies render lies
Obsolete.

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

Mad one
You once came to me
in white Dragons Milk
Filling me
Intoxicating me
Driving me
and urging me
to sing and dance
From life
into Death
But this is no more

Driver of Madness
Intoxicator
Fill us
with your Divine
Inspiration
Your Madness
Joy
and Ecstasy
So that we may
Dance
Sing
and Praise you
Anew

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

Morning glory!
You lurk in the
Doors and run twixt
Trees, shouting, mad,
Reveling.

We pour the wine
And you are poured
For us, for Gods;
For all the world
Thundering.

Wine, beer, liquor–
All these different
Things are your own,
Your gold ichor
Tantalizing.

In the clear soft
Moments, we sit,
We wait; You creep….

And shake us wildly from
The dull idiocy of mundane
Life!

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

My Lord, I looked into the wine-bowl,
stirred the blood-darkness
and you spoke.

God who comes, come to us.
Come with fangs to pierce.
Come with claws to rend.
Come with dirt still clinging.
Come with ivy all-entwining.

Come with teeth to devour
or horns to gore –
come with the cup of liberation
or the cup of madness.
Whatever cup you give, I will drink.

Come, Lord, who broke the prisons.
Come, Lord, who sets the women running.
Come, Lord, who tears down expectations.
Come, and be welcome.

Come neither to India nor to Thrace,
but to every land that drinks the blood of the grape
and calls out for you in drunken bliss.
Come neither as a child nor a man,
neither masked nor bare-face,
but exactly as you will.

Come not to satisfy our desires,
nor to gratify our expectations,
but to break and devour,
rending and rendering us
fit for your dance,
fit for your table,
fit for your love.

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

Many Masked
Many Named
Come to us with
Your Many Pleasures!

God in the vine
sap in the tree
ash in the tomb
blood in the heart
fire in the loin
flesh in the mouth
cry from the soul
Come to us with
Your Many Pleasures!

Dancer!
Destroyer!
Living God!
Life Affirming!
Rapacious!
Rapturous!
Come to us with
Your Many Pleasures!

Come to us with
Your serpent crown
Your garland blood
Your blooded horns
Your flowing locks
Your limpen step
Your honeyed love
Your wild parade
Your restless souls
Your flowering thunder
Come to us with
Your Many Pleasures!

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

Come girded in flowers, in ivy, in vine
Come wreathed, come dark-robed, come wrapped in skins
Come barefoot, come high-shod, heels far from the ground
Come masked, come barefaced, come bearded, come shorn
Come in your throng howling, buzzing, shrieking
Come whirling and come stately slow

Come sticky with honey, come sticky with blood
Come sticky with sex and with wine poured on earth
Come running, come dancing, come beast-drawn, come beast
Come horned, Bull-Faced, come painted, Womanly
Come with Your blessings, analgesia, indulgence
Come for Your offerings of wool and of grain
Come receive libations of oil and wine

Come, we call You, come, we beseech You
Come, come lead us, Twice-Born, Thrice-Born
You Who have walked through the Underworld and back
You Who have frenzied and regained your sense
You Who give madness as blessing and curse
You Who learned rites on the knee of Magna Mater
You Who know secrets of woman and of man
You Who shield those outside law of the city
You of the night woods, You of exuberance
You of song, dancing, the stage and the tomb
Child of Semele, Child of Zeus
Child of the Queen of the Spring and of Death
Slain by the Titans, miscarried yet born
Come, we call You, come, we beseech You
Come, come lead us, may our glasses be full
May your name yet be honored through all halls of the world
Through the woods and the mountains, let your songs still be cried
Come, Dionysos, come!

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

How shall I sing of you?
Oh great God, oh fast destroyer
Enabler of my heart and soul
How shall I sing of you?
when all I know is of organized disorder
Thoughtfully misplaced keys
Where shall I sing of you?
By the vine of course
And by the laughter of the audience
By a blush brought to the cheeks and drunken revelry
Sex had and half-remembered
Never will I know a frenzy like yours
An equitable envy
For a second to break down walls
And lie where you fall
Don’t think
Don’t rationalize
Be just be
These are you gifts I know
(Oh yes I know)
This is your blessing and your curse
(Oh yes I know)
So let your touch be in my life
Not so heavy as to destroy my order
But just heavy enough so that I remember
So that I remember
I remember
Remember

Freedom.

Come, come! In whatever form pleases you, come!

To the god Dionysos who listens and helps. Kallistos dedicated this.

*      *      *

This entry in our series was contributed by Marc from Of Axe and Plough who was recently on a trip to Italy. While in the Museo Delle Navi Romane in Nemi he saw this column which contains Kallistos’ inscription and snapped the following picture of it.

Επηκοως (Epekoōs) “He who hears” is one of my favorite titles of Dionysos. It just speaks volumes.

Thank you Marc for keeping an eye out!

If we add to this horror the ecstatic rapture, which rises up out of the same collapse of the principium individuationis from the innermost depths of human beings, yes, from the innermost depths of nature, then we have a glimpse into the essence of the Dionysian, which is presented to us most closely through the analogy to intoxication.

Either through the influence of narcotic drink, of which all primitive men and peoples speak, or through the powerful coming on of spring, which drives joyfully through all of nature, that Dionysian excitement arises. As its power increases, the subjective fades into complete forgetfulness of self. In the German Middle Ages under the same power of Dionysus constantly growing hordes waltzed from place to place, singing and dancing. In that St. John’s and St. Vitus’s dancing we recognize the Bacchic chorus of the Greeks once again, and its precursors in Asia Minor, right back to Babylon and the orgiastic Sacaea.

– Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy

Tonight’s show is going to be intense.

At 7:00pm PST / 10:00pm EST we’ll be talking to Jack Faust on Wyrd Ways Radio about faustian matters.

You won’t want to miss this one.

Tune in here or better yet call 347-308-8222.

We had an in depth conversation with Jack Faust on working with local and city spirits, plant spirits and the dead as well as the links between ancient Greco-Roman and contemporary ceremonial magic and how to get started with all of this.

It was so refreshing to talk with someone who seriously knows their shit.

Be sure to check out the archive here if you didn’t listen to it live!

In two weeks we’ll have Ruadhán J McElroy on Wyrd Ways Radio to discuss Eros worship, queer issues, Mod culture and Hellenismos, as well as whatever else comes up. (Like Ruadhán’s displeasure with the state of the community or his cultus for Marc Bolan whose annual hero-feast is currently going on.)

That’s one you won’t want to miss either!

As you may have noticed from listening to the show I was quieter than normal tonight. Partly that’s because I was so impressed by Mr. Faust and wanted to give him plenty of air time and partly it’s because I’m really not feeling well. Been dealing with a lot of shit physically, emotionally and spiritually the last couple of days and it’s taken its toll on me. I don’t think my stomach could handle the wine tonight and wine is an essential component to the Dionysian oracular work I do. (Indeed the elaborate ritual procedure which centers on a sacramental sharing of wine with the god is part of what distinguishes that from ordinary divination work.) So, unfortunately, that means that I need to put the session off until tomorrow. I’m really sorry about this but on the other hand it does give folks a chance to get in any last minute questions they might have.

Not the way I want the oracular session to end.

There is some promising news from Greece:

The Greek government has hinted that it will seek to ban Golden Dawn after the far-right party was linked to the murder of a leading leftwing musician in Athens.

I’ve been concerned about Χρυσή Αυγή for a while and spoke out when they were targeting trans and other queer folk.

Which, apparently, makes me a minority within the American Hellenic polytheist community.

In another piece Ruadhán adds:

The fact that there are Hellenists who are affiliated with and support the filth that is Hellas’ Golden Dawn is a blight and a shame, and Americans Hellenists, content with their relative removal from the situation in Hellas and only barely more than paying lip-service to the notion of “engaging the culture” when it’s cute to do so (going to a Mediterranean restaurant after your monthly Hellenion libations? That is NOT engaging the culture), and so ignore this elephant in the room ought to be ashamed of themselves. If you don’t care about this issue, you are a hypocrite before the altars of Zeus who doesn’t care about the virtue of xenia –it’s really that simple.

I couldn’t agree more and I’m a proud Fascist. Indeed it’s because I’m a Fascist that I agree. Religious, ethnic and sexual minorities are not our enemies. It’s the banks and corporations that we need to rise up and smash if we’re to have any hope for a strong nation. When we fight amongst ourselves we’re playing right into their hands. Why reject any group of people who could be potentially useful to the cause? Rome was made great through assimilation not segregation.

Anyway, thank you for bringing this to our attention Ruadhán. Such silence is indeed shameful.

To good fortune. On behalf of the fortune of the lord, emperor Marcus … Aurelius Antoninus … Augustus Pius Eutychius, on behalf of Julia … Augusta, mother … of the camp, on behalf of Valerius Comazon and Julius Flavianus, the greatest prefects of the lord emperor, on behalf of the sacred Senate, on behalf of the sacred campaigns, on behalf of Titus Flavius Novius Rufus, the consul managing the province, and on behalf of the Council and the People of the most brilliant city of the Histrians. The company presbyteroi Dionysiastai who are gathered around the Father, Achilleus son of Achillas, the priest, Aurelius Biktor son of Kastos, … and the revealer of the sacred objects … Flavius Jucundus, and Falvius Severus, and … Name Aristides.

– SEG 24.1120

For more on him, click here.

With good fortune. Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, son of god Trajan Parthicus, grandson of god Nerva, greatest highpriest (pontifex maximus), with tribunician power for the 18th time, proclaimed emperor (imperator) for the second time, consul for the third time, father of his country, to the traveling musical synod (synodos) of performers (technitai) associated with Dionysos and victorious in sacred and crowned contests, greetings.

(Necessity for all contests to be held and all prizes awarded)

I order that all the contests be held, and that it not be permitted for a city to divert funds of a contest held according to law, decree or will to other expenses, nor do I permit to be used on the construction of a building money from which prizes are offered to contestants or from which contributions are given to victors. If it should ever be urgent that a city find some source of revenue, not for the purpose of luxury and extravagance, but as when I have procured wheat (or: in order to procure wheat) in a shortage, then let me be written to. But without my permission let no one be permitted to take these funds earmarked for the contests for anything (i.e. any purpose) of this kind, for it involves not only unfairness but in a certain way even a fraud, to announce a contest and invite the contestants and then — after their arrival either immediately or at the beginning or after holding some parts of the contest — to dissolve the festival half-way. And where this happens, the contestants shall divide up the prizes even without contesting. I order this not only as something just but, in the same way as it is necessary to hold the contests, so it is necessary for this (i.e. the festival) to take place. And if anybody proposes any such thing, or puts it to the vote, or busies himself with the building, I shall summon him to give an account for having eluded my dispositions in order that he undergo the appropriate punishment. I have written to the Milesians and the Chians to restore to you the contests which they omitted.

(Prizes and contributions)

In the matter of the prizes and the contributions, you rightly make complaint. For I myself know that those in the cities who administer such matters, unless they take something themselves, deprive the athletes of what is owed to them. As for the prizes, the procedure shall be as follows. In general some official of ours (i.e. a Roman) is present at the contests. The director of contests (agonothetēs) of each contest shall count over the money for the prize to the governor of the province, or the proconsul, or quaestor, or legate, or whoever is the person attending, one day before each entry, and he shall place it in a bag, seal it, and place it beside the crown, whether the category is artistic or athletic, and the victor immediately after the victory shall receive it (i.e. the money) together with the crown with everybody watching. As for the contributions, they shall be given to the sacred victors according to the fixed dates, and a magistrate or steward of public moneys who does not give it shall pay out in addition one and a half times to the sacred victor. Let the contribution be in simple cash, since the cities did not promise wheat or wine to the contestants, nor is it right that they should become retailers as well as being wronged.

(Whipping)

If it should be necessary to whip a contestant, let there be whip-bearers chosen by lot for the purpose, and let them approach in pairs in whatever order they may happen to have been allotted, first or second, and if necessary third. For there must be some deterrent hanging over the contestants and those who err must be corrected, but not so that they are beaten by many persons at once, and only on their legs, and so that no-one be crippled or incur any injury from which he will be worse at his profession itself.

(Particular rulings concerning finances)

I have sent the written accounts of the Corinthians to the proconsul, requesting that he examine their contents as soon as possible and determine, insofar as the public means allow, whether it is fitting for the sacred victors to receive two thirds or half. But until the Corinthians give information about their accounts, they shall give the two thirds. That the musicians (mousikoi) should contribute a hundredth (i.e. 1%) to what is given to the leaders of the athletes (xystarchai) – what plausible reason does that have? Or what is there in common between the performers and the leaders of the athletes? How would it not have been equally illogical if the governors of the musicians also expected to receive a hundredth from the athletes? But let the athletes give the fixed hundredths, for they have something in common with the leaders of the athletes, since they both share in their profession and compete under their direction. The deficit in what is paid to the leaders of the athletes it is right either for the cities that organize the contests to make up (and the expense is not heavy, coming every fourth year) or else for the directors of contests that have the crowns and the purple. But I have written to the common Assembly of Asia both so that they deliberate about this, and that they determine sources from which the future deficit caused by the subtraction of the performers’ one hundredths will be given to the leaders of the athletes. About the trumpeters and heralds: I have written to the Ephesians so that they are not compelled to put up statues from their own funds, if you put up statues for these too from the proceeds of the lands that Nysios left. There were certain persons with experience of local circumstances (or: there were certain of the locals) who said that, if the necessary care of the estates takes place and an exact investigation of the accounts, there will be some surplus money. I have also written Publius Marcellus, my excellent friend and the governor of Syria, so that he ensures that the cash-prizes of the contest held in Apamea, which you say that Alexianos withheld when acting as director of contests, be duly paid to the victors. 1 have also written to the councils of the provinces indicating that the Ephesians have distributed the categories in the Balbilleian contests between two contests, and that those who win the Hadrianeian contests there must receive the contributions as they received them when they won the Balbilleian contests. This has also been written to Petronius Mamertinus, my friend and the prefect of Egypt, so that there too payment is to be made to victors in the Hadrianeia of Ephesus. Let your existing freedom from liturgies and from tax be confirmed, but it is humane for athletes and performers who die, since they spend their whole life absent abroad, to be released from the taxes on burials. The contributions following victories are due not from the day on which someone drove in to his city, but from the day when the letter about the victory is delivered to their home cities. Those hurrying on to other contests are also allowed to send the letter. Those who contribute according to the rules of the synod, even if they stop practicing and become Romans, shall be bound by the same rules under which they contributed.

(Publication, selection-competitions, courts)

I order that the rules of the contests be written up at the time of each festival, so that nothing that has been forbidden be done out of ignorance. In the selection-competitions it will not be permitted for a fellow-citizen to speak in support, since it is believed that the selections are made unfair by the influence of the locals. The customary courts concerning punishments shall be established according to the rules in force in each place. The governors of the province shall ensure in each place that all this is done as I have arranged, but I permit you also to inscribe them on monuments (stelai) wherever you wish, so that they may be known to everyone. Farewell.

(Letter 2, beginning at line 57)

Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, son of god Trajan Parthicus, grandson of god Nerva, greatest highpriest (pontifex maximus), with tribunician power for the 18th time, proclaimed emperor (imperator) for the second time, consul for the third time, father of his country, to the traveling musical synod of performers (technitai) associated with Dionysos and victorious in sacred and crowned contests, greetings.

(General ordering of the major festivals)
How I decided that the contests should be arranged about which there were speeches and petitions before me in Neapolis (i.e. Naples) I have indicated to you and I am writing to the provinces and to the cities from which embassies on this matter were present. I have set the beginning from the Olympian contests, since this contest is ancient and certainly the most prestigious of the Greek ones. After the Olympian contests shall be the Isthmian contests, and after the Isthmian the Hadrianeian, so that the contest begins on the next day after the festival at Eleusis ends, and this is by Athenian reckoning the first day of Maimakterion. There shall be forty days for the Hadrianeian contests, and the contest in Tarentum shall be held after the Hadrianeian contests in the month of January, with the Capitolian contests, as they have been completed up to now, preceding the contests in Neapolis. Then the Actian contests will take place, beginning nine days before the kalends of October, and ending within forty days. During the passage there shall be the contest in Patrae, then the Heraian and Nemean contests from the kalends of November to the kalends of January. After the Nemean contests shall be the Panathenaian contests, so that the contest is completed on the same day by the Attic calendar as it ended up to now. After the Panathenaian contests the Smyrnaians shall hold theirs, with the contestants having fifteen days from the shield-race of the Panathenaian contests, and with the contest beginning immediately after the fifteen days, and being finished within forty days. After the shield(-race), leaving an interval of two days, the contest of the Pergamenes shall start immediately and be finished within the forty days. The Ephesians shall leave an interval of four days from the shield(-race) in Pergamon and the contest shall be finished on the fortieth day from the beginning (?). Then from there the contestants shall go to the Pythian contests and the Isthmian contests that follow the Pythian ones, and to the joint festival of the Achaians and Arkadians in Mantinea, and then to the Olympian contests. In this year the Panhellenian contests take place. The Smyrnaeans shall begin their local Hadrianean contests from the day before the nones of January and will hold the festival for forty days. The Ephesians, having left an interval of two days from the shield-race in Smyrna, shall begin their local Olympian contests, having fifty-two days for the Olympian contests themselves and the Balbilleian contests that follow them. After the Balbilleian contests come the Panhellenian contests and the Olympian contests following the Panhellenian contests.

(Local contests of various cities)

I advised the Nikomedians to put off the date of their local contest, but they say that they adhere to the customary date, so they may conduct it whenever they themselves wish. The Thessalonians, . . . Perinthians, Laodiceans, Hieropolitans, Philadelphians, Trallians and Thyatirenes, and any others from whom embassies came about this, shall understand (?) that the contests authorized by the most eminent senate must receive precedence in the timing of order, but it must be up to them to conduct . . . . their local contests (?) . . . whenever they occur. As for the Chians, not holding their own contest on the announced date (since they do not have a fixed time) will not affect them adversely with regard to . . . announcing (?) . . . a date for themselves.

(Consequences of this reform)

The contestants will get both to all the contests now set in order by me and — since nobody saw fit to — to the majority concerning them (?), provided, first, that all festivals everywhere are held for forty days (and let this be laid down), and then that they (i.e. the contestants) are not worn down demanding the prize-moneys after the contests. Hence what I laid down elsewhere is necessary, that the money be set out beside the crowns in the theater and in the stadium, and that the victor should receive it immediately in view of the spectators. The director of contests who does not so award it will be liable for a fine equal to twice the prize-money, in such a way that half is taken by the contestant and half by the city in which the contest is set up.

(Publication)

This letter of mine is to be set up on monuments (stelai) by the cities in which the contests that have been set in order are held, and by the synods in their own sanctuaries.

(Letter 3, beginning at line 85)

Emperor Caesar Trajan Hadrian Augustus, son of god Trajan Parthicus, grandson of god Nerva, greatest highpriest (pontifex maximus), with tribunician power for the 18th time, consul for the third time, father of his country, to the traveling musical synod of performers (technitai) associated with Dionysos and victorious in sacred and crowned contests, greetings. In accordance with my own custom, I give you the right to a banquet. Introducing expenses into the cities that they did not formerly pay is not my practice; but I confirm the customary banquets, so that it may not be in the power of the directors of the contests to evade this kind of benefaction. Farewell.

– ZPE 161

“Enough!” The king of the Thebans shouted, tearing the royal diadem from his brow and rending it in his wrath. “Enough weaving of treacherous words from you, you sly debauchee of a worthless foreign god. I will stand for this no longer!”

A smile from the dark-skinned boy with the lovely violet eyes and the long, luscious locks wet with precious unguents from the east.

“Soon you won’t be standing at all.”

The smile fell away like a mask.

“You threaten me. You dare to threaten me? Do you even know who I am?”

“Who are you?”

“I am a proud son of Echion, son of Kadmos the dragon-killer who founded this city and sowed it with strong, stone-hearted brazen men. I am their lord and the master of this place. I rule by divine right. Who are you?”

“I am no man and of no consequence to you since you shun the mystic ceremonies I would restore to you, your rightful patrimony. I belong to no land, a perpetual wanderer upon the earth, though sometimes I rest for a spell in the shade of a spring-fed grotto on the slopes of Mount Nysa where the air is scented with cinnamon and tall cedar trees. I am far from there, but I am close to you now.”

Pentheus scoffs, “Oh, my heart rejoices like a blithering Bacchanal crowned with green ivy; whatever did I do to be deserving of such a joyous and fortunate fate?”

“Much; but I will forget all that. All you need do is put aside this irrational hatred you have for the wine-god and his wild women. What they do may be unseemly in your opinion but to them it is honest devotion. If you permit all those beneath you to worship how and whom they feel called to the whole divine chorus will shower you with peace and material blessings and your beloved kingdom will flourish. I know. I have watched this story play out many times before among different people in different lands. It always goes one of two ways. Choose wisely.”

“Oh, I will choose the path of wisdom and restraint you scoundrel — have no doubt of that!”

“I have none. You will indeed be restrained; I have seen it.”

“I will restrain those whorish women who care nothing for the rule of their fathers and husbands and run all over the place like shameless maniacs. Drunken sluts who would rather bare the breast to beasts than suckle the precious infants sprung from their own loins. But perhaps it is better that they abandon them than raise their boys to be the sort of men who adopt that faggoty god of yours.”

“Such men are truly blessed.”

“They are accursed! I have spied them from the tower, mincing about in that lascivious dance of theirs, driven to deviance by the obscene pipe and the throbbing timbrel. Eyes lined with kohl like some swarthy Ethiope, lips stained with wine that renders them witless, skirts fluttering about them as they leapt and shrieked like a maiden held down and forcibly initiated into the mysteries of Eros on her wedding night — oh yes, I have seen them and it would be better to dash a baby’s brains out with a rock than let it grow up to become one of them. They sicken me.”

“Perhaps the sickness is in you and not them.”

“And perhaps I shall have to cut that sharp tongue of yours out to finally get some silence around here!”

“You are the one who is yelling. I sit here calm as a spider in the corner.”

“You have ensorceled me! You are the one who put this frenzy in my mind, who set my blood to boiling. Your arrogant nature, your sarcastic tone — it stings me like a fly on the rump of a bull. Beware my horns, stranger.”

“I have nothing to fear for Dionysos is with me. Together we shall gild your horns and fasten the ribbons to you and crown you with gay flowers for the feast. Oh suffering bull, my people are so very hungry. Not the ones who rave and race through the forests of Mount Kithairon ecstatically shouting the god’s name — no, by now they have chased down the vine-munching goat and partaken of the red, raw feast. No, I mean the mad ones, the forgotten ones, the despised ones, the ones you locked away deep down below. They hunger and they thirst and I …”

Pentheus’ mouth hung open in horror. He would have gouged his own eyes out not to see what was before him. But he was bound immobile, terror wrapped around him like iron chains.

“… I have come to free them.”

Everything went dark.

There was roaring in the heavens.

The earth shook.

The smouldering sema of Semele erupted in flame.

Ivy sprouted along the walls like a green veil and Pentheus found himself standing beneath the shade of a white cypress tree with a spring of clear water rushing past him.

In the darkness he saw looming a dozen ghostly pale faces, mad and starved and with shackles around their wrists.

The shackles fell off.

Pentheus screamed and awoke, his back propped against a pine tree. His head was woozy from too much wine and ached as if it had been struck by lightning. He reached up to cradle his forehead in his hands and noticed the sheer gown he was wearing — so delicate and feminine, or it had been before last night when it became stained with earth and vomit.

Why couldn’t he remember what had happened, how he got here?

His mother’s voice came to him through the leaves. She was shouting for joy for she had caught sight of a powerful lion, truly a beast worthy of a queen to hunt.

Pentheus was relieved. When his mother crossed his path she would spy him and receive him with open arms and glad tidings. She would kiss his head as she had when he was a boy and tell him everything would be alright. Then she would help him to his feet and guide him safely home so that he could forget this whole nightmarish mess with that infuriating stranger. In the exultation of his deliverance he felt himself dizzyingly lifted higher than man.

Unfortunately for him what is over man is the tragic man.

To you, Dionysos, we give this offering,
you who are poured out in offering to the gods
and bring mad blessings to the careworn hearts of mortalkind.
You who delight in all young life
and cause flowers to bloom and fruit to swell.
You who hunt in the night with the furious host
and open the doors so that the free ones may revel
in wild places once more.
Lord of many names and many masks,
most gentle and most savage of all the gods,
hearer of prayers and worker of wonders,
whose boons are beyond counting -
Dionysos, this life is yours,
oh Lord of boundless life!

Oh master of the torchlit midnight revels,
oh lord of the bull’s foot who surges with the lava beneath the earth,
oh king raised in the silence of a nymph’s moist cavern,
oh moss-bearded elder of a strange people,
hail!

Hail to you Orpheus,
specialist in ancestral rites, you who heal
through madness, song and dance
Bacchic shaman, medium and interpreter
you who have gone below and feasted with the heroes
and come back up to your community,
a stranger inside and out.

From Marathon: Polydeukion to Dionysos, for the sake of piety.

For more on Polydeukion, click here.

Now as to the rites of Liber, whom they have set over liquid seeds, and therefore not only over the liquors of fruits, among which wine holds, so to speak, the primacy, but also over the seeds of animals:— as to these rites, I am unwilling to undertake to show to what excess of turpitude they had reached, because that would entail a lengthened discourse, though I am not unwilling to do so as a demonstration of the proud stupidity of those who practice them. Varro says that certain rites of Liber were celebrated in Italy which were of such unrestrained wickedness that the shameful parts of the male were worshipped at crossroads in his honour. Nor was this abomination transacted in secret that some regard at least might be paid to modesty, but was openly and wantonly displayed. For during the festival of Liber this obscene member, placed on a little trolley, was first exhibited with great honour at the crossroads in the countryside, and then conveyed into the city itself. But in the town of Lavinium a whole month was devoted to Liber alone, during the days of which all the people gave themselves up to the must dissolute conversation, until that member had been carried through the forum and brought to rest in its own place; on which unseemly member it was necessary that the most honorable matron should place a wreath in the presence of all the people. Thus, forsooth, was the god Liber to be appeased in order for the growth of seeds. Thus was enchantment (fascinatio) to be driven away from fields, even by a matron’s being compelled to do in public what not even a harlot ought to be permitted to do in a theatre, if there were matrons among the spectators.

– Augustine, De Civitate Dei 7.21

Image from here.

Rise up.

Then I highly recommend that you contact Sherry Kirk of Sidhefire Arts who does amazingly beautiful and fully functional pottery pieces, including replicas of ancient work. Here’s a vase that she did with one of my favorite Dionysiac scenes on it:

And here’s something special that she made for me, a replica kylix:

This kylix is used each week during my offerings on behalf of the community, receiving the libations poured out for Dionysos and it works AMAZINGLY well. There is something really powerful about having the exact sort of cup that the ancients used and I think it’d be really cool to drink from it and slowly see the image beneath the wine become visible to your eyes. But this was a gift to the god from her and so only he is permitted to drink from it.

But you should get one and have the experience yourself!

You can tell that a lot of really good creative energy was put into the vessel during its manufacture — it practically glows with it.

Also, I love the philosophy behind her work:

I adore doing custom work, and I don’t think that it should cost extra to get exactly the piece you want!
I specialize in earthy and sturdy pottery, with a particular love for doing historically inspired work for display or ritual and for use as feast ware by all flavors of reenactors!

My typical turn around time for custom work is 6-8 weeks. (I do not do production work so each piece is planned, thrown, bisque fired, glazed, final fired and then if it’s good enough.. shipped, as part of my monthly cycle of work.)

Please email to ask about pricing for any pieces you would like custom made!

She has a wonderful blog on the site too where she discusses art and her process and other cool interests like homebrewing. In fact she’s got a whole post on the making of my kylix vessel (with pics of it in process) that is just wonderful to read!