Dionysus | Classical Wisdom Weekly - Part 2

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Tag Archives: Dionysus

The Herdsman of the Stars

By Danielle Alexander, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Even to the modern mind, the starry abyss above us encourages a sense of awe and wonder. In the ancient times, they linked their mythos to the heavens and told tales of how the star clusters, or constellations, came to be. One of these constellations of the Northern

The Bacchae: the Morals of Murderous Women

By Ben Potter If I invited you to a bacchanalia what would you expect? Wine? Dancing? Sex? Of course you would. How about harmonizing with nature? Mass hallucination? Violence? Carpaccio? You’re beginning to think you should call and cancel, aren’t you? Well don’t worry, it might not be as wild as you think. Then again,

Christmas: Its Origins in Ancient Greece and Rome

By Edward Whelan, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom The modern world owes so much to the Greeks and the Romans, they influenced how we live and our society in so many ways. For instance, now we think that Christmas is a very Christian festival, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, but in fact, the holiday was

Aristophanes’ The Frogs: A Way to Stop a War?

By Jocelyn Hitchcock, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom The Frogs, an ‘old’ comedy play by Aristophanes, was performed in 405 BCE at the Lenaia festival of Dionysus. With the Peloponnesian War raging on, plays of the time had a tendency to deal with saving the state, matters of right and wrong, and background events of the

The Mysteries of The Orphics

By John Mancini, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Of the many belief systems circulating in archaic Greece, Orphism was perhaps the most significant. The state-sanctioned religion of Hellenism may have intermingled with all aspects of daily life, but archaic Greece was also a mixture of superstitious magic and philosophical cults. There were rational beliefs such as

Dionysus the Mild: Eater of Flesh

By Ben Potter As a figure of myth and superstition even in his own time, Dionysus could well have been dismissed by the cynical as being an unworthy interpolation into the field of true religion. However, although “he represents an enchanted world and an extraordinary experience” (Albert Henrichs), the scope of his temporal power is