Dionysus is an ambiguous and complex god in each of his aspects and powers, including those associated with his orgiastic side. Indeed, he also simultaneously embodies those last appearances in an opposite way.

Thus, this divinity does not distinguish categories among its worshippers. This allows a cohesion among its faithfuls who believe in a god who accepts all differences in the status of his Bacchae. Therefore, this worship allows its participants to recognize the other in its otherness, whether sexual, social or physical.

His chaotic aspect was apparently necessary for ordered and hierarchical cities. This permanent duality is the essence of understanding the other in its difference. It allows the faithful of the dionysian cult to open a door to a world, that is more tolerant and less reductive in relation to social and physical inequalities.

This aspect of the other's relationship to himself, is an integral part of dionysian thought. This is the key to a better understanding of one's neighbour. Thus, the learning of otherness becomes important. The latter makes it possible to understand that life is made of this difference, and instead of being afraid of it and fleeing it, it is better to be interested in it and to discover it. It would seem, this otherness nourishes the being of each one, notably when it's marked with a profound respect for the other.

According to Euripides, it's a feminine god of masculine appearance wearing a blonde hair with white skin and red cheeks. Presumably, he has no significant personal symbol related to the male or female. He is represented as an androgynous god, often surrounded by minor deities having sexual attributes.

Dionysus is a god of miracles, he took human form to take the nature of a man. Thus, this metamorphic divinity is much closer to its followers, who were generally women called Bacchae.

Moreover, Dionysus is simultaneously the sweetest and the most terrible. Also, the notion of madness had an important place in the dionysian cult. Indeed, absolute certainty has an important role in this logic of madness. That is why this duality of double folly takes place among the Bacchae of Euripides.

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_{Mosaic floor at Pella, Greece}

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previous episodes :

HoR - Aristotle

HoR - Shamanism (M. J. Harner and M. Eliade)

HoR - Islam (2. The Five Pillars)

HoR - Islam (1. Muhammad)

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Image sources : 1, 2, 3

Information sources : from my course notes and following book

EURIPIDE, Les bacchantes, Livre VI, texte établi et traduit par H. GRÉGOIRE et J. MEUNIER, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2011

EURIPIDES, The Bacchae, 405 BC

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