Parties with drinking, dancing, and singing are rarely thought of as cults. Cults are often thought of as small religious groups that are frowned upon and viewed with suspicion by outsiders. Today, when we hear the word cult, we imagine people wearing white robes, creepy leaders and brainwashed followers who follow their leaders into rituals of mass suicide by Kool-Aid. In ancient Greece, however, everyone wanted to be a part of the Cult of Dionysus, where everyone would gather with free food, free wine, and the Goat Song.
Dionysus is the Greek God of wine, of winemaking, and of merriment and gaiety. He was supposed to have been born by the union of a mortal woman, Semele, princess of Thebes, and the greatest of the Greek gods, Zeus. Ancient Greek mythology holds that he was twice born, because when Semele was pregnant with Dionysus, Zeus took him and kept him in his thigh until he was ready to be born. While this may sound strange, there is a good explanation. Hera, Zeus’ wife who was also a goddess, had learned that Zeus had impregnated a moral woman; she was filled with jealousy and rage. The vengeful Hera disguised herself as a mortal woman and visited Semele. Once with her, she convinced Semele to ask Zeus to grant her one wish. When Semele asked for her one wish, Zeus promised to grant her anything. Semele asked Zeus to present himself in his true form, as a god not as a man, as suggested by Hera. Zeus kept his promise, but he knew that if Semele ever gazed upon him, she would die. So when he revealed himself to Semele in his true form, Zeus had Hermes take Dionysus from her womb and placed him into Zeus’ thigh so that he would not also die with Semele.1
As the god of wine, Dionysus is supposed to spread the knowledge of how to grow grape vines. In ancient Greece, wine was one of the few goods they could produce. Because of this, Dionysus was a major deity, and it was said that he was one of the twelve gods that lived upon Mount Olympus. Temples were erected in his honor and worship of him spread throughout the Greek poleis. Annual festivals called Dionysia were held in his honor and, of course, the purpose was to relax, feast, dance, and drink wine.2
Some dances in honor of Dionysus were performed on oiled wineskins, which were bags made out of animal skins that were filled with wine. Dionysus loved goats, donkeys, and tigers. Not only were those animals at the Dionysia, but their skins were also danced upon. When someone fell off the oiled wineskins, everyone cheered, laughed, and drank wine.
The Greeks held competitions to see who might be the manliest man and who could drink a pitcher of wine the fastest. The winner would receive a smaller oiled wineskin as a trophy, which was essentially another container of wine.3
At the annual Dionysia, the Goat Song was also preformed. The Goat Song gave birth to Greek drama. Originally, a song or hymn was sung as a goat was being sacrificed to Dionysus. The song often addressed questions that were arising about divine law, judgement, and various social conflicts of general concern. The Goat Song was seen as something of a group discussion or address of common concerns, and as a way for people collectively and individually to purify their minds. The hymn then became a performance piece, sung by a chorus. The performance evolved over time to include first a monologue, and then with the addition of a second voice, a dialogue. Eventually, more voices were added, and the performance of the Goat Song became the tragic drama we have come to associate with the great Greek tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. In fact, the Greek word tragedia, from which we get our word tragedy, literally translates as “the song of a male goat.” The Greeks truly loved drama because they felt that the gods were speaking to them and judging their piety, rather than merely being annoyed by them.4
The cult of Dionysus does not seem so suspicious now. There were not any outrageous daily rituals or strange articles of clothing they had to wear. The cult of Dionysus consisted of dancing, drinking, singing, and feasting, every college student’s four favorite things.
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, January 2016, s.v. “Dionysus,” by Rebecca K. Rector. ↵
- Eleni Pachoumi, “Dionysus in the Greek Magical Papyri,” Symboae Osloenses 88, no. 1, (2014): 129. ↵
- Alana Koontz, “The Art and Artifacts Associated with the Cult of Dionysus,” (Masters Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2013), 4. ↵
- Britt-Mari Näsström, “The rites in the mysteries of Dionysus: the birth of the drama,” Åbo Akademi: Open Journal Systems. (2014): BASE, EBSCOhost. ↵
77 comments
Tyler Sleeter
Great article. Dionysus seems like an important god to the ancient Greeks, and they spent a lot of time worshiping him each year at festivals. I did not know that tragedy from Greek is the song of a male goat. The cult of Dionysus seems almost like what we would call a fan club in modern times, a group of people that celebrated and honored someone. I also did not know that play writing came out of the worship of Dionysus.
Aaron Jaramillo
This is a great article! Your title and introductory paragraph hooked me! When I saw cult I thought of people worshiping a person or an object. The Greeks had something else in mind with these cults. It was pretty cool to read about Dionysus. Its also interesting to hear that festivals were thrown for him. Good job on this article.
Mario Sosa
With the title “Cult of Dionysus”, I was expecting to read about crazy “brainwashing” rituals. To my surprise, this was not the case. It seems the Greek’s definition of cult is completely different than what we think of today. I enjoyed reading not just the mythology behind Dionysus, but also the group of people who threw festivals for him. Very descriptive article, great job!
Zaraly Frasquillo
Greek mythology is by far my second favorite topic in the world! Okay, so lately I have been more aware of what cults actually are and I do not really believe they are scary or creepy. They can actually be pretty cool, obviously just depends on the person. I can tell you did a lor of research and I love that! The images were also very great and told a story of their own. Great article and I’m looking forward for your next one.
Irene Astran
Cults do not seem to menacing when portrayed in this light. When I think of cults my mind usually goes to Charles Manson and his murderous crew. On another note, I really enjoyed all of the Greek mythology you incorporated in this article. The story regarding Hera, Zeus, and Semele was an interesting piece of Greek mythology that I have never heard before. Thank you for incorporating it.
Mario De Leon
Great article. I love reading about Greek mythology. I enjoyed how you started your article by explaining the cult of Dionysus was not the stereotypical cult we see so often today. Dionysus had such a bizarre birth! I liked the tone of this article it had a nice flow and was very easy to read. I also liked how you ended it with a little humor.
Mariana Govea
Good article! Very well written and researched! I love reading about Greek mythology its so interesting how their is many Gods for almost everything! I had never heard of the Wine OF God! Which it makes sense how you mentioned that he was one of the ones that got to live in Mount Olympus since he was really loved by the people since grapes that produced Wine were one of the major crops and goods made in Greece!You did a really good job describing who the God of wine is and how he came to be significant to people in ancient Greece!
Sergio Cervantes
The title of this article caught my attention as I was expecting to read about the stereotypical cult. However, I have come to realize that not all cults, at least not this one, conform with the stereotype. I liked that you gave the backstory of Dionysus and found it interesting how Zeus cared for his child. It was sad to see that the mortal woman died due to her request. I found the final sentence to be humorous and clever.
Johnanthony Hernandez
Great article, interesting to see how the legends of Zeus having relations with human woman to only give birth to children that would serve to become a part of his mythologizes. While also having developed its own practices and festivals. Greek culture has always interested me to a degree and I did learn a lot about the Greek Cult of Dionysus that I didn’t know existed.
Anayeli Prieto
First of I want to start by saying that your article is really interesting and it definitely captured my attention. the Greek myths were always very interesting and my favorite were really the ones about Zeus and Poseidon and Hades. I have never heard of these story about the god of wine, Dionysius. It seems that festive events hav always made wine the important drink presented to the guests. It continues, to be used today but, I wish more people knew about the cultural and symbolic significance.