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The Problem of the Bacchae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

A. G. Bather
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Extract

In two recent numbers of the Classical Review two most interesting notes have appeared, the first by Dr. Verrall under the same title as that of the present paper, and the second a notice of the second volume of Rohde's Psyche by Miss Harrison. Dr. Rohde in his work and both Dr. Verrall and Miss Harrison in these notes are led to the conclusion, if they do not assume the fact as an axiom, that the worship of Dionysus is not an indigenous cult in Greece but came in from Thrace and the north. It is a fact which at first sight appears incontestable: the mythology of nearly every state in Greece has the tale of the incoming of the god from abroad. Thebes and Athens, Argos and Orchomenos, Corinth and Brasiae—all have their own stories of his advent. The very name Dionysus has a foreign, probably a Phrygian, derivation. Thus it is no wonder that modern mythologists almost without exception have adopted the view of the ancients themselves that the worship is one imported into Greece.

But, though it is evident that much of the later cult is undoubtedly not indigenous, there does yet seem to be a groundwork of a real old folk religion at the bottom of all these Phrygian and Thracian mysteries of later times. It would seem to be an almost unscientific method, if I may use the term without offence, on the strength of certain similarities in customs and cults between the deities of two different countries, to conclude that therefore the two are identical.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 14 , November 1894 , pp. 244 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1894

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References

1 v. Min. Fel. (Ouzel), p. 163 and notes.

2 v. Lobeck, , Aglaophamus ii. pp. 1416Google Scholar ff.

3 Nonn. ix. 98.

4 Ap. Arg. iv. 1131.

5 Tzetz., Lyc. 143Google Scholar.

6 Paus. i. 3, 6; C.I.A. iii. 351.

7 Paus. iii. 24, 3.

8 Cf. Poll. iv. 86; Hes. s.v. ϒαργίδες; Plut., Symp. iv. 6Google Scholar; Nonn. xlvii.

9 Paus. vi. 26, 1; Plut., Qu. Gr. 36Google Scholar; Ath. i. 61.

10 Hes. s.v. Παγκλάδια.

11 Ath. iv. 31.

12 Paus. viii. 23, 1.

13 Paus. viii. 19, 1.

14 Schol. Luc., Dial. Meret. vii. 4Google Scholar; Rhein. Mus. 1870, p. 557.

15 Bull. Corr. Hell. vii. p. 187.

16 Mittelhaus, , de Bacche Attico, p. 53Google Scholar.

17 Ib. p. 54.

18 Anh. zu Tril. p. 200.

19 Suid. s.v.

20 Lact., Inst. i. 17Google Scholar; Polyaen. i. 23; Ath. xii. 30; Menodot. ap. Ath. xv. 12.

21 Steph. Byz. s v. Ἑρμιών.

22 Pind., Ol. vi. 84Google Scholar; Paus. viii. 22, 2.

23 Ath. xiii. 90; Eust., Il. xx. 282Google Scholar; Paus. v. 3, 3.

24 Cf. Smith, Robertson, Religion of the Semites, pp. 52Google Scholar f.

25 Maunhardt, , Baumkultus, pp. 157Google Scholar f.

26 Ib. p. 411; Frazer, , Golden Bough i. p. 255Google Scholar.

27 Kreutzwald at the end of the last century.

28 Bk. p. 407.

29 G. B. i. p. 261.

30 Jahn, , Die Deut. Opfergebrauche, pp. 91–96Google Scholar. A very similar and primitive custom is that recorded by Plutarch as taking place at Thebes, , Symp. vi. 8Google Scholar. 1. There was a of the Archon cf. Hesych.

31 G. B. i. p. 276.

32 G. B. p. 255.

33 Bk. p. 409.

34 G. B. i. 267.

35 Bk. pp. 412 f.

36 G. B. i. 272.

37 G. B. i. 269.

38 P Gardner, Types of Greek Coins, Pl. XV. 6.

39 G.B. i. p. 264.

40 Ib.

41 Bk. p. 413.

42 Myth. Forsch. p. 209.

43 Ib. p. 143.

44 Harp. s.v.

45 Tsetz., Chil. v. 726–761Google Scholar.

46 Ael., Nat. An. ix. 26Google Scholar.

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48 Jahrbuch 1892, p. 162, Pl. V.

49 Aesch. ap. Erat. 24.

50 G. Opf. Geb. p. 98.

51 Ib. p. 134.

52 G. B. i. 267.

53 Id.ib.

54 Schol. Luc. Dial. Meret. ii. § 1; Rhein. Mus.. 1870, p. 549.

55 e.g. Bk. p. 155.

56 Dionysus is generally invoked to appear with a blaze of light. Cf. Soph., O.T. 209 ff.Google Scholar, a passage which may have a secondary reference to this feast under discussion:

‘Come Bacchus of the golden and drive out Ares the god who is no god (as you drove out Pentheus).’ Such is the cry of the Theban elders. Cf. the similar Thehan invocation, Soph., Ant. 1146 ffGoogle Scholar.:

57 Aristot., Thaum. Ausc. p. 842Google Scholar.

58 Jahn, p. 125.

59 Id.ib.

60 Sandys, Bacch. xxxiii, ff.; Paley, Introd.

61 Bk. pp. 382 ff.; Myth. Forsch. 176 ff.

62 Bk. pp. 391 f.

63 G. B. i. pp. 259, 275.

64 Plut., Qu. R. 97Google Scholar.

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66 Ib. p. 155

67 G. B. i. 266.

68 Bk. p. 419; G. B. i. 266.

69 Rel. of Sem. p. 359.

70 Ib. pp. 449, 456.

71 Eth. in F. p. 16 ff., 35 ff.

72 Jahn, op. cit. p. 101.

73 G. B. i. 187–193.

74 op. cit. ii. 101 ff.

75 Jahn, op. cit. p. 20.

76 Ib. p. 21.

77 Ib. p. 23.

78 Gomme, op. cit. p. 35.

79 p. 20.

80 Myth. Forsch. pp. 180 ff.

81 G. B. passim, esp. pp. 217 ff.

82 Rel. of Sem. 104, 210, 443 ff.; G. B. i. 236–7; Jahn, op. cit. 158–163, 203–205, 303–305 and pass.

83 Bk. p. 173.

84 Ib. p. 183.

85 G. B. i. p. 283.

86 The representation of the god by a priest king is too common an element in all religions to need discussion here. Some few of the many instances in Greece may be added. in Homer the priest is honoured as a god (Il. v. 78, xvi. 604), and, in the case of Maron, dwells in the sacred grove (Od. ix. 200). In many places in Greece priesthood and kingship were identical (Plut., qu. Rom. 113Google Scholar) and in others the priests and priestesses went through all the ceremonies just as the gods did (Paus. x. 34, 4, viii. 13, 1). Soo too Βάκχος is the name not only of the god but also of his priest (Schol. Ar. Eq. 403, Hesych. s.v.). Finally at Tanagra a boy represented Hermes (Paus. ix. 22, 1).

87 Eust. 1535.

88 Hyg. fab. 130.

89 Ib.

90 Poet. Astr. ii. 4.

91 For such preservation cf. Jahn, op. cit p. 134.

92 Paus. ix. 8, 2.

93 v. Roscher, p. 1053 f.

94 Ath. Mitth. l.c.

95 Paus. ix. 12, 4.

96 Schol. Eur., Phoen. 651Google Scholar; cf. Orph., Hym. 47Google Scholar; Eur., Ant. fr. 302Google Scholar: Clem. Alex. p. 418 P.

97 Paus. ix. 16, 6.

98 A possible meaning, though generally condemned.

99 Paus. ii. 2, 6.

100 Since this article was written, Dr. Leaf has called my attention to an article by Prof. Jevons, (Folklore, vol. ii. pp. 220 ff.)Google Scholar, in which, from a slightly different point of view, he seems to have arrived at much the same general conclusions as I have. With the Theban myth of the Bacchae, however, he does not there deal.