CIRCLING THE DIONYSIAN MYTH:
A CONVERSATION AND A THEORETICAL EPILOGUE AFTER THE NOTES
- What, Dionysus again?
- Uh? Yes, I'm sorry. I haven't found yet a way to tell Rima about the Dionysian rites.
- What if you just describe them and forget about the story?
- That's a possibility. But to tell him that they did this and that because this and that... just sounds too boring. Wow, did you see that!?
- Yes! Milos (1), city of wine and music.
- I have to stop here, that was a sign!
- Yes, a traffic sign. But all right; let's enter the town on our green donkey and preach to the converted!
- Yes! Let's make up Rima's story!
- Ok, ok. Invite me to some Sicilian wine and I'll try to be your Muse.
- That's a deal!
.........................
- I'm stuck with the Mysteries of Eleusis (2). They are very interesting, and Dionysus plays a central role, but when I try to write about them it just becomes longer and longer.
- Hold on, start with something simpler; this town, Sicily, Dionysos... cheers!
- Mmm good wine!
- That's a good start!
- Yes. But again; Sicily (3) is a central place in the Mysteries, and I don't need to tell you about the wine... I can't stop going back to them. And even worse, I can't stop connecting everything to the Dionysian myth. For example, do you remember the spirals at the Hypogeum (4), in Hal Saflieni?
- Yes, they were painted in the walls and ceiling of many rooms. But what...?
- Well, I was relating those spirals to the sheep-like horns of Dionysus. And then I was thinking of Richard Feynman (5).
- Who?
- Feynman, the physicist, a Nobel prize winner.
- Ok, stop here. If you are going to start with numbers and physical laws I'll need more than just one glass of wine.
- Don't worry, Rima will pay us a bottle. Signorina! Una grande de questo vino! May I continue now?
- Mmm. Take your time.
- Richard Feynman said that if he was to resume his knowledge in just one phrase or idea he would try to communicate that matter is made of atoms. He said that form there, with a little deductive work and some imagination, the whole body of actual physics could be reconstructed. If he had to put that in a symbol he would draw a point surrounded by an ellipse. Now think of this; the people at Hal Saflieni drew spirals all over. And Dionysus -who is obviously a derivation from those ancient ideas- is depicted with two beautiful spirals on his forehead!
- All right, they drew spirals instead of ellipses. Unfortunate old wanna-be-physicians; they didn't know that matter was made of atoms!
- Maybe, but don't miss the point; they were trying to resume their knowledge with those spirals! I don't want to bore you, but today physics is kind of stuck with the uncertainty principle; the atomic theory needs a more ample model to integrate waves and magnetism and the funny things that all particles seem to be doing. I was thinking that maybe some years from now somebody may try to resume our physical knowledge not with an ellipse but with a spiral (6).
- Poor Feynman. Had he heard you talking of spirals before, he would have won the Nobel prize twice!
- Ok, another glass for your insights!
- Thanks. And now, where did we leave Dionysus?
- Oh, yes, as a derivation of the old traditions of Hal Saflieni. But wait, I need to let some of this wine out of my body. Think for a moment on the Hypogeum, I'll be back in a second.
........................
- ... And so? Did you meditate on our underground temple?
- I was remembering that hole carved in one of the chambers and the incredible sound effect that it had when somebody spoke close to it, throughout the whole temple (7).
- Very good my little grasshopper! So you probably remember that people not only talked or chanted into that hole, but also blew shells to produce flute-like sounds that would then reverberate and be heard everywhere in the temple. I am quite sure that at the same time somebody else would be beating a drum, maybe from one of the lowest rooms...
- Great! Flutes and drums in an underground temple; Neolithic trance-dance!
- Exactly!! Listen; some people would gather in one of the bigger rooms, lit by fires, and dance till they got into a sort of trance; a foresight trance or maybe a healing one. And then they would rest separately in one of the smaller chambers and meditate or sleep and allow inspiring dreams to come unto them.
- Sounds good. I want to go to that disco!
- You have been there, party girl!
- But the DJs weren't.
- Yeah, seven thousand year old DJs and still on the wave. Cool guys, uh?
- Sure. But when are you going to invite Dionysus to this party?
- Oh, right now. The Dionysian rites consisted just in trance-dance music (8); flutes and drums and singing; repetitive rhythms and spiral like movements (9). Devotees would then have enlightening visions and be healed by the music.
- Wow, Dionysus was like John Lee Hooker!
- Almost.
- And after Johnny, come and join the orgy?
- Oh no, no orgies!
- What! No sex?
- Well, maybe after this wine, beauty.
- Mmm, no more wine for you then. But tell me, weren't the Bacchanals sexual orgies (10) held in the name of Dionysus?
- Yes, but they are only a late alteration of the original rite.
- An excuse to get laid.
- Yes. You know, it is like low-fat burgers; they may be tasty but they are never low-fat. The Dionysian orgies are fine orgies but they are not Dionysian.
- What a pity.
- Don't worry, we don't need any excuses. But enough, let's go back to our green donkey.
- To ride some spirals?
- To trance-dance a bit.
- Mmm, heal me with your music, baby!
NOTES:
(1) Milos is a small town of Sicily, very close to the volcano of Etna, and it is in fact named the city of wine and music. [We actually stayed in this town for a couple of days and had this story written down]
(2) In Greek tradition the Mysteries refer to a sort of privileged knowledge hidden in a specific myth and reserved for its devotees. The Mysteries of Eleusis (*) are related to the legend of Demeter, and also to that of Persephone and Hades. Orpheus and Dionysus also play an important role, specially the latter, as an integrating figure that helps understand the significance of this otherwise obscure tradition.
(3) Sicily is signaled with insistence in the legends related to the Mysteries of Eleusis. For example, the rapt of Persephone takes place in Sicily; Eubuleo (*) is either a son of a priest of Demeter or a Sicilian shepherd; Demeter herself fights for Sicily against Hefesto (*) -who by the way is a friend of Dionysus.
(4) The Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni, Malta, is an awesome underground temple dated around 4.000 B.C. This incredible example of negative architecture was designed and carved with uttermost care, connecting small chambers to one another through openings, megalithic arcs and windows. Some of the rooms, specially the bigger ones, were profusely decorated with ochre spirals painted in walls and ceiling. Another amazing spiral is the one that the temple forms itself, at its lowest end. (7)
(5) Richard Feynman, Nobel prize winner in physics, well known for his inspiring lectures.
(6) Some say that the theory of chaos is the first to affirm that the spiral is the mother of all ellipses. No matter what, this speculative theory of a spiral being able to resume our physical knowledge, is completely unjustified.
(7) In one of the walls of a large chamber (actually named Zone C of the Hypogeum) there is a niche with a curious sound-amplifying effect. It is believed that it could have been used to let an oracle be heard throughout the temple or maybe to produce mantra like sounds by blowing horns or shells close to it. The fact is that any sound produced close to the niche reverberates in a deep fashion and is heard in the whole temple. The temple itself is thought as a place where devotees would go to receive counsel, to meditate, receive enlightening visions through dreams, or even to be healed. Probably the special deep-sound produced at the niche was used to allow or enhance either the visions or the healing effect.
(8) The Dionysian rites where held at night or in dark places, like caves or underground chambers, illuminated only by the light of fires. There the devotees would dance and sing to the repetitive melodies of flutes and drums "beating with the pulse of mother earth". The singing and dancing (related to that of the Dervishes but never following a predefined pattern) were meant to develop a sort of trance through which the devotee would receive some kind of counsel, a vision or a foresight, or even have a healing effect. The underground chambers did metaphorically -if not physically- relate to the womb of 'mother earth'. Through the initiation in the Dionysian rites the devotee would then be born again (like the god himself, who was born twice). Also included in the rite would be the sacrifice of a young sheep or sometimes a bull, which are the animal forms attributed to Dionysus.
The men and women devoted to Dionysus were commanded to live free and happily as human beings (as opposed to beasts or gods); to unburden themselves of social convention; to avoid excesses and to escape the futile stupidity of rage; to enjoy the presents of the earth. In sum, they were commanded to follow one's own nature and to follow it fully and joyfully; to be not a combination of beast and god but just a unique human being. It was through the rites that the Dionysian devotee would achieve this understanding. And it was through this understanding that the devotee would achieve freedom.
(9) Though already mentioned, it is important to note the significant portrayal of the spiral within most of the Dionysian rites and legend; the dances, the horns, the shells that devotees would play, the trips of Dionysus...
(10) The orgiastic excesses of the Bacchanals -often attributed to Dionysus- commenced only on the second century A.D. as a late alteration of the original rites. No matter how appealing they may be, and though preserving the hedonistic side of Dionysian tradition, the Bacchanals lack the deeper significance of the original rites.
(*) I don't know (and haven't found in my limited traveling library) an English reference to the names of Eleusis and Eubuleo, and are thus transcribed with the Spanish spelling. The same applies to the crippled god of fire Hefesto, probably Hephestus in an English version.
EPILOGUE
Fact 1. Malta was first inhabited by Neolithic fishermen and farmers coming form Sicily in 5.000 B.C.
Fact 2. There seem to be no logical reason to establish themselves there though; while Sicily is (and was) a green and sunny paradise, Malta is an arid and windy rock, hard to cultivate and harder to live on.
Fact 3. For more than two thousand years the people living in Malta constructed stone temples all over the island. In fact they built way too many temples taking account of the small population living in the islands at the time.
Theory 1. Malta was inhabited by priests, who built an impressive collection of temples, being the most revealing one the Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni. The island became a pilgrimage center for the people of Sicily and other places around the Mediterranean Sea, between the years 5.000 and 2.500 B.C.
Fact 4. The inhabitants of the Maltese islands disappeared around 2.500 B.C. and would only return five hundred years later.
Fact 5. Once the island was populated again the old temples were never used again -at least for the same purposes for which they were used before.
Fact 6. The Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni remained closed and forgotten -until the twentieth century- after two consecutive burial places were erected on top of it, the oldest one dated around 2.000 B.C.
Theory 2. Around 2.500 B.C. human conscience blossomed all over the earth (this fact won't be discussed here though). Among the many radical changes that this new situation brought for human societies, it happened that the priests of the temple in Hal Saflieni and its old traditions began to be forgotten; every little kingdom would want their own gods, related to their own little lands, with names familiar to them, with a history that would enhance the virtues of its inhabitants. The old traditions of Hal Saflieni were dismembered (like the kings in the legends of Dionysian tradition); they were distorted, partly invented, wrongly interpreted and finally forgotten. The island of Malta, receiving no more pilgrims, had to be abandoned.
Theory 3. Probably the closest tradition to the original one of Hal Saflieni is represented by the Mysteries of Eleusis and the Dionysian Myth.
The theory depicted here presumes that at the time in which the Dionysian rites became important most of the symbols and practices were void of their original significance -although they may still allow for an insight or even a revelation of some deeper meaning. The original symbols of Dionysian tradition may be found precisely in Hal Saflieni and their meaning reconstructed (deconstructed) from the later emergence of Dionysian tradition, thus forming one new time-spiral in our search for historical truth.
Last Barbarian Note: The Celtic tradition to which I am indebted shows a significant display of carved spirals, mainly in big megaliths that were placed, interestingly enough, in the center of underground chambers (many of the European Christian churches are built on top of such older structures, and some of this megaliths can still be seen and visited in some churches). The megalithic constructions, the underground chambers, the spirals, even the horned god Cerunnos -the main divinity in Celtic tradition-, resemble clearly those traditions of Hal Saflieni and are probably the European remnants of this central Mediterranean culture. If compared to the Dionysian tradition, the Celtic one appears as a more basic, less sophisticated version of the Culture of Hal Saflieni, but no less revealing.
Chema Nieto
Milos, Sicily, March 2005
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Salinas by Randa Baki
Thanks Randa! We are really impressed!
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