Oracles and Mystery Cults

1
Oracles and Mystery Cults

• October 31st, 2008

2
Summary

• Another Approach to the Gods
• Apollo and the Delphic Oracle
• Dionysus and the Bacchic Cult
• Discussion Questions

3
Human-Divine Relations

• Characterized by distance and alienation
• Alienation assuaged by acts of sacrifice
• Anxiety re will of the gods
• Humans seek way of direct/closer communion with
  gods

4
Other Ways of Approaching The Gods

• Oracles
• Mystery Cults
• Direct Confrontation or Contact

5
Oracles

• Oracle etymologically derived from Oraculum
• Greek Chresmos (a service to those in search of
  counsel)
• Chresterion or Manteion the place where
  chresmos is sought

6
Significant Oracles in the Greek World

• Dodona Oracle of Zeus at Epirus (Great Oak Tree
  of Zeus)
• Oracle of Zeus Amon (Libya)
• Oracle of the Dead at Ephyra
• Oracle of Trophonios Oracle of the Dead at
  Lebadeia
• The Sibyl of Cumae Oracle of Apollo in Magna
  Graecia
• Oracle of Pythian Apollo at Delphi

7
Talking to the Gods

• Methods of communication vary with local cultic
  practices
• Enthousiasmos God speaks directly through a
  medium (i.e. possession)
• Incubation God speaks to inquirer in a dream
  (i.e. Cult of Aesclapius)
• Katabasis lit. a going down (i.e. ritual
  descent into underworld common in oracles of
  the dead)

8
The Oracle of Apollo at Delphi
http//www.timelessmyths.com/classical/gallery/apo
llo.jpg
9
The Far Archer Apollo - Review

• Not an old god (no linear b references)
• Probably comes from Lycia in Asia Minor (note
  oracles probably a near eastern tradition)
• Son of Zeus and Leto, twin brother of Artemis
• Epithet He who strikes from afar
• Iconography The bow and the lyre
• Associated with youth (ephebos) healing
  (iatros), disease/pollution (miasma), and
  oracles poets, bards, arts, music (Mousagetes)
• By 5th century BCE he was conflated with Helios
  (the Sun)
• Two major cult centers at Delos and Delphi
• 5 main festivals (1. Delia, 2. Thargelia, 3.
  Pyanopsia, 4. Daphnephoria, 5. Pythian Games)

10
The Oracle At Delphi
http//ca.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back
http3A2F2Fca.search.yahoo.com2Fsearch2Fimage
s3Fp3DMap2Bof2BAncient2BGreece26ei3DUTF-82
6fr3Drogers-web26fl3D026x3Dwrtw570h443im
gurlwww.sikyon.com2FKorinth2Fimages2Fmap2_ella
s.jpgrurlhttp3A2F2Fwww.sikyon.com2FSicyon2F
smapold_eg.htmlsize69.8kBnamemap2_ellas.jpgp
MapofAncientGreecetypejpegno3tt591oid91
d84ebe0ad37b90eiUTF-8
11
The Cult Center at Delphi

• Cult center for the worship of Apollo Pythios
  (Apollo who slew Python)
• Evidence for cult activity starting from c. 1000
  BCE
• Evidence of habitation from ca. 860 BCE
• Seat of an oracle Eclipsed the oracle of Zeus
  at Olympia
• Pan-Hellenic oracle
• Location of the Omphalos (Navel)
• Omphalos 1. The center of the earth, 2. The
  stone Rheia gave to Kronos

12
Temple of Apollo at Delphi
http//www.students.sbc.edu/hart06/Apollo20Temple
20Images/Delphi20Temple20of20Apollo20from20a
bove,20tb051303076.jpg
13
The Omphalos
www.sikyon.com/Delphi/Monuments/omphalos.jpg
14
Earliest References to the Delphic Oracle
Odyssey, 8.72-81 ca. 750 BCE

• But when they had put from them the desire of
  food and drink, the Muse moved the minstrel to
  sing of the glorious deeds of warriors, from that
  lay the fame whereof had then reached broad
  heaven, 75 even the quarrel of Odysseus and
  Achilles, son of Peleus, how once they strove
  with furious words at a rich feast of the gods,
  and Agamemnon, king of men, was glad at heart
  that the best of the Achaeans were quarrelling
  for thus Phoebus Apollo, in giving his response,
  had told him that it should be, 80 in sacred
  Pytho, when he passed over the threshold of stone
  to enquire of the oracle. For then the beginning
  of woe was rolling upon Trojans and Danaans
  through the will of great Zeus. (A.T. Murray,
  1919)
• http//www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?docP
  erseus3Atext3A1999.01.01363Abook3D83Acard3D4
  6

15
Function of the Delphic Oracle

• Provide divine sanction for policies (i.e.
  Colonization Declaration of war or peace Major
  political decisions etc.)
• Pan-Hellenic Cult (i.e. Expression of Greek unity
  and cultural identity)
• Healing/Cleansing/Purification of miasma (i.e.
  pollution, especially blood guilt)

16
Consulting the Delphic Oracle

• Services originally given only in the Spring
• Popularity resulted in services year round
• Visitor comes to sanctuary with an unblemished
  goat
• The Pythia (Priestess of Apollo) baths in
  Castalian Spring
• Sacrifices Goat
• Enters Temple
• Pythia takes seat on Tripod suspended over
  volcanic chasm
• Pythia enters ethousiasmos or trance
  (Self-induced? Volcanic fumes?)
• Incomprehensible utterances transcribed by priest
  into dactylic hexameter

17
Pythia on the Tripod
18
The Delphic Oracle and ColonizationThe
Colonization of Cyrene

• Grinnus the son of Aesanius, who was a descendant
  of Theras and king of the island of Thera,
  arrived in Delphi with a hecatomb. He was
  accompanied by a number of ordinary
  citizens.King Grinnus was consulting the oracle
  on other matters when the oracle declared that he
  would found another community in Libya. Lord,
  he replied, I am already too old and weighed
  down to take off like that. Please give the job
  to one of the younger men here. As he was saying
  this he waved in the direction of Battus. This
  was all that happened then, and later, after
  their return home, they took no account of the
  oracle. They did not know where Libya was, and
  they were not so foolhardy as to send a
  colonization expedition off to some unknown
  destination. For the next seven years, however,
  no rain fell on Thera, and all their trees, with
  a single exception, had withered. The islanders
  consulted the oracle, and the Pythia reminded
  them that they were supposed to colonize Libya
  (Herodotus, Histories, 4.150-151. Trans. R.
  Waterfield, 1998)

19
The Oracle At Delphi and Political AffairsThe
Spartan Conquest of Tegea

• Since they had good land and many men, they
  immediately flourished and prospered. They were
  not content to live in peace, but, confident that
  they were stronger than the Arcadians, asked the
  oracle at Delphi about gaining all the Arcadian
  land. 2 She replied in hexameter
• You ask me for Arcadia? You ask too much I
  grant it not. There are many men in Arcadia,
  eaters of acorns, Who will hinder you. But I
  grudge you not. I will give you Tegea to beat
  with your feet in dancing, And its fair plain to
  measure with a rope.
• 3 When the Lacedaemonians heard the oracle
  reported, they left the other Arcadians alone and
  marched on Tegea carrying chains, relying on the
  deceptive oracle. They were confident they would
  enslave the Tegeans, but they were defeated in
  battle. (Herodotus, Histories, 1.66.1-3, A.D.
  Godley, 1920)

20
Myths of Apollo

• Benefactor of humanity (esp. through oracles)
• God of civilization as Apollo Mousagetes
• Unrequited love or love lost
• Guilt and redemption (Aeschylus, Oresteia)

21
Apollo and HyacinthusOvid, Metamorphoses,
10.162-219
22
Apollo and the Unfaithful CoronisorThe Birth of
AesclapiusOvid, Metamorphoses, 2. 600-634
23
Mystery Cults

• Most cultic practices in ancient Greece are
  public cults
• Mystery cults only open to initiates (mystes)
• Cult activities (mysteria) are conducted in
  secret difficult to attain knowledge
• Mysteria involve orgia or exalted celebration

24
Characteristics of Mystery Cults

• Secrecy
• Open to anyone wishing initiation
• Adults only
• Pronounced sexual aspect (i.e. ubiquitous genital
  symbols exposure of the body orgies)
• Connection between agrarian magic, sexuality,
  overcoming death
• Psychedelic aspect (i.e. use of mind altering
  substances techniques etc.)
• Suffering and terror induced and then dispelled
  by ritual
• Accompanied by secret tales (i.e. myths known
  only to initiates)
• Many promise eternal life to initiates

25
Important Mystery Cults in Ancient Greece

• Eleusinian Mysteries in honor of Demeter
• Orphic Mysteries in honor of Orpheus
• The Great Mother (Asia Minor)
• Bacchic Mysteries in honor of Dionysus

26
The Cult of Dionysus
27
Dionysus

• God of Wine and Ecstasy also a fertility god a
  god of vital creative energy
• Polar opposite of Apollo (irrational v. rational)
• The human need for ecstasis (i.e. to stand
  outside oneself to lose control surrender) and
  enthousiasmos
• Brings release from illness and grievous
  affliction
• The double gift of madness and wine
• Both Apollo and Dionysus inspire music, poetry
  and dance
• Apollo inspires melody, balance, harmony etc.
• Dionysus inspires wild music, erratic and furious
  rhythms (Dithyramb)

28
The Cult of Dionysos Baccheios

• Dionysus mentioned in Linear B texts (ca. 1250
  BCE)
• Greeks ambivalent toward Dionysus (i.e. at times
  denied its Hellenic origins worship thought to
  contain anti-social/immoral elements)
• Public and private cultic worship
• Not tied to a specific priesthood or clan
• Priests are itinerant
• Mystai anyone who wishes to be initiated
• Bakchoi the initiated (they are all Bacchus)
• Women and Men initiated separately
• Private worshippers not tied to a schedule or
  calendar of festivals

29
Characteristics of the Cult

• Information hard to come by
• Rituals are nocturnal
• Rhythmic dance
• Maenads and Thyiades, societies of raving women
  undertake oreibasia (frenzied procession into the
  mountains) Phallic processions
• Orgia
• Omophagy (eating of raw flesh) climax of
  proceedings
• Ecstasis induced through 1.Consumption of wine,
  2.Sexual excitement
• Promise of afterlife

30
Villa Dei Misteri(Pompeii, ca. 1st century BCE)
www.arssacra.org/images/misteri_2wall.jpg
31
Villa Dei Misteri(Pompeii, ca. 1st century BCE)
it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_dei_Misteri
32
Hope for the AfterlifeThe Hipponion-Vibo Text
(ca. 400 BCE)

• In the house of Hades there is a spring to the
  right, by it stands a white cypress here the
  souls, descending, are cooled. Do not approach
  this spring! Further you will find cool water
  flowing from the lake of recollection. Guardians
  stand over it who will ask you in their sensible
  mind why you are wandering through the darkness
  of corruptible Hades. Answer I am a son of the
  earth and the starry sky but I am desiccated
  with thirst and am perishing therefore quickly
  give me water from the lake of recollection. And
  then the subjects of the Chthonian King (?) will
  have pity and will give you to drink from the
  lake of recollectionAnd indeed you are going a
  long, sacred way which also other mystai and
  bacchoi gloriously walk. (W. Burkert 1985 293)

33
Characteristics of the Myth of Dionysus

• Born to Zeus and Semele
• Associated with the city of Thebes (i.e.
  Euripides, Bacchae)
• Is a wandering god
• Seen as a foreign deity
• Rejected wherever he goes must prove his
  divinity
• Frequently involves a sparagmos

34
The Birth of DionysusOvid, Metamorphoses,
3.252-315
35
A God RejectedThe Daughters of MinyasOvid,
Metamorphoses, 4.1-54, 389-415
36
A God Revenged Dionysus and LycurgusApollodorus,
Bibl. 3.5.1

• Dionysus invented the making of wine from grapes
  and, after he was driven mad by Hera, wandered
  about in Egypt and Syria. Proteus, king of Egypt,
  received him first but later he came to Cybela in
  Phrygia. There he was purified by Rhea, learned
  the rites of initiation and, after receiving from
  her the robe of an initiate, hastened through
  Thrace. Lycurgus, son of Dryas and king of the
  Edonians, who live beside the river Strymon, was
  the first to treat him with contempt and expel
  him. Dionysus took refuge in the sea with Thetis,
  the daughter of Nereus, but his devotees, the
  Bacchae, and the group of Satyrs who attended
  him, were taken prisoner. The Bacchae were later
  suddenly released. Dionysus drove Lycurgus
  insane, who in madness struck and killed his son
  Dryas with an axe, thinking that he was chopping
  a branch from a grapevine. After he had cut off
  his sons extremities, he regained his sanity.
  When the land remained barren, the god declared
  in an oracle that it would be bear fruit if
  Lycurgus were put to death. On hearing this the
  Edonians led him to Mt. Pangaeum and bound him.
  There he was destroyed by horses through the will
  of Dionysus. (M. Simpson, 1976)

37
Foreign AssociationsHerodotus 2.49.1-3

• Now then, it seems to me that Melampus son of
  Amytheon was not ignorant of but was familiar
  with this sacrifice. For Melampus was the one who
  taught the Greeks the name of Dionysus and the
  way of sacrificing to him and the phallic
  procession he did not exactly unveil the subject
  taking all its details into consideration, for
  the teachers who came after him made a fuller
  revelation but it was from him that the Greeks
  learned to bear the phallus along in honor of
  Dionysus, and they got their present practice
  from his teaching. 2 I say, then, that Melampus
  acquired the prophetic art, being a discerning
  man, and that, besides many other things which he
  learned from Egypt, he also taught the Greeks
  things concerning Dionysus, altering few of them
  for I will not say that what is done in Egypt in
  connection with the god and what is done among
  the Greeks originated independently for they
  would then be of an Hellenic character and not
  recently introduced. 3 Nor again will I say
  that the Egyptians took either this or any other
  custom from the Greeks. But I believe that
  Melampus learned the worship of Dionysus chiefly
  from Cadmus of Tyre and those who came with
  Cadmus from Phoenicia to the land now called
  Boeotia. (A.D. Godley, 1920)

38
Dionysus in the Orphic Tradition

• Emerged in the 6th century BCE
• Believed to be based on the teaching of Orpheus
• Variant myth of Dionysus birth
• Born to Zeus and Persephone A unification of
  Heaven and Hades
• Hera orders the Titans to rip him to shreds and
  devour him (i.e. sparagmos)
• Athene saves the heart Zeus swallows it
  impregnates Semele Reborn as Dionysus Zagreus
• Titans blasted by thunderbolt and humans spring
  from the ashes accounts for the dual nature of
  humanity
• Dionysus travels to Hades to bring Semele to Mt.
  Olympus Shown the way by Prosymnus (origin of
  the Phallic processions)
• Through act of ritual sacrifice, initiates
  symbolically consumed the body and blood of
  Dionysus initiated them into the afterlife

39
Cultic Associations Between Orpheus and
DionysusHerodotus, 2.81.1-2

• They wear linen tunics with fringes hanging about
  the legs, called calasiris, and loose white
  woolen mantles over these. But nothing woolen is
  brought into temples, or buried with them that
  is impious. 2 They agree in this with practices
  called Orphic and Bacchic, but in fact Egyptian
  and Pythagorean for it is impious, too, for one
  partaking of these rites to be buried in woolen
  wrappings. There is a sacred legend about this.
  (A.D. Godley, 1920)

40
Orpheus, Dionysus, and Apollo in MythOvid,
Metamorphoses 11.1-84
41
The Stories of Dionysus and Jesus
Dionysus Jesus

• Son of Zeus
• Born of virgin, Semele
• Hera attempts to kill the infant
• Performs miracles
• Battles evil (Titans)
• Rejected at home
• Wine is his gift to the world
• Suffers and dies at the hands of the Titans
• Descends to the underworld
• Apotheosis
• Travels the world seeking converts
• Punishes those who deny his divinity

• Son of God
• Born of virgin Mary
• Herod attempts to kill infant
• Performs miracles
• Battles demons
• Rejected at home
• Wine made sacred through communion
• Suffers and dies at the hands of the Romans
• Descends to the underworld
• Apotheosis
• Sends apostles to convert the lost sheep of
  Israel
• Will return to punish non-believers

42
Discussion Questions

• Why is Apollo described as the quintessentially
  Greek deity?
• How did Apollo come to be associated with guilt
  and purification?
• What kind of myth is contained in the Homeric
  Hymn to Apollo?
• Why are Apollos erotic encounters always
  unfulfilled?
• What is the significance of oracles to Greek
  religious thought?
• What is the significance of enthousiasmos and
  ecstasis?
• How are Dionysus and Apollo similar?
• How is Dionysus associated with the afterlife?
• How is Dionysus connected with the natural world
  and with human psychology? How does the nature of
  his followers connect him to these things?
• Why is Dionysus depicted as wandering abroad and
  facing rejection wherever he goes?
• How are Dionysus, Orpheus, Apollo, and Prometheus
  connected and why?
• Why are Apollo and Dionysus depicted as youthful?
• How would you account for the similarities
  between Dionysus and Jesus of Nazareth?