{"id":377,"date":"2021-07-30T21:18:27","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T20:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/ancient-dance\/?page_id=377"},"modified":"2021-07-30T21:36:16","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T20:36:16","slug":"dionysiac-dances","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/ancient-dance\/ancient-greek-dance\/what-we-know\/popular-dances\/dionysiac-dances\/","title":{"rendered":"Dionysiac dances"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is difficult to appreciate the importance and the variety of forms that the cult of Dionysus took in the ancient Greek world. He was one of the god of music \u2013 with Apollo, Pan, the Muses \u2013 and is depicted as early as the 6th<\/sup> century BC in pottery surrounded by his mythological entourage: nymphs, satyrs, other hybrids and animals, etc.<\/p>\n

The thiasos \u2013 private gatherings of Dionysus\u2019 followers initiated in the god\u2019s mysteries \u2013 always included dancing in their rituals. Dancing was the best medium to reach a distinctive mental state and was considered a sign religious faith and devotion. While dancing, the believers thought to acquire healing properties through sacred fury, lawlessness and abolition of their moral inhibitions. These orgiastic dances favoured the experience of becoming one with the god by reaching a state of ecstasy and mental release. [1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Maenads – frantic or mad women \u2013 were the usual companions of Dionysos, whose unbridled dancing is portrayed in a wide range of artistic media. According to Athenaeus, Dionysian dances were similar to war dances\u2013 pyrrhic -, in the sense that speed was required, as well as violent and sudden movements, such as leaping, jumping and dodging. However, dancers have thyrsoi<\/em> instead of spears, throw fennel-stalks at each other and carry torches while dancing the story of Dionysus and India. [2]<\/a> \u00a0The re-telling of the myth \u2013 the return of Dionysus from India \u2013 and the divine knowledge that the god acquired there could be somehow codified in these performances. The annual festival of Agrionia<\/em> included 3 groups of dancing women who would go to the mountains to stay all night there to join in ecstasy their god, Dionysus.<\/p>\n

As mentioned before, the iconography of Dionysus and his entourage is widely present in Greek art, but it is not easy to separate the depictions that belong to the mythical sphere from those that are actually documenting a specific ritual. The presence of satyrs and other hybrids would arguably situate the audience in the first one, while the absence of them would possibly allude to a religious festival or procession.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Ieran\u00f2 2021:38.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae<\/em> 630b-631c.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ieran\u00f2 2021:39.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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