Maenads

Women's mobility is central to understanding cultural constructions of gender. Regarding ancient cultures, including ancient Greece, a re-evaluation of women's mobility within the household and beyond it is currently taking place. This invites an informed analysis of female mobility in Greek myth, under the premise that myth may open a venue to social ideology and the imaginary.

Female Mobility and Gendered Space in Ancient Greek Myth offers the first comprehensive analysis of this topic. It presents close readings of ancient texts, engaging with feminist thought and the 'mobility turn'. A variety of Olympian goddesses and mortal heroines are explored, and the analysis of their myths follows specific chronological considerations. Female mobility is presented in quite diverse ways in myth, reflecting cultural flexibility in imagining mobile goddesses and heroines. At the same time, the out-of-doors spaces that mortal heroines inhabit seem to lack a public or civic quality, with the heroines being contained behind 'glass walls'. In this respect, myth seems to reproduce the cultural limitations of ancient Greek social ideology on mobility, inviting us to reflect not only on the limits of mythic imagination but also on the timelessness of Greek myth.

This article explores the interdependency that existed in ancient Greece between religious and musical practices. The intimate relationship between those two cultural fields is stressed through a reading of Euripides Bakchai as a testimony for the uses of music in acts of cult foundation and cult diffusion in Classical and Archaic Greece. The Bakchai, which narrate the arriving of a new god, Dionysos, and his cult to Thebes, highlights the importance of Dionysian musical practices in the dialectic process of cult inauguration. The new God announce his arrival with music, musical are the means by which Dionysos and his entourage fights local resistance and his ultimate victory, too, becomes manifest through the embodiment of his particular mousikē by the Theban citizens. Moreover, the narrative of the play also points to a large body of Greek myths featuring the archetypical motif of the ‘musician cult founder’ thus underlining an actual Greek practice of inaugurating new cults by the use of music.

https://en.unipress.dk/udgivelser/a/ascending-and-descending-the-acropolis/

This chapter discusses one of the ancient Greek rituals associated with maenads, during which the participants left their homes and the city to worship Dionysus at the mountains. While historians of religion and archaeologists are becoming increasingly aware that the movement of worshipers must have played an important role in their ritual experience, archaeological finds are not available for every ritual. The ritual at the mountain is one such ritual. The chapter therefore turns to the so-called “early” sources on maenadism from the fifth century BC, both literary and visual, and the analysis assumes that these sources form part of the Athenian imaginary, they belong to the realm of representations. The first part describes the structuring of space in the Bacchae, while the second moves back in time to the first third of the fifth century BC and to a small group of Attic vases. Just as the study of archaeological space has proven informative in tracing the worshipers’ experience in a sanctuary, the consistent representation of this mountain space as related to movement, dancing and an altered state of consciousness could also shed some light on the ritual experience of maenads in the Athenian imaginary.

Mad women running on top of the mountains without the supervision of their husbands, ingestion of mind-altering concoctions, ecstatic nocturnal dancing to the rhythm of the frame drum, ritual sexuality, these and more are the ingredients composing the early worship of Dionysus.
This chapter examines the role of women in the Dionysian cult: Who were the maenads, what happened during their women-only rituals, but also what was the reaction of their contemporaries and which were the most accredited interpretations of contemporary scholars on their legendary legacy.

Following F. Nietzsche, Apollo and Dionysus are often regarded as opposites. The two brothers shared however the same temple at Delphi, considered by the Greek as the umbilical center of the world and the most sacred place on earth. The cults of both gods were focused on actions of women in the state of possession: the Pythia, in the grip of Apollo, uttered prophecies inspired by the god, and the thyiads, known as maenads elsewhere, on alternate years roamed the mountain forests, following the call of Dionysus. Gender misbalance among Dionysus’ rapturous worshippers probably reflects the proclivity of women in patriarchal societies to channel their suppressed psychological tension through ecstatic rites, and the dominance of female prophets as instruments employed by the Greek gods to announce their will to the mortals can be explained as a result of responsivity of women to manipulation of consciousness. However, the intersection between Apolline prophecy and Bacchic ecstasy at Delphi suggests a link between the female votaries of the two gods. This paper presents an overview of the evidence on ecstatic cults of Apollo and Dionysus in Delphi, compares ancient testimonies with insights into the anthropology and neuroscience of alteration of consciousness, and suggests that the proximity of the two cults ensued from their deep multi-dimensional connection.

Zusammenfassung: Dieser Beitrag soll aufzeigen, dass eine chthonische und eschatologische Dimension der dionysischen Göttlichkeit in verschiedenen Riten und Kulten des Gottes nachgewiesen werden kann und dabei keinesfalls mysterienexklusiv ist. Dazu soll der archäologische Befund, der Dionysos mit dem Jenseits und eschatologischen Hoffnungen in Verbindung bringt, vorgestellt und untersucht werden. Darauf aufbauend soll belegt werden, dass diese jenseitige Dimension sich sowohl in Riten mit privatem Kern, hier am Beispiel der Oreibasia, als auch in Kultfeiern des öffentlichen Festkanons, wie den Anthesterien, zeigt. Abschließend soll dann Dionysos' Funktion in den eleusinischen Mysterien untersucht werden.

Abstract: This paper aims to show that a chthonic and eschatological dimension of dionysiac divinity can be found in various rites and cults of the god and that this is not exclusive for the mysteries. Recent archaeological evidence connecting Dionysos with the afterlife and eschatological expectations will be introduced and analyzed. This dimension manifests itself in rites with a private intent (e.g. the Oreibasia) as well as public celebrations of the festival calendar (e.g. the Anthesteria). An analysis of Dionysos' function in the eleusinian mysteries concludes the overview.

Nelle diverse produzioni artistico-figurative greche e romane, le figure di menadi sono ampiamente attestate, tanto da sole quanto con i personaggi del tiaso dionisiaco. Non si può dire che accada lo stesso nella produzione scultorea a tutto tondo, ambito ove raramente si riscontrano statue e sculture di menadi. Ne consegue l’assenza di uno studio unitario in cui gli esemplari scultorei sono raccolti, catalogati e discussi in maniera organica. Il presente volume ha dunque l’ambizioso obiettivo di colmare questa grave lacuna, che non può essere giustificata solo dallo scarso numero di esemplari con cui l’archeologo deve confrontarsi. Quello che finora è mancato è un metodo di analisi basato sui ‘significanti’. Seguendo questo metodo è stato possibile costruire un catalogo puntuale, secondo la tradizione della Kopienkritik, delle sculture analizzate. Il risultato è stato un corpus analitico di base, che ha consentito di comprendere innanzitutto quali sono state e quali sono le difficoltà che l’archeologo incontra di fronte ai tipi scultorei delle baccanti. Le ricerche contenute in questo volume chiariscono così il valore semantico, la reale diffusione e le effettive peculiarità della baccante nel mondo antico. Il taglio storico-critico e l’organizzazione dei sei capitoli lasciano emergere l’evoluzione sia stilistica che semantica della menade in ambito scultoreo a partire dal IV secolo a.C. fino all’epoca tardo-antica. La discussione di questi aspetti precede il catalogo, che consta di cinquantadue schede, corrispondenti alle cinquantadue sculture di menadi. Il volume si chiude con tre significative appendici (manufatti destinati all’arredo; riconoscimenti dubbi; statue in passato identificate come menadi). Figure, tavole e una aggiornata bibliografia completano il quadro di un percorso senza tempo, come lo è il fascino delle menadi.

The paper publishes a miniature cup broken off from a terracotta thymiaterion with figurines of Satyr and Meanad on it found in Olbia. The depiction is analogous to a plastic vase from Nikonion which was a terracotta figurine with a small jar added on its back. Vessels in cult of Dionysus were used not only for wine. The reason for that was the much deeper meaning of Dionysus than just a god of viniculture and his relation to the notions of life after the death.

Le ménadisme est sans doute le phénomène rituel grec qui suscite encore
aujourd’hui le plus de fascination et d’interrogations. Bien qu’un grand
nombre de sources littéraires et iconographiques se rapportent à ce sujet, la
réalité historique du ménadisme reste néanmoins difficile à appréhender. Ce
que nous en savons et ce qui nous a été transmis relève avant tout de l’image
mythico-poétique,
une idée préformée d’un comportement et d’un état
d’esprit propres à l’enthousiasme dionysiaque. Réalité cultuelle d’un rite
dansé ou image poétique d’un état d’esprit : dans les sources textuelles
comme iconographiques, les deux réalités se confondent. Il s’agira ici d’en dégager les différents principes, afin d’offrir une analyse de la gestuelle ménadique et de sa signification.

In Punch's satirical portrayals of 'the Woman Question' during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, tropes from Greek mythology were widely utilised both to idealise and defame. In this paper, I will elucidate how the iconography of the Maenad-alongside the Siren, Gorgon, Harpy and Amazon-was appropriated by political cartoonists to vocalise anxieties regarding female suffrage, degeneration, and the subversive New Woman. I will interpret late Victorian and Edwardian pictorial and literary uses of the Maenad in correlation with Johannes Fabian's assertion that 'anthropology often involves the assumption that the other exists in a different time'. Fabian 1 has famously argued that anthropology is inherently allochronic, always placing the observed Other in a different Time than the observer. Fabian interprets terms such as 'primitive', 'savage', 'barbaric', 'modern', 'archaic' and 'civilised' to be temporal categories: from this, I will infer 'atavistic' to be a temporal concept, wherein the modern Maenad could be contained and neutralised. My aim is to outline how political cartoons were used as temporal and evolutionary distancing devices, consistently banishing the female Other-portrayed as primitive, criminal, and violent-to a different, earlier Time and stage of evolutionary development than the male observer. The mid-Victorian concept of Deep Time thus fused mythological Time and historical Time, allowing the mythical beasts of a distant, savage past to enter the modern, civilised present. A common Gothic trope here emerges: for much like other Gothicized monsters, such as Dracula, Olalla, the Beetle, or Mr Hyde, the Modern Maenad is presented as simultaneous present and past, an atavistic throwback to an early stage of history or evolution, a temporally dislocated being present in a time in which she does not belong. Moreover, the Gothic aspect is visible in the depiction of the Maenad as vampiric, bloodthirsty, and sexually deviant. The intrusive temporalities of the Wild Woman, the New Woman, and the Suffragette are addressed when they are referred to as 'The Modern Maenad', becoming the horrifying past a British femininity in decline could degenerate to. However, by associating subversive women with maenadism, they were temporally contained in the past, in another Time, never a threat to the present or future state of womanhood. This paper suggests that the Gothicized mythological narrative of maenadism was used to undermine the political aspirations of the New Woman and the suffragette movement, achieved by framing female progress and calls for suffrage as threatening temporal and evolutionary mobility, emblematic of an ancient, primitive and atavistic Time of the Other.

My talk explores the exaggerated preternaturalness of Maenadic worship as presented in Euripides' Bacchae in relation to Dionysus' revenge. In the play, Dionysus is shown to have complete control over people’s psyche, while simultaneously shown to be calmly in control of his own. His own sophrosyne (σώφροσιν) thereby becomes a reminder to the audience of the power of his control and Maenads in general. I argue that Maenadism becomes a display of power for the new god and a warning to those outside of his worship. This is also laid out by Euripides for the audience in the specific language he uses throughout the play, words connected to the mind, carrying the notion of either having control of one’s mind (φρήν) or not. These words appear as foreshadowing and markers, constantly reminding the audience of the type of god Dionysus is and therefore his power.

Sources dating from the archaic period to the Roman age preserve traditions on the famed Greek seer-healer Melampus; among these is the healing of the daughters of king Proetus (the so-called Proetides): the three girls offended the gods and were punished with madness, fleeing with recklessly from their home and from society into wild regions. In spite of the variations among sources, we have sought to identify certain recurrent symptoms and to pinpoint types of therapies and to propose their analysis to modern specialists in medicine and psychology, hence formulating a retrospective diagnosis that provides ancient historians with new classificatory and analytical tools to understand ancient Greek medicine and psychiatry. Re-formulated in these terms, we can recognize similarities – and differences – between the myth of the Proetides and the phenomena of tarantismo. The psychological profile of the women is bound to issues of gender, family, and conformation to social norms. The symptoms can be discussed in terms of " hysteria " or " mass hysteria " , " depersonalization " , " delusion " , " dissociation " , and " psychosis ". The remedies and cures can be explained, among others, as " music therapy " or " drama therapy ". In ancient Greek culture as much as in the phenomena of tarantismo the disturbs and remedies of the psyche belong to the sphere of the supernatural and divine, of ritual, religion and magic. But this experiment in extreme interdisciplinarity does allow recognizing a medicalizing framework even in ritual: featuring the observation of the sufferers, a taxonomy of the symptoms, and the application of cures and remedies according to rationalizing causal relations.

The Hellenistic sculptural groups known as symplegmata (sing., symplegma; literally ‘twisted together’) often exhibit a contrast between a beautiful female character and a grotesque, hairy male. Typically, these works imply sexual violence instigated by the male. An example of this is the Satyr and Maenad symplegma, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original, now in the Museo Nuovo in Rome. This paper examines the timelessness and fantasy provoking capability of the beauty v. beast theme of the Greaco-Roman tradition through a comparison of George Waggner’s 1941 Classic horror film 'The Wolf Man' and the Satyr and Maenad symplegma. Like the sculpture in Rome, 'The Wolf Man' juxtaposes the attractiveness of its heroine Gwen (Evelyn Ackers) with the bestiality of the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr). This juxtaposition occurs most acutely in the film’s climatic scene when the titular monster viciously attacks the beautiful Gwen recalling the aggression displayed in the symplegma. The psychological states of the Wolf Man and Gwen during this scene are also reminiscent of the respective mental aspects of satyrs and maenads. Both the Wolf Man and satyr stand on the boundary between beast and man, failing in their attempts at humanity due to their lustful nature, while their female “companions” share a frenzied mental state. Therefore, by comparing 'The Wolf Man' and the Satyr and Maenad symplegma, this paper demonstrates the enduring effect of the beauty v. beast theme across time and culture.