Classical Mythology

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

DIONYSUS, PAN, ECHO, AND NARCISSUS 305



  1. The epithet eiraphiotes is of uncertain derivation. It may mean "insewn," but it may
    instead refer to Dionysus' connection with the ivy plant or the goat or the bull.

  2. Dracanum is a cape on the island of Cos; Icarus and Naxos are islands, and the
    Alpheus is a river in Elis.

  3. There must be a lacuna after these lines from Diodorus and before the next section
    from the manuscript text.

  4. The reference to three things is unclear; it may refer to the ritual of dismemberment.

  5. E. R. Dodds' helpful edition of the Greek text of the Bacchae, 2d ed. (New York: Ox-
    ford University Press, 1960), includes an enlightening introduction; he notes that
    Dionysiac religion shares a belief, found universally, that musical rhythms and rit-
    ual dances lead to the most satisfying and highest religious experiences. See also Wal-
    ter F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965
    [1933]); M. Détienne, Dionysos at Large (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989
    [1986]); Carl Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. Translated from
    the German by Ralph Manheim. Bollingen Series LXV.2 (Princeton: Princeton Uni-
    versity Press, 1976); and Thomas H. Carpenter and Christopher A. Faraone, eds.,
    Masks of Dionysus. Myth and Poetics Series (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), a
    collection of essays about various aspects of Dionysus and his worship.

  6. A famous adaptation of this legend was made by Vergil in his sixth Eclogue, in which
    the utterance of the silenus is cosmogonical and mythological.

  7. Variations in the story are obviously etiological attempts to account for elements of
    Bacchic ritual. Later ceremonies enacted the passion, death, and resurrection of the
    god in all their details.

  8. Friedrich Nietzsche has provided the most imaginative and influential modern analy-
    sis of the Dionysiac experience, particularly in enunciating its antithetical relation-
    ship to the Apollonian. See M. S. Silk and J. P. Stern, Nietzsche on Tragedy (New York:
    Cambridge University Press, 1981), a study of Nietzsche's first book, The Birth of
    Tragedy.

  9. Ovid's version of Midas' story (Metamorphoses 11. 85-145) is well known. This is the
    same Midas whose ears were turned into those of an ass as a result of his preference
    for the music of Pan over that of Apollo; see p. 243.

  10. The same story is told by Ovid (Metamorphoses 3. 597-691), who provides an inter-
    esting comparison in artistic method and purpose.

  11. Nonnos, Dionysiaca. Translated by W. H. D. Rouse (New York: Harvard University
    Press, 1934), Vol. 1, p. x.

  12. See Philippe Borgeaud, The Cult of Pan in Ancient Greece (Chicago: University of
    Chicago Press, 1988) for a study of changing representations of Pan. Also Patricia
    Merivale, Pan the Goat-God: His Myth in Modern Times (Cambridge: Harvard Univer-
    sity Press, 1969).

  13. According to Herodotus (6. 106), Pan was encountered by the runner Phidippides,
    who had been sent to Sparta by the Athenians to ask for help when they were about
    to fight the Persians at Marathon in 490. Phidippides claimed that Pan called him by
    name and asked why the Athenians ignored him although he was a deity friendly to
    them. The Athenians believed Phidippides and later built a shrine to Pan and hon-
    ored him with annual sacrifices and torch races.

  14. Another nymph he pursued was turned into a tree that bore her name, Pitys (the
    Greek word for "pine").

Free download pdf