CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Finding Dionysus
Susan Guettel Cole
Paradoxes
By the classical period Dionysus was to be found everywhere in the Greek world, but
when we look for tangible traces of his presence or activity, he is hard to pin down. He
had many small sanctuaries, but rarely a substantial temple. Greek theaters were called
tou Dionusou, ‘‘[the place] of Dionysus,’’ and every Greek theater was built in his
honor. Nevertheless, a famous Greek proverb could claim that Greek drama had,
‘‘nothing to do with Dionysus’’ (Pickard-Cambridge 1962:124–6). Bulls were
slaughtered in sacrifice to the god at his major city festival in Athens, the Dionysia,
but the goat, the more common sacrificial victim mandated for him in local regula-
tions for sacrifice elsewhere, was not even allowed on the Athenian acropolis (Burkert
1985:229).
Dionysus had a fluid identity. Although ranked as a god, he had a mortal mother.
He was born twice, once from his dead mother and a second time from his father’s
‘‘male womb’’ (Euripides,Bacchae95). He was recognized as divine and therefore
immortal, but his tomb was shown to visitors in the temple of Apollo at Delphi
(FGrH328 fr. 7; Plutarch,Isis and Osiris365a; Pie ́rart 1996). In the archaic period
he is depicted as a mature adult, bearded and composed. However, he is also
represented as a youth with hair to the shoulders (Euripides,Bacchae150, 235,
455) and described as ‘‘shaped like a girl’’ (the ̄lomorphos:Bacchae353) or as looking
‘‘like an unmarried girl’’ (Antoninus Liberalis 10.1). Dionysus did not belong to the
original group of twelve gods on Olympus, but he is included in the group of twelve
as depicted on archaic Attic pottery (Long 1987:4–5). The branch he carries (bak-
khos) is a sign of his identity. CalledBakkhos,Bakkhios,orBakkheushimself, he shares
his title with his mortal worshipers,Bakkhoi(masculine) orBakkhai(feminine). As a
god he should have fed on nectar and ambrosia and never felt a twinge of indigestion,
but Aristophanes could put him on the stage suffering from a bout of diarrhea (Frogs
479–88). Finally, although he himself is not shown in sexual arousal (Jameson