process ofmime ̄sis. The giantphallosdisplayed in the theater before the dramas began
prepared the site for spectators to view the plays (Cole 1993a:29–34).
Gender and Dionysiac Ritual
Dionysiac rituals for women were organized by the city or deme and scheduled in
official ritual calendars. At Delphi, where the festival was called Thuia, the Thuiades
had regular ritual responsibilities (Villaneuva Puig 1986). Pausanias says that they
‘‘raved’’ on the Corycian heights of Parnassus for Apollo and Dionysus (10.32.7),
but in fact, their ‘‘raving’’ was officially scheduled to take place in winter every two
years.
Officially sponsored festivals often distinguished ritual for females from ritual for
males. At Elis the split was spatial as well as based on gender. Here, women called
Thuiai engaged in ecstatic dancing at the Thuia for Dionysus at his temple near the
theater. Males celebrated wine at a little sanctuary of Dionysus out of town (Schlesier
2002; Scullion 2001). Elsewhere, female worshipers of Dionysus celebrated noctur-
nal rites that excluded males. They beat drums, performed wild dances (Bremmer
1984), and banqueted together on sacrificial meat.
The evidence for actual Bacchic rites exclusively for females is sparse. An exception
is the fourth-century calendar of sacrifices found in the rural Attic deme of
Erchia, listing annual sacrifices to Dionysus and Semele for the women of the deme
(Sokolowski 1969: no. 18; Henrichs 1990:260–4). The costs were funded by local
liturgy: 12 drachmas to purchase the goat for Dionysus and 10 drachmas to purchase
the goat for Semele. The meat could not be taken away from the sanctuary, but had to
consumed on the spot. The women, therefore, practiced conventional sacrifice,
thusia, followed by a ritual banquet. A stone from Methymna preserves alex sacra
that regulates an all-night ceremony (pannukhis) in a sanctuary where no men were
allowed (Sokolowski 1969: no. 127, probably fourth century BC). Because the text
mentionsthursoi, the all-night rituals must have been in honor of Dionysus. Most of
the extant fragment is devoted to the requirements for thegunaikonomos, a male
publicly appointed to supervise the women at the event. He had to be at least 40 years
old and a citizen of Methymna. His primary responsibility was to guard the double
doors to the sanctuary and to see to it that no male entered.
Literary sources indicate a variety of local rites, but nothing specifically
‘‘maenadic.’’ At Chaironeia, the women acted out a search for Dionysus before taking
part in a sacrifice that was followed by a feast during which they told riddles (Plutarch,
Greek Questions717a). At Brysiai in the Peloponnese the women, with no males
present, performed a sacrifice to Dionysus so sacred that it was wrong even to speak
about it (Pausanias 3.20.4). Men could view theagalma(statue) of the god outside
the temple, but only women could look at theagalmainside. On the road from
the eastern frontier of Lakonia to Sparta there was a precinct of a local hero adjacent
to a sanctuary of Dionysus. Two groups of females, eleven Dionysiades and eleven
Leukippides, offered the first sacrifice to the hero because he had shown the god the
way to Sparta (Pausanias 3.13.7).
Women participated in traditional ritual activities for Dionysus. They erected
statues of themselves and made dedications in sanctuaries. Fathers, husbands, and
Finding Dionysus 335