What Does the Frieze in the Villa of Mysteries Reveal About the Dionysian Mystery Cult?
By Margaret
The Dionysian Mystery Cult is full of secrets and questions. However, we can gain a small glimpse into its culture and rituals through a two-thousand-year-old frieze preserved on the outskirts of Pompeii. The frieze is thought to depict the initiation ceremony of a young woman into the Cult, though much of its meaning is not overt.
One of Dionysus’ main symbols was the thyrsus. The thyrsus was a staff made of fennel, wrapped in ivy or leaves and topped with a pinecone. The pinecone often represented a phallus and was covered in honey to symbolise fertility. The thyrsus is traditionally associated with Dionysus’ Roman counterpart, Bacchus, though the two personas are almost interchangeable as characters. Those participating in Dionysus’ thiasus would carry the thyrsus, particularly male satyrs. This was probably to exhibit the Cult’s encouragement of sensual and promiscuous behaviour, especially relating to Dionysus’ representation of pleasure and revelry. We also see Dionysus pictured with grapes and some of his attendants with olive wreaths, denoting the god’s love of wine and feasting. In addition, some of the figures displayed in the frieze are carrying or playing musical instruments, as music and festivals were also an integral part of the Dionysian Cult culture.
Furthermore, most of the people involved in the ritual pictured in the frieze are women. Some of the women appear to be young maidens, while others are older and more mature. The presence of these women seems to relate back to the Dionysian theme of fertility. The women who were members of the Dionysian Cult were called ‘Maenads’, which literally translates as ‘raving ones’. Again, Dionysus was god of ritual madness and religious ecstasy, which is clearly represented in the parts of the frieze showing mad dances and wild ravings. Perhaps these Maenads were women who had suffered at the hands of a marginalizing, patriarchal Greek society, seeking liberation and acceptance. However, I think the extremities displayed in the frieze are rituals that only a mad or inebriated person would be willing to undergo. It is more likely, in my opinion, that these women were drugged, half-insane nymphomaniacs, possibly having been gaslighted by society into abandoning their sense of morals and dignity. Indeed, the presence of Silenus, god of ecstatic dance and drunken joy, shows that this ‘initiation ceremony’ is hardly a serious or sophisticated event. Rather, the frieze’s combination of deranged women, nymphs, satyrs and literal gods, all carrying symbols of revelry and wanton copulation, shows that the followers of Dionysus were, indeed, quite mad.
Similarly, Dionysus himself takes quite an erotic position on the stage of this frieze. With grapes and leaves interwoven through his hair, the god of wine and pleasure is fittingly represented among his unhinged disciples. Dionysus lies against the chair of, probably, his wife Ariadne, a thyrsus leaning across his nude body. His presence is dominatingly prurient; this ceremony is undoubtedly in his honour, yet there is no sense of formality or solemnity. This younger, more alluring representation of the god relates again back to the Dionysian theme of beauty and fertility, perhaps also explaining the predominant presence of females, rather than males. In this frieze, Dionysus appears both relaxed and compelling, a striking contrast to the dynamic, venereal atmosphere of the scene around him.
Likewise, I previously alluded to some of the rituals performed in this particular initiation ceremony. This frieze shows a young, naked boy reading, perhaps, the statutes of the Cult, some minor ritual conducted by a priestess involving a basket and sacred water, the breast-feeding of a goat by a nymph, drinking from a sacred bowl, whipping, wielding of sacred instruments, music, orgiastic dancing and potentially much more. It is safe to say that most sane people would stay far away from such a debauched event, which, needless to say, seems to have quite an exclusive membership criterion. However, I think this gives us a quite an illustrative view of Ancient Greek society; few theistic cultures throughout history have gone to such lengths to prove their devotion to their deity. Certainly, the average Greek did not engage in rituals like these, but the existence of such ceremonies is quite disturbing.
In addition, another theme exhibited throughout the frieze, is theatre. From an inconspicuous pair of actor’s boots to an unassuming mask, the Dionysian love of drama seems almost unnoticeable in this frieze. Look a little closer, however, and you might find that the theatre is more present than you thought. In one frame, a woman’s cloak billows out behind her as she flees in terror; in another, a Maenad clashes cymbals above her head as she dances, nude, next to a woman weeping as she is ceremoniously whipped. This entire scene is arrayed just like a play, with main characters and ensemble, props and costumes, moods and sequences. Thus, the god of theatre is vividly represented throughout the frieze, even without the prevalent multitude of thyrsi. The drama, lust, violence, hysteria and sacredness of the Cult in this scene absolutely epitomizes the nature of Dionysus, giving us a crucial glance past the intense secrecy with which these practises were guarded.
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