James Frazer - The Golden Bough - A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 07 of 12)

Dionysus represented in the form of a bull.

A feature in the mythical character of Dionysus, which at first sight appears inconsistent with his nature as a deity of vegetation, is that he was often conceived and represented in animal shape, especially in the form, or at least with the horns, of a bull. Thus he is spoken of as “cow-born,” “bull,” “bull-shaped,” “bull-faced,” “bull-browed,” “bull-horned,” “horn-bearing,” “two-horned,” “horned.” 69 69 Plutarch, Isis et Osiris , 35; id. , Quaest. Graec. 36; Athenaeus, xi. 51, p. 476 a; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii. 16; Orphica , Hymn xxx. vv. 3, 4, xlv. 1, lii. 2, liii. 8; Euripides, Bacchae , 99; Scholiast on Aristophanes, Frogs , 357; Nicander, Alexipharmaca , 31; Lucian, Bacchus , 2. The title Εἰραφιώτης applied to Dionysus ( Homeric Hymns , xxxiv. 2; Porphyry, De abstinentia , iii. 17; Dionysius, Perieg. 576; Etymologicum Magnum , p. 371. 57) is etymologically equivalent to the Sanscrit varsabha , “a bull,” as I was informed by my lamented friend the late R. A. Neil of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He was believed to appear, at least occasionally, as a bull. 70 70 Euripides, Bacchae , 920 sqq. , 1017; Nonnus, Dionys. vi. 197 sqq. His images were often, as at Cyzicus, made in bull shape, 71 71 Plutarch, Isis et Osiris , 35; Athenaeus, xi. 51, p. 476 a. or with bull horns; 72 72 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 2, iv. 4. 2; Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium , 30. and he was painted with horns. 73 73 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 2; J. Tzetzes, Schol. on Lycophron , 209, 1236; Philostratus, Imagines , i. 14 (15). Types of the horned Dionysus are found amongst the surviving monuments of antiquity. 74 74 Müller-Wieseler, Denkmäler der alten Kunst , ii. pl. xxxiii.; Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines , i. 619 sq. , 631; W. H. Roscher, Lexikon d. griech. u. röm. Mythologie , i. 1149 sqq. ; F. Imhoof-Blumer, “Coin-types of some Kilikian Cities,” Journal of Hellenic Studies , xviii. (1898) p. 165. On one statuette he appears clad in a bull's hide, the head, horns, and hoofs hanging down behind. 75 75 F. G. Welcker, Alte Denkmäler (Göttingen, 1849-1864), v. taf. 2. Again, he is represented as a child with clusters of grapes round his brow, and a calf's head, with sprouting horns, attached to the back of his head. 76 76 Archaeologische Zeitung , ix. (1851) pl. xxxiii., with Gerhard's remarks, pp. 371-373. On a red-figured vase the god is portrayed as a calf-headed child seated on a woman's lap. 77 77 Gazette Archéologique , v. (1879) pl. 3. The people of Cynaetha in north-western Arcadia held a festival of Dionysus in winter, when men, who had greased their bodies with oil for the occasion, used to pick out a bull from the herd and carry it to the sanctuary of the god. Dionysus was supposed to inspire their choice of the particular bull, 78 78 Pausanias, viii. 19. 2. which probably represented the deity himself; for at his festivals he was believed to appear in bull form. The women of Elis hailed him as a bull, and prayed him to come with his bull's foot. They sang, “Come hither, Dionysus, to thy holy temple by the sea; come with the Graces to thy temple, rushing with thy bull's foot, O goodly bull, O goodly bull!” 79 79 Plutarch, Quaestiones Graecae , 36; id. , Isis et Osiris , 35. The Bacchanals of Thrace wore horns in imitation of their god. 80 80 J. Tzetzes, Schol. on Lycophron , 1236. According to the myth, it was in the shape of a bull that he was torn to pieces by the Titans; 81 81 Nonnus, Dionys. vi. 205. and the Cretans, when they acted the sufferings and death of Dionysus, tore a live bull to pieces with their teeth. 82 82 Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum , 6. Indeed, the rending and devouring of live bulls and calves appear to have been a regular feature of the Dionysiac rites. 83 83 Euripides, Bacchae , 735 sqq. ; Scholiast on Aristophanes, Frogs , 357. When we consider the practice of portraying the god as a bull or with some of the features of the animal, the belief that he appeared in bull form to his worshippers at the sacred rites, and the legend that in bull form he had been torn in pieces, we cannot doubt that in rending and devouring a live bull at his festival the worshippers of Dionysus believed themselves to be killing the god, eating his flesh, and drinking his blood.

Dionysus as a goat. Live goats rent and devoured by his worshippers.

Another animal whose form Dionysus assumed was the goat. One of his names was “Kid.” 84 84 Hesychius, s. v. Ἔριφος ὁ Διόνυσος, on which there is a marginal gloss ὁ μικρὸς αἴξ, ὁ ἐν τῷ ἔαρι φαινόμενος, ἤγουν ὁ πρώϊμος; Stephanus Byzantius, s. v. Ἀκρώρεια. At Athens and at Hermion he was worshipped under the title of “the one of the Black Goatskin,” and a legend ran that on a certain occasion he had appeared clad in the skin from which he took the title. 85 85 Pausanias, ii. 35. 1; Scholiast on Aristophanes, Acharn. 146; Etymologicum Magnum , s. v. Ἀπατούρια, p. 118. 54 sqq. ; Suidas, s. vv. Ἀπατούρια and μελαναίγιδα Διόνυσον; Nonnus, Dionys. xxvii. 302. Compare Conon, Narrat. 39, where for Μελανθίδῃ we should perhaps read Μελαναίγιδι. In the wine-growing district of Phlius, where in autumn the plain is still thickly mantled with the red and golden foliage of the fading vines, there stood of old a bronze image of a goat, which the husbandmen plastered with gold-leaf as a means of protecting their vines against blight. 86 86 Pausanias, ii. 13. 6. On their return from Troy the Greeks are said to have found goats and an image of Dionysus in a cave of Euboea (Pausanias, i. 23. 1). The image probably represented the vine-god himself. To save him from the wrath of Hera, his father Zeus changed the youthful Dionysus into a kid; 87 87 Apollodorus, Bibliotheca , iii. 4. 3. and when the gods fled to Egypt to escape the fury of Typhon, Dionysus was turned into a goat. 88 88 Ovid, Metam. v. 329; Antoninus Liberalis, Transform. 28; Mythographi Vaticani , ed. G. H. Bode, i. 86, p. 29. Hence when his worshippers rent in pieces a live goat and devoured it raw, 89 89 Arnobius, Adversus nationes , v. 19. Compare Suidas, s. v. αἰγίζειν. As fawns appear to have been also torn in pieces at the rites of Dionysus (Photius, Lexicon , s. v. νεβρίζειν; Harpocration, s. v. νεβρίζων), it is probable that the fawn was another of the god's embodiments. But of this there seems no direct evidence. Fawn-skins were worn both by the god and his worshippers (Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae Compendium , 30). Similarly the female Bacchanals wore goat-skins (Hesychius, s. v. τραγηφόροι). they must have believed that they were eating the body and blood of the god.

Custom of rending and devouring animals and men as a religious rite. Ceremonial cannibalism among the Indians of British Columbia.

The custom of tearing in pieces the bodies of animals and of men and then devouring them raw has been practised as a religious rite by savages in modern times. We need not therefore dismiss as a fable the testimony of antiquity to the observance of similar rites among the frenzied worshippers of Bacchus. An English missionary to the Coast Indians of British Columbia has thus described a scene like the cannibal orgies of the Bacchanals. After mentioning that an old chief had ordered a female slave to be dragged to the beach, murdered, and thrown into the water, he proceeds as follows: “I did not see the murder, but, immediately after, I saw crowds of people running out of those houses near to where the corpse was thrown, and forming themselves into groups at a good distance away. This I learnt was from fear of what was to follow. Presently two bands of furious wretches appeared, each headed by a man in a state of nudity. They gave vent to the most unearthly sounds, and the two naked men made themselves look as unearthly as possible, proceeding in a creeping kind of stoop, and stepping like two proud horses, at the same time shooting forward each arm alternately, which they held out at full length for a little time in the most defiant manner. Besides this, the continual jerking their heads back, causing their long black hair to twist about, added much to their savage appearance. For some time they pretended to be seeking the body, and the instant they came where it lay they commenced screaming and rushing round it like so many angry wolves. Finally they seized it, dragged it out of the water, and laid it on the beach, where I was told the naked men would commence tearing it to pieces with their teeth. The two bands of men immediately surrounded them, and so hid their horrid work. In a few minutes the crowd broke into two, when each of the naked cannibals appeared with half of the body in his hands. Separating a few yards, they commenced, amid horrid yells, their still more horrid feast. The sight was too terrible to behold. I left the gallery with a depressed heart. I may mention that the two bands of savages just alluded to belong to that class which the whites term ‘medicine-men.’ ” The same writer informs us that at the winter ceremonials of these Indians “the cannibal, on such occasions, is generally supplied with two, three, or four human bodies, which he tears to pieces before his audience. Several persons, either from bravado or as a charm, present their arms for him to bite. I have seen several whom he has bitten, and I hear two have died from the effects.” And when corpses were not forthcoming, these cannibals apparently seized and devoured living people. Mr. Duncan has seen hundreds of the Tsimshian Indians sitting in their canoes which they had just pushed off from the shore in order to escape being torn to pieces by a party of prowling cannibals. Others of these Indians contented themselves with tearing dogs to pieces, while their attendants kept up a growling noise, or a whoop, “which was seconded by a screeching noise made from an instrument which they believe to be the abode of a spirit.” 90 90 Mr. Duncan, quoted by Commander R. C. Mayne, Four Years in British Columbia and Vancouver Island (London, 1862), pp. 284-288. The instrument which made the screeching sound was no doubt a bull-roarer, a flat piece of stick whirled at the end of a string so as to produce a droning or screaming note according to the speed of revolution. Such instruments are used by the Koskimo Indians of the same region at their cannibal and other rites. See Fr. Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians,” Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895 (Washington, 1897), pp. 610, 611.