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Festival Of Dionysia Of Athens
By:
Published: August 31, 2006
Wine, women and song. All three were integral to the ancient Athenian festivals of Dionysia.
After all, the festivals honored Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, nature and ecstasy.
Aside from the Athenian festival, there were three smaller festivals throughout the year: the Anthesteria, the Agrionia and the rural or rustic Dionysia. These festivals revolved around drinking wine, playing music and conducting maenad rituals (maenads were sexually-frenzied, often-violent female worshippers). Fertility symbols, particularly the phallus, were integral to the celebrations and were displayed liberally.
The fourth and largest festival of Dionysia, the Great or City Dionysia, came about for political reasons. The sixth century tyrant of Athens, Peisistratus, had to give his subjects a reason to remain loyal. (In those days, "tyrant" meant "absolute ruler" more than "evil despot" – at least, until the sitting "absolute ruler" was deposed and a new one took his place.) Because Dionysus was popular among Peisistratus' rural subjects, Peisistratus figured they would be loyal to any ruler who honored him; therefore, he created a grand festival of Dionysia within the city of Athens.
This weeklong urban festival was held in the spring. The celebration incorporated many aspects of the rustic festival of Dionysia, beginning with the pompe.
The pompe was a grand procession into a temple and theater dedicated to Dionysus. Athenian citizens and honored guests followed an icon of the god into the temple. Food, wine, water, spoils of war and, of course, phallic symbols followed. Sacrificial bulls and piglets came next. One of the baby pigs would sanctify the theater for the dramatic competitions later in the week.
Dancing and singing competitions followed the pompe. Male choruses worked themselves and their audience into frenzies singing tributes to Dionysus called dithyrambs. The animal sacrifices and a wine-laden feast, followed by a recessional, ended the first day.
Peisistratus tweaked the formula of the rural festival of Dionysia slightly when he created the City Dionysia. He made this event a dramatic festival. Playwrights were invited to submit a playbill – three tragedies and one ribald comedy called a satyr play – each year for consideration. The plays were announced on the second day of the urban festival of Dionysia. A blind draw decided the judges for the competition.
Each of the three selected playwrights was assigned a day to present his four plays, and the winning dramatist was announced on the sixth day of the festival. The material in these plays was often permitted to cover topics and present ideas that were dangerous to profess in normal public life. This made the competition extremely attractive to authors and audiences alike. Some of the most famous Greek playwrights, such as Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, won the competitions. Their reward? Honor and a wreath of ivy.
Sexual excess and wantonness are often associated with any festival of Dionysia. However, some scholars believe it is because people confuse these activities with those of the god's Roman counterpart, Bacchus. The Bacchanalian festivals were much more depraved – so depraved, in fact, that Rome's Senate eventually banned the festival entirely.
The City Dionysia was soon as popular and prestigious in ancient Greece as the Olympic Games. More important to Peisistratus, this festival of Dionysia helped him stay in power, which was his underlying goal. He proved to be an effective ruler. During his reign, Athens received its first coin system, its first written copies of Homer's epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, and an early welfare system granting land to the poor.
Not a bad legacy for a "tyrant."
After all, the festivals honored Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, nature and ecstasy.
Aside from the Athenian festival, there were three smaller festivals throughout the year: the Anthesteria, the Agrionia and the rural or rustic Dionysia. These festivals revolved around drinking wine, playing music and conducting maenad rituals (maenads were sexually-frenzied, often-violent female worshippers). Fertility symbols, particularly the phallus, were integral to the celebrations and were displayed liberally.
The fourth and largest festival of Dionysia, the Great or City Dionysia, came about for political reasons. The sixth century tyrant of Athens, Peisistratus, had to give his subjects a reason to remain loyal. (In those days, "tyrant" meant "absolute ruler" more than "evil despot" – at least, until the sitting "absolute ruler" was deposed and a new one took his place.) Because Dionysus was popular among Peisistratus' rural subjects, Peisistratus figured they would be loyal to any ruler who honored him; therefore, he created a grand festival of Dionysia within the city of Athens.
This weeklong urban festival was held in the spring. The celebration incorporated many aspects of the rustic festival of Dionysia, beginning with the pompe.
The pompe was a grand procession into a temple and theater dedicated to Dionysus. Athenian citizens and honored guests followed an icon of the god into the temple. Food, wine, water, spoils of war and, of course, phallic symbols followed. Sacrificial bulls and piglets came next. One of the baby pigs would sanctify the theater for the dramatic competitions later in the week.
Dancing and singing competitions followed the pompe. Male choruses worked themselves and their audience into frenzies singing tributes to Dionysus called dithyrambs. The animal sacrifices and a wine-laden feast, followed by a recessional, ended the first day.
Peisistratus tweaked the formula of the rural festival of Dionysia slightly when he created the City Dionysia. He made this event a dramatic festival. Playwrights were invited to submit a playbill – three tragedies and one ribald comedy called a satyr play – each year for consideration. The plays were announced on the second day of the urban festival of Dionysia. A blind draw decided the judges for the competition.
Each of the three selected playwrights was assigned a day to present his four plays, and the winning dramatist was announced on the sixth day of the festival. The material in these plays was often permitted to cover topics and present ideas that were dangerous to profess in normal public life. This made the competition extremely attractive to authors and audiences alike. Some of the most famous Greek playwrights, such as Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles, won the competitions. Their reward? Honor and a wreath of ivy.
Sexual excess and wantonness are often associated with any festival of Dionysia. However, some scholars believe it is because people confuse these activities with those of the god's Roman counterpart, Bacchus. The Bacchanalian festivals were much more depraved – so depraved, in fact, that Rome's Senate eventually banned the festival entirely.
The City Dionysia was soon as popular and prestigious in ancient Greece as the Olympic Games. More important to Peisistratus, this festival of Dionysia helped him stay in power, which was his underlying goal. He proved to be an effective ruler. During his reign, Athens received its first coin system, its first written copies of Homer's epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, and an early welfare system granting land to the poor.
Not a bad legacy for a "tyrant."
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