Maenads

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Maenads

Postby deacongray » Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:08 pm

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Maenad


In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of DionysusDionysus
In classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, amongst whom Greek mythology treated him as a late arrival...
, the most significant members of the ThiasusThiasus
In Greek mythology, the thiasus , was the ecstatic retinue of Dionysus, often pictured as inebriated revelers. In vase-paintings or bas-reliefs, lone female figures brandishing the thyrsos can be recognized as members of the thiasus...
, the retinue of Dionysus. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by him into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxicationIntoxication
Intoxication is the state of being affected by one or more psychoactive drugs. It can also refer to the effects caused by the ingestion of poison or by the overconsumption of normally harmless substances.Some types of intoxication:*A mechanism of disease....
. In this state, they would lose all self-control, begin shouting excitedly, engage in uncontrolled sexual behavior, and ritualRitual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers, or dictated purely by logic, chance, necessity, etc..A ritual may be...
istically hunt down and tear animals (and sometimes men and children) to pieces, devouring the raw flesh. During these rites, the maenads would dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsusThyrsus
In Greek mythology, a thyrsus was a staff of giant fennel covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine cone. Where these emblems were, there was the spirit of Dionysus also. Euripides wrote that honey dripped from the thyrsos staves that the...
, a long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and tipped by a cluster of leaves; weave ivy-wreaths around their heads; and often handle or wear snakes.

German philologist Walter Friedrich OttoWalter Friedrich Otto
Walter Friedrich [Gustav Hermann] OttoWalter Friedrich [Gustav Hermann] OttoWalter Friedrich [Gustav Hermann] Otto(22 June 1874 (Hechingen — 23 September 1958 Tübingen) was a German classical philologist.-Selected bibliography:* Die Manen: Oder, von den Urformen des Totenglaubens 1923.*Die Götter...
writes that, "The BacchaeThe Bacchae
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon...
of Euripides gives us the most vital picture of the wonderful circumstance in which, as PlatoPlato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world...
says in the Ion, the god-intoxicated celebrants draw milk and honey from the streams. They strike rocks with the thyrsus, and water gushes forth. They lower the thyrsus to the earth, and a spring of wine bubbles up. If they want milk, they scratch up the ground with their fingers and draw up the milky fluid. Honey trickles down from the thyrsus made of the wood of the ivy, they gird themselves with snakes and give suck to fawns and wolf cubs as if they were infants at the breast. Fire does not burn them. No weapon of iron can wound them, and the snakes harmlessly lick up the sweat from their heated cheeks. Fierce bulls fall to the ground, victims to numberless, tearing female hands, and sturdy trees are torn up by the roots with their combined efforts.”

The maddened Hellenic women of real life were mythologizedMythology
Mythology is the study of myths and or of a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece. The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story;...
as the mad women who were nurses of Dionysus in NysaNysa
Nysa may refer to:Towns:* Nysa, Poland: a town in southern Poland on the Nysa Kłodzka river.* Nysa, Anatolia: was an ancient Hellenistic city founded by Antiochus I Soter.* Nisa, Turkmenistan* Nysa-Scythopolis, the Hellenistic Bet She'an in northern Israel...
: "he that on a time drave down over the sacred mount of Nysa the nursing mothers of mad Dionysus; and they all let fall to the ground their wands." (Iliad, VI.130ff). They went into the mountains at night and practised strange rites.

In MacedonMacedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paionia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south...
, according to PlutarchPlutarch
Plutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
's Life of Alexander, they were called Mimallones and Klodones. In Greece they were described as Bacchae, Bassarides, ThyiaThyia
According to Hesiod's Eoiae or Catalogue of Women, Thyia was the daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha and mother of Magnes and Makednos by Zeus....
des, Potniades and other epithets.

The maenads were also known as Bassarids (or Bacchae or Bacchantes) in Roman mythologyRoman mythology
Roman mythology, or Latin mythology, refers to the mythological beliefs of the Italic people inhabiting the region of Latium and its main city, Ancient Rome. It can be considered as having two parts; One part, largely later and literary, consists of borrowings from Greek mythology...
, after the penchant of the equivalent Roman god, Bacchus, to wear a foxFox
Fox is a common name for many species of carnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail ....
-skin, a bassaris.

In EuripidesEuripides
Euripides was the lastof the three great tragedians of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias...
' play The BacchaeThe Bacchae
The Bacchae is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon...
, Theban maenads murdered King PentheusPentheus
In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes, son of the strongest of the Spartes, Echion, and of Agave, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia....
after he banned the worship of Dionysus. Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods, where the maenads tore him apart. His corpse was mutilated by his own mother, AgaveAgave (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Agave was the daughter of Cadmus, the king and founder of the city of Thebes, Greece, and of the goddess Harmonia. Her sisters were Autonoë, Ino and Semele. She married Echion, one of the five spartoi, and was the mother of Pentheus, a king of Thebes. She also had a daughter...
, who tore off his head, believing it to be that of a lion.

A group of maenads also killed OrpheusOrpheus
Orpheus is an important figure from Greek mythology, the inspiration for subsequent Orphic cults, much of the literature, poetry and drama of ancient Greece and Rome and, due to his association with singing and the lyre, much dramatic Western classical music.Orpheus was called by Pindar "the...
.

In Greek vase paintingVase painting
Vase painting is the painting of figurative or non-figurative decoration onto pottery. The phrase is most often used to describe such art as produced in ancient Greece....
, the frolicking of maenads and Dionysus is often a theme depicted on Greek kraterKrater
A krater was a large vase used to mix wine and water in Ancient Greece.-Form and function:...
s, used to mix water and wine. These scenes show the maenads in their frenzy running in the forests, often tearing to pieces any animal they happen to come across.

See also IcariusIcarius
In Greek mythology, there were two people named Icarius, or Ikários .#One Icarius was the son of Oebalus and Gorgophone and, through Periboea, father of Penelope, Perileos and Iphthime. He was a Spartan king and a champion runner who would not allow anyone to marry his daughter unless he beat him...
, ButesButes
In Greek mythology, the name Butes referred to three different people.*An Argonaut, son of Teleon. Aphrodite's lover, a famous bee keeper and a Sicilian king. He was the father of Eryx by Aphrodite....
, DryasDryas
Dryas is the name of nine characters in Greek mythology1. Dryas was the son of King Lycurgus, king of the Edoni in Thrace; "Shepherd of the People", Nestor calls him...
, and MinyadesMinyades
The Minyades were three sisters in Greek mythology who were daughters of Minyas, and the protagonists of a myth about the perils of neglecting the worship of Dionysus...
for other examples of Dionysus inflicting insanity upon women as a curse.

Nurses/nymphs

The name maenad has come to be associated with a wide variety of women, supernatural, mythological, and historical, associated with the god Dionysus and his worship. In the realm of the supernatural, we have the category of nymphs/nurses who care for the young Dionysus, and continue in his worship as he comes of age. The god Hermes is said to have carried the young Dionysus to the nymphs of Nysa.

Different from gods, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young girls who love to dance and sing; their amorous freedom sets them apart from the restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polisPolis
A polis -- plural: poleis --is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens...
. Throughout Greek mythology, they often act as attendants for one or more of the major gods or goddesses. They are extremely long-lived, but not necessarily immortal.

In another myth, when his mother, Semele, is killed, the care of young Dionysus falls into the hands of her sisters, Ino, Agave, and Autonoe, who later are depicted as participating in the rites and taking a leadership role among the other maenads
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Postby deacongray » Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:15 pm

So you might be asking why I found this significant. I don't suppose you would want to dig it up on your own, so I thought I would just come out and tell you all about.

The Sexual Vampire ( I knew you where just waiting for me to bring it up.) in many ways is connected to this myth, though not directly.

You see many of those I have spoken too over time that see themselves as sexual vampires totally misunderstand the being, many more make the presumption that a sexual vampire is all about sex...which would be about as accurate as saying all food is about hunger...it simply isn't the case.

For the Sexual vampire the Maenads are more than just the half mortal dedicants to Dionysus that dance between dreams and wakfullness. They represent the very essence of what we are.

Locked between worlds, between passions, they can either be entrapped by their hungers and longings or enlightened by them.

There is so much more to say on this topic, it has me very intrigued currently so I was wondering what your thoughts might be, your expirences both in the dream realms with such creatures, and outside in deal with their more mundane counterparts Sexual Vampires.


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Postby doreanne_shade » Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:53 pm

first, I love reading about mythology, and this... was intriguing. Not only is it significant to legends, but also somewhat symbolic. Interesting too that you point out that people tend to paint one picture of sexual vampires, as dealing with sex completely. As we have discussed a while back, that sex is not always represented by the physical, but also a mental state, or an image. Nymphs for example in mythological tales, are beautiful, with flowing gowns or robes, exsqusite beauty, sometimes mischeivious, as well as carefree. I think its important to note that as far as mundane views go, this could represent the freedom and release of inhibitions we as humans are taught that can be considered morally wrong. With Dionysus representing wine, ectstasy,merriment and sometimes excess, I think its important to remember to take things in doses. Its just my viess on things... but i am looking forward to hearing others' perspectives too...
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Postby deacongray » Wed Apr 14, 2010 7:09 pm

People must also remember that people as a whole define things based on the generalities of the masses. Think about the over all goal of the people with in this cult. Basically they were looking for Ecstasy, and we envisions the drugs, the wine, the dance and frenzy of it all, but we tend to miss the real point...what does that word mean? Where does it come from?

Ecstasy comes from the latin ex stasis which actually means 'out of stasis'. The Ecstatics seek to transcend the illusions of reality and see the world without boundaries where their conciousness spans all space and time. This is known as the Eternal Moment. Sometimes also referred to as touching Lakashim, the heartbeat of the world.

The Question was for them about excess, for us it is about Ex Stasis, about transendance. Is it accomplished through sex drugs and rock and roll? Well that depends on how honest you want to be.

Aldous Huxley said in his 1954 book that we must open the doors to preception, and did so by taking large amounts of Mescaline. While the gate way to abuse is wide and wicked, there is some limited truth to this concept. The doors to preception might be opened in this regard, but stagnation with abuse only leads to looking out of that door rather than stepping through it and walking on a more open path.

Sexuality has many aspects where it also can become addictive, but it can also have aspects of liberation. The Sexual vampire was origonally called the Eros Type, because it is about more than sex, it is about transendance through expirence, through exploration and learning to work the energy that affects.

Aristole, known as the father of reason was also know for the one who defined comedy and tragity, but he also fostered the idea that through understanding and reason, through the mind we could grow.

Both the Bhuddists and later the Hindu also found aspects of this seperation. The Tantric Bhuddists and Hindu floated around the edges of these concepts, and ina a lot of ways trail blazed the aspects between then devine, the spiritual and the physical energies we all possess, but there was so much more too it, more than sexual more than fixation on the act and instead to enbrace the moment, to let yourself seek deeper and more fully into the astral aspects of that.

In every aspect of life there is a dark path and a light path, a start and finish, but there is also the balance, that place between dreams and wakefulness when the Maenads dance and where we explore the depths of ourself and the Ecstasy of somthing greater. Its a place of The Dreaming, who are forever awakened, though we walk many paths.


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Postby deacongray » Mon Sep 20, 2010 8:58 am

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Re: Maenads

Postby Aislin Ni MorRhiaghan » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:03 am

Deacon this is wonderful! I've been considering the role of ecstatic ritual and how relavent it is to today's rites. In some ways I can completely associate with the maenads as being totally given over to their god, channeling his joy and engaging in communion. I can understand the need to tear down social constructs and be the wild, inhibited, socialized animals we are today. It's my understanding that the maenads were so devoted and engaged in communion with their god so often that they became very nearly invincible and lived incredibly long lives. In terms of the sexual link to vampirism, I think it might be a point well made. The channeling of their god would leave not only a trace of residual energy, it would elevate their own pranic levels so it would need to be replenished as the ecstacy of communion wore off. They would likely have had some sort of withdrawal so that more Bacchanalia's and feast days would have to be created. Bacchus/Dionysis has many many feast days given to his worship and this is likely why. I would assume one would have become a priestess by learning to maintain the ecstatic state much longer and thus staying in a steady state of communion with Dionysis. Such a highly charged sexual state would not go unnoticed especially as these women were said to be very lovely.

Something else to consider, the Greeks didn't necessarily think of vampires as bad guys. They were considered something of demigods and later protectors of a village. If memory serves properly, they were energy feeders not so much the blood drinkers. The easiest energy to raise is sexual so it wouldn't surprise me if this would definitely be an origin at least for this form of vamp in that area of the world.

Eternally,

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Re: Maenads

Postby Aislin Ni MorRhiaghan » Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:09 am

So sorry to double post, but Deacon you stated that for us it is about transcendence and for them it was about excess. I'm not sure that is it exactly. For them it was about being liberated through communion with their god and in that way they achieved something akin to immortality and certainly extended pranic levels so it was a kind of transcendence although not necessarily the kind we consider today. They lived in a very different time when excess was everywhere so that would have been nothing new for them, just taken to different levels. I don't believe it was simply about the pleasure principle as much as truly being about the experience and elevation of the act of communion itself.

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Re: Maenads

Postby deacongray » Wed Mar 09, 2011 2:22 pm

Thanks for the thoughts on this Aislin.

I have been thinking about Wickedness in its own right today, and the more I think about it the more I think I was right in my earilier posting. The issue we have to keep in mind, and consider carefully is that even if we are well studied and considerate our own preconcieved notions can be easily tested, and unsettleing.
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Re: Maenads

Postby Aislin Ni MorRhiaghan » Sat Mar 19, 2011 11:44 am

Of course! But this is how we learn. We come into things with a preconception and our awareness is pushed a bit further every day and just when you think things are settled, something else pushes you a bit further. We are never done being pushed until we ascend.

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Re: Maenads

Postby LadyGigiFrost » Thu Oct 11, 2012 8:16 pm

Excellent !!!!
I do have a question: why the name Sexual Vampires? why not Eros?

This helps me perfectly, as you wrote "Locked between worlds, between passions, they can either be entrapped by their hungers and longings or enlightened by them."
That is spot on how I feel right down to the core. Finding my self most frustrated at the moment, since this change is happening. But that is for another post I suppose.

Thank you
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