Skyfarmr
Jedi Master
Great Session. Thanks a bunch to everyone involved.
I found the reference to Dionysious Syndrome interesting and was compelled to refresh my memory about the "party god". Found this reference on a Philosophy site and thought the Plato references were interesting and might get us closer to C's reference.
Myth - the Final Phase of Platonic Education by Tim Addey
Full paper here: Myth - Philosophy
I found the reference to Dionysious Syndrome interesting and was compelled to refresh my memory about the "party god". Found this reference on a Philosophy site and thought the Plato references were interesting and might get us closer to C's reference.
Myth - the Final Phase of Platonic Education by Tim Addey
Secondly, there is the Orphic initiatory myth. Morgan in his recent book Platonic Piety has explored Plato's connections with the Pythagorean and Orphic schools which were strong in Magna Graeca (southern Italy) - the very area which the Epistles tell us Plato had much to do with. The clearest reference to the Orphic myths (which Classicists consider to be a separate strand of mythology from the more mainstream tradition - it is a deviant mythology, to use their term) is a quote in the Phaedo [69d]:
"For it is said by those who write about the mysteries,
The thyrsus-bearers numerous are seen,
But few the Bacchuses have always been."
The myth to which this refers is that of the dismemberment of Dionysus - a universal myth which is worth retelling.
Cadmus, king of Thebes, had four daughters: Semele, Ino, Agave and Autoneon. Of these four, the beauty of Semele attracted Zeus who lay with her and implanted his immortal seed in the mortal woman. But Hera, the first wife of the King of the Gods, was moved by jealousy and planned the destruction of her husband's lover, as well as the child which she carried within her womb: to this end she planted in Semele's mind a doubt as to the real identity of the father of her child. The only sure proof that he was indeed Zeus, was, Hera suggested, that he should appear in his true form, rather than the disguise of mortality which Zeus had put on to lie with Semele. Thus it was that the princess asked of Zeus a favour, to which he agreed; she then demanded that he appear before her unveiled by illusion. Unable to refuse what he had promised, he was forced to comply, and stood before Semele in the full heat and force of his lightning and thundrous[sic] essence: as no mortal can withstand such untempered power, she was immediately destroyed. But Zeus took the unborn child from her disintegrating body while cooling tendrils of ivy protected him from the intense heat of the Father, who, taking the role of mother, sewed him into his thigh.
So it was that Dionysus was born a second time, from the miraculous womb of his Father, but still Hera's jealousy pursued the child, who was being cared for by nymphs: some sources say these nymphs became afraid and others that they were driven insane, and so he was given into the keeping of his aunt, Ino, who brought him up in a grotto. In an attempt to keep him from the destructive power of Hera, Ino dressed him as a girl and later, Zeus disguised him as a goat.
As he grew into a youth, Zeus placed him on his throne, gave him a sceptre and announced him to be the next ruler of the world - but this served only to rekindle the anger of Hera and she incited the Titans, the gigantic divine offspring of an earlier generation of Gods, to capture the boy Dionysus.
The Titans ensnared Dionysus by disguising themselves as Bacchae (followers of Dionysus), and presenting him with games and playthings - for he was little more than a child: the toy which finally trapped the divine child was a mirror. Once captured the pretend Bacchae gave him not a sceptre - as befits the ruler of the world - but a thyrsus made of a fennel stalk. The monstrous giants then tore him to pieces and prepared to devour him; his torn members were first boiled in water and then roasted over a fire. But while they feasted on the cooked flesh, Zeus, alerted by the rising steam, and perceiving the cruel act, hurled his thunderbolt at the Titans. There followed a battle between the titanic giants and the Gods, during which the uneaten heart of Dionysus was gathered up by Athene; the Titans were defeated and from their burning ashes mankind was generated
Afterwards, Zeus commanded Apollo, Dionysus' half-brother, to bury the scattered limbs of the slain youth according to custom, and this being done, Dionysus was regenerated from the preserved heart by Athene; having been restored to pristine life and vigour, he took his place among the Olympic Gods - the only one born of a mortal woman.
According to the later Platonists this Orphic myth has Dionysus as symbolising the effect of the descent into generation of the intellectual, or spiritual, soul. In the eternal realms she is a whole, but in life as a soul connected with body she become separated out, and subject to death and decay. The Thyrsus, a stalk of fennel which is hollow and divided into chambers (and incidentally the stalk in which Prometheus brought down the fire of heaven for the benefit of mortal man) also represents division. The Titans - the "ti" of the word means, in Greek, particularity - are the materialpowers which draw down the soul from her contemplation of universals in her pristine condition towards the involvement of the particularities of the sense-perceptive life. In the Phaedo, Socrates correlates the thyrsus-bearers - those who hold the false sceptre - with the many who have not philosophized rightly, and who are, therefore, trapped in the world of apparent truth. The few Bacchuses, in contrast, are those who have been purified, initiated and healed - reworked, if you like, by Wisdom and Light and raised to the Olympic heights. Dionysus has, as you will notice, three births: one from the womb of Semele, one from the thigh of Zeus; and one from the ashes of the fire by the wisdom of Athene - an interesting correlation may well be seen between these three births and the three phases of the Platonic dialogues, as already mentioned.
Dionysus, with a thyrsus as sceptre
Full paper here: Myth - Philosophy
Using the NO machine was a great idea also with very interesting results. The tensions ramping up with the PTB do seem rather obvious. Just the fact that these swamp creatures are walking around us without being prosecuted and the accusations of things being perpetrated without evidence shows just how desperate they are. It's good to know a cleansing is on the way.
