chthonic dionysos
guide us in ecstatic craze
make us sing and dance
Dionysos (translated into Latin as Bacchus)
son of Zeus and Semele, lord of life and death;
accompanied by centaurs, ipotanes, maenads and satyrs;
god of intoxication, wild nature, fertility and mystery;
inspirer of good times, ritual madness and ecstasy;
frequently underestimated as a mere god of wine.
Ancient Athens dedicated two festivals, Dionysia and Lenaia, to Dionysos. Initiates worshipped him in the Dionysian Mysteries, which may have functioned as the precursor of the Orphic Mysteries and Gnosticism, and stood second only to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Also the more recent movement of Christianity, with its similar traits of resurrection and Life after Death, may have some of its early roots in these rituals.
Whether or not
we may deem the latter seem
true or true enough, let us join
and sing and dance and laugh and love!
☉
apart from the quote below,
all text ⓦ Satyr Barbarossa
(cc) 2009 / 2018 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
.: sator arepo tenet opera rotas :.