trance maenads 
So Dionysus is the Greek god Bacchus who inspired in the Romans. Except it's far from a portly man, and lecherous drunkard to perfection, far away ... The Dionysos Greek
was born and the princess Semele Zeus who apparently maintained a fairly consistent association, which is rare for Zeus who usually does what he has to do and returns to his small business. As always Hera in jealous woman takes revenge and kills Semele by a ruse. It turns out to nurse of Semele and told him to ask Zeus to show himself in his true form to her. Hera knows that its true form is the lightning, and Semele dies struck. But the fetus carried the princess is still alive and sewn into Zeus's thigh the time. Thus was born Dionysus. While it is
child, the Titans (who are against Zeus) seduce him with toys and capture. He kills, cut into pieces, boiled and roasted and finally eats it. But, you say, you can not boil the meat and then roasting ... Relevant. And jsutement is an important detail that shows the revolt of the Titans who violates the laws of the customary rituals, moreover when we are not supposed to sacrifice eating meat. Good
Dionysus died then? Well, no. The Titans did not eat his heart and Apollo rescussite. It is passed through death which made him a deu closely linked to the death and rebirth / resurrection. It can therefore given answers as to what happens in death.
cults rendered to the deity are particularly violent, and several brave forbidden rituals and is therefore seen as dangerous because it is a challenge to the order. For example, animals were sacrificed (often deer or fawns) and were skinned alive and then eaten raw. The omophagy (the eating of raw meat) was strictly forbidden at the time and stay devoted a great respect for animals. They were thanked after being killed (like this reminds me something ...) and every part of their bodies were used. In the case of the cult of Dionysus is not the case and the blood flowed freely.
This is not the only ritual that is violated. In effect at the time cults are most often single-sex while here, women and men are together. Women are called Maenads. They have loose hair that is immoral (the married women had their hair shaved or tied in a complicated cutting), feet and forearms bare what was indescent. Besides, they wore big dresses with lots of trick (it runs well unfortunately) and had animal skins on their shoulders which is considered barbaric.
Added to all this, men and women drank wine to excess as the "fate of humanity" which is an important concept in Greek. They were therefore completely out of them. To access a sort of trance, maenads, in addition to wine chewed leaves of ivy which are hallucinogenic (um no attempt is apparently not recommended ^ ^).
In this state of trance maenads begin a dance that encoded Delavaud MH-Roux, an archaeologist (in Quimper that matter) tried to restore via illustrations and writings of the time , many of which Plato was incensed by the cult. Unfortunately the music could not be found, it would be played by double flutes that produce a sound very acute.
These dances (which became a fad in Greece) amplifies the effect of trance with sudden movements such as tilting the torso ... etc.. Heavy sexual connotations emerge from these dances, and often ended up naked maenads.
Most representations of this cult shows maenads and satyrs (they are the ones playing the music). The satyrs are hybrids, they are anthropomorphic, with a tail, very hairy (break with society, the Greeks were perfectly plucked and took great care of their bodies), erect and always moving, they sing, dance, ... etc.. The
maenads doors by hand is a thyrsus a stick with leaves of vines at the end (it will also be launched later reused in another context) and there are often snakes in their hair or wound on their arm. The snake represents the resurrection with its transformation.
must therefore accept that the cult kept to the sidelines at the time was particularly violent and did not correspond to any society and codes. Despite this, the dance will be back to perform at banquets and will, as stated above, a fad.
