Bacchanalia in the Ancient World Still Appeals

Michael Streich

In the wake of the Second Punic War, the Roman Senate turned its attention to a secret cult that appeared to be a growing threat to state security. Additionally, the cult of Dionysus – or Bacchus, seemed to subvert Roman values as they applied to the family, civic responsibility, and social discipline. Supplanting Republican household religion, the Bacchic orgies were held in secret, prompting rumors of ritual murder and poisoning. Roman leaders were determined to eradicate this new mystery cult.

 

Dionysus in the Ancient World

 

The cult of Dionysus endured for over 1,000 years. Scholars debate its origins, some tracing the roots to Thrace, others, citing stark comparisons with Osiris, to Egypt. Known best as the god of wine and dance, Dionysus was the son of Zeus. Like Osiris, he was brutally murdered by enemies and torn apart, yet later “resurrected.”

 

In Greece, the secret night revelries or orgies had the effect of providing some freedom for women whose daily role was confined to the home. Perhaps the most famous devotee, Queen Olympias, was said to have been impregnated by a large snake during one of these festivals, giving birth to Alexander the Great. Olympias herself credited Zeus with impregnating her.

 

Robert Turcan, professor of Roman History at the Sorbonne, suggests that the growth of the cult in Greece coincided with the aftereffects of prolonged war: Dionysian belief “restructured to meet the needs and the anguish of Hellenistic humanity.” The same reasons are given for the rise of the cult in Italy after the Second Punic War. Uncertainty and fear led people to escape into a cultic experience that was mysterious and unconventional.

 

The aim was to become a Bacchus, to fully identify with the god. For most adherents, this process was on-going a fed only by the regular secret rituals and orgies, the dancing and consumption of wine, usually every two years. Turcan uses the Freudian analogy of liberating the “id” from the “ego.”

 

Response of the Roman Republic

 

The Punic War had brought many rural people into the cities, particularly in Etruria where the cult of Dionysus was strong. Eventually, the cult attracted members of Rome’s upper classes. Stories of debauchery, ritual murder, poisoning, and illegal wills caused the Roman Senate to act. Senatus Consultum Bacchanalibus, of 186 B.C. attempted to contain the cult: “no one is to aspire to perform rites either in secret, or in public, or in private,” unless approved the Senate. Failure to obtain approval would result in a capital charge. According to Roman writers, over 5,000 adherents were eventually executed.

 

Part of the initiation rites and on-going rituals involved the tearing apart of a bull or a goat. Devotees ate the raw meat. The cult also addressed salvation. Art Historian John Clarke writes that, “Dionysus himself sets the theme of love, a love for a mortal woman that promises salvation to all mortal women who love him…” (54)

 

In many ways, perceptions of the cult mirrored later Roman concerns over early Christianity which, through reenacting the Last Supper, featured flesh and blood, was conducted in secrecy, and offered a form of salvation through Christ. At the same time, the cult of Dionysus was blamed for the corruption of Rome’s youth, particularly as new adherents came from the upper classes. Revelries included both homo and hetero sexual encounters, although such activity had also played a part in Etruscan festivals.

 

The cult would endure, however, a resurface throughout Imperial Rome. Some aspects of Bacchanalia may have persisted in medieval Europe in the revelries associated with festivals and carnival times such as the days before Ash Wednesday and Lent.

 

Sources:

 

John R. Clarke, Roman Sex 100 BC – AD 250 (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 2003)

James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (The Macmillan Company, 1966)

Daniel Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Oxford University Press, 2002)

Robert Turcan, The Cults of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997)

Senatus Consultum de Baachanalibus, full text in D. Ogden, above

[Copyright of this article owned by Michael Streich; Any and all reprints in any form require written permission]