DIONYSOS – RITUAL MADNESS (greeting card)

Dionysos – Ritual Madness

Dionysos was the god of the grape harvest, wine-making and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology.
For example he was worshiped in 1500 BC by Mycenaean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete.
He is a god of epiphany, “the god that comes,” and his “foreigness” as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, and is included in some lists of the twelve Olympians. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theater. He is an example of a dying god.

The earliest cult images of Dionysos show a mature male, bearded and robed. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature describes him as womanly or “man-womanish”.

His procession is made up of wild female followers (maenads) and bearded satyrs.
Dionysos is represented by city religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.

He is also the Liberator (Eleutherios), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful.
His cult is also a “cult of the souls”; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead.
In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, thus semi-divine or heroic.

Card size: DIN A6 (10 x 15 cm)

Greeting card with fold and white space inside to write down any compliments, description on the backside.
Premium quality envelope inclusive.