A/N:  This is just a little thing I wrote about my favourite Greek god, Dionysus (come on, the guy invented wine!!) and why he and others like him have always been important, nay, necessary.  It’s not, according to me, the best thing I ever wrote, but I find it interesting.  Constructive criticism is much appreciated.  Oh, and everything is just my opinion, please don’t get offended if you don’t agree with something written here.  Enjoy!

Why We Need a Dionysus

It is common knowledge that this world is one of extremes; swinging from communism to capitalism, from blatant bigotry to over-the-top political correctness, from war to peace, this society is, for lack of a more original comparison, like a pendulum.  However, certain things or certain people can help in achieving something of a middle ground.  I will argue that Dionysus and Dionysian figures, despite their often subversive nature and the general disapproval they might elicit, play an important part in the maintaining of balance and the advent of progress in society and are thus indispensable. 

Dionysus was seen as controversial in the days of Ancient Greece.  The character traits he presented went up against the ones valued by members of that society.  He was passionate, uncontrolled, emotional, violent.  He promoted creative ecstasy, overcame gender stereotypes, blurred boundaries of every kind.  On the other hand, Greeks valued self-control, the rational and the logic.  They encouraged honesty and transparency.  Anything else was un-Greek.  Thus, Dionysus was un-Greek.  He was, despite evidence to the contrary, portrayed as a Near-Eastern figure, and that was not looked upon favourably.  In fact, Dionysus had a hard time proving his divinity and being accepted into Greek society – more specifically in his own home town of Thebes.  To punish the citizens of that city for his harsh reception, he causes the women to go mad, leave their homes and children and head off into the hills to indulge in elated debauchery.  Taking advantage of this euphoric frenzy, Dionysus then incites his followers to rip apart his cousin Pentheus who was one of those most closed to the god’s holiness.  Very cruel, and yet it is precisely this excessive emotion that counteracted the stoic nature of society in that time.  It almost seems as though Dionysus was “brought into being” so to speak specifically to contain all those sides of the human psyche which Greeks didn’t necessarily embrace, but the fact that he was worshipped proves that they did recognize these traits and sought in some way to give them importance.  His existence and the myths attached to it seem now to have served as a reminder that yes, there is a darker more emotional side to human beings, and avoiding it can only cause great pain.  This line from Euripides’ Bacchae, spoken by Dionysus upon his return to Thebes, gives proof of this:

King Cadmus has conferred the powers of his throne

With all attending honours on his grandson, Pentheus.

This God-fighting upstart snubs me; banishes my name

From public sacrifice and private prayer.

He’ll soon find out, and every Theban with him

Whose birthright is divine and whose is not.

With these words, he makes it known that he, and everything he represents, must be acknowledged.  This is true; it’s rather self-evident that the logical and rational of the Greeks needed to be counterbalanced by something else.  Dionysus was that something else.

But also in more recent times has such an off-set been necessary.  Fortunately, certain individuals have stepped up and served as Dionysian figures for our culture.  One of these is the 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud.  At the age of sixteen, he traveled to Paris where, despite his obvious talent, he had to fight to gain the credibility he needed to achieve fame.  This was in part due to his age, and in part to the fact that he came from a provincial family.  Also not to be discounted was his affair with Paul Verlaine, an older, married poet.  What’s more, he harbored a healthy dislike of anything having to do with the moral majority – the Catholic Church, for instance.  He abused of alcohol and drugs in general and absinthe in particular.  So yes, Rimbaud was widely disapproved of.  This did not deter him, however, and over the course of the following five years, he produced works of an amazing caliber and continues to be talked about today.

An equally well-known Dionysian figure, this time from the 1960s, was an avid disciple of Rimbaud – Jim Morrison.  The connection here is obvious: both the God and the God of Rock possessed similar character traits, they were both followed by fervent female worshippers, they both had some connection with mood-altering substances, they both emphasized the creative side of things as opposed to the rational, the ecstatic rather than the calm, and the list goes on.  And once again, it is generally understood that they both inspired fear and loathing among members of the populace, and are both still quite renowned.  Jim Morrison is widely seen as a catalyst of change in the mentality of the people of his time.  Or, perhaps more accurately, as an embodiment of that change, of that mentality.

An even more modern incarnation of the Dionysian essence is none other than Marilyn Manson.  Is there anyone more notorious in the musical industry these days?  He has been hated to the point of being protested against, his work has served as a scapegoat during the tragedy of Columbine High School…  He is said to promote drugs, violence and antisocial behaviour.  The music at his live concerts induces frenzy among the audience and a general atmosphere of chaos and freedom.  He has a group of followers as fanatic as the maenads; they dress like Marilyn, talk like Marilyn and supposedly act like Marilyn.  But these fans are also going to an extreme, the one opposite that of those who would see Manson censored; they’re blind to his role as an example of how important it is for mere mortals to keep their feet grounded.     

So, now that I have established a connection between these characters, we will go on to examine how exactly they impacted, or are impacting society.  Firstly, all of them invariably brought liberation, be it of the mind, the spirit or the body.  They brought it through their lifestyles, their music and their poetry, which in themselves constitute gifts to humanity.  They possessed a freedom the ordinary mortal did not.  They could do what they wanted, say what they wanted.  And yet, they were all shunned in some fashion.  This lack of restrictions from which they benefited, as much as it fascinated us and incited our respect and adulation, frightened human beings.  These Dionysian figures brought new ways of doing things and of seeing the world, ways that sometimes proved alarming and bizarre for those accustomed to the old ways: what would happen if everyone were to act in this way?  If everyone simply bowed before their desires, catered to their every whim?  Society would collapse.  In fact, in Michael Moore’s recent movie “Bowling for Columbine”, Marilyn Manson talks about this fear in the context of angry citizens naming him responsible for the Columbine tragedy:

I definitely can see why they would pick me.  Because I think it’s easy to throw my face on TV, because in the end, I’m a poster boy for fear.  Because I represent what everyone is afraid of, because I say and do whatever I want.

These citizens were evidently ignoring one side of the double role people like Manson play in society.  The parents who forbade their sons and daughters from purchasing The Doors’ records, the Parisians who used the term anti-conformist negatively in describing Rimbaud, the noblemen who would have locked Dionysus up to prevent him from corrupting their women…  All these are forgetting that a paradox cannot exist with only one element, and that in order to offer some counterweight to society, they themselves had to be properly balanced. 

For all these reasons, they have been – or, in the case of Marilyn Manson, will undoubtedly be – elevated to mythical status.  They thus serve as unattainable symbols of a liberty which will likely never become the norm but can still be strived for, all the while reminding us not to fall too far into that sort of lifestyle for fear of bringing on anarchy.  And it is that balance, my friends, that makes the world go ‘round!  Whenever the world is in danger of becoming entrenched in one mode of thinking, along comes another Dionysian figure to set things swinging again, to move things forward – or sideways, or diagonally…