Chapter II, Part I of Dionysus: Myth, Cult and Psychology (2013).
The Minoan culture seems to be the first high European culture and the first in which we can recognize myths, religious practices, and cult rituals concerned with the problem of conflict between nature and culture. This is not surprising, since before the development of culture the psychological life of humanity was similar to that of the animal world. At that point in history, instincts were of paramount importance for survival and consumed nearly all available energy, leaving little for cultural purposes. Civilization enabled human beings to save some of this energy through agriculture, trade, and other cultural achievements. This change created a situation in which the age-old instinctual dynamics were no longer essential for those living in cities. The instinctual dynamic was still present, but it became partially repressed and continued its existence in the unconscious. Such a state of affairs created a situation in which compensatory processes emerged from the unconscious in an attempt to bridge this split. Yet because of the closeness between the newly developed consciousness and the unconscious, there was always a danger of regression that could return individuals to a pre-cultural level of functioning. The vitality of the Dionysian rituals suggests that these cult practices enabled the citizens of Minoan culture to maintain their cultural level of functioning and establish a meaningful relationship with these instinctual tendencies.
However, as the myth of Dionysus explains, the first attempt at mediation between nature and culture was not very successful, since Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone, was dismembered by the Titans. While this myth is characteristic of Crete and the Orphic sects, one should keep in mind that different peoples at different times held different ideas about Dionysus. In any case, we have little choice but to understand each specific myth as a compensation for the state of the culture in which it originated and, consequently, for the state of an individual who dreams or fantasizes about similar motifs. To understand the symbolism of the Dionysus myth, we must first examine the actors in the drama of his first birth.
Persephone
In older versions of the story, Persephone is seduced by her own father, Zeus. Diodorus Siculus states that this is the Cretan version of the myth. In his account there is a certain lack of distinction between Demeter and Persephone. Dionysus, as the son of the subterranean goddess Persephone and the subterranean aspect of Zeus, received the surname Chthonios, “the subterranean”.
“Since mother Rhea forbade the marriage he desired (Zeus with Rhea), he pursued her. After she had turned herself into a serpent, he did likewise and, entwining her in a so-called Herakleotic knot, entered into union with her. The sign of this form of union is the staff of Hermes. Afterward he entered into union with their daughter Persephone (daughter of Zeus and Rhea) by taking the form of a serpent and raping her. She bore him Dionysus.” – Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae, 167, in The Myths of Hyginus, translated by Mary Grant.
“…through marriage with this heavenly dragon Persephone’s womb became fruitful, prepared to give birth to Zagreus, the horned infant.” – K. Kerényi, Dionysos, 114.
Then again, there is a group of tales that says that Dionysus was born to a mortal woman, just as Heracles was.
“Jove [Zeus] desired to lie with Semele, and when Juno [Hera] found out, she changed her form to that of the nurse Beroe, came to Semele, and suggested that she ask Jove to come to her as he came to Juno [Hera], ‘that you may know,’ she said, ‘what pleasure it is to lie with a god.’ And so Semele asked Jove [Zeus] to come to her in this way. Her request was granted, and Jove [Zeus], coming with lightning and thunder, burned Semele to death. From her womb Liber [Dionysos] was born. Mercurius [Hermes] snatched him from the fire and gave him to Nysus [Seilenos] to be reared. In Greek he is called Dionysus.” – Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae, 182, in The Myths of Hyginus, translated by Mary Grant.
In the context of masculine consciousness, we can see that the mothers in the myth of Dionysus undergo a certain humanization: Rhea, Demeter, Persephone, and finally Semele. As Kerényi says, “The love of Zeus and Semele is radically humanized” (Kerényi, Dionysos, 110).
Psychologically, this means that the archetype behind the image loses some of its generality and developmental potential in exchange for becoming more understandable and more conscious. It represents the transformation of the indefinite collective unconscious toward its spokesperson, the anima, in a man. In a woman, it means that the archetypal aspect of feminine consciousness becomes closer to, or even an essential part of, conscious personality.
If Dionysus represents the experience of human wholeness in the context of instincts and emotions repressed or neglected by consciousness, then the development of the feminine figures in myth represents the development of our relationship to femininity, Eros, and the body. One wonders how this development began in the first place. Perhaps the father can give us a clue.
Hades
Herakleithos of Ephesos said of Dionysus and the processions in his name:
“If they did not order the procession in honor of god and address the phallus song to him, this would be the most shameless behavior. But Hades is the same as Dionysos, for whom they rave and act like bacchantes.” – Herakleithos, in H. Diels, ed., Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 22 B15.
Diodorus Siculus says:
“Dionysos [Zagreus] …born of Zeus and Persephone a Dionysos who is called by some Sabazios and whose birth and sacrifices and honours are celebrated at night and in secret, because of the disgraceful conduct which is a consequence of the gatherings. They state also that he excelled in sagacity and was the first to attempt the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed, this being the reason why they also represent him as wearing a horn.” – Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4.4.1, in Library of History (Books III–VIII), translated by C. H. Oldfather.
On Crete, Dionysus was the son of Zeus Chthonios, the husband of Persephone, that is, Hades, who begot Dionysus in the form of a snake. Hades, apart from being a god, is also a place. In Christian teachings, Hades is often associated with Christ’s death.
“God-Image in man was not destroyed by the fall but was only damaged and corrupted and can be restored trough God’s grace. The scope of integration is suggested by the descent of Christ’s soul to hell, its work of redemption embracing even the dead. The psychological equivalent of this is integration of the collective unconscious which forms an essential part of the individuation process.” – C. G. Jung, Aion, para. 72.
The collective unconscious, in contrast to collective consciousness, is in our culture mostly associated with femininity. However, since the collective unconscious is not merely a response to the existence of consciousness but also its matrix, it follows that masculine collective consciousness must have its preconscious form within the collective unconscious. This preconscious aspect of masculine consciousness can be recognized in the figure of Hades.
We should not forget that this achievement is described in the myth of Cretan Dionysus almost two thousand years before the Christian myth. At the time Dionysus was celebrated on Crete, the strength of consciousness in relation to the collective unconscious was much weaker and in constant danger of being swallowed up by emotions. But in spite of that, we find the idea that Dionysus, as the son of Persephone and the subterranean Zeus, is responsible for teaching the art of yoking oxen. He is therefore the one responsible for taming instinctual energies and using them for cultural purposes.
The idea is that one has to accept the god, the instinctual energies, and allow oneself to be influenced by them. And that presupposes participation in the “disgraceful gatherings” described by Diodorus Siculus. Psychologically, only after one has been possessed by desire, by instincts, can one establish a distance from them and use them for cultural purposes. In this context, Dionysus is the principle through which modern man can harness the oxen and establish a relationship with the animal within himself.
Zeus and Hera
In other myths, the father of Dionysus is Zeus. As the highest god among many, he is also the most complete symbol of the Self available to the ancient Greeks. The Self contains both masculine and feminine traits and, as such, Zeus represents only its masculine aspect. He is the god of thunder, sky, weather, rain, wind, and lightning. He is judge, lawgiver, and punisher of transgressors with his bolt of lightning.
If we look at his love affairs with women, who are not necessarily goddesses, and at his children, we can say that Zeus represents the creative aspect of the Self. Psychologically, Zeus represents a striving toward the creation of new consciousness, which can be seen in his sons, who are usually culture-bringing heroes. This new consciousness comes about through the union of the divine and the human, much as it does in the Christian myth. The destinies of the human participants in this union are often tragic because of the reaction of the feminine aspect of the Self, Hera.
In the context of the expansion of consciousness, we should say a few words about the psychological meaning of Hera’s reaction to the affairs of Zeus.
Hera was the wife of Zeus and most often punished his lovers. The product of the union between Zeus and a mortal woman was a hero, usually a culture-bringing one. Such a hero represents an aspect of individuation connected with the expansion of consciousness. From the myth of Hera’s jealousy, one can see that whenever growth of consciousness occurs, it comes at a price. That price is expressed in the punishment of the women who gave birth to Zeus’ children.
The women who are punished for their affair with Zeus represent the collective unconscious, the world of instincts, and the feminine tendencies of the psyche that are neglected by newly gained consciousness. It is the motif of sin and punishment as found in Christian teaching and, as we shall see, it is also characteristic of the Dionysus myth in connection with the Titans.
Titans
Titans are closely connected with the death of the first Dionysus, but what is their psychological meaning? In mythology, beings known as Titans appear under three different aspects. First, they are gods, the sons and daughters of Uranus and Gaia. They themselves had many children, whom Uranus threw into Tartarus. Gaia, indignant at this, gave her son Cronus a sickle with which he slew his father and took over his reign. The same thing happened with the children of Cronus, and Zeus was the one who took over his reign.
Zeus had many sons, several of whom were heroes who founded dynasties, and many tribes traced their lineage back to these heroes. Zeus was also the father of the fourth ruler of the world, Dionysus. Viewed from this perspective, the lineages of the gods end on the human level. Psychologically, the lineage of the gods represents the levels of the psyche, extending from its most unconscious aspects toward consciousness, represented by human beings. In this context, we should examine the symbolism of the throne from which Dionysus was snatched by the Titans and dismembered.
The throne symbolizes the divine right of the king to rule. The throne is often decorated with images of the world and thus becomes a representation of the world itself. In this context, the throne represents the world over which the king rules. If the king represents the psychic and physical principles upon which the welfare of a particular individual or nation is based, then the throne represents everything governed by these principles. Enthronement, therefore, is the process by which these principles become active and alive.
According to the Orphic myth, as soon as he was born by Persephone (and he has been begotten by Zeus in the shape of a snake), Dionysus was enthroned in a cave as the new ruler of the world. In cult actions the thronosis was a special festive act in which the god or his representative was placed on a chair standing by itself. In initiations like those of the Orphic societies, which were presided over by Mother Goddess Rhea or Kybele (as was also done in the enthronement of Minoan kings), they probably danced ecstatic dances around the one initiated (Kerényi, Dionysos, 264).
The enthronement of the horned infant psychologically represents an excessively intimate relationship between weak consciousness and the instinctual aspect of the psyche. In such a state, consciousness is in constant danger of being overwhelmed, psychologically inflated, by instinctive and emotional contents. In myth, this danger is depicted in the motif of the infant Dionysus becoming the fourth ruler of the world and in the tragedy that follows.
Hera, in her jealousy and anger, arranged for the Titans to tear him to pieces and eat his flesh. Zeus flew into a rage and slew the Titans with his lightning (one should note the similarity between the fate of the Titans and that of Semele). From the vapor they gave, soot formed, and from soot men were made (Olympiodoros, Platonis Phaedonem Commentarii, 61C, in W. Norvin, ed., p. 1, 21; in O. Kern, ed., Orphicorum Fragmenta, fr. 220).
“This stuff, says Onomakritos, contained not only the earthly remains of the Titans, but Dionysus as well. The soot concealed within it the Dionysian substance that is inherited by man from generation to generation.” – K. Kerényi, Dionysos, 264.
Titans resemble the Giants of Nordic mythology and could represent overpowering emotional and affective contents. Sometimes these emotional forces are so strong that they assimilate what Dionysus represents. However, this is only one step in the developmental process, since what happened to Dionysus at the hands of the Titans is a necessity, as can be seen in cult practices.
In the context of psychological development, it is a necessary sin, just as the sin of Judas was necessary for salvation. This sin is reenacted in the cult through the Maenads, who serve the function of the Titans and represent the first level of relationship to the emotions: inflation by them. It seems that this step is necessary for the transformation of Dionysus into a more human form.
In psychological terms, this means that a certain level of inflation by emotional content is necessary for a proper future relationship to it. When one experiences the effects of emotions in real life, one can better understand their meaning than if one observes them from an elevated intellectual standpoint. The result of this sin is that Dionysus comes to earth and works on a human level rather than sitting on top of Olympus, far removed from human beings and their consciousness. But in practical terms, one should not forget that while such contact may prove curative for some, for others it can be pure poison because psychologically dismemberment means nothing less than psychosis.
Some Roman philosophers thought that human beings had sprung from the blood of the Titans, and there is also a book dating from the post-Christian period in which a prayer to the Titans was preserved, invoking them as “our father ancestors”. They were called upon for help when a house was troubled by an ancestral spirit. This is because they had become ancestral spirits and ghosts after being cast by Zeus into the deepest subterranean realm.
Zeus is part of the living religion and, as such, is closely connected with the spirit of the times and the collective consciousness of a given era. In this context, the Titans represent the spirit of a time that has passed. Practically speaking, this attitude becomes the destructive factor, and the motif of dismemberment emerges because of the tension of opposites, which grows stronger the more rigid the conscious attitude becomes.
To sum up, psychologically, the Titans in their negative aspect represent instinctual and emotional tendencies so overwhelming (i.e. unconscious in the form of primitive emotions and urges) that the union of culture and nature within man is not possible. These emotions and affects are so overwhelming that any attempt at their union with consciousness ends in dismemberment and death. This means that a fruitful conscious cohabitation of animal and man is not possible because the animal within is too strong.
Other parts of this chapter can be found here: