The Temple of Bacchus, Barony Yardistan
Our High Priest, who has no name but that of the god who leads him
Introduction to the Cult & History in Shireroth
The Cult of Bacchus is a religious sect that worships a god with many names. In ancient Greece, they called him primarily Dionysos; in ancient Rome, he too was worshipped, and they called him Bacchus. He is the god of wine, of drunken revelry; of giving up one's self-control; the god of dancing, and creativity - a particular kind of creativity. Khalil Gibran once wrote: "Thinking is always the stumbling stone to poetry." When one lets go, and allows the heat and power of the god to fill him up, he will be able to tear apart lions, lift mountains, compose epic poetry, and probably all of that without falling over more than once!
Dionysos has many names, and I've found an excellent resource that provides an impressive collection of them, here. I include a few to reveal his nature. The Lord Hunter; the Render of Humans; the Dancer; The giver of Grace; The Cthonic one; Dimetor, of two mothers, twice-born; Dionysos Eleutherios, the Emancipator; Lysios, giver of Freedom; Lord of Initation; the Bull-eater, the Bull-faced God. My personal favourite: Zoros, the undiluted wine.
Who is the god? The Ancient Greeks incorporated him nicely into their mythologies. He was, to them, a child of Zeus, king of the gods, and a mortal woman, Semele. Jealous Hera tricked Zeus into appearing before Semele, with the god in her womb an embryo, in his true form, of lightning, and of course she burned to death. So, Dionysos was born of fire, his first, his mortal birth. Of course Zeus did not forsake his progeny and took foetal Bacchus into his thigh and sewed him there (yeah, the Greeks made stuff like that up) and months later, born again he was, gloriously from the thigh of the king of the gods. His second, immortal birth. That man - that man-god; a young god, as he was portrayed, with long flowing golden locks, and rosy cheeks - went on to perform many a Jesus-esque miracle. In fact, raised a Christian, I've always thought of Bacchic rites as worringly similar to Christianity - man/god in one, makes wine appear from nowhere, celebrated through food and wine... anyway.
The Greek Dionysos was able to possess people, just as he does all the time today. People would hear the drum beat and be possessed; sipping his gift, the wine, they would enter trances of dance, violence and sexual debauchery. I first learnt about Bacchus through my study of a classical play called "The Bacchae" by Euripides, which followed his putting down of a mortal man who denied his rites (Pentheus - at the end of the play, ripped apart by his mum and aunties, and his mum parades around the city of Thebes with his head, proclaiming how she felled a lion). Dionysus' key followers were all women - one lucky High Priest, many female Maenaeds or Bacchae, you can see how his story involved debauchery big-time. The women were possessed and raved like mad. They let themselves go, embraced the dance and the fire and the wine, adorned themselves with ivy as the god often is, hunted animals - and sometimes, as with Pentheus, man - and created staffs from fennel and ivy called 'thyrsae'. They were magicly imbued with the gods power - they dripped with honey and could cause eruptions of wine from the ground when they struck the ground. So you see - the god's power is great and good, like strong wine, and man is his vessel, to be filled up and consumed, and in doing so create even greater things.
There are many aspects to the god's worship. For now I move onto Shireroth. It was Bacchus (taking the name of the god) who brought the Rites to Shireroth. This is common; the rites are ever-moving and do not seem to have a geographic or temporal birthplace. The Greeks thought they were Phoenician, from the East. The Phoenicians probably thought they came from Persia; and had a different name for the god, if they recognised him as one, and not just a natural force. Dionysos is a great natural force, so it is easy to confuse his will with something impersonal due to its sheer massive size and weight. Truly, the god is born and reborn in every human heart most days of the week. Bacchus and his maenad followers visited Elwynn (Illumination in Illumination, Visting the Lunatics) and Kildare (Melangia - The Great Dance Continues) but Shireroth rejected the rites and, though many laughed and enjoyed the rites (the first step), no-one embraced them. A compromise was reached at the Bacchic Debate hosted by JM3U, whereby the rites would be contained to the already-raving Yardistani isles. A temple was established, and the preachings of Bacchus-Priest were collected. The rites were not embraced, but were tolerated and respected by Shireroth; and Bacchus even performed the Coronation of Jon'Kur, Senechal of Sermolot. For some years the drums have been quietened; the dance moved elsewhere; but now they are back, and the dance resumes. I hold the thrysos aloft. Eeeaaaooooh! Come, Maenads, and dance!
Further reading
- The Collected Preachings of Bacchus, from the old Temple forum
- Original Cult of Bacchus thread
- Illumination in Illumination
- The Maenaeds Meet the Lunatics
- The Great Dance Continues
- The Bacchic Debate
