Dionysia – the Original Ancient Greek Carnival

How did Greek Carnival originate?

The Greek Orthodox Church rather try to play down the goings on of Greek Carnival, all this bawdiness is not seemly.

As with many Christian celebrations, Saint Valentine’s Day, is just one example, Greek Carnival was an ancient pagan celebration.

The heathens may have allowed themselves to become Christians but no way were they about to give up their festivities.

The priests of the day, unable to persuade the newly-converted to forego their jollies, simply changed the name and dedicated the celebration to some other Christian occasion.

This is how the “The Dionysia”, became “Apokries” (meaning, without meat), getting ready for the 40 days of Lent

“The Dionysia”, also known as “The Great Dionysia”, “The Dionysia Mysteries” or “City Dionysia” were festivals dating back to the fifth century BC, dedicated to Dionysus (Latin-Bacchus), God of wine, theater, fertility and ecstasy.

The festival, also known as a Bacchanal; crazy parties with drunken revelry, sexual experimentation and wild music, dedicated to Bacchus, the Roman name for the Greek God of wine, Dionysus, were celebrated in southern Italy, where they most likely arrived in around 200 BC, via the Greek colonies of southern Italy.

“The Dionysia” were held in the spring, after the last stages of the fermentation of wine, just after the winter solstice, it was a celebration of rebirth, of the earth awakening after winter, the first leaves appearing on the vine.

“The Dionysia” the most important festival of the year, was celebrated all over Greece; the main attraction though was Athens.

 Thousands of people made their way to the big city for the event, literally “Let it all hang out” days of wine, women and song.

Back in the day, Dionysus, with the looks any Greek God would have been proud of, had his cult of followers, who eagerly awaited this yearly blow out, which is exactly what it was.

The females, “Maenads” (The word comes from the Greek maenades, meaning mad or demented) wild, drunk women, dressed as Ariadne, wife of Dionysus, with animal skins draped over their shoulders, carrying a “Thyrsus”, a rod topped with a pine cone and his male devotees, satyrs, men with goat-like features, in a permanent state of arousal, gathered together in the woods, for what can only be dubbed as a rave party!

The copious amounts of wine knocked back, trance-inducing music, strange herbs ingested and wild singing and dancing; all produced a state of complete abandon and a total lack of inhibition.

 Baby, this was the original sex, drugs and rock and roll!

Well, they do say the Greeks invented everything!

The six day “Dionysia”, later, in the fifth century, was no less eagerly awaited.

On the first day a huge wooden statue of Dionysus was borne aloft, through the inebriated crowds, to the theater of Dionysus, at the foot of the Acropolis, escorted by men dressed as satyrs, disguised by masks, the women following, wildly dancing, heads thrown back in ecstasy.

Here at the theater, a contest was held, three playwrights were to submit three tragedies and one satire (comedy), three days were allotted, one for each playwright, the judges being one from each of the ten political tribes of Athens.

Taking part would have been;

 Aeschylus with The Oresteia, Persians, Seven against Thebes, Suppliants and Prometheus Bound

  Sophocles with  Antigone, Oedipus the King, and  Oedipus at Colonus, Electra.

 Euripides with Ten Plays, and Aristophanes with  Lysistrata, Clouds, Wasps, and Birds

I can certainly understand why early Christian priests were not enamored with these pagan shenanigans and replaced it with Greek carnival, which, it seems to me, is just a reenactment of wild parties thrown all those years ago, under another name:

Apokreas!

Unless I’ve been missing out on something, the description of the Dionysia, reminds me of the less reputable holiday resorts of the Greek islands, where, according to foreign tourists, anything goes!