The meanings of the denomination βάκχος and the verb βακχεύειν in Orphic context differ from their value in other religious circles. Generally speaking, the adjective βάκχος denominates those who have experienced rituals of purification or ritual ecstasies.1 Βάκχος and the verbβακχεύειν describe states of mystical and cathartic exaltation peculiar to the enthusiastic devotees2 of Dionysus Bacchus. In fact, in spite of some opposition3 to including it in the Dionysiac field before the fourth century BCE, the name βάκχος is always applied—when it refers to mortals—to the followers of Dionysus and not of other gods.4 Therefore, it is not a theonym5 but an attribute that manifests a particular condition of men or gods. Obviously, βάκχος is connected with Βάκχος6 and Βάκχιος7 in numerous testimonies. Still, Βάκχος is not identical with Dionysus, for an initiate can receive the name “Bacchus” but never “Dionysus.”8
With regard to the verb βακχεύειν, in the oldest testimonies9 it denotes the condition reached when one is inspired or possessedi10 by a god. Among the early writers, the Bacchic language is used to describe the Dionysiac poetry and ritual;11 but only with Euripides does the Bacchic terminology get the peculiar sense that traditional criticism gives to it, on the basis of Dionysiac worship. In this context, the verb βακχεύειν can refer both to the feeling and to the performance of the Bacchic rites that caused such enthusiasm. In fact, the verb is a denominative that denotes the exercise, the practice of an activity. It is derived from βακχεύς,12 an agent name received by Dionysus when he acts as bacchus, as well as his followers when they imitate him and behave as bacchi.13 Worshiper and god are described by the ritual activity. In general terms, βακχεύειν can be translated as “to experience bacchic deliria or raptures,”14 attained by performing several rites,15 such as bearing the thyrsus,16 ornamenting oneself with ivy17 or with the nebris,18shouting evoe19 saboi,20 dancing,21 or drinking, mainly wine.22 But there are as well instances, some of them early, of a figurative use of βακχεύειν to describe the delirium and ecstasy of the lyrists23 or the state of perfection of the human soul.24
After this short introduction, we shall try to find the peculiarities displayed by βάκχος and βακχεύειν in the testimonies connected with Orphism. Above all, we must note that it consists of a very limited number of texts, which include passages of Heraclitus,25 Herodotus,26 Euripides,27 Plato,28 and Clement of Alexandria29 the lamella of Hipponion30 (fifth century BCE), and inscriptions in Cumae31 (about mid-fifth century BCE) and Torre Nova32 (second century CE). Therefore, if we exclude the Clement text and the Torre Nova inscription, the bulk of the texts belong to a limited period, between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. Likewise, the context in which the terms appear is very precise, for they are limited almost always to the rituals and funerals.
Let us begin with the term βάκχος. If we intend to make a comparison with the βάκχοι of other mysteries, the first question we have to answer is with what kind of rites the Orphic βάκχοι are connected in the sources. Heraclitus criticizes the initiates and bacchi and the μάγοι and νυκτιπόλοι who perform rites.33 In Orphic environments, the magoi are mentioned in the Derveni Papyrus34 in connection with an ἐπῳδή. (an enchantment) and with offerings and libations. Concerning the adjective νυκτιπόλος,, “night-wanderer,” it may refer to private and secret rites.35 In this passage, Heraclitus mentions as well fire, which is sometimes identified with Dionysus.36 In a fragment of the Cretans, Euripides mentions a rite consisting in bearing torches.37 To these rites are added others like drinking38 —perhaps water39 or wine40 —mentioned in the lamella of Hipponion. Another common activity in the celebrations was the bearing of thyrsi.41 As is well known, the thyrsus is common in the performances of the maenads in Dionysiac worships;42 but among the Orphics, such an instrument acquires special connotations due to the existence of a story recounting how the Titans attracted Dionysus with the thyrsus and finally dismembered him. The Titans are considered the ancestors of men, who are, correspondingly, the heirs of the Titanic guilt. Therefore, it is advisable to keep in mind this myth when we try to discover the use of the thyrsus among the Orphics. Clement of Alexandria mentions the thyrsi with which the bacchi—in this case, the worshipers who celebrate the mysteries of Sabazios—are crowned, and a passage from the Platonic Phaedo43 passes on a well-known Orphic line:
ναρθηκοφόροι μὲν πολλοὶ, βάκχοι δέ τε παῦροι.
Many bear the thyrsus, few are the bacchi.
According to the context in which we find the sentence, it is very likely that the expression was uttered (φασιν) by those who took part in the ritual (οἱ περὶ τὰς τελετάς). This would probably happen during the execution of a rite in which thyrsi were borne44 and the tragic fate of Dionysus might be played. This hypothesis seems to be endorsed in a few lines by Proclus according to which those who celebrate Dionysus bear the thyrsus.45 As we said above, the Orphic myth of the dismemberment could give a context to the origin of the expression passed on by Plato. Not in vain do two passages of Damascius insist that the Titans are thyrsus-bearers (ναρθηκοφόροι) and that, by extension, those who live like the Titans are called ναρθηκοφόροι.46 Anyway, since it is a line long and often discussed, there is no harm in going over the different exegeses of the expression.47 Plato himself noticed the double meanings it offered and interpreted the bacchi as the ones who had philosophized correctly. Most of Plato’s commentators just glossed this philosophical interpretation of the line.48 I will not use these sources, as my purpose is to fix the meaning of the sentence in mystery circles.
Some modern critics hold that the expression reflects the dichotomy between the profane and initiates, so that “thyrsus-bearers” (ναρθηκοφόροι) is equivalent to the profane, and “bacchi” (βάκχοι) to initiates. If so, “thyrsus-bearers” would refer to the bulk of humanity dragging behind itself the sad heritage of the Titans. On the other hand, the bacchi could be the ones who have been able to free themselves from that guilt. This reading seems to fit perfectly with the opposition expressed by Plato in previous lines between the profane and the initiates, as well as with the destiny that awaits the former and the latter. However, I disagree with this explanation, first on philological grounds. The expression is not stated in terms of exclusive opposition of the kind οἱ μὲν . . . οἱ δὲ (“Some …, but others”), but it marks an inclusive opposition—πολλοὶ μὲν . . . δέ τε παῦροι (“Many …, but a few”)— that may mean that, among the many thyrsusbearers, only a few are or will become bacchi. In the same way, the Titanic heritage is carried by the whole of humanity, which includes not only the profane, but also the initiates who try to free themselves from it in this life. Second, according to the adage cited in Plato, the initiated believers would play the role of the Titans, the embodiment of the profane. However, it is not impossible that the believers identified themselves with Dionysus himself, to whom the Titans gave the thyrsus. In fact, in an Orphic hymn,49 Dionysus is called “thyrsus-bearer,” and the Rhodians worshiped a Dionysos Narthakaphoros.
A second line of interpretation defends the argument that both the thyrsus-bearers and the bacchi are initiates, but with differences between them. This position allows different readings. First, it could be held that the expression was used by the Orphic followers to distinguish themselves from the Dionysiacs, so that the “thyrsus-bearers” would be the Dionysiac followers in general, whereas the term “bacchi” would be restricted to the Orphics alone. Although this interpretation looks initially correct, it does not fit well with the ritual context in which Plato places the expression. Why would the Orphics want to utter in a ritual a sentence with which to manifest their difference from the rest of the Dionysiac initiates? Besides, we do not find suggested any intention of the Orphic followers to distinguish themselves from the Dionysiacs. Rather, the divergences between both of them have been unravelled by modern criticism. Other scholars have held that the sentence refers to different degrees of initiation depending on the authenticity of the ecstatic experience,50 so that the βάκχοι would be initiates of a higher level, whereas the ναρθηκοφόροι would belong to a lower one. This interpretation would be acceptable in a mystery environment like that of Eleusis, where the differences of level in the initiation are extensively evidenced, but not in Orphic worship, whose ritual does not show such specialization.
The explanation I find most persuasive for this polemic Orphic hexameter, anticipating some of the features of βάκχος we shall expound in this study, is that the expression shows that many may take part in the mystery ceremonies, but few can reach the condition of βάκχος, that is, of those who reach the real union with the deity.51 This interpretation differs from the previous one on several points, but it agrees in the fundamental one: there is a difference between the thyrsus-bearers and the bacchi; but what changes is not the rite itself but the involvement of the followers in it and in the Orphic doctrines. This way, ναρθηκοφόροι, “thyrsus-bearers,” denotes by synecdoche those who perform rites, initiates who still need to travel a long journey to deliver themselves from the Titanic heritage that they shared with the rest of humanity. To attain the final conversion into βάκχος and the resulting union with the god in the other life, it is necessary to commit oneself to respect the Orphic precepts. Only a few out of all the ναρθηκοφόροι will reach it. According to this reading, the sentence uttered in the ritual might be a kind of remembering warning: the initiates were ναρθηκοφόροι, heirs of the Titanic guilt, and will keep being ναρθηκοφόροι, as long as they do not respect the Orphic precepts. The occasional performance of a rite like bearing the thyrsus is not enough. Orphism implies a philosophy of life that goes beyond the limits of the cultic practice. Plato also suggests this idea by his use of the perfect participles κεκαθαρμένος and τετελεσμένος—we shall go again over their meaning—in a previous context in which the disparity of the fates of the profane and the initiates is established.52 As Bianchi says, “L’anima non si divinizza nel breve arco della estasi orgiastica ma stabilmente nella purificazione e—infine—nella reintegrazione, dopo la morte, nel mondo degli dèi.”53
This reading, moreover, seems to be more acceptable from a philological point of view, for it expresses an exclusive opposition of the kind πολλοὶ μὲν . . . δέ τε παῦροι, “many … few.” In fact, the interpretation by Christian writers54 of the expression “many are the called, few are the chosen” also goes in this direction. And in his peculiar philosophical reading of the line, Olympiodoros55 identifies the bearers of the thyrsus with the political philosophers and the thyrsus-bearing bacchi with the purified ones.
But let us follow with the concepts of βάκχος and βακχεύειν. In all the analyzed passages, the bacchi perform rituals that are similar to the ones we find in other mystery cults, those around Dionysus in particular. In fact, the ecstatic experience described by Euripides in the Cretans coincides with the one described in the Bacchae (120-167). While the experience of the bacchantes seems to have its goal within its own sphere, however, the ritual of the Cretans confers a permanent mark: it includes the initiate in the category of bacchi and makes him ὅσιος.56 Other texts emphasize the differences between the Orphic and the Dionysiac bacchi. For instance, Euripides’ reference in the Hippolytus57 seems to show that there is a close connection58 between βακχεύειν and the practice of the βακχεύειν, the specific modus vivendi of this cult, which includes an ascetic life and the performance of rites. For the Orphics, βακχεύειν consists in following the precepts of the Orphic life, among which are vegetarianism, refusal to shed blood, and participation in rites during which certain doctrines are proclaimed. In this way, the value of the Orphic βακχεύειν becomes different from two of its traditional traits: violent activity59 and the transience of ecstasy. Orphics do not renounce the use of this verb, but have changed its meaning, rejecting its violent senses. Besides, the non-Orphic Dionysiac goes into ecstasy with the bloody sacrifice. The Orphic, on the other hand, understands the ecstasy as a final condition of blessedness that is attained through a personal exercise of asceticism (askēsis). This askēsis is in practice equivalent to accepting the Ὀρφικὸς βίος. The perseverance implicit in βακχεύειν can be seen in the use of the perfect participle βεβαχχευμένον, found in an inscription of Cumae.60 The verbal form has been translated in different ways, “initiated” being the most usual,61 although this translation does not cover all of its shades. The use of the perfect tense allows us to specify that it is not a single or isolated fact, but a condition resulting from a regular practice: one has strived to become a bacchus, has lived in and of that effort. In the same way, in the passage of the Platonic Phaedo, the perfect participles κεκαθαρμένος and τετελεσμένος express the lasting condition reached by the initiates who have performed the rites and have purified themselves; the bacchi identify themselves only with them. Being βεβαχχευμένος is the result of the action of the individual who aspires to attain the condition of βάκχος throughβακχεύειν.
Orphism, then, is different from other manifestations of Dionysism in that, for Orphics, βακχεύειν is not a transient action, a passing delirium, but a continuous exercise through which one can attain a permanent state of holiness. The initiate does not look for the transient ecstasy that ends with the collective celebrations, but a lasting condition only attainable through the internalization of the rite.62 This is the great innovation of Orphism. Βακχεύειν goes beyond the limits of a simple ritual or initiation act and becomes a referent for the constant activity of the followers of that way of life. Nevertheless, a passage of Herodotus shows the possibility that the performance of certain rites could cause states of cathartic agitation.63 By the verbβακχεύειν, the historian describes the crisis of agitation and the state of religious trance similar to madness64 reached by the Scythian king Skyles, which overpowers his ego and alienates him from the deity. The slight difference between the passage of Euripides and that of Herodotus consists in that, in Euripides, βακχεύειν refers to the whole and manifests a way of life and of behaving, while in Herodotus the verb refers only to the particular rite included in that way of life.
The connection of the Orphic βάκχοι with a specific modus vivendi is confirmed at the formal level by its frequent association with the term μύστης, “initiate.” In most of the testimonies, βάκχος appears together with μύστης, which reveals that the follower belonged to a select group, access into which was gained through an initiation. Heraclitus is the first of our sources that shows a connection between μύσται and βάκχοι65 and he mentions explicitly the connection of both terms with the mysteries. The fragment of Euripides’ Cretans66 and the lamella of Hipponion show that this kind of devotee lives a particular experience, probably of ecstatic character, that changes him from an initiate into a “bacchus.”67 In the Orphic expression cited in the Phaedo, the bacchi, unlike the noninitiated, identify themselves with the ones who have been purified and have performed certain rites. In Herodotus, initiation precedes and conditions the act of βακχεύειν:68 one can become bacchus only through a personal initiation.69 Skyles had to be initiated before he could participate in the τελετή and behave like a bacchus. The verb λαμβάνω used by Herodotus may show the symbolic adoption by the god,70 who receives him among his initiates in return for the personal askēsis expressed inβακχεύειν.
The values proposed for βάκχος and βακχεύειν allow us to solve the old question about the differences between μύσται and βάκχοι.71 Initiates and bacchi share rites and beliefs, but the terms do not express two consecutive initiation degrees; rather, they show that the βάκχοι are a special group that stands out among the μύσται.72 The expression βάκχοι73 is a hendiadys in which βάκχος refers to the μύστης that has been able to behave by the precepts of the Ὀρφικὸς βίος. According to the fragment of the Cretans, the initiate (μύστης) who agrees to follow an ascetic life, renouncing sex and flesh-eating, and avoiding contact with the dead, is called βάκχος. The term βάκχοι specifies μύσται74 only those who have striven to βακχεύειν in a continuous and constant way will advance in the sacred path that—in the lamella of Hipponion—leads to the paradise of the blissful ones.
The real privilege of the βάκχοι is that they are put on a level, even in their name, with the deity to which they are devoted: Dionysus Bacchus. The believer in Bacchus is himself βάκχος, while the god is, equally, βάκχος75 like his devotee.76 Damascius himself tells us that the devotee can bear the name of the god77 once he has been possessed and purified by him. The identification between the initiate and the god is common in the orgiastic cults.78 This is not new in Orphism, where the search for the divine union by the believers and the officiants seems to be constant. In two lamellae from Thurii, there is a greeting to the devotee who has acquired the condition of θεός79 after dying. In the earthly rite, moreover, the priests are frequently described with qualifiers peculiar to the main deity. Two instances of this are the term νυκτιπόλος, “night-wanderer,” which refers to the officiants in Heraclitus and to Dionysus Zagreus in the fragment of the Cretans of Euripides; and the occasional use for Orphic officiates of the term βουκόλοι,,80 a denomination characteristic of Dionysus with bull’s horns.81 On the other hand, it is possible that in the formal level, the identification with Bacchus is proved by the use of the masculine epithet βάκχος. In fact, it is significant that the feminine βάκχη is hardly found in the Orphic testimonies, although these cults allowed women to participate and βάκχαι is a common term in other mystery circles82 for describing the male and female followers of Bacchus. The absence of the feminine seems to show that βάκχος is not simply one of the names of the devotees but describes as well a specific quality of them—the identification with the deity—that the Greek language cannot express with the feminine βάκχη. It is perhaps for this reason that the feminine does not appear in an Orphic context, except in the Torre Nova inscription, a late text (second century CE), in which the masculine βάκχος, also present in this inscription, has already lost the shades of meaning under discussion and both masculine and feminine simply refer to the members of a Bacchic college. It is possible as well that in Orphic circles the feminine βάκχαι is not used due to its possible association with the violent nature of the maenads.83
Another interesting aspect is the relationship of the βάκχοι with the other world. In the aforementioned testimonies, the bacchi belong to a group of initiates for whom both the performance of rites and the asceticism correspond to an eschatological need. All of the precepts they observe aim to overcome death and its consequences. In this sense, the text of the Platonic Phaedo connects the ritual practice mentioned by Heraclitus and Euripides with the funeral environment of the lamella of Hipponion. The text from Heraclitus emphasizes the post mortem threat that comes over the profane and mentions fire, a destructive power closely connected with death.84 That threat cannot be other than the sad fate that awaits the profane after death, equivalent to the Platonic image of laying in the mud. By being included among the βάκχοι, the dead woman of Hipponion has fulfilled her aspirations: only the initiates and bacchi go along the sacred road that leads to the sacred prairies and groves of Persephone85 —or, in the words of Plato, the happy fate where she will dwell in the company of the gods.
This link of the Orphic bacchi with the other world confirms that the true union with the deity only happens after the death of the body. Βάκχος is the status kept by the initiates in their earthly life through βακχεύειν. Only those who persevere in it and successfully carry out their passage through Hades gain the right to identify themselves with Bacchus.86 In the light of this conception, the aspiration of the followers at Cumae to be buried in a separate place begins to make sense. The peculiarity of the inscription lies in that the differences between those who have become bacchi and those who remain profane are manifested not only in the respective fates of bliss and misery that await them as a result of their behavior in the earthly life, but also, and in a much more material way, in the places in which they will be buried after death.87
If the true identification with the deity happens only at the death of the body, we have still to explain why the followers of the earthly rite are called βάκχοι. This apparent paradox can be understood on the basis of the Orphic conception of the teletē, the ritual, as an anticipation of what will happen to the soul in the other world.88 The rite is a preparatory rehearsal that anticipates the identification of the initiate with Bacchus; but the final union will only take place after the death of the body, at which moment real life begins for the Orphic.
Research for this chapter was financed by the Spanish Public Program for the Development of Knowledge (PB98-0763). I am grateful to Professors A. Bernabé, G. Casadio, and P. A. Johnston for their helpful review and their useful suggestions. For the citations of the Orphic Fragments (Of), I follow Bernabé’s new edition; the correspondences with those of Kern or Pugliese (see in bibliography Bernabé 2004a, 2005; Kern 1922; Pugliese 2003) are offered in brackets.
1. West 1975: 234; Guettel Cole 1980: 226.
2. Pugliese Carratelli 1988a: 161; cf. also Graf 1985: 286.
3. West 1975: 234-235; Bianchi 1976b: 89-90.
4. Guettel Cole 1980: 230. In the Orphic Hymns it is one of the names by which Apollo is invoked: Orph. Hymn. 34.7: Βάκχιε καὶ Διδυμεῦ; cf. Ricciardelli 2000a: 369-370.
5. See Jeanmaire 1951: 57-58; Festugière 1935a: 373 (= 1972: 39); Zuntz 1976: 147; Pugliese Carratelli 1976; Casadio 1994: 80 n. 46.
6. The name Βάκχος applies both to Dionysus (Eur. Ba. 623, 1020; Hipp. 560561; IT 164; IA 1061; Soph. OT 211) and to the initiate (the texts will be presented along this work).
7. The name with the form Βάκχιος is attested in the lamellae of Pelinna, OF 485-486 (II.B.3-4 Pugliese); Soph. Ant. 154; Eur. Ba. 67, 195, 225, 366, 528, 605, 632, 998, 1124, 1145, 1153, 1189; Cyc. 519, 521; Ion 716; IT 953; Antiphanes 234 K-A; Aristoph. Ach. 263; Th. 988. The variant Βακχεῖος is found in Soph. OT 1105 and Hdt. 4.79; Sophocles (Ant. 1121) calls it also Βακχεύς. For the epigraphic testimonies, see the important discussion of Dionysos Baccheus/Baccheios/Bacchios/ Bacchos in Graf 1985: 285-291, and Jaccottet 2003, with index.
8. Cf. Burkert 1975: 90; Graf 1985: 287; Henrichs 1994: 47-51; Jaccottet 1998.
9. Aesch. fr. 58*.1 Radt.
10. According to Jeanmaire (1951: 58), the verb describes a state of religious trance extremely difficult to translate into modern languages.
11. AP 13.28 describes a dithyrambic contest as Bacchic. This terminology is found as well in a traditional song sung in the Dionysiac phallophoria (851b Page). Herodotus (4.108) associates βακχεύειν with the Dionysiac festival held every two years in Gelonus by the Budini. Aeschylus (Sept. 498; Cho. 698) employs the Bacchic terminology as a metaphor, but always connected with a Dionysiac source (Eum. 25). Sophocles describes the Bacchic dance (Tr. 219), calls the grape Bacchic wine (Tr. 704), and uses the Bacchic language metaphorically to describe the frenzy with which Polynices attacks Thebes (Ant. 136).
12. Cf. Chantraine 1970, s.v. Βάκχος; Perpillou 1973: 315-316.
13. Cf. Turcan 1986: 231-232.
14. Eur. HF 899, 1085, 1122, 1142; Tr. 341, 367; Or. 411; Ba. 40, 251, 298, 313, 317, 343; Plut. Def. orac. 432E; Hesych. s.v.βακχεύει, s.v.βακχευθεῖσα,, s.v. βακχεύοντες, s.v. βακχία· μανία; Schol. in Aesch. PV 836.1 οἰστρήσασα ὑπὸ οἴστρουβακχευθεῖσα; Suda s.v. Βακχεύων.
15. Eur. Ba. 76-82; Hel. 1364-1365; Io 218; AP 6.172.3 βάκχευεν; Diod. Sic. 4.3.3; Plut. Is. Os. 364E; Clem. Alex. Protr. 12.118.5.3, 12.120.2.2; Paed. 2.8.73.1, 3.
16. Xenophanes defines βάκχοι as “branches,” so βακχεύειν can be interpreted as the act of bearing the branch, manifesting by dances the inspiration and the madness of the god: Xenoph. fr. 21.F.17 D-K; Schol. in Aristoph. Eq. 408: τοὺς κλάδους, οὓς οἱ μύσται φέρουσι. μέμνηται δὲ Ξ. ἐν Σίλλοις· ἑστᾶσιν δ’ἐλάτης βάκχοιν πυκινὸν περὶ δῶμα (“Bacchi […] the branches, borne by the initiates, as Xenophanes remembers in the silloi: ‘The branches of the fir tree rise up around the solid mansion’”). Cf. Hesych. s.v. βάκχος: ὁ ἱερεὺς τοῦ Διονύσου. καὶκλάδος ὁ ἐν ταῖς τελεταῖς, οἱ δὲ φανὸν λέγουσιν· οἱ δὲ ἰχθύν (“The priest of Dionysus. The branch as well in the rituals. Some say it is gleaming, others it is a fish”). Cf. Guettel Cole 1980: 229. See also Schol. in Eur. Or. 1492.3.
17. Hesych. s.v.βακχᾶν: ἐστεφανῶσθαι κισσῶι,, “To be crowned with ivy.”
18. Schol. in Eur. Phoen. 792.12: νεβρίς ἐστι δέρμα ἐλάφου κατάστικτον ὃφοροῦσιν οἱ βακχευταί,, “Nebris is the mottled deer-skin worn by those who experience Bacchic deliria.”
19. Hesych. s.v. εὔσαμα: ἀναφώνημα εὐαστικόν, καὶ βακχικὸν ἐπίφθεγμα. καὶγὰρ τὸ βακχεύειν εὐάζειν, καὶ σαβαῖοι βακχεύοντες (“Bacchic cry, Bacchic acclaim, for to experience Bacchic deliria is to shout the evoe”).
20. Hesych. s.v. σαβάξειν: εὐάξειν βακχεύειν. Cf. also the explanation that Plutarch tries to offer (Quaest. conv. 671F), comparing the Jewish rites with the Greek ones, of the name of Sabus and the cry that appears in Demosthenes (18.260) and Menander (fr. 610 K-A).
21. Hesych. s.v. ὀρχεῖται: διασείεται. βακχεύει (“To dance: to jump, to act the bacchus”); s.v. χορεύει: μελωιδεῖ. βακχεύει. ὀρχεῖται (“to dance in a ring; to sing, to act the bacchus, to dance”); Suda s.v.βακχευούσας σὺν τῶι μέλει τῶι βακχείωιτε καὶ ἐνθέωι (“Maidens who celebrate with the Bacchic singing inspired by the god”).
22. Schol. in Aristoph. Nu. 606.1: κωμαστὴς· Ὅτι καὶ μεθύοντες βακχεύονται καὶὥσπερ ἐκμαίνονται (“Who participates in a festival: because those who are drunk experience deliria as if they were beside themselves”); Hesych. s.v. ληνεύουσι:βακχεύουσιν. The term ληνός means “barrel, wine-vat,” and therefore it is possible that ληνεύουσι refers to drinking wine, an act not foreign to ritual; cf. Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal 2001: 118-122.
23. Pl. Ion 534a; Leg. 700d.
24. Like this in the Neoplatonists: Procl. H. 3.11. See Van den Berg 2001: 197198, 207-208.
25. Heraclitus fr. 87 Marc. (B14 D-K). It is passed on by Clement of Alexandria (Protr. 2.22.2), and there has been much discussion on its authenticity. See Marcovich 1995: ad loc.; Bremmer 1999: 3 and n. 20 for the discussion; Burkert 1999: 71, 94 and n. 19. The rites performed are probably like those we find in Olbia.
26. Hdt. 4.79; cf. Jeanmaire 1951: 58, 89; Festugière 1935b: 83-85 (= 1972: 7778); Casadio 1983: 137; Versnel 1990: 140-141; Henrichs 1994: 47-51; Jaccottet 1998: 11-12.
27. Eur. Hipp. 952-954; cf. Burkert 1982: 11-12; Wilamowitz 1891 and Barrett 1964: ad loc.; Linforth 1941: 50-60; Guthrie 1935 (1967 ed.): 11-12, 16, 197; Lucas 1946: 65-68; Montégu 1959: 89; Des Places 1969: 200-201; Sfameni Gasparro 1984: 142; Freyburger-Galland, Freyburger, and Tautil 1986: 124-125; Turcan 1986: 235-237; Sorel 1995: 10-12; Casadesús 1997: 167-168; Eur. Cret. fr. 472.15 Kannicht; cf. Casadio 1990b; Cozzoli 1993; Bernabé 2004b: 281-283; Taylor 2004: 85-88.
28. Pl. Phd. 69c; cf. Rohde 1899, 2:279 n. 1; Dieterich [1893] 1913: 73; Tannery 1901: 316-317; Rohde 1925, 2:279 n. 1; Kern 1920: 45; Nilsson 1935: 203205; Guthrie 1935 (1967 ed.): 194, 243; Colli 1948: 197; Montégu 1959: 86; Hackforth ad Phd. 55; Graf 1974: 100 n. 30; Bianchi 1975: 230 n. 1; Bernabé 1998a: 48, 76, 82.
29. Clem. Alex. Protr. 2.16.3.
30. OF 474.15-16 (I.A.1 Pugliese). Primary edition: Pugliese Carratelli 1974; cf. Bernabé and Jimónez San Cristùbal 2001: 25-86.
31. Cf. Sokolowski 1962: 202 n. 120 (OF 652). An excellent article by Turcan (1986: 227-246) collects the previous literature; Freyburger-Galland, Freyburger, and Tautil 1986: 71; Turcan 1992: 217-218; Pailler 1995: 111-126; Parker 1995: 485; Dubois 1995: 52 n. 19.
32. OF 585, col. B.; cf. Vogliano 1933: 215-231; Cumont 1933: 232-263, republished in Moretti 1968: 138, no. 160; Bruhl 1953: 274-276; Freyburger-Galland, Freyburger, and Tautil 1986: 65-69; Ricciardelli 2000b; Jaccottet 2003: no. 188.
33. Graf (1994: 34) highlights the irony of Heraclitus when he threatens these fortune-tellers and sorcerers with the same punishments with which they try to scare their clients. According to Burkert (1999: 71), Heraclitus criticizes them for being initiated in human mysteries, conventional ones, far away from the sacred.
34. PDerveni col. VI.2 (OF 471); cf. Tsantsanoglou 1997: 110-114; Burkert 1999: 104-111; Casadesùs 2002: 77-82; Janko 2002: 12; Jourdan 2003: 37-39; Betegh 2004: 79-82. For the bibliography of the papyrus, cf. Bernabé 1992: 3335, 2001a: 352-353; Casadesús 1995; Funghi 1995: 565-585; Laks and Most 1997; Betegh 2004.
35. Cf. Graf 1994: 32-33. Subsequently Lucian (Peregr. 29.8) will use it as an epithet of the hero Proteus, in a passage ascribed to the Sibyl that is very critical of priests and night initiations. See also Aesch. fr. 273a.
36. For instance, in a lamella from Thurii (OF 492.8 [fr. 47 Kern]: ΩΤΑΚΤΗΡἱερά MAP Δημῆτερ, πῦρ, Ζεῦ, Κό̣ ρη Χθ̣ονία ΤΡΑΒΔΑΗΤΡΟΣΗΝΙΣΤΗΟΙΣΤΝ “Sacrifices, Demeter, fire, Zeus, the Subterranean Maiden”) that can be interpreted as a mention of the four god-elements: Demeter (earth), Fire (Sun-Dionysus), Zeus (air), and the subterranean maiden, evidently Persephone, as personification of water, cf. Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal 2001: 189-197.
37. Eur. Cret. fr. 472.13 Kannicht.
38. OF 474.15-16 (I.A.1 Pugliese): καὶ δὴ καὶ σὺ πιὼν ὁδὸν ἔρχεα(ι) ν ἅν τε καὶἄλλοι / μύσται καὶ βάκ̣χοι ἱερὰν στείχουσι κλε(ε)ινοί, So once you have drunk, you will also take the sacred path / along which the other initiates and bacchi advance, glorious.” Cf. also PGurob 25 (OF 578, fr. 31 Kern): ο]ἶ̣ν[ο̣]ν ἔπιον ὄνος βουκόλος, “I have drunk wine, ass, shepherd”; see also Demosthenes 18.259, 19.199; Clem. Alex. Protr. 2.15.3, 2.21.2.
39. PDerveni col. VI.6-7 (OF 471): ἱεροι[ς] ἐπισπένδουσιν ὕ[δω]ρ καὶ γάλα,ἐξ ὧνπερ καὶ τὰς χοὰς ποιοῦσι, “They pour on the offerings water and milk, with which they do the libations, too.” The libation expressed by σπένδω is followed in many instances by the ingestion of a part of the liquid that has been offered. In a Homeric expression, σπένδω means the offering to the gods made before drinking: Il. 9.177; Od. 3.342, 395; 7.184, 228; 18.427; 21.273 (αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ σπεῖσάν τ’ ἔπιόνθ’ ὅσον ἤθελε θυμός, “And after imbibing and drinking as much as they felt like”); cf. Il. 6.258-260; 16.225-227; cf. also Casabona 1966: 232-233; Rudhardt 1958: 243-244.
40. Among the proposals about the term that precedes ἔπιον in the quoted line from the Gurob Papyrus (PGurob 25), Hordern (2000: 139) has suggested ο[ἶν[\ο]ν, “wine,” due to the role of this drink in the rite, as is shown, for instance, in the lamellae of Pelinna: OF 485.6 (II.B.3 Pugliese); OF 486.5 (II.B.4 Pugliese): οἶνον ἔχεις εὐδ(α)ίμονα τιμη[ν], “You have wine, happy privilege”; cf. Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal 2001: 117-125. Wine is undoubtedly the drink related above all with the Dionysiac mysteries. Its presence in worship, literature, and art has been recently studied by Casadio (1999a: 9-43) and Bremmer (2002: 121-122).
41. Pl. Phd. 69c; Plut. Alex. 2.9; Clem. Alex. Protr. 2.16.3; Procl. In Hes. Op. 52 (33.20 Pertusi). Moreover, a priest of Roman times has the title ναρθηκοφόρος, “thyrsus-bearer,” in an inscription from Cila of the second century CE (IGBulg. 3.1517, p. 251ff). Cf. Bremmer 2006: 38.
42. Cf. Eur. Ba. 113; Suda s.v. νάρθηξ (3.437.2 Adler). See note 16 above.
43. Pl. Phd. 69c. Cf. Bernabé 2002.
44. Tannery 1901: 316-317. In an amphora discovered in Vulci, perhaps of the fourth/third century BCE, unfortunately lost but known to us thanks to a description from the 1920s (cf. Albizzatti 1921: 260; Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal 2001: 59), there appeared two naked youths, crowned with ivy and each bearing a thyrsus, in an infernal context similar to the one described in the Orphic gold lamellae. The thyrsus appears as well in the iconography of some Apulian funeral vases, like the crater of the Museum of Art of Toledo (Ohio); cf. Johnston and Mc-Niven 1996: 25-36.
45. Procl. In Hes. Op. 52 (33.20 Pertusi): ὡς καὶ οἱ τελούμενοι τῶι Διονύσωιδηλοῦσι ναρθηκοφοροῦντες, “As those show who, bearing the thyrsus, celebrate Dionysus.”
46. Damascius In Phd. 1.170 (103 Westerink): καὶ γὰρ τῶι Διονύσωι προτείνουσιναὐτὸν (sc. νάρθηκα) ἀντὶ τοῦ πατρικοῦ σκήπτρου, καὶ ταύτηι προκαλοῦνται αὐτὸνεἰς τὸ μερισμόν. καὶ μέντοι καὶ ναρθηκοφοροῦσιν οἱ Τιτᾶνες, “For they offer [the thyrsus] to Dionysus instead of the paternal scepter and this way they attract him toward the divided existence. And certainly the Titans also bear the thyrsus.” Damascius In Phd. 1.170 (103 Westerink): ὁ Σωκράτης τοὺς πολλοὺς καλεῖ‘ναρθηκοφόρους’ Ὀρφικῶς, ὡς ζῶντας Τιτανικῶς, “And Socrates calls the many ‘thyrsus-bearers’ in the Orphic way, as if they lived like the Titans.” Cf. Westerink 1977: ad loc.; Bernabé 1998a: 82 and n. 164.
47. For the bibliography, see above, note 28.
48. Clement of Alexandria, for example, interprets the quotation from Plato in the light of a passage of the Gospel (Mark 13:20), conferring on it in this way a proverbial meaning that later enjoyed great prestige: Clem. Alex. Strom. 1.19.92.3, πολλοὺς μὲν τοὺς κλητούς, ὀλίγους δὲ τοὺς ἐκλεκτοὺς αἰνιττόμενος, “Saying enigmatically that many are the called, few are the chosen”; see also Clem. Alex. Strom. 5.3.17.4-6; cf. also Hermias Alexandrinos In Phdr. 172.7-10 Couvreur; Theodoret Graecarum Affectionum Curatio 12.35 (430.6 Canivet).
49. Orph. Hymn. 42.1; cf. Ricciardelli 2000a: 400; cf. Themist. Or. 21.254b3 Harduin: ἀλλὰ τῶι οὐ κατὰ νόμον μεμυημένωι τὸν ναρθηκοφόρον Βάκχον ἡγεῖσθαισυγχωρεῖ τὰ μυστήρια, “But, for the not initiated, according to the rule it is possible that the thyrsus-bearing Bacchus conducts the mysteries.” See also I Peraea 4 Inscr. griech. st. aus Kleinasien 38: Die Inschriften der rhodischen Peraia, ed. Wolfgang von Blümel, Nr. 4; cf. Bremmer 2006: 38.
50. West 1983: 159 and n. 68 (= 1993: 170). See also Henrichs 1978: 147 n. 84; Bremmer 2006: 38.
51. See Rohde 1899, 2:128 n. 6; Guthrie 1935 (1967 ed.): 194; Dodds 1944: 79 (v. 115); Bernabé 1998a: 82 and n. 164; Jiménez San Cristóbal 2005: 53-63.
52. See also Pl. Rep. 366a; cf. Dieterich [1893] 1913: 73; Rohde 1899, 2:279 and n. 1; Montégu 1959: 86; Graf 1974: 100 and n. 30.
53. Bianchi 1975: 230.
54. See above, note 48.
55. Olympiodorius In Phd. 7.10 (115 Westerink): καὶ ναρθηκοφόροι μέν, οὐμὴν Βάκχοι, οἱ πολιτικοὶ φιλόσοφοι, ναρθηκοφόροι δὲ Βάκχοι οἱ καθαρτικοί, “The thyrsus-bearers that are not bacchi are the political philosophers, while the thyrsus-bearing bacchi are the purified ones”; Olympiodorius In Phd. 8.7 (123 Westerink): ναρθηκοφόρους οὐ μὴν Βάκχους τοὺς πολιτικοὺς καλῶν, ναρθηκοφόρους δὲ καὶΒάκχους τοὺς καθαρτικούς, “Calling the politicians non-bacchus thyrsus-bearers, and the purified ones, thyrsus-bearing bacchi.”
56. Casadio 1990b; Bernabé 2004b. According to Festugière (1935b: 84 [= 1972: 78]), βακχεύειν in the parodos of the Bacchae (vv. 72-77), with the addition of ὁσίοις καθαρμοῖσιν, implies an idea of divine sanction (ὁσίοις), of purity (καθαρμοῖσιν), and of spirituality (ψυχάν) The need to be pure for approaching the god, pure in his own essence, is an immemorial rule in most religions.
57. Linforth 1941: 53-60; Burkert 1982: 11-12. Cf. the annotation to the passage, Schol. in Eur. Hipp. 954.1: βάκχευε· μεγαλαύχει τὰς μωρίας πολλῶνγραμμάτων ἐπιστάμενος. τὸ γὰρ ληφθῆναί σε σκαιὰν ἐποίησέ σου τὴν ἄσκησιν;τιμῶν καπνούς: προσποιοῦ ἔνθεος εἶναι, “Doing the bacchus: he boasts of knowing the foolishness of many books. For having been caught makes it become a terrible practice; ‘honoring the smoke’: this adds he is possessed by the deity.”
58. Turcan 1986: 235-236.
59. Cf. Eur. HF 899, 1085; Palaephatus 33 (50.7 Festa; cf. Linforth 1941: 208209; Molina 1998: 284-285, 521); Diod. Sic. 4.3.3; AP 6.74.6.
60. See above, note 31.
61. Cumont [1906] 1929: 197; Festugière 1935a: 392 (= 1972: 58); Jeanmaire 1951: 396; Nilsson 1957: 12.
62. In the words of Turcan (1986: 237): “Le bacchant des thiases n’est bacchos que pour un temps, le temps même de l’ekstasis qui le dépersonnalise provisoirement dans l’ivresse du vin et de la danse. Il doit sortir de soi pour devenir bacchos. À l’inverse, le bacchos orphique se réalise en réintégrant et libérant définitivement, semble-t-il, le soi divin et profond de l’âme incarnée. Il est, il se fait βεβαχχευμένος grâce à la constance d’une vie ascétique, et non pas simplement bacchos dans l’exaltation éphémère de l’orgie. Le dionysisme n’est qu’une drogue, une technique d’évasion collective. L’orphisme est une philosophie vécue de la libération personnelle.” Cf. also Turcan 1992: 224. Contra: Pailler 1995: 111-126; and Casadio in Chapter 2 here.
63. Hdt. 4.79 (OF 563). For the relationship between ecstasies and intoxication, cf. García Sanz 1994: 169-173.
64. Jeanmaire (1951: 58, 89) attributes the state of μανία to the possession by the god. The association of θίασος and βακχεύειν evokes, according to Festugière (1935b: 83-84 = 1972: 77-78), a state of delirium. See also Henrichs 1994: 47-51; Jaccottet 1998: 14-15.
65. Burkert 1980: 37-38.
66. Cf. Casadio 1990b: 293-294.
67. Cf. Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal 2001: 222.
68. The use of the singular of τελετή and the context (for instance, the incident of the punishment with the lightning) seem to show this; cf. Turcan 1986: 229.
69. Graf 1991: 89.
70. According to Graf (1991: 89), this passage offers an example of ΔιόνυσοςΒακχεῖος as the epiklesis of the god of the βάκχοι, the ecstatic worshipers; cf. Graf 1993: 243.
71. Μύστης is the generic term for an initiate without any reference to a particular cult, whereas the term βάκχος is more restricted to the Dionysiac environment. It is just because of the βάκχοι of the gold leaf from Hipponion that the question about the Orphic character of the lamellae has been decided; cf. Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal 2001: 231-242, esp. 233.
72. Burkert 1987: 46-47.
73. The ritual sense of the sentence βάκχοι has been emphasized by Bernabé (1991: 229) in the light of a similar testimony in the Hymn to Demeter: Hymn Dem. 481-482: ὁς δ’ ἀτελῆς ἱερῶν, ὅς τ’ ἄμμορος, οὔ πόθ’ ὁμοίων αἶσαν ἔχεινφθίμενός περ ὑπὸ ζόφωι εὐρώεντι, “But the noninitiate in the rites, the one who has not participated in them, will never have such a fate after dying under the gloomy darkness.”
74. For Burkert (1975: 90-91), the βάκχοι are the initiates, and especially the ones who have really gone into ecstasy. In this sense, καί would be used in the function of adding an expression that restricts or specifies; cf. LSJ, s.v. Βάκχιος
75. As we read, among other passages (see above, note 7), in the lamella of Pelinna, where Dionysus is called Βάκχιος.
76. Ricciardelli 1992: 30; Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal 2001: 100.
77. Damascius In Phd. 1.171 (105 Westerink): Ὅτι μὲν πρῶτος Βάκχος ὁΔιόνυσός ἐστιν, ἐνθουσιῶν βάσει τε καὶ ἰαχῆι, ὅ ἐστι πάσηι κινήσει, ἧς δὴ καὶ αἴτιος,ὡς ἐν Νόμοις (ΙΙ.672α5-δ4) ὁ δὲ τῶι Διονύσωι καθιερωθεὶς ἅτε ὁμοιωθεὶς αὐτῶιμετέχει καὶ τοῦ ὀνόματος, “Because the first Bacchus is Dionysus, possessed by the dance and the shout, i.e., by all movements of which he is the cause, according to the Laws (II.672a5-d4): but one who has consecrated himself to Dionysus, being similar to the god, takes part in his name as well.”
78. Harrison 1903: 474; Dodds 1944: 79 (ad 115).
79. OF 487 (fr. 32f Kern): θεὸς ἐγένου ἐξ ἀνθρώπου, “God have you been born, from man that you were”; OF 488 (fr. 32c Kern): ὄλβιε καὶ μακαριστέ, θεὸς δ’ ἔσηιἀντὶ βροτοῖο, “Happy and fortunate, god you will be, from man that you were.”
80. PGurob 25 (OF 578, fr. 31 Kern): ο]ἶν[ο]ν ἔπιον ὄνος βουκόλος, “I have drunk wine, ass, shepherd”; cf. Hordern 2000: 139.
81. Soph. fr. 959 Radt. Such a depiction appears as well in a crater from Thurii, cf. Kerényi 1976: fig. 114; Bérard 1976: 61-73; see also Plut. Aetia Romana et Graeca 299B; Ath. 35E, 38E.
82. See, for example, Alcman 7.14; Aesch. Eum. 25; Aristoph. Nu. 605; Pl. Ion 534a.
83. See, for example, Eur. Ba. 135-140, 734-758, 847-849, 977-981, 1093-1136, 1160-1164; see also the appendix of Dodds 1951: 270-282: “Maenadism in the Bacchae” The maenadic behavior is, indeed, specifically feminine; cf. Bremmer 1984, 1992; Dabdab Trabulsi 1990: 227; Jaccottet 1998: 14-15.
84. In a lamella from Thurii we read (OF 492.2, fr. 47 Kern): ΤΑΤΑΙΤΤΑΤΑΠΤΑΖεῦ ΙΑΤΗΤΥ ἀέρ ΣΑΠΤΑ ᾝλιε, πῦρ δὴ πάντα ΣΤΗΙΝΤΑΣΤΗΝΙΣΑΤΟΠΕ νικᾶι “Zeus, Air, Sun. Fire conquers everything.” For the initiates, the cosmic power of fire is manifest in the destruction of the Titans by the purifying lightning of Zeus. Besides, in other lamellae from Thurii (OF 488, 489, 490, frr. 32c, d, e Kern), it is the initiate himself who is transformed by the purifying lightning of Zeus; cf. Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal 2001: 148-155.
85. Cf. a lamella from Thurii, fr. 487B, 5-6 (fr. 32f Kern): χαῖρ(ε) χαῖρε· δεξιὰνὁδοπόρ(ει) λειμῶνάς θ’ ε} ἱεροὺς καὶ ἄλσεα Φερσεφονείας, “Hail, hail, when you take the path of the right / to the sacred prairies and groves of Persephone.” Plato Phd. 69c.
86. According to Pugliese Carratelli (1988a: 166), those initiates (μύσται) who attain the state of perfection that allows distancing themselves permanently from the “bodily remains” are the ones who succeed in becoming βάκχοι.
87. According to Dubois (1995: 54): “Notre inscription délimitait donc l’endroit où était ensevelie l’élite des sectateurs cumains de l’orphisme.”
88. Jiménez San Cristóbal 2002.