Sparagmos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maenads attacking Pentheus (Roman wall painting from the House of the
Vettii, Pompeii)
Sparagmos (Ancient Greek: , from sparasso, "tear,
rend, pull to pieces") is an act of rending, tearing apart, or mangling,[1]
usually in a Dionysian context.
In Dionysian rite as represented in myth and literature, a living animal, or
sometimes even a human being, is sacrificed by being dismembered.
Sparagmos was frequently followed by omophagia (the eating of the raw
flesh of the one dismembered). It is associated with the Maenads or
Bacchantes, followers of Dionysus, and the Dionysian Mysteries. Historically,
however, there is little indication that women celebrating the rites of
Dionysius dismembered animals or ate raw flesh.[2]
Examples of sparagmos appear in Euripides's play The Bacchae, which
concerns Dionysus and the Maenads. At one point guards sent to control the
Maenads witness them pulling a live bull to pieces with their hands. Later,
Dionysus lures his cousin, king Pentheus, into a forest after he bans worship
of the god where he was attacked by Maenads, including his own mother
Agave. The reference of his mother tearing apart his limbs is sparagmos.
According to some myths, Orpheus, regarded as a prophet of Orphic or
Bacchic religion, died when he was dismembered by raging Thracian
women.
Contents [hide]
1

Medea

Modern literature and theory

See also

References

Medea[edit]
Medea is said to have killed and dismembered her brother whilst fleeing
with Jason and the stolen fleece in order to delay their pursuers, who would
be compelled to collect the remains of the prince for burial. The Italian film
director Pier Paolo Pasolini staged a sparagmos ritual as part of a long
sequence near the beginning of his film Medea (1969), before dramatising
the episode in which Medea kills her brother in a similar way.
Modern literature and theory[edit]

Interpreting the ritual through the lens of the Freudian Oedipus complex,
Catherine Maxwell identifies sparagmos as a form of castration, particularly
in the case of Orpheus.[3]
In contemporary literature, this is used in Tennessee Williams's play
Suddenly, Last Summer.
Sparagmos is also briefly mentioned in Donna Tartt's The Secret History.

Omophagia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
See raw foodism for the modern use of the term.
Omophagia, or omophagy (from Greek "raw") is the eating of raw
flesh. The term is of importance in the context of the cult worship of
Dionysus.

Marble image of a dancing Maenad; approximately 120-140 AD. Attributed

to Callimachus.
Omophagia is a large element of Dionysiac myth; in fact, one of Dionysus'
epithets is Omophagos "Raw-Eater".[1] Omophagia may have been a
symbol of the triumph of wild nature over civilization, and a symbol of the
breaking down of boundaries between nature and civilization.[2][3] It might
also have been symbolic that the worshippers were internalizing Dionysus
wilder traits and his association with brute nature, in a sort of communion
with the god.[4]
Mythology sometimes depicts Maenads, Dionysus' female worshippers,
eating raw meat as part of their worship; however, there is little solid
evidence that historical Maenads consumed raw meat.[2][5][6]
The Dionysiac diet of raw meat may be more properly attributed to Dionysus
himself, rather than his followershe received sacrifices of raw meat and
was believed to consume them, but his followers did not share in the
consumption.[7]
Orphism[edit]
The Orphic mysteries originated as a ritual which focused on purification[8]
and the afterlife; the mysteries were based on the stories of Dionysus
Zagreus. Zagreus was the child of Zeus and Persephone, who was torn apart

by the Titans in an act of sparagmos. After tearing Zagreus apart, the Titans
devoured him, except for his heart.
His body was then reassembled; this may be reflected in the story of
Pentheus, whose body parts were gathered together after his mother, aunt
and other Maenads tore him apart in a Dionysic frenzy, and the story of
Actaeon, who was eaten by his own hunting dogs. Because the dogs grieved
so deeply after Actaeon's death, an image of him was made to comfort
them. All three stories show a common motif of reassembly of body parts
following sparagmos and omophagia, and this motif may have been
significant for religious ritual.[9]
In Orphism, worshippers took part in an Orphic ritual which reenacted the
story of Zegreus, using a bull as their victim (poorer worshippers may have
used a goat instead).[10] They considered the ritual to be "commemorative"
of events in their god's existence.[1] In his article "A New Ritual of the
Orphic Mysteries", Michael Tierney says that "... by sacramental reenactment of the god's death, a hope of salvation for his worshippers was
obtained."[11] Dionysus became associated with Zagreus, and the story of
having been torn apart and eaten by the Titans was applied to him as well.
[1]
Omophagia was the focus of the Dionysiac mysteries, and a component of
Orphic ceremonies.[12] In its beginnings, Orphism was influenced by the
Elusinian mysteries,[8] and it adopted stories from other mythologies as its
own.[8] The worshippers of Zagreus may have engaged in omophagia as an
initiation rite.[13]
The Bacchae[edit]
Euripides play The Bacchae focuses on the worship of Dionysus, including
allusions to omophagia, and its companion sparagmos. In this play, the
character Agave tears her son Pentheus apart while under the influence of
Dionysus. Because Euripides depicts Agave as engaging in sparagmos, he
likely intended for the audiences to assume she engaged in omophagia as
well: additionally, the character Cadmus compares Agaves actions to the
story of Actaeon, who was consumed by his own hunting dogsthis
association further suggests that omophagia took place.[14]
There is another possible instance of omophagia in The Bacchae. At one
point in the play, the maenads go into a nearby town and carry off the
children; it is possible that the maenads then consumed them. In art and
myth, this incident is linked to omophagia; however, Euripides may not have
intended this meaning in The Bacchae.[15]