Dionysos

Ancient Greek god of winemaking and wine

Appears in 29 videos · 40 passages, 9 of them in depth.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani presents Dionysus as the god of intoxication, excess and the collective, whom he contrasts with Apollo1. He often returns to his emblems, ivy, pine, vine and myrtle, evergreen plants that he interprets as the sign of a libido that never dies2. He stresses his Eastern origin: he is a late god who arrives on a chariot drawn by wild beasts, at the limit of Greek rationality, and the dithyramb in his honour is the origin of theatre3. Though a god who is "not presentable", he must not be excluded from the city4. In Hölderlin, he reads him as the god of shared wine and an intermediate figure with Christ who reconciles day and night5. He also mentions Dionysus coming to console Ariadne on Naxos, notably in Nerval and Roussel. Finally, he follows Nietzsche's reading: the dancing Dionysus set against the spirit of gravity, and the observation that in Wagner, Schopenhauer prevails over Dionysus6.

Summary produced automatically from 40 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Who is this?

In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus ( ; Ancient Greek: Διόνυσος Diónysos) is the god of wine-making, orchards, fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; Ancient Greek: Βάκχος Bacchos) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia. His wine, music, and ecstatic dance were considered to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. […]

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Text: Wikipédia, CC BY-SA 4.0, excerpt · Portrait: Marie-Lan Nguyen, CC BY 2.5

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Season 13 · 2 Dec 2024Evil, or the “unknowing” of the self

14:49A god not fit for company, yet who must not be excluded from the city.
17:06His symbols: flute, ivy, vine leaf, pine, always green; opposed to Apollo.
19:33Comes from the East, from the banks of the Ganges; excess is not Greek.

Talks · 19 Mar 2022Hölderlin, poetry and politics

39:57The Dionysia; the pine and the vine branch; intoxication, a tribute paid to the nocturnal.
59:06The god of the vineyards is the god of the collective.
1:05:44Intermediary figure with Christ, who reconciles day and night.

Talks · 14 Jul 2022From Plato to world revolution

6:06The dithyramb in his honor, born of sacrifice, is at the origin of theater.

Season 10 · 6 Oct 2021#10.2 Dialectics of identity and difference

1:09:48God of the collective, he melts the bubbles that separate us.

Season 9.2 · 28 Apr 2021#9.20 From signal to sign: Einstein

25:38A late god of the Greek pantheon, arriving on a chariot drawn by tigers, crowned with plants that never wither.

Season 7 · 18 Apr 2020#5 Harnessed to confinitude

39:00The wine of the title may refer to Dionysus as much as to Christ.
1:14:43The most nocturnal god, origin of Greek theater; his attributes and his chariot of wild beasts recall that he comes from the Orient, at the limit of Greek rationality.
1:24:53The nearby god designated by the toponyms of Thebes.