description | the role of the Chorus | the elements | thesmophoria | the music | the performers

Fertile chaos and masculine order

The most widely practiced rites throughout the various Greek city-states was the festival known as the Thesmophoria. These rites, considered to be among the most ancient practiced in Greece, were conducted only by women and honored Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone/Kore. The Thesmophoria was traditionally celebrated as a three-day and three-night festival and consisted of three distinct parts: the Anodos, the opening day procession up to the Thesmophorion building during which the participants bring the sacrifices and other cult implements up to the hill of the Pnyx; the Nesteia, the ritual fasting which comprised the second day of the ritual; and the sacrifice and feasting that dominated the third and final day. Throughout the festival, the women reenact aspects of the myth of Demeter as she searched for her abducted daughter, ranging from ritualized mouring to celebration as the reunion of the goddess and her daughter revive the fertility of the earth.

The shamans' thyrsus is constructed in accordance to the scourge made of morotton[1] (woven bark) which was used from participants whipping each other at the 'Thesmophoria'. This celebration of autumn sowing was dedicated to Demeter and restricted to women in ancient Greece. The women also engaged in Aiskhrologia (Foul language. abuse), hurling insults at one another to commemorate the way in which Iambe made the grieving Demeter laugh.

[1]morotton, [ancient greek,μόροττον ], Lexicon of Hysichios from Alexandria, editions Georgiades, Athens 1975.

[2]
The Thesmophoria is a celebration of Sporetos (Seed-time), the autumn sowing,
dedicated to Demeter and restricted to women. (This is unusual in the Greek
world for, although Gods often had Priests and Goddesses Priestesses, the
festivals were usually open to both men and women. Cf. the Festival for Bona
Dea, c. Dec. 3.) Although the ceremony is a women's mystery, this much may be
said.
Stenia
The Thesmophoria proper is preceded by two days (i.e. on 9 Puanepsion, c. Oct.
24) by the Stenia, a nocturnal women's festival for Demeter and Persephone in
preparation for the Thesmophoria. The women engage in Aiskhrologia (Foul
language, abuse), hurling insults at one another to commemorate the way in which
Iambe made the grieving Demeter laugh (see the Homeric Hymn to Demeter).
This may also be when the Thesmoi (Things Laid Down) are placed into the caverns
at the sanctuary of Demeter; they include dough models of snakes and male
genitalia and pork from sacrificed piglets, all fertility symbols (pigs because
of their fecundity); in this way the womb of The Mother is fertilized; they will
be removed in the Thesmophoria proper. (Others say that the Thesmoi are
deposited in the Skiraphoria, c. June 27.)
1st Day: Anodos (Ascent)
During the Thesmophoria proper the women camp for three days in the Thesmophor-
ion, the hillside sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros. Under the direction of two
Arkhousai (Officials), the women set out in procession with the necessary
supplies for three days and two nights, and set up their encampment, which takes
the form of rows of shelters or huts with walkways between them. The women
sleep on the ground, generally two to a hut.
2nd Day: Nesteia (Fast)
On the second day the women sit on the ground and abstain from all solid food in
humility and sympathy for Demeter's mourning (when she also refused a chair),
but also to transfer their strength to the soil. As hunger begins to gnaw their
stomachs, they again engage in Aiskhrologia (abusive language); some say,
recalling Iambe and Demeter, that their taunts are spoken in iambic verse, the
traditional meter of mockery. The women may also whip each other with a scourge
made of morotton (woven bark). Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae contains two
beautiful hymns typical of those sung on the day; they are too long to be
reproduced here (ll. 969-1000 and 1136-1159; pp. 135-6 and 141-2 in the Barrett
translation, Penguin Books, 1964).
3rd Day: Kalligeneia (Fair Offspring)
Nightfall brings the official beginning of the third day, and there is a
torch-light ceremony, for Demeter sought Persephone by torch light. Some say
that this is when the Thesmoi are removed from the earth by Priestesses called
Antletriai (Bailers), of whom three day's ritual purity (including sexual
abstinence) is required. While women clap to scare away the sacred snakes that
guard the caverns, the Antletriai go down into the caves, collect the Thesmoi in
buckets, and place the putrefying matter on the altars of Demeter and Persephone.
Later this "compost" is removed from the altars and mixed with the grain to be
sown the following month (i.e., late Nov. to early Dec.). In this rite we truly
see the role of the cycle of life and death in the fertilization of the Earth.
The fast is ended and the rest of the day is spent in joyous celebration of the
gift of beautiful children, until the women break camp and return home.

Allaire B STALLSMITHφφ The meaning of the Thesmophoria

The Thesmophoria were celebrated in honor of Demeter and Kore in more than thirty cities in the ancient Greek world. Best-known in detail is the Athenian Thesmophoria, which was held in the fall, at the time of the sowing of cereals. Both the date and the ritual itself have supported the assumption that the Thesmophoria concerned the growth of the grain.
Recently N.J. Lowe has argued that the secret rites of the Thesmophoria, as described in a scholion on Aristophanes Thesmophoriazousae, do not mean what they have always been taken to mean. (ώThesmophoria and Haloa. Myth, Physics and Mysteriesν in the Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece ed Blundell & Williamsonφ(Routledge, 1998) According to Lowe, the scholiastΆs aetiological and symbolic explanations of the ritual have been misunderstood by modern commentators who have leapt upon this confused text to show that ancient ώ? religious ritual originates in?the attempt to compel the productivity of the natural world?ν.
That all religious ritual originates in fertility magic is an absurd idea; that much ritual concerns itself precisely with ώcompelling the productivity of the natural worldν seems to be quite obvious. There is plenty of evidence that the ancients, not only the practitioners of ritual but also the learned commentators, thought that ritual action could indeed compel fertility.
An example: The priest of Eleusis was said to shout to the sky, ώRain!ν and to the earth, ώConceive!ν - both verbs in the imperative. Is one hopelessly naΞve for taking the ritual formula at face value? Numerous examples can be cited to show that ritual words and actions in the cult of Demeter and specifically in the Thesmophoria were thought of as compelling fertility.
This scholion is just one example of a learned tradition which used allegory and rationalization to explain away the simple-minded crudity of myths and rituals cherished for their (perceived) antiquity. Philo made Moses into a philosopher and the miracles at the Red Sea into teaching points for his philosophy. Similarly Plato employed myth as a basis for his cosmology, as in the story of Er. Contrariwise, Clement of Alexandria οexposedΆ the meaning of the Mysteries as nothing more than sex-worship.
Should we search for the οmeaningΆ of ritual in the learned rationalization of priest and philosopher, or in the οjust-soΆ stories told by its performers? Which is more valid? Perhaps we need to remember that myth and ritual are always overdetermined, and look for more than one οmeaningΆ for a ritual. The model of the great and little traditions could be useful here. This model would include the ritual performersΆ simpler understanding of the ritual as fertility magic (the little tradition) as well as the intellectualized priestly understanding of the ritual as symbolic or aetiological (the great tradition).

"The myths and rites of Eleusis have their counterpart in the religions of certain tropical cultures whose structure is agricultural and matriarchal."
"At Eleusis, as in the Orphic-Dionysiac ceremonies, as in the Greco-Oriental mysteries of the Hellenistic period, the mystes submits himself to initiation in order to transcend the human condition and to obtain a higher, superhuman mode of being. the initiatory rites reactualize an origin myth, which relates the adventures, death, and resurrection of a divinity."
"None of these initiatory cults can be regarded as a creation of the Greek mind. Their roots go deep into prehistory, Cretan, Asiatic, and Thracian traditions were taken over, enriched, and incorporated into a new religious horizon. It was through Athens that Eleusis became a Pan Hellenic religious center; but the mysteries of Demeter and Kore had been celebrated at Eleusis for centuries. The Eleusinian initiation descends directly from an agricultural ritual centered around the death and resurrection of a divinity controlling the fertility of the fields".
- Mircea Eliade, Rites and Symbols of Initiation

Construction of the Thyrsus

http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Thyrsus.html

THYRSUS (qu/rsoj), a pole carried by Dionysus, and by Satyrs, Maenades, and others who engaged in Bacchic festivities and rites (Athen. xiv. 631, a; Vell.φPat.φii.82). [DIONYSIA, p411a] It was sometimes terminated by the apple of the pine, or fir-cone (kwnofo/roj, Brunck, Anal.φi.421), that tree (peu/kh) being dedicated to Dionysus in consequence of the use of the turpentine which flowed from it, and also of its cones, in making wine (Walpole, Mem. on Eur. and As. Turkey, p235). The monuments of ancient art, however, most commonly exhibit instead of the pine-apple a bunch of vine or ivy-leaves (Ovid.φMet. xi.27, 28; Propert.φiii.3.35) with grapes or berries, arranged into the form of a cone. The following woodcut, taken from a marble ornament (Mon. Matth. ii. tab.φ86), shows the head of a thyrsus composed of the leaves and berries of the ivy, and surrounded by acanthus-leaves. Very frequently also a white fillet was tied to the pole just below the head, in the manner represented in the woodcut on p136b, where each of the figures holds a thyrsus in her hand. See also the woodcuts to FUNAMBULUS and VANNUS (Statius, Theb. vii.654). [INSTITA.] The fabulous history of Bacchus relates that he converted the thyrsi carried by himself and his followers into dangerous weapons, by concealing an iron point in the head of leaves (Diod.φiii.64, iv.4; Macrob. Sat.φi.19). Hence his thyrsus is called "a spear enveloped in vine-leaves" (Ovid.φMet. iii.667), and its point was thought to incite madness (Hor. Carm.φii.19.8; Ovid. Amor. iii.1.23, iii.15.17, Trist. iv.1.43; Brunck, Anal.φiii.202; Orph. Hymn. xlv.5, 1.8).

Ferula communis

THE HOMERIC HYMNS

(ll. 4-18) Apart from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and
glorious fruits, she was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters
of Oceanus and gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and
crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinths and the
narcissus, which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeus and to
please the Host of Many, to be a snare for the bloom-like girl --
a marvellous, radiant flower. It was a thing of awe whether for
deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred
blooms and is smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven above
and the whole earth and the sea's salt swell laughed for joy.

And the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to take
the lovely toy; but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the
plain of Nysa, and the lord, Host of Many, with his immortal
horses sprang out upon her -- the Son of Cronos, He who has many
names.

(ll. 405-433) Then beautiful Persephone answered her thus:
'Mother, I will tell you all without error. When luck-bringing
Hermes came, swift messenger from my father the Son of Cronos and
the other Sons of Heaven, bidding me come back from Erebus that
you might see me with your eyes and so cease from your anger and
fearful wrath against the gods, I sprang up at once for joy; but
he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and
forced me to taste against my will. Also I will tell how he rapt
me away by the deep plan of my father the Son of Cronos and
carried me off beneath the depths of the earth, and will relate
the whole matter as you ask. All we were playing in a lovely
meadow, Leucippe (9) and Phaeno and Electra and Ianthe, Melita
also and Iache with Rhodea and Callirhoe and Melobosis and Tyche
and Ocyrhoe, fair as a flower, Chryseis, Ianeira, Acaste and
Admete and Rhodope and Pluto and charming Calypso; Styx too was
there and Urania and lovely Galaxaura with Pallas who rouses
battles and Artemis delighting in arrows: we were playing and
gathering sweet flowers in our hands, soft crocuses mingled with
irises and hyacinths, and rose-blooms and lilies, marvellous to
see, and the narcissus which the wide earth caused to grow yellow
as a crocus. That I plucked in my joy; but the earth parted
beneath, and there the strong lord, the Host of Many, sprang
forth and in his golden chariot he bore me away, all unwilling,
beneath the earth: then I cried with a shrill cry. All this is
true, sore though it grieves me to tell the tale.'

(ll. 247-290)And if any mortal man ask you who got your
dear son beneath her girdle, remember to tell him as I bid you:
say he is the offspring of one of the flower-like Nymphs who
inhabit this forest-clad hill.

(ll. 32-54)And
all at once a vine spread out both ways along the top of the sail
with many clusters hanging down from it, and a dark ivy-plant
twined about the mast, blossoming with flowers, and with rich
berries growing on it; and all the thole-pins were covered with
garlands.

Skopas, as if moved by some inspiration, imparted to the making of his statue the divine frenzy that possessed him. Why should I not describe to you from the beginning the inspiration of this work of art? The statue of a Maenad, wrought from Parian marble, has been transformed into a real Maenad. For the stone, while retaining its own nature, yet seemed to depart from the law which governs stone; what one saw was really an image, but art carried imitation over into actual reality. You would have seen that, hard as it was, it became soft to resemble the feminine, though its vigor corrected the femininity, and that, though it lacked the power to move, it knew how to dance in Bacchic frenzy, responding to the god as he entered within. When we saw her face we stood speechless, so clear upon it was the evidence of sense perception, though perception was not present; so clear was the intimation of Bacchic divine possession stirring Bacchic frenzy, though no such possession aroused it; and as many signs of passion that a soul goaded by divine madness displays, these blazed out from it, fashioned by art in fashion indescribable. The hair fell free to be tossed by the wind, and was divided to show the glory of each strand; this most of all transcended reason, since, stone though the material was, it obeyed the lightness of hair and yielded to imitation of its tresses, and though void of life's vitality it was vital withal. Indeed you might say that art has harnessed the impulses of growth, so unbelievable is what you see, so visible is what you do not believe. It actually even showed hands in motion—for it was not waving the Bacchic thyrsos, but carried a victim as if crying "Euoi"!—sign of a more poignant madness. And the figure of the kid was livid in color, and the stone took on the appearance of dead flesh; and though the material was one and the same, it severally imitated life and death... Kallistratos, Descriptions of Statues 2.1-4 (work of 3rd or 4th century A.D.)