CLSA 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Homeric Hymns, Minos, Minyades
30 Jul 2016
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Symbols: ivy, grapes, the phallus, horns of a bull, leopard skin. The embodiment of a divinely inspired madness in which one"s ordinary sense of self is lost. Contradictory god associated with both life force and death. Zeus falls in love with semele, daughter of cadmus, king of thebes. Hera, jealous, tricks semele and makes her doubt zeus"s identity. Semele asks zeus to reveal his true self. Zeus does so and she is burnt to a crisp. Hermes saves the fetus and zeus puts it into his thigh. Three months later dionysus is born for the second time (twice-born god) She dresses him up in women"s clothes to protect him from hera. To save dionysus from further torments, zeus changes him into a goat. Hermes delivers the goat to the nymphs of nysa. In nysa, the young dionysus discovers the art of making wine. But hera strikes the god with madness.
