Temple of Dionysus Lysios

Last updated October 24, 2019

The Temple of Dionysus Lysios was a sanctuary in Thebes, Greece dedicated to Dionysus. It was one of the main cult centers of Dionysus.

Thebes is a city in Boeotia, central Greece. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed a Mycenaean settlement and clay tablets written in the Linear B script, indicating the importance of the site in the Bronze Age.

Dionysus is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth.

Thebes had an important role in the cult of Dionysus as the place of several important events of the divine myths of the god. It was believed to be the place of the immolation of Semele, and contained what was said to be her tomb. The temple was situated near the theater in the city of Thebes. It was dedicated to the god under the name of Dionysus Lysios.

Semele, in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of the Phoenician hero Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.

Pausanias described the sanctuary in the 1st century:

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the second-century AD, who lived in the time of Roman emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece, a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from his first-hand observations. This work provides crucial information for making links between classical literature and modern archaeology. Andrew Stewart assesses him as:

A careful, pedestrian writer...interested not only in the grandiose or the exquisite but in unusual sights and obscure ritual. He is occasionally careless or makes unwarranted inferences, and his guides or even his own notes sometimes mislead him, yet his honesty is unquestionable, and his value without par.

"Near the Proitidian gate [of Thebes, Boiotia] is built a theater, and quite close to the theater is a temple of Dionysos surnamed Lysios (Deliverer). For when some Theban prisoners in the hands of Thrakians had reached Haliartia on their march, they were delivered by the god, who gave up the sleeping Thrakians to be put to death. One of the two images here the Thebans say is Semele. Once in each year, they say, they open the sanctuary on stated days. There are also ruins of the house of Lykos, and the tomb of Semele."^[1]

Aside from the Temple of Dionysus Lysios, Pausanias also writes:

"... there is also a story that along with the thunderbolt hurled at the bridal chamber of Semele there fell a log from heaven. They say that [King] Polydoros adorned this log with bronze and called it Dionysos Kadmos. Near is an image of Dionysos; Onasimedes made it of solid bronze. The altar was built by the sons of Praxiteles."^[2]

This was however the Shrine to Dionysus Kadmeios, which was different shrine in Thebes, separate from that of Dionysus Lysios. If still in use by the 4th century, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire, when the Christian Emperors issued edicts prohibiting non-Christian worship.

The persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire began late during the reign of Constantine the Great, when he ordered the pillaging and the tearing down of some temples. The first anti-pagan laws by the Christian state started with Constantine's son Constantius II, who was an opponent of paganism; he ordered the closing of all pagan temples, forbade pagan sacrifices under pain of death, and removed the traditional Altar of Victory from the Senate. Under his reign ordinary Christians began to vandalise pagan temples, tombs and monuments. This persecution had proceeded after a period of persecution of Christians in the Empire.

Related Research Articles

In Greek mythology, Persephone, also called Kore, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Homer describes her as the formidable, venerable, majestic queen of the underworld, who carries into effect the curses of men upon the souls of the dead. She becomes the queen of the underworld through her abduction by and subsequent marriage to Hades, the god of the underworld. The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. Similar myths appear in the Orient, in the cults of male gods like Attis, Adonis, and Osiris, and in Minoan Crete.

Dirce was the wife of Lycus in Greek mythology, and aunt to Antiope.

Sabazios is the horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians. In Indo-European languages, such as Phrygian, the -zios element in his name derives from dyeus, the common precursor of Latin deus ('god') and Greek Zeus. Though the Greeks interpreted Phrygian Sabazios as both Zeus and Dionysus, representations of him, even into Roman times, show him always on horseback, as a nomadic horseman god, wielding his characteristic staff of power.

Eleutherae is a city in the northern part of Attica, bordering the territory of Boeotia. One of the best preserved fortresses of Ancient Greece stands now on the spot of an Ancient Eleutherae castle, dated between 370 and 360 BC, with walls of very fine masonry that average 2.6m thick. A circuit of wall 860 m contained towers, 6 of them still standing along the northern edge of the site, preserved to the height of 4 to 6 m. The foundations of more towers are present. Although not as well preserved, the line of the remainder of the fortification circuit is clear, as is the location of the one large, double gate (western) and one small (south-eastern) gate. There are two small sally-ports located on the north side. The fortified area is irregular and c. 113 by 290m in extent.

Orchomenus, the setting for many early Greek myths, is best known as a rich archaeological site in Boeotia, Greece, that was inhabited from the Neolithic through the Hellenistic periods. Orchomenus is also referenced as the "Minyean Orchomenus" in order to distinguish the city from the "Arcadian Orchomenus".

In Greek mythology, Caanthus or Kaanthos was the son of Oceanus and Tethys, and the brother of Melia, who was the consort of Apollo, and an important cult figure at Thebes. According to the second-century geographer Pausanias, Caanthus was commanded by his father Oceanus to seek his sister Melia, who had been abducted by Apollo. But being unable to get Melia away from Apollo, Caanthus set fire to the Apollo's sanctuary, and Apollo shot and killed him.

Amykles is a village in Laconia, southern Greece. It lies in the plain by the Eurotas river, 6 km south of Sparta, east of the Taygetus mountains, along the Greek National Road 39 from Sparta to Gytheio. It was named after the ancient town Amyclae, the ruins of which are situated 2 km northeast of the village.

A xoanon was an Archaic wooden cult image of Ancient Greece. Classical Greeks associated such cult objects, whether aniconic or effigy, with the legendary Daedalus. Many such cult images were preserved into historical times, though none are known to have survived to the modern day, except where their image was copied in stone or marble. In the 2nd century CE, Pausanias described numerous xoana in his Description of Greece, notably the image of Hera in her temple at Samos. "The statue of the Samian Hera, as Aethilos [sic] says, was a wooden beam at first, but afterwards, when Prokles was ruler, it was humanized in form". In Pausanias' travels he never mentions seeing a xoanon of a mortal man.

In Greek mythology, Polydorus or Polydoros was a king of Thebes.

In Greek mythology, Despoina was the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon and sister of Arion. She was the goddess of mysteries of Arcadian cults who was worshipped under the title Despoina, alongside her mother Demeter, one of the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Her real name could not be revealed to anyone except those initiated to her mysteries. Writing during the second century A.D., Pausanias spoke of Demeter as having two daughters; Kore being born first, before Despoina was born, with Zeus being the father of Kore and Poseidon as the father of Despoina. Pausanias made it clear that Kore is Persephone, although he did not reveal Despoina's proper name.

The Amphiareion of Oropos, situated in the hills 6 km southeast of the fortified port of Oropos, was a sanctuary dedicated in the late 5th century BCE to the hero Amphiaraos, where pilgrims went to seek oracular responses and healing. It became particularly successful during the 4th century BCE, to judge from the intensive building at the site. The hero Amphiaraos was a descendant of the seer Melampos and initially refused to participate in the attack on Thebes because he could foresee that it would be a disaster. In some versions of the myth, the earth opens and swallows the chariot of Amphiaraos, transforming him into a chthonic hero. Today the site is found east of the modern town Markopoulo Oropou in the Oropos municipality of Attica, Greece

The Temple of Hera, or Heraion, is an ancient Archaic Greek temple at Olympia, Greece, that was dedicated to Hera, queen of the Greek Gods. The temple was built in approximately 590 BC, but was destroyed by an earthquake in the early 4th century CE

The Cult of Dionysus was strongly associated with satyrs, centaurs, and sileni, and its characteristic symbols were the bull, the serpent, tigers/leopards, the ivy, and the wine. The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens were dedicated to Dionysus, as well as the Phallic processions. Initiates worshipped him in the Dionysian Mysteries, which were comparable to and linked with the Orphic Mysteries, and may have influenced Gnosticism. Orpheus was said to have invented the Mysteries of Dionysus.

The Temple of Asclepius was a sanctuary in Epidaurus dedicated to Asclepius. It was the main holy site of Asclepius. The sanctuary at Epidaurus was the rival of such major cult sites as the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi. The temple was built in the early 4th-century BC. If still in use by the 4th-century, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire, when the Christian Emperors issued edicts prohibiting non-Christian worship.

Ancient Greek temples were dedicated to a certain deity. A typical temple would have a statue inside. An altar would be placed outside, upon which offerings would be placed as sacrifices to the city's patron deity. The Parthenon is a famous example of an Ancient Greek temple.

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Melia, a daughter of the Titan Oceanus, was the consort of Apollo, and the mother, by Apollo, of the Theban hero and prophet Tenerus. She was also the mother of Ismenus, god of the Theban river of the same name. Melia was an important cult figure at Thebes. She was worshipped at the Ismenion, the Temple of Apollo at Thebes, and was associated with a nearby spring.

The Temple of Dionysus was a sanctuary on ancient Naxos dedicated to Dionysos. Naxos was one of the cult centers of Dionysos in Ancient Greece, and the sanctuary at Naxos was one of his main temples along with the temple in Thebes.

Temple of Athena Alea ancient temple in Greece

The Temple of Athena Alea was a sanctuary at Tegea in Ancient Greece, dedicated to Athena under the epithet Athena Alea. It was a significant temple, regarded to be one of the most important shrines of Athena in Ancient Greece.

References

↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 16. 6
↑ Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 12. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 16. 6

[2] Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 12. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.)