GRGR(28) - Pigs & Pussy 2

[David Morris]

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/classes/LAp.html

In ancient Greece, religious festivals were an important social outlet for 
women. They gave women an opportunity to leave their households and enter 
the public sphere. Two festivals that were of particular importance to Greek 
women were the Mysteries of Dionysus and the Thesmophoria. Although the 
participants in both festivals were primarily women, that seems to be where 
the similarities end. The Mysteries were not conducive to women's proper 
role in society whereas the Thesmophoria seemed to be in the best interest 
of everyone in the polis. By looking at the ritualistic activities involved 
in the two festivals, it is easy to see why this was the prevailing opinion 
of men who lived in Greece during the days of these festivals.

Religion was the major source of women's participation in public life. It 
has been said that festivals were probably the only legitimate reason that 
women had to leave their homes. The festivals gave the women an opportunity 
to obtain external support from other women with regard to personal problems 
and concerns. By attending religious festivals, women were also given an 
alternative to their normal lives in the home.[1] The festivals provided 
them with respite from their domestic duties such as caring for children and 
weaving.

The Mysteries of Dionysus were important cult festivals for many women. This 
festival was in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and mystic 
ecstasy.(image) The participants in his mysteries were both married and 
unmarried women, and participation was optional. It is thought that the 
women were under the male leadership of Dionysus or a figure like him. This 
festival appears to have been driven by some type of libidinal energy in the 
women.[2]

Because of the secrecy involved with the mysteries, the events of the ritual 
were never recorded by ancient writers. Therefore, one can only speculate as 
to the actual activities associated with this festival. It is thought that 
the women dressed in fawn skins and carried a thyrsus, which is a rod topped 
with ivy leaves or a pine cone. These women then wandered the mountains at 
night and participated in ritualistic activities such as nursing baby wild 
animals and consuming wine, honey and milk.[3] The women participating in 
the festival imitated the conduct of the maenads. They did this by 
performing frenzied, ecstatic dances, sometimes around the image of 
Dionysus. In these dances, the women tossed their heads back, exposing their 
throats, rolling their eyes, and shouting like wild animals.[4] It is 
possible that the women also performed a two part sacrificial ritual which 
was composed of sparagmos which means rendering apart and omophagia which 
means consuming raw. During this part of the festival, the women killed 
goats, fawns, and cattle and devoured their raw flesh.[5] A perversion of 
this part of the festival appears in Euripides' play, The Bacchae, when 
Pentheus is torn apart by his mother.

The Thesmophoria contrasts the Mysteries of Dionysus in many ways. The 
Thesmophoria was a fertility festival in honor of Demeter, the goddess of 
agriculture. (image) This festival is mocked in Aristophanes' 
Thesmophoriazusae. However, it is interesting to note that Aristophanes 
never directly mentions the rites and rituals involved in this festival. The 
only people eligible to participate in this festival were married women, and 
it was an obligation of all wives of Greek citizens to attend. Men were 
somewhat involved in the festival because if they were wealthy, they were 
required to bear the expense of the festival on behalf of their wives.[snip]

The central act of the Thesmophoria consisted of women called "antleriai" or 
"bailers" into trenches to bring back the decaying remains of piglets and 
offerings of dough which had previously been thrown down there. The bailers 
were required to be pure, and thus they abstained from sex for three days 
before performing their duty.[12] When the bailers descended into the 
trenches to retrieve the sacred objects, the other participants in the 
festival clapped and shouted to scare away any serpents which might be down 
there.[13] The objects which were retrieved from these pits were sacrificed 
piglets, replicas of snakes and male genitalia, all symbols of fertility. 
Once these objects were retrieved from the underground caverns, they were 
spread with seeds on the Thesmophorion, altars of Demeter and Persephone.
SNIP
Although the men of Greece must have allowed their wives and daughters to 
participate in the Mysteries of Dionysus, it seems that this festival was 
not popular among them. In this festival, the men appear to have lost all 
control over the women of their lives. They go out to the hillsides and 
forests and act as savages. The first problem with this is that the forest 
is not within the city limits. The forest is a dangerous place for any woman 
to be alone, and while they are in the forest, the men have less control 
over the women. With their frenzied dancing, and hunting of wild animals, 
the women act more like barbarians than civilized Greek women. During this 
festival, the women completely leave their domestic sphere and upset the 
home lives of all members of their family. They participate in mutated forms 
of their domestic roles as seen in the nursing of wild animals. Instead of 
helping their babies become stronger, these women nourished wild animals. 
This could have been quite dangerous for the survival of the family. The 
rites of these mysteries also contained a reversal of sex roles as seen when 
the women went hunting. This probably scared the men because it showed that 
the women had as much ability as the men did to perform typically male jobs. 
Men must have also feared that there was sexual immorality at the festival, 
an idea which must have flourished because the rites took place at night and 
often in the presence of a man. The Mysteries of Dionysus did not have any 
advantages for the men, but they did allow for a great deal of freedom for 
the women, at least for one night. It was this freedom that made the men 
fear and dislike this religious ritual.

Unlike the Mysteries of Dionysus, the Thesmophoria seems to have been 
revered by the men of Athens. The reason for this is that it was in the best 
interest of the polis. It did everyone in the city good to have the women 
out praying for fertility of the land and of themselves. Although the women 
left their domestic sphere for three days, that seemed to be all right 
because in return for the three days, the men would be ensured of good crops 
and lots of children to carry on the bloodlines. Chastity was strictly 
enforced at the Thesmophoria, and thus the men had no worries about the 
purity of their offspring or sexual impropriety of their wives. Even though 
the women left their homes and domestic duties, they were still confined 
within the city walls. This meant that the men would still have some control 
over the women because they knew where they would be at all times. Also, 
there were absolutely no men permitted at this festival, so the men had no 
concerns about their wives being corrupted by another man. With regard to 
the Thesmophoria, men received grain and children in return for allowing 
their wives to leave for three days. This is probably why they gave so much 
of their support to a function which was for women only.






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