The Age of Masks

One difficulty of the play is the need of a head on stage when Agave comes back from the Mount Citharion. An effective representation must be found for this, be it tactile (like a prosthetic head, the use of which I do not find attractive) or symbolic.

When we got the project I imagined I would much rather make use of masks than a prosthetic head, which in my case is out of question, I do not find them useful, as it would destroy the illusion and transport the audience back into themselves, making them aware of themselves, of the theatre.

So I took to the research of masks:

First the Ancient Greek of course, where the use of these objects was crucial to make the audience recognise the persona, the gender of the characters.

Notice the differences between these two pairs.

I personally found that the second ones from the pairs were a bit... perhaps wackier, more playful. And the first ones were more attractive, more worked upon, which for me raised its worth.

 Dionysus

Warrior

I cannot hold back from looking at wonders inspired by the faerie-folk. This organic, beautiful kin, has the lightness which I had originally attribute to the followers of Dionysus. 

 An Oberon mask from Fantasy Guilde Studios

Titania Mask from Fantasy Guilde Studios

Crypt Dweller from Fantasy Guilde Studios, for Pentheus?

Jane Klugstons Fantasy Fest masks

An elegant white fantasy mask

Fantasy masks on the firecer side

Serpent Lord

DLX Tauren mask

Another strange find was "Fantasy Masked Statues", I would most certainly would not want to bump into one of these by accident on a nighttime stroll. They certainly do set an "atmosphere" as the website cites.

After looking at fantasy inspired masks, my heart took me down the path it desired, I looked for "creepy masks" and I found this beautiful pair which I could imagine for my crazed Maenads:

Julia Sanderl made these in April 2008, on her site she wrote: "Here are the completed mask examples that I created. The fabric additions on the left mask were recycled headdress materials from my friend Lara."

About the female face she says: "This is a sample I made to demonstrate the process of mask-making for my students. Inspiration was derived from African art, and body art from a variety of cultures. While working on this face, I was thinking about the ritual scarring practiced by many African tribes, Maori facial tattoos, and the Indian art of Mehndi. The neck coils are reminiscent of the Kayan women of Myanmar and Thailand who modify their bodies by stretching out their necks with ornamental brass coils."

However, it is not just these masks that are inspiring, looking at the rest of her Art also has a tribal-esque playfulness to it.

A picture I took in Vrbnik on the island of Krk, Croatia this July.

More  to come later!

Dionysian Imagery in the Fifth Century

Great findings must be shared of Dionysian depictions on Ancient Greek vases. It must be noted that while researching there are too many phallic representations for my tastes.
Carpenter, Thomas H. Dionysian Imagery in the Fifth-Century Athens. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997.

This image of a Bacchae is captivating, it looks like a sweet representation of the oneness with Nature that the Bacchants could reach trough their Bacchic release. It is of a "mid-fifth century amphora in Brussels a nymph wearing an ivy wreath and animal skin and holding a snake and thyrsos looks down at a fawn that jumps up toward her like e pet dog." p.115 On some vases however the nymphs are shown dancing with torn halves of fawns.

The nymph resists the approach of a satyr.

"[...] nymphs in red-figures scenes (as opposed to those on black-figure vases) are often hostile to the erotic advances of satyrs, and they often use their thyrsoi to defend themselves." p.116

Dionysus and his companions

"a naked child holding a kantharos and vine branch stands on the lap of a bearded man seated on a chair. A woman with stylized flowers stands behind him, a woman holding a small himation stands in front. The seated man wears a wreath of pointed leaves (laurel?) and holds a thyrsos. The child wears an ivy wreath.

These figures have frequently been mis-identified as Dionysos and Oinopion, but they are almost certainly intended to be Zeus and the infant Dionysos. Only the thyrsos raises doubt. The child has the attributes appropriate to the young Dionysos..."

Dionysus portrayed as he tears apart a fawn. "Depictions of the madness of Dionysos appear earlier [before 5th century] are [...] linked with Thrace. On a late archaic stamnos in London, the god dances a mad dance with the halves of a rent goat in either hand. He has an ivy wreath on his head and a leopard skin tied at his throat over a chiton. On his feet he wears Thracian boots. [...] In fact, the imagery links him with neither drunkenness nor ecstasy. The scene is not an existential statement but rather a narrative account of the madness sent by Hera. The teraing of an animal in two becomes a symbol of the ultimate stage of this madness and is used to show the same madness inflicted by the god on others." p.38

A "Dionysian procession", "back-flung head is introduced on Attic vases to indicate song, not ecstasy" p. 83.

Sometimes the nymph figures resist and defend themselves from the advances of the satyrs; however on some vases they are depicted as unresisting, emphasizing how the Bacchic ecstatic state takes over the minds of women and men.

Dionysus with his satyr companions

A Winged Fury with a wreath of snakes on her hand and arms.

More to come later!

The travels of Dionysus

In Bacchae many countries are mentioned in which Dionysus has travelled.

Here is a map in which I have added the location of the Ancient city of Thebes, all the exotic lands of Dionysus can be found.

The Exotic Mass

The Phrygians lived on the land we now call Turkey, it might be supposed that they had originally been from the same 'mother tribe' as the Greeks. Phrygia later became part of the Persian Empire.

They worshipped a 'Great Mother', 'Mountain Mother', or Goddess called Cybele, their worship f her was similar to that  of the Diponysiac worship: "a primal nature goddess worshipped with orgiastic rites in the mountains of central and western Anatolia"
It is interesting that some myhts consider her as initially being a hermaphrodite:

The Birth of Kybele Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 17. 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :

"The local [Phrygian] legend about him [Attis] being this. Zeus [or rather the Phrygian sky-god], it is said, let fall in his sleep seed upon the ground, which in course of time sent up a Daimon, with two sexual organs, male and female. They call the daimon Agdistis [Kybele, Cybele]. But the gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ. There grew up from it an almond-tree with its fruit ripe, and a daughter of the river Saggarios (Sangarius), they say, took the fruit and laid it in her bosom, when it at once disappeared, but she was with child. A boy [Attis] was born."
And even more connection can be found between the Phrygian Cybele and the Greek Dionysos, it is believed that she cared for the baby Dionysos after  Hermes saved him from the anger of Hera.:
"The Phrygian goddess Kybele was the mother of Sabazios (the Phrygian equivalent of Dionysos). The Greeks adapted this tradition by describing Mother Rhea as the nurse and mentor of Dionysos. The Orgia (Orgiastic Cult) of Dionysos-Sabazios was derived from that of the Phrygian Meter Theon."

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 33 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"He [Dionysos in his madness driven wanderings] went to Kybela (Cybele) in Phrygia. There he was purified by Rhea and taught the mystic rites of initiation, after which he received from her his gear [presumably the thyrsos and panther-drawn chariot] and set out eagerly through Thrake [to instruct men in his orgiastic cult]."

Cybele, Goddess of Fertility, a 1993 sculpture by Mihail Chemiakin, New York.

I found these two texts (in which Dionysus and Cybele are mentioned) very nice, as they show the caring and fun-loving nature of these two deities.
"Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 1 ff :
"[Rheia-Kybele gathers an army for the young god Dionysos at her palace in Phrygia for a campaign against the Indians:] Then swiftshoe Rheia haltered the hairy necks of her lions beside their highland manger. She lifted her windfaring foot to run with the breezes, and paddled with her shoes through the airy spaces. So like a wing or a thought she traversed the firmament to south, to north, to west, to the turning-place of dawn, gathering the divine battalions for Lyaios: one all-comprehending summons was sounded for trees and for rivers, one call for Neiades (Naiads) and Hadryades, the troops of the forest. All the divine generations heard the summons of Kybele (Cybele), and they came together from all sides. From high heaven to the Lydian land Rheia passed aloft with unerring foot, and returning lifted again the mystic torch in the night, warming the air a second time with Mygdonian [Lydian] fire."
[N.B. She summons a variety of rustic divinities and creatures including the Kabeiroi, the Daktyloi (Dactyls), the Telkhines, Pholos and Kheiron, the Kyklopes (Cyclopes), Panes, Kentauroi (Centaurs), Nymphai.]
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 14. 247 ff :
"As soon as Dionysos had donned the well-wrought golden gear of war in the Korybantian courtyard, he left the peaceful precincts of danceloving Rheia and went past Meionia: the warriors with the hillranging Bakkhantes (Bacchantes) hastened to meet the lord of the vine. The drivers of wheeled wagons carried shoots of the new plant of Bakkhos (Bacchus). Many lines of mules went by, with jars of the viney nectar packed on their backs; slow asses had loads of purple rugs and manycoloured fawnskins on their patient backs. Winedrinkers besides carried silver mixingbowls with golden cups, the furniture of the feast. The Korybantes (Corybantes) were busy about the bright manger of the panthers, passing the yokestraps over their necks, and entrusted their lions to ivybound harness when they had fastened this threatening bit in their mouths.""

Cybele

About her "orgiastic cult it is said that it "dominated the central and north-western districts of Asia Minor, and was introduced into Greece via the island of Samothrake and the Boiotian town of Thebes."

Vatican Museums' Statue of Cybele - Goddess of Fertility

All mythical text from Cybele: Phrygian Mother of the Gods.


I was considering to put the Chorus into Phrygian dress:

Phrygians. Nouveau Larousse Illustre 1894 edition.