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MASK of Positive Thinking:
You are what you think. Only allowing yourself to
think positive fantasies about yourself does really work to make
yourself more attractive and attract positive energy |
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Studies show being cheerful, even when
troubled and amidst tragedy is healthier than wearing your "true
self." Dionysus, patron saint of actors, invites you to
play a role that is in constant metamorphosis, changing with
circumstances. This is how Dionysus can be worshipped everyday
and not just special
occasions like carnivals and theatre. |
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Masks have played an
important part in the history of drama since the time of the
ancient Greeks. They were originally used to allow the actors to
clearly convey emotions such as anger, joy, or sorrow to the
entire audience, and they made it easier for men to portray
female characters. |
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Dionysus is
best seen generally as the god of reversals, of the breaking of
categories and of the reversal of norms. A mask serves this
purpose very well. |
Perhaps I know best why it is man
alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to
invent laughter.
--- Nietzsche
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"There are women who, however you may search
them, prove to have no content but are
purely masks. The man who associates with such almost spectral,
necessarily unsatisfied beings
is to be commiserated with, yet it is precisely
they who are able to arouse the desire of the man
most strongly: he seeks for her soul -- and goes
on seeking."
from Nietzsche's Human, all too Human, s.405,
R.J. Hollingdale transl |
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"Here their practice
resembles the rites called Orphic and Bacchic, but which are in
reality Egyptian and Pythagorean..."
This fragment from
Herodotus
(Hist.2, 81) shows direct interpenetration of Orphism and
Dionysian rituals based on the link between the teachings of
Pythagoras and Egyptian mysteries.
KUKERI is a tremendous example of a Dionysian ritual |
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| Women did not participate
in these performances. Men wore masks to impersonate women.
Men were liable to military campaigns beyond
the frontiers up to the age of fifty and might be called to
defend the city wall until the age of sixty. By its jealous
restriction of citizenship the polis limited its citizens in
their choice of wives; its wealthy citizens were liable for
special income taxes as well as 'liturgies'--public service
could range from organization and financial responsibility for a
dramatic performance to equipment and command of a warship. |
GENDER & the
PHALLUS
There was a
constellation of values and customs which included
patriarchy, pederasty and male homosexuality as a
norm, glorification of war and male athleticism,
public male nudity and public display of sculpted
phalluses, along with the almost complete exclusion
of women from the public sphere. ... Maleness is the
ideal, and to this core adhere the primary Greek
values - self-control, order, clarity, rationality,
civilization, struggle against nature, heroic glory,
dominance in war. These were the values of manliness
in ancient Greece, and other values and qualities,
to the extent that they deviate from the idealized
norm were pushed to the periphery, to the dark and
spinning edge of the world. All that is foreign, all
that is feminine, all that is wild and unrestrained;
all these are coalesced into an idea of Otherness
that forms a dark sea of chaos into which one must
strive continually not to fall.
The Ivied Rod: Gender and the Phallus in Dionysian
Religion by Delia Morgan |
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Beneath the
conformist, as Nietzsche
insisted, there
lives the satyr. Comedy tears off the foolish mask of
conformity and indulges for a brief but relieving
interval the equally foolish satyr. This catharsis
yields an insight into the less respectable but ever
present animal-like basis of the human being.
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comic mask
with tragic mask in background,
Roman, 2nd century CE
London, British Museum. Credits: Barbara McManus,
2001 |
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There were
competitions in Comedy and by the end of the fifth
century BC, there were also added competitions
in tragic composition as well which competed for
prizes. |
Thus it purges folly by means of folly
and brings man and his milieu into an easier and perhaps
more fruitful harmony. Comedy deprecates the traditional
mores, and by means of this permissive irreverence it
preserves them. Comedy, like tragedy, is a
self-corrective action.
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The patron saint
of |
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actors or Thespians |
Classical tragedy ,
the first "fictional" work, started with first performance
under Pisistratus in 534 B.C. This means the artist
was allowed to invent his own characters and story and not
recite the exploits of heroes from an epic past. In short,
through the artist, the audience member was able to
construct their own individual consciousness. Dionysus asks
you to jump in and play a role, which is not necessarily the
hero. The impulse is to give the soul what it wants,
fictions that heal.
Wearing a mask pays homage to Dionysus,
the god of carnavals and masquerades, by allowing you to free yourself
from secret desires and buried regrets. Dionysos
is the god who regularly conceals both his identity and his power, as we
all must do, in the course of polite everyday interaction with others.
He met the Phrygian goddess Cybele and was
initiated into her rites, which cured him of his madness. The
followers of Cybele, like the later followers of Dionysos
himself, were given to wild drumming, dancing and orgiastic
rites. Once cured, Dionysos himself gathered bands of ecstatic
worshippers, and again went roving the earth, this time
asserting his divinity in no uncertain terms as he sought to
establish his own rites far and wide.
Dionysian revelry can be interpreted as a type of
mysticism, that by which the mysterious and impious presence of
the divine enters human awareness of its own accord, an
experience which the devotee may invite, but should not hope to
control. The arrival of Dionysos with his musicians and dancers
is the opportunity for an experience with the divine, if you
welcome and honor the spirit and all is well. However if
resistance persists, madness may ensue. In this way the
instinctual, emotional and passionate makes itself master of the
otherwise rational and orderly psyche.
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Birth of
Tragedy
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As these festivals centered
around Athens continued throughout time, poets
raised the level of literary standard for the
performers. They created set pieces of lyrics
and choreography. Two poets recognized for major
contributions are: Arion, who created a
circular dance form performed around the altar
of Dionysus, and Thespis, who introduced
spoken verse to the dances and gave the leader
of the chorus a feature role. Thespis gives us
the word "thespian," or actor. The feature role
in his works was called the answerer or the
hypokrites. Tradition credits
Thespis
with being the first to present a tragedy at the
Greater Dionysia sometime during the 61st
Olympiad(536/5-533/2).
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Ancient masks were made from clay, wood
or linen with the attached wig covering
the entire head and they had wide open
mouths for easier speaking. The
traditional "Comedy Tragedy" masks are
used now as a universal symbol for
drama, and also represent the two sides
of Dionysus, as well as the two effects
of wine: joyous, Bacchic revelry, and a
dark, sorrowful harvest |
In 534 BC, Persistrates established
another spring festival in the city of Dionysia
where the characteristic dance was the tragodia.
This led to the second genre of poetry, tragedy,
and the dance form called emmelia. This
form evolved into a more dignified choric song
and dance performance where three actors played
multiple roles. The code of symbols used by the
actors and dancers was very important. Through
this gesticulative and mimetic action a trained
dancer could tell an entire play without using
any words.
The highest state
official or archon selected the
poets and actors who competed for the prizes
given at the Greater Dionysia,
the religious festival that was the only time
during which tragedy was performed. The poets
were commissioned to write three original
tragedies for this festival and one satyr play.
According to the philosopher Aristotle, tragedy
originated in the dithyramb and the satyr-play.
The judging for prizes was done by a panel of
ten men, one from each of the ten Attic tribes.
Each cast one ballot. The archon drew
five at random which determined the winner Being
a judge was a great honor and the judges were
carefully scrutinized. On the last day of the
competition, the comedies were performed.
By mid-fifth century, the
competition portion of the festival lasted for
three days and a proactive effort was made to
get everyone in the community, including slaves
and prisoners to participate. Dramas from Athens
would later tour the country and were again
performed at the winter's Rural Dionysia |
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KuKERI: The Thracian Origin
of Dionysos &
Europe's Oldest Festival Tradition
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| Early iconography of Dionysos
shows him as a youthful adult with long hair, a
beard, and foreign dress coming from Thrace. Thrace
is the civilization between Greece and Asia Minor
which is primarily Bulgaria today. The 'barbarian'
mode of dress fit would have fit with his image as
an exotic, imported deity. By the fifth century it
was common for Dionysos to be portrayed as a
beardless youth with long hair, naked except for a
leopard skin cloak. |
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| Cow bells, are
carried buckled on the waists of the Kukeri and the skurvakari.
The total weight of the bells a single kuker can carry is up to
60 kg. The mummers jump and dance to make the bells ring loudly
to dispel the evil. The first bell ring sounds at sunrise on the
so called 'Pesi ponedelnik' (Monday), when the Kukeri games
start. The bells are called chanovezvunzi, or khlopatari
which means either cows' or sheep's bells. |
| Three centuries
before Alexander the Great made his conquest of the
Orient, Dionysus had made his conquest of Greece.
Coming as an immigrant from Thrace, attended by
satyrs and maenads, he took Greece by storm, and
sometime between Homer and Phidias, he won a place
for himself on Olympus and the patronage of the most
renowned city-states in Greece.
Kukeri are a pre-christian ritual to ensure the
advent of Spring. Generally coming out at the New Year are
bands of men dressed in incredible costumes
often made of amimal totems. The Kukeri are found in many
European
countries as far West as Ireland. Every two years a
gathering is held in mid-January in Pernik, Bulgaria where the
Thracian culture first worshiped Dionysis. Some academics
believe Kukari's are a living vestige of Dionysus, the once
dominant diety of rebirth who preceded Greek culture.
The
International Fair of the Masquerade Games
held every even year in
Pernik, Bulgaria gathers together the kukeri
traditions from throughout the Balkans and as far
away as Ireland in January, the same month the
groups play their ritual games in their home
communities.
Mask of Dionysus Will be complemented
by a thyrsos, here as
the god's scepter, called a
Torsi or Tirsi symbolizing the divine and the tsar's or
Dionysus' power. It is made
up of grape bunches surrounding the spitted fir cone on the end
of a stake. The entire superstructure of Dionysus represents the
god's eyes, the Sun and the entity of man with Nature.
Satyr is well represented
as a large hairy beast. The other parts of Dionysus of
attendants such as maenads and
nymphs are much harder to spot in the
generally the all-male portrayals
The Kukeri Tsar (Mummer's Tsar) is a
key figure in the Kukeri band. He plays special role in the
ritual start ploughing ' first he is being killed with a
'Krosno'(kind of cloth), serving as a rifle, and afterwards the
Kukeri Tsar resurrects to represent the autumn ending of Nature
and its awakening in the spring. The Tsar mask has human
features, a rich 'Tsar' superstructure and a netlike shroud,
which (in this case) replaces the original white cloth. The Tsar
also carries a Kukeri sceptre.
The Torsi or
Tirsi represent a fir cone spitted on a stake, symbolizing
the divine and the tsar's power. This is the Kukeri sceptre that
Dionysus caries on his shoulder.
The so called Klyunkove represent wooden hooks, by which the
Kukeri men get a grip of each other when they play the horo
(national round chain dance).
The Phallus, carved out of wood, with head painted in red, up to
50 cm in length is carried stuck in the girdle of the Kukeri
Tsar, god Dionysus and the satyrs. It symbolized the
fruitfulness, the life-giving forces. In the masks it is
replaced by a corn cob.
Bilki
(herbs) are necessary part of the Kukeri dancers' costumes.
The herbs are used to send away the evil, illnesses and
troubles. Popular herb attributes are onion, garlic, dried red
hot peppers, goose-grass, sumac |
Today it is uncommon for Bulgarians to
refer to their best known festival tradition as
Dionysian. However, the deities successor,
Orpheus is held in high esteem
throughout the country as is his birthplace in the
Rodophes mountains which pass through both Greece
and Bulgaria.
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"Dionysus is not
the god behind the mask. He is the mask."
---Ginette Paris |
Comedy
-[pre history]
involves the failure to live up to an accepted
standard, a failure which usually elicits a smiling
or laughing reaction. Aristotle's explanation of the
birth of comedy was not nearly as satisfying as his
counterpart for trajedy; he wrote it that the recorded lineage of comic
action goes back to the Margites (ca. 9th century
B.C.).
Aristotle makes reference to comic plays enacted in
fifth-century Megara.
There are other early evidences of comic mimes who,
in their little dramas, poked fun at mythological
characters or at self-important citizens. Aristotle
claims that the origin of comedy can be traced to
those who lead off the phallic songs (phallika). The phallic procession to a cult center, followed by
a sacrifice, was a common feature of Dionysiac
celebrations in the Greek countryside. These
processions were characterized by obscenities and
verbal abuse.
Another
ancient author, Semos of Deos, writes of
phallus-carriers who made fun of their audience. |
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Six men are carrying
a large figure
riding a thick phallus pole.
This larger
man is the performing komast. They are likely a procession of drunken
partygoers behaving as you would expect at a
Carnaval. Komos is the original root for the word
comedy. |
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The earliest Greek
format for comedy was called the kordax and was very
unsophisticated and vulgar. As it evolved, it became
more standardized and actually included a plot. By
the 6th century BC, satire developed. They were
short plays written in verse that burlesqued
mythological themes. There was a characteristic
dance include in this format, too: the sikinis which
was performed one or more times during the play.
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Chorus:
At
the festivals the myths were danced and sung
by a group of singers and dancers called a chorus at festivals in honour of Dionysius. At
first these presentations were satyric in nature
with plenty of gaiety, drinking, burlesque and so
on. As time passed the sung and danced myths
developed a more serious form. Instead of gaiety and
burlesque they became plays which dealt with the
relationship of man and the Gods, and tried to
illustrate some particular aspect of life.
The chorus
changed in number from 50 to 12 to finally increased
to 15 by Sophocles.
The
chorus dressed in goat skins as the goat was sacred
to Dionysius and goats were prizes which were
awarded for the best plays. The word tragedy itself
is believed to be derived from the Greek word "tragoidia"
which means 'goat-song'.
At some point the
speaker and the leader of the chorus began to
address each other and we have the beginning of
dialogue.
The chorus wore
identical costumes, with no masks.
They entered after the prologue, an opening scene,
singing the parodos, a special song
composed in a marching rhythm and remain present
throughout the play as witnesses. Periodically, the
dialogue is suspended and the chorus sing and dance
as a troupe.
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Destruction: "No single Greek
god even approaches Dionysus in the horror of his
epithets, which bear witness to a savagery which is
absolutely without mercy. In fact, one must evoke
the memory of the monstrous horror of eternal
darkness to find anything at all comparable
. The
terrors of destruction, which make all of life
tremble, belong also as horrible desires, to the
kingdom of Dionysus.
Walter F. Otto |
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Though many poets composed tragedies
during this time, the examples that have come down
to us were the work of only three men:
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripedes.
According to
Aristotle, "Aeschylus
first introduced a second actor; he diminished the
importance of the Chorus, and assigned the leading
part to the dialogue. Sophocles raised the number of
actors to three, and added scene-painting. Moreover,
it was not till late that the short plot was
discarded for one of greater compass, and the
grotesque diction of the earlier satyric form for
the stately manner of Tragedy." |
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After the creative competitions were
concluded, bulls were sacrificed, and a feast was
held for all the citizens of Athens. A second,
wilder procession, called the komos,
took place. |
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