Classical Mythology, 7th Edition - obinfonet: dia logou

DIONYSUS, PAN, ECHO, AND NARCISSUS 305
10. The epithet eiraphiotes is of uncertain derivation. It may mean "insewn," but it may
instead refer to Dionysus' connection with the ivy plant or the goat or the bull.
11. Dracanum is a cape on the island of Cos; Icarus and Naxos are islands, and the
Alpheus is a river in Elis.
12. There must be a lacuna after these lines from Diodorus and before the next section
from the manuscript text.
13. The reference to three things is unclear; it may refer to the ritual of dismemberment.
14. E. R. Dodds' helpful edition of the Greek text of the Bacchae, 2d ed. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1960), includes an enlightening introduction; he notes that
Dionysiac religion shares a belief, found universally, that musical rhythms and ritual
dances lead to the most satisfying and highest religious experiences. See also Walter
F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965
[1933]); M. Détienne, Dionysos at Large (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989
[1986]); Carl Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. Translated from
the German by Ralph Manheim. Bollingen Series LXV.2 (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1976); and Thomas H. Carpenter and Christopher A. Faraone, eds.,
Masks of Dionysus. Myth and Poetics Series (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), a
collection of essays about various aspects of Dionysus and his worship.
15. A famous adaptation of this legend was made by Vergil in his sixth Eclogue, in which
the utterance of the silenus is cosmogonical and mythological.
16. Variations in the story are obviously etiological attempts to account for elements of
Bacchic ritual. Later ceremonies enacted the passion, death, and resurrection of the
god in all their details.
17. Friedrich Nietzsche has provided the most imaginative and influential modern analysis
of the Dionysiac experience, particularly in enunciating its antithetical relationship
to the Apollonian. See M. S. Silk and J. P. Stern, Nietzsche on Tragedy (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1981), a study of Nietzsche's first book, The Birth of
Tragedy.
18. Ovid's version of Midas' story (Metamorphoses 11. 85-145) is well known. This is the
same Midas whose ears were turned into those of an ass as a result of his preference
for the music of Pan over that of Apollo; see p. 243.
19. The same story is told by Ovid (Metamorphoses 3. 597-691), who provides an interesting
comparison in artistic method and purpose.
20. Nonnos, Dionysiaca. Translated by W. H. D. Rouse (New York: Harvard University
Press, 1934), Vol. 1, p. x.
21. See Philippe Borgeaud, The Cult of Pan in Ancient Greece (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1988) for a study of changing representations of Pan. Also Patricia
Merivale, Pan the Goat-God: His Myth in Modern Times (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1969).
22. According to Herodotus (6. 106), Pan was encountered by the runner Phidippides,
who had been sent to Sparta by the Athenians to ask for help when they were about
to fight the Persians at Marathon in 490. Phidippides claimed that Pan called him by
name and asked why the Athenians ignored him although he was a deity friendly to
them. The Athenians believed Phidippides and later built a shrine to Pan and honored
him with annual sacrifices and torch races.
23. Another nymph he pursued was turned into a tree that bore her name, Pitys (the
Greek word for "pine").