Phallephoria was a festive procession, part of the famous Dionysia, a great celebration in honor of god Dionysus. They also invited Phallis, the follower of Dionysus and the personification of the phallus, to come and celebrate with them. The god rode on the back of a panther or drove a chariot drawn by a pair of the beasts.
His sacred plants were the grapevine, ivy, bindweed prickly ivy and pine tree. The Greek theatre history began with festivals honoring their gods. In Athens, during this festival, men used to perform songs to welcome Dionysus.
Plays were only presented at City Dionysia festival. Press ESC to close. What was the purpose of the festival of Dionysus? Wikipedikia Editors 7 Min Read. Table of Contents. Olympus in an attempt to catch Zeus with the nymphs. Echo mythology. Show Comments. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. The procession itself was a spectacle, and intended as a reenactment of Dionysus' journey to Athens. Once at the theater and prior to the performance of the plays, the theater was sprinkled with the blood of sacrificial pigs for purification.
The festival allowed three playwrights to have their plays performed in the tragic contests. Each contestant was required to submit three tragedies and one satyr play a form of comedy that required the chorus to dress as the satyr companions of Dionysus. It is assumed that the tragedies were required to be in the form of a trilogy. While only one complete Greek trilogy remains, many of the surviving tragedies seem to have once been a part of a trilogy. The contest lasted for three days, one for each playwright.
Each playwright presented all three tragedies and the satyr play in one day. The audiences would spend much of the day in the theater, though Greek plays were shorter than modern plays.
After the three days of performances, the winner would be put to a vote. Back in the day, Dionysus, with the looks any Greek God would have been proud of, had his cult of followers, who eagerly awaited this yearly blow out, which is exactly what it was. Frans van den Wyngaerde Flemish, — The Dream of Silenus, etching, with touches of engraving. The copious amounts of wine knocked back, trance-inducing music, strange herbs ingested and wild singing and dancing; all produced a state of complete abandon, a total lack of inhibition.
On the first day a huge wooden statue of Dionysus was borne aloft, through the inebriated crowds, to the theater of Dionysus, at the foot of the Acropolis, escorted by men dressed as satyrs, disguised by masks, the women following, wildly dancing, heads thrown back in ecstasy. Here at the theater, a contest was held, three playwrights were to submit three tragedies and one satire comedy , three days were allotted, one for each playwright, the judges being one from each of the ten political tribes of Athens.
Present-day remains of the Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus, Athens. I can certainly understand why early Christian priests were not enamored with these pagan shenanigans and replaced it with Greek carnival, which, it seems to me, is just a reenactment of wild parties thrown all those years ago, under another name:.
This was conducted by the archon of Athens or archon basileus and the epimeletai or officials. It featured an effigy of the god adorned with ivy followed by bands of bacchants in ecstatic revelry and dance. This dancing and revelry, by both male and female participants, was an important aspect of this festival. Besides, surviving depictions on Greek pottery , known as the Lenaian vases, feature prominent images of dancing bacchants. A sparagmos rite, the ritual dismemberment of a sacrificial animal, took place once the procession was completed.
The sparagmos also has its foundations in the mythology of the god, like many other Dionysiac rituals. Like other festivals of Dionysus, the Lenaia also featured the singing of hymns and dithyrambs, as well as the performance of dramatic contests.
Many popular tragedies and comedies could be judged by a panel of officials. This panel would crown the best playwrights of comedy and tragedy the victors.
These Rural Dionysia were much older and provided the template for what would become the City Dionysia. In addition, the City Dionysia would, in time, become greater and more elaborate than its rural counterpart. It provided rural residents the opportunity to experience what festival participants in the city enjoyed during the City Dionysia. Hyginus reports that in Eleutherai, Eleuther refused to accept the worship and cult of Dionysus into his city. As a reprise, Dionysus drove his daughters to madness.
In response to his daughters being driven mad, Eleuther gave in and established the festival honoring the god, and the worship of Dionysus in Eleutherai. Like the other festivals of Dionysus, the Rural Dionysia saw the performance of many Dionysiac rituals, dramatic contests, and ceremonies.
The most identifiable ritual of this festival was the phallic procession conducted to encourage the fertility of the seeds sown in the autumn. In the social context of ancient Athens, women were usually forbidden from taking part in public and religious life.
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