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Dionysus Briseus

Kent Rigsby
p. 85-89

Résumés

Les technites de la Smyrne romaine qualifiaient Dionysos de Briseus : l’épiclèse faisait probablement référence aux Brisei de Thrace, et l’hommage rendu au Dionysos thrace, patron des bacchants, entre en résonance avec le fait que les acteurs de Smyrne se mettaient en scène eux-mêmes comme des mystes.

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Texte intégral

  • 1 Petzl, on I.Smyrna 729, lists the testimonia.

1In Roman Smyrna, the local branch of the theatrical guild, the Technitai of Dionysus, honored their god with a special epithet.1 In most cities the Actors’ god was simply Dionysus without title, οἱ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον τεχνῖται. At Smyrna he was Dionysus Βρισεύς: thus in Aelius Aristides (Or. 41.5 K.), and in seven inscriptions Βρεισεύς with the grapheme for long iota that was common in Imperial times (e.g. I.Smyrna 600: συνόδῳ τῶν περὶ τὸν Βρείσεα Διόνυσον; 652: ἡ ἱερὰ σύνοδο[ς] τῶν Βρεισέων). Two inscriptions give Βρησεύς (758, 759). The word is not on record earlier than the Roman Empire. How to account for it?

2The lexicographers assert two ways. The fullest version extant is in the Etymologicum Magnum (213 Gaisford):

  • 2 Read βρίθειν: cf. Hesych., s.v. βρῖσαι· βαρῦναι. ὁρμῆσαι. καὶ Νύμφαι, apparently reflecting the sam (...)

Βρισαῖος, οὕτως ὁ Διόνυσος· καὶ εἰ μὲν διὰ τοῦ ι, παρὰ τὸ βρίζειν2 ἐστίν, ὁ ὁρμητικός· εἰ δὲ διὰ τοῦ η, ἀπὸ ἄκρας Λεσβιακῆς Βρήσης, ἧς μέμνηται Ἀνδροτίων· ὅτι τὸ ἱερὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῇ Βρίσῃ φησὶν ἱδρῦσθαι ὑπὸ Μάκαρος.

  • 3 Jacoby (on Androtion, FGrHist 324 F 56) commented that this last element may not come from Androtio (...)

Brisaios, so Dionysus is called. And if with iota, it is from brithein [‘to come forceully’]: ‘the impulsive one’. But if with eta, from the Lesbian cape Bresa, which Androtion mentions: for he says the sanctuary of the god at Brisa was founded by Macar.3

  • 4 Cf. Hesych., s.v. Βρησσαῖος· ὁ Διόνυσος.

3Thus a lexicographer in his readings had found two spellings, Βρισαῖος and Βρησαῖος.4 He distinguished them and offered two unconnected explanations. His explanations are for us a caution: the meaning of the epithet was unknown and the object of guesswork.

  • 5 IG XII.2 478, late Hellenistic or Roman.
  • 6 IG XII.2 484 [Samama, Les médecins, no. 119].
  • 7 I.Assos 8, late Hellenistic.
  • 8 Boutan (1856), p. 303–306; confirmed when the dedication was discovered, PottierHauvette-Besnaul (...)

4The first explanation has found no support among scholars. The second, by contrast, is grounded in reality. For we have reliable evidence for Lesbos’ cult of Dionysus on cape Bresa: a dedication Μεγάριτος Αἰσχί[να] Διονύσῳ Βρησαγέν̣[ῃ];5 in Imperial times a Mytilenaean doctor Βρῆσος Βρήσω, with his many priesthoods (not including Dionysus).6 A distinguished man of Assos, four miles north of Lesbos, was the son of a Βρησίκλης.7 In the authors, we have Steph. Byz., s.v. Βρῖσα· ἄκρα Λέσβου, ἐν ᾗ ἵδρυται Διόνυσος Βρισαῖος. The cape is deduced to be the promontory Ag. Fokas on the south coast: the dedication to Dionysus Βρησαγένης was found there, and the modern town Vrisa is nearby.8

  • 9 Already in 1828 Dindorf on Aristides Or. 4 (= 41.5 K.); PottierHauvette-Besnault (1880), p. 446 (...)
  • 10 Hasluck (1912/3) p. 89–94.

5This Lesbian connection has long been approved.9 Most fully, M. Hasluck argued that the Smyrnaeans’ cult of Dionysus was brought from Aeolian Lesbos either by some putative original founders of Smyrna, or else later.10 But we should wonder why a cult with a geographic epithet would have been carried over from Lesbos to Smyrna, to be attested only in Roman times. More important, nothing suggests that this was or had been a cult of the city of Smyrna, somehow inherited from Lesbos — on extant testimony, it belonged only to the Technitai, and at a late date. What special connection had they with a Lesbian cult or toponym in the form of its offshoot in Smyrna?

  • 11 Wilamowitz (1884) p. 409–412.
  • 12 Heraclides Lembus, Excerpt. Polit., 27.
  • 13 On the basis of a Theban named Βρεσάδας: IG VII 2556 (6th/5th B.C.?).

6Wilamowitz,11 by contrast, urged that the Cean nymphs called Brisai12 disproved the Lesbian source of the epithet at Smyrna: rather this was a wide-spread name, in origin Boeotian,13 and leading finally to Homeric Briseis, ‘the girl from Brisa’ on Lesbos. He proposed no meaning for the word or reason for its use at Smyrna.

7The spelling variants are admittedly dubious evidence, with ι/ει/η sounding the same; the authors show every possible combination. But the inscriptions give for Lesbos Βρησ- without exception. Those at Smyrna have usually Βρεισ-; the two instances of Βρησ- are known only from early copies (I.Smyrna 758 and 759, the stones lost; Petzl reproduces the drawings, in which eta is clear — but ΕΙ and Η are easily confused). I suggest that Lesbian Βρησ- and Smyrnaean Βρ(ε)ισ- are distinct and not connected. We can suspect instead that the Artists of Roman Smyrna selected for their god an epithet that was literary and recherché, rather than a civic cult title of foreign origin.

  • 14 Or., 41.5 K.; v.l. Βρισσεύς.

8Two authors offer material independent of the lexicographers. Aelius Aristeides, a man of Smyrna, describes types of Dionysus: “as with men, he is both beardless and Briseus ”, ὡς ἐν ἄρρεσιν ἀγένειός τε καὶ Βρισεύς.14 These then were visual opposites: Briseus was a bearded Dionysus. In turn, Macrobius cites two epithets for a bearded Dionysus: “with bearded appearance, and as an old man, as Greeks call him sometimes Bassareus, sometimes Briseus ”, barbata specie, senili quoque, uti Graeci eius quem Βασσαρέα, item quem Βρισέα appellant (1.18.9). He cites the two epithets for their common element, the beard; but Bassareus also signals a region, Thrace.

  • 15 Cf. Etym. Magn., s.v. Βασσαρίδες· αἱ βάκχαι.
  • 16 Carm. 1.18.9–11; on the synecdoche in monet Sithoniis non levis Eubius, Porphyry explained: Sithoni (...)
  • 17 PMG 356, from Ath. 427a: “† violently † turn into a drunken madman”, Olson in the Loeb edition. Cf. (...)

9Bassareus identifies Dionysus as leader of the raving Thracian bacchantes, for the βασσάρα was their distinctive garment: Photius, Lex., s.v. Βάσσαραι· χιτῶνες, οὓς ἐφόρουν αἱ Θρᾴκιαι Βάκχαι, καλούμεναι οὕτως ἀπὸ τοῦ Βασσαρέως Διονύσου.15 Horace invokes the leader of the Sithonian/Thracian Bacchai as candide Bassareu.16 Thrace was the scene of the dismemberment of Orpheus; the authors make clear the raging character of the Thracian maenads, and from an early date. Anacreon, with enough wine, will turn violent and raving: “I will again be a bassareus ”, ὡς ἂν † υβριστιῶς † ἀνὰ δηὖτε βασσαρήσω.17

  • 18 HN 4.18 (v.l. Brysas). On the text see Pflaum (1960), p. 489.

10Thus Bassareus points to the Thracian version of Dionysus, and this suggests an approach to Briseus. Just as Horace’s Sithones were one Thracian tribe, another was the Brisei. These are the Briseorum latronum in a career inscription of the first century (AE 1956, 124.16) and the Brisas in Pliny.18 This, I would urge, is the origin of the Artists’ name for their god: it was a learned way of specifying the Thracian Dionysus, leader of the ecstatic maenad chorus. Briseus was a synecdoche for ‘Thracian’, like Horace’s Sithonii a bookish affectation. We may even guess that the Actors derived the epithet Briseus from a tragedy now lost to us.

  • 19 So Tod (1915), p. 1.

11If the theatrical guild in Smyrna portrayed their god under this version of his myths, and could even call themselves Briseis (I.Smyrna 652), that will help explain another usage that is unique to the Artists of Smyrna: they liked to describe themselves as initiates. They were ἡ ἱερὰ σύνοδος τῶν περὶ τὸν Βρεισέα Διόνυσον τεχνειτῶν καὶ μυστῶν (639), οἱ τοῦ μεγάλου πρὸ πόλεως Βρεισέως Διονύσου μύσται (622), μυστῶν πρὸ πόλεως Βρεισέων (729). A performer who was son of a performer was πατρομύστης (731, 732).19 Theater professionals elsewhere made no such claim. This too was an affectation, and consistent with honoring the Thracian Dionysus: the Actors were his raging Bacchoi (cf. 639, a prominent benefactor honored by the guild as βάκχον τοῦ θεοῦ).

  • 20 Henrichs (1984), p. 70. On gender roles in Dionysiac cult, see Jaccottet (2003), p. 64–100; Faraone(...)
  • 21 Cf. e.g. to philosophy: see Nock (1952), p. 185–190 [repr. Nock (1972), p. 797–802].
  • 22 They “seem to have been an association of actors which posed as a mystery association”, Nilsson (19 (...)

12By Roman times it was normal that maenads included men as well as women.20 The Technitai of Smyrna would be distinctive in being male only — but (again) there is in their pose as mystai a large admixture of metaphor. In antiquity as now, ‘initiation’ could be used describe a wide range of inductions and introductions.21 The Technitai had every right to call themselves a thiasos and a choros, terms rich in their implication of special membership. But though we might call this guild’s language of initiation an affectation (not ‘real’ mysteries, if that is meaningful),22 we need not deny the possibility that induction to the theatrical guild involved both ritual and the revelation of some insider knowledge. The metaphor of initiation would be appropriate.

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Bibliographie

N. Belayche, “L’évolution des formes rituelles”, in L. Bricault, C. Bonnet (eds.), Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire, Leiden/Boston, 2013, p. 17–40.

Ph. Borgeaud, “Les mystères”, in L. Bricault, C. Bonnet (eds.), Panthée: Religious Transformations in the Graeco-Roman Empire, Leiden/Boston, 2013, p. 131–144.

Boutan, “Topographie de l’île de Lesbos”, Archives des missions scientifiques Ser. I 5 (1856), p. 273–364.

Bürchner, “Brisa”, RE III (1897), col. 855.

C. Faraone, “Gender Differentiation and Role Models in the Worship of Dionysos: The Thracian and Thessalian Pattern”, in A. Bernabé et al. (eds.), Redefining Dionysos, Berlin/Boston, 2013, p. 120–143.

M. Hasluck, “Dionysus at Smyrna”, ABSA 19 (1912/3), p. 89–94.

A. Henrichs, “Male Intruders among the Maenads”, in H.D. Evjen (ed.), Mnemai: Classical Studies in Memory of Karl. K. Hulley, Chico, 1984, p. 69–91.

C. Isler-Kerényi, “Dionysos: dio delle donne? Iconografia dionisiaca II”, in F. Berti (ed.), Dionysos. Mito e mistero, Ferrara, 1991, p. 293–307.

A.-F. Jaccottet, Choisir Dionysos I, Zürich, 2003.

A.-F. Jaccottet, “Les mystères dionysiaques pour penser les mystères antiques ?”, Mètis N.S. 14 (2016), p. 75–94.

O. Kern, “Dionysos”, RE V (1903), col. 1027.

R. Koldewey, Die antiken Baureste der Insel Lesbos, Berlin, 1890.

C.T. Newton, Travels and Discoveries in the Levant II, London, 1865.

M.P. Nilsson, The Dionysiac Mysteries in the Hellenistic and Roman Age, Lund, 1957.

A. D. Nock, “Hellenistic Mysteries and Christian Sacraments”, Mnemosyne Ser. IV 5 (1952), p. 177–213 [republished in Nock (1972), p. 791–820].

A.D. Nock, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World I–II, Cambridge [Mass.], 1972.

H.-G. Pflaum, Les carrières procuratoriennes I, Paris, 1960.

V. Pirenne-Delforge, P. Scarpi, “Les cultes à mystères. Introduction”, in C. Bonnet et al. (eds.), Religions orientales — culti misterici, Stuttgart, 2006, p. 159–162.

E. Pottier, A. Hauvette-Besnault, “Inscriptions de Lesbos”, BCH 4 (1880), p. 417–448.

C. Riedweg, Mysterienterminologie bei Platon, Philon und Klemens von Alexandrien, Berlin/New York, 1987.

M. Tod, “Notes on Some Inscriptions from Asia Minor”, CR 29 (1915), p. 1–4.

U. Wilamowitz, Homerische Untersuchungen, Berlin, 1884 (Phil. Unters., 7).

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Notes

1 Petzl, on I.Smyrna 729, lists the testimonia.

2 Read βρίθειν: cf. Hesych., s.v. βρῖσαι· βαρῦναι. ὁρμῆσαι. καὶ Νύμφαι, apparently reflecting the same source.

3 Jacoby (on Androtion, FGrHist 324 F 56) commented that this last element may not come from Androtion (emending e.g. φασὶν).

4 Cf. Hesych., s.v. Βρησσαῖος· ὁ Διόνυσος.

5 IG XII.2 478, late Hellenistic or Roman.

6 IG XII.2 484 [Samama, Les médecins, no. 119].

7 I.Assos 8, late Hellenistic.

8 Boutan (1856), p. 303–306; confirmed when the dedication was discovered, PottierHauvette-Besnault (1880), p. 445. Cf. Newton (1865), p. 13; Koldewey (1890), p. 63–64; Bürchner (1897), col. 855 (who however denies the relevance of modern Vrisa).

9 Already in 1828 Dindorf on Aristides Or. 4 (= 41.5 K.); PottierHauvette-Besnault (1880), p. 446 (publishing the dedication); Kern (1903), col. 1027.

10 Hasluck (1912/3) p. 89–94.

11 Wilamowitz (1884) p. 409–412.

12 Heraclides Lembus, Excerpt. Polit., 27.

13 On the basis of a Theban named Βρεσάδας: IG VII 2556 (6th/5th B.C.?).

14 Or., 41.5 K.; v.l. Βρισσεύς.

15 Cf. Etym. Magn., s.v. Βασσαρίδες· αἱ βάκχαι.

16 Carm. 1.18.9–11; on the synecdoche in monet Sithoniis non levis Eubius, Porphyry explained: Sithonii Thraces sunt, qui per uinulentiam inuitati etiam inlicitos concubitus audent (p. 27 Holder).

17 PMG 356, from Ath. 427a: “† violently † turn into a drunken madman”, Olson in the Loeb edition. Cf. Hymn. Orph. 45: ἐλθέ, μάκαρ Διόνυσε, πυρίσπορε, ταυρομέτωπε, | Βάσσαρε καὶ Βακχεῦ. In an epigram, a retired Bacchante had been a member of the Βασσαρικοῦ θιάσοιο (Anth. Gr. 6.165; Page, FGE p. 47). At Artemidorus 2.37, ὁ δὲ χορὸς ὁ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον, οἷον Βάκχοι καὶ Βάκχαι καὶ Βάσσαραι καὶ Σάτυροι καὶ Πᾶνες.

18 HN 4.18 (v.l. Brysas). On the text see Pflaum (1960), p. 489.

19 So Tod (1915), p. 1.

20 Henrichs (1984), p. 70. On gender roles in Dionysiac cult, see Jaccottet (2003), p. 64–100; Faraone (2013), p. 120–143; and in Dionysiac imagery, Isler-Kerényi (1991), p. 293–307.

21 Cf. e.g. to philosophy: see Nock (1952), p. 185–190 [repr. Nock (1972), p. 797–802].

22 They “seem to have been an association of actors which posed as a mystery association”, Nilsson (1957) p. 47–48, cited by Petzl on I.Smyrna 639. For the range and metaphorical use of “mystai/mysteries”, see Riedweg (1987); Pirenne-DelforgeScarpi (2006), p. 159–162; Belayche (2013), p. 39; Borgeaud (2013), p. 137–144; Jaccottet (2016), p. 88–90.

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