Inancient Greek religion, anorgion (ὄργιον, more commonly in the pluralorgia) was an ecstatic form of worship characteristic of somemystery cults.[1] Theorgion is in particular a cult ceremony ofDionysos (orZagreus), celebrated widely inArcadia, featuring "unrestrained" masked dances by torchlight andanimal sacrifice by means of random slashing that evoked the god's own rending and suffering at the hands of theTitans.[2][3] Theorgia that explained the role of the Titans in Dionysos's dismemberment were said to have been composed byOnomacritus.[4] Greek art and literature, as well as somepatristic texts, indicate that theorgia involvedsnake handling.[5]
Orgia may have been earlier manifestations of cult than the formal mysteries, as suggested by the violently ecstatic rites described inmyth as celebrated byAttis in honor ofCybele and reflected in the willing self-castration of her priests theGalli in the historical period. Theorgia of both Dionysian worship and the cult of Cybele aim at breaking down barriers between the celebrants and the divinity through a state of mystic exaltation:[6]
Dionysian orgy allowed theBacchant to emerge from the 'ego' to be united with the god in the ecstatic exaltation ofomophagia, dancing and wine. … This kind of bodilymysticism andpsychosomatic liberation had only temporary effects each time—the period of theekstasis.[7]
Initiates of theOrphic and Bacchicorgia practiced distinctive burial customs (seeTotenpass) expressive of their beliefs in anafterlife; for instance, it was forbidden for the dead to wear wool.[8]
Members of a group devoted to performingorgia are calledorgeônes, whose activities were regulated by law. The cult of the Thracian goddessBendis was organized at Athens by herorgeônes as early as theArchaic period.[9]
The participation of women inorgia, which in some manifestations was exclusive to women, sometimes led to prurient speculation and attempts to suppress the rites. In 186 BC,the Roman senate tried to ban Dionysian religion as subversive both morally and politically.[10]
Isidore of Seville says that theLatin equivalent oforgia wascaerimoniae (English "ceremonies"), the arcane rites ofancient Roman religion preserved by the variouscolleges of priests.[11]
