InAncient Greece athyrsus (/ˈθɜːrsəs/) orthyrsos (/ˈθɜːrsɒs/;Ancient Greek:θύρσος) was awand orstaff of giant fennel (Ferula communis) covered withivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound withtaeniae and topped with apinecone,artichoke,fennel, or by a bunch of vine-leaves and grapes or ivy-leaves and berries, carried duringHellenic festivals and religious ceremonies.[1][2] Thethyrsus is typically associated with the Greek godDionysus (and his subsequent Roman equivalent Bacchus) as a symbol ofprosperity,fertility, andhedonism.[3]
InGreek religion, the staff was carried by thedevotees of Dionysus.Euripides wrote thathoney dripped from thethyrsos staves that the Bacchicmaenads carried.[4] Thethyrsus was a sacred instrument at religiousrituals andfêtes.
The fabulous history of Bacchus relates that he converted thethyrsi carried by himself and his followers into dangerous weapons, by concealing an iron point in the head of leaves.[5] Hence histhyrsus is called "a spear enveloped in vine-leaves",[6] and its point was thought to incite to madness.[7]
Thethyrsus, associated with the followers of Dionysus (thesatyrs,thiasus, andmaenads or Bacchantes), is a symbol ofprosperity,fertility,hedonism, and pleasure/enjoyment in general.[8] Thethyrsus was tossed in the Bacchic dance:
Pentheus: Thethyrsus—in my right hand shall I hold it?
- Or thus am I more like a Bacchanal?
Dionysus: In thy right hand, and with thy right foot raise it.[9]
In theIliad,Diomedes, one of the leading warriors of theAchaeans, mentions thethyrsus while speaking toGlaucus, one of theLycian commanders in theTrojan army, aboutLycurgus, the king ofScyros:
He it was that drove the nursing women who were in charge of frenzied Bacchus through the land of Nysa, and they flung theirthyrsi on the ground as murderous Lycurgus beat them with his oxgoad.[10]
Thethyrsus is explicitly attributed to Dionysus and his followers inEuripides's tragedyThe Bacchae, which describes the degradation of Thebes in vindication for the sullied name of Dionysus's mortal mother. The story concerns the murder of the young king and the indoctrination of all the Theban women into Dionysus's cult, with thethyrsus serving as a badge of sorts for members.
To raise my Bacchic shout, and clothe all who respond / In fawnskin habits, and put mythyrsus in their hands– / The weapon wreathed with ivy-shoots ... There's a brute wildness in the fennel-wands; reverence it well.[11]
Plato, in his philosophical dialoguePhaedo, quotes an Orphic[12] proverb thatmetonymically distinguishes the "thyrsus-bearers" of a religion — those who display its external trappings, but do not necessarily understand its mysteries — from the "mystae" (mystics,Bacchantes) who have been initiated into its secrets. This proverb has entered the lexicon, with a meaning similar to "Many are called, but few are chosen."[13][14]
I conceive that the founders of themysteries had a real meaning and were not mere triflers when they intimated in a figure long ago that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below will live in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation and purification will dwell with the gods. For 'many', as they say in the mysteries, 'are thethyrsus bearers, but few are the mystics', – meaning, as I interpret the words, the true philosophers.[15]
In Part II ofJohann Wolfgang von Goethe'sFaust,Mephistopheles tries to catch alamia, only to find out that she is an illusion and that he instead holds athyrsus. The play contains major themes of sin and hedonism, and makes connection to Dionysus through thethyrsus:
Well, then, a tall one I will catch... And now athyrsus-pole I snatch! Only a pine-cone as its head.[16]
Robert Browning mentions thethyrsus in passing inThe Bishop Orders His Tomb at St Praxed's Church, as the dying bishop confuses Christian piety with classical extravagance.Ovid talks about Bacchus carrying athyrsus and his followers doing the same in his Metamorphoses Book III, which is a retelling of The Bacchae.
The bas-relief in bronze ye promised me, / ThosePans andnymphs ye wot of, and perchance / Sometripod,thyrsus, with a vase or so.[17]
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An Orphic verse, 'Many are the thyrsus-bearers, but few themystae,' shows that the Orphics, of the nobler side of whose system Plato had a high opinion, recognized the presence of hypocrites in their numbers.
It is an historic injustice to compare the Bacchi of one religion with the thyrsus-bearers of another.
...even students who can comprehend are meted out sparingly by the centuries.—'Many carry thethyrsos, but few become bacchants.'
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thyrsus".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.