Zagreus

In the orphic religion, Zagreus or Zagrée (in Greek old Ζαγρεύς / Zagreús ) is a Avatar mystical Dionysos, whose Dionysos, god of the vine that we know, is the reincarnation. This central myth of the orphism seems inspired of the Egyptian legend of Osiris. It could be also of Aegean origin crétoise or .

Myth

Zeus, metamorphosed in Snake, allured Perséphone, the girl whom it had of Déméter, still young girl. This one gives him Zagreus, which he entrusts to Apollon and the Curètes, in the hope to make of the child his heir. Those hide it in the wood of the Mount Parnassus. Héra, jealous, sends the Titans to its continuation. They find the child thanks to toys and rattles and put it in parts. Its members are then devoured, except for the heart, that Apollon (or Athéna, according to the version) manages to save.

Zeus swallows the heart of the child and thus manages to give him birth one second time, under the name of Iacchos - from where an etymology suggested for the name of Dionysos: “twice born”. The Titans, for their part, are struck down by Zeus, and their ashes is born humanity.

Interpretation

The myth, very near to that of Osiris (which will be assimilated by the Greeks to Dionysos), can be interpreted like the symbol of died of the vegetation in winter, and of its rebirth in spring. Indeed, Dionysos is associated in the worships with mysteries with Déméter and Perséphone, goddesses of the vegetation. Perhaps the massacre of Zagreus reflects the human sacrifices and animals which have course on the islands of Chios or Lesbos, and which explains the épiclèse ὠμηστής / ômastês of Dionysos - “raw meat eater”.

Henri Jeanmaire also suggested that the myth of Zagreus could result from rites of initiation of young people, introduced tardily into the cycle of Dionysos.

The part of the myth on the Titans, incompatible with their history told by the Théogonie of Hésiode, allows to the followers orphism to answer the question of the origin of the evil: the men carry in them the mark of the Titans, but also a piece of the god, Dionysos. Pausanias (VIII, 37,5) reports that it is late and due to Onomacrite, to sixth century BC, which implies that the remainder of the myth is former. The real dating of the myth was discussed, in particular by Wilamowitz, but according to E. R. Dodds, it carries all the marks of the archaism: it refers to the old rite sparagmos (ritual dismemberment) and omophagia (consumption of flesh believed after the sparagmos ), and is based on the antiquated design of the hereditary culpability.

Sources

Euripide, Fragment 472 .
(CLXVII).
(V).

See too

Random links:

Zagreus

Myth

Interpretation

Sources

See too

Related articles