#dionysusdeity

[dionysia-ta-astika]

The City Dionysia begins now!

About the Festival

The City Dionysia is a yearly festival in honour of Dionysos, Lord of Wine and Theatre. In ancient Athens, it was celebrated with a theatrical competition featuring tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays.

This blog serves to bring this competition into a modern scope by allowing Hellenic polytheists to submit their own creative pieces in honour of Dionysos.

Currently there are no prizes for winning, the competition only aims to be a fun way to bring the City Dionysia to life as a communal event for modern worshippers.

Categories

The categories for this edition are the same as last year, that is:

Retelling of Classic myths

Original myths

Poetry

Art (digital or traditional)

2024 Timeline

Submission openings: February 10th

Submission closing: March 10th

Vote opening: March 11th

Vote closing: March 18th

Winner announcement: March 19th

Rules for submissions

Roleplay and fanfic are not allowed in submissions. This is a religious festival, please respect our faith and do not submit an entry if you are roleplaying or writing fanfiction.

Submissions do not need to revolve specifically around Dionysos, but they must be created in honour of the Hellenic pantheon.

All stories, myths, poems, and art pieces must be entered using the submissions button.

All entries must be tagged for the category they are being submitted to.

Entries must also be tagged for potentially triggering content, squicks, and anything NSFW.

An entry may only be submitted to a single category.

Each person may only submit one entry per category each year.

Participants are the owners of their work and have full rights over their submission. Should a third party be interested in publishing/distributing/using a submission for whatever purpose, permission is to be asked to the original creator of the piece. The admins of this blog have no say in this matter.

Winners for each category will be decided by popular vote.

Happy creating and Io Dionysos!

[celestiaphia]

Hail Dionysus, the twice-born God.

[countrydionysia]

2023 Rural Dionysia Announcement

Io! The time of the year has come again for the Rural Dionysia!

How to participate

The Rural Dionysia is meant to be a smaller competition than its urban counterpart, as such, we have selected only 3 categories:

Freestyle poetry

Modern hymns

“Complete the fragment”

Freestyle poetry

Your poem can be about any chosen topic (myth, personal experience etc.) in any written format. It doesn't have to be religious in nature.

Modern hymn

An hymn must sing the praises of a deity of your choice. Unlike the "freestyle poetry", your work must be of religious nature to fit in this category.

Complete the Fragment

Each year, we choose a fragment from an Ancient Greek poet to work with. The challenge is that the initial fragment must be included somewhere in your piece in its original order. This means you can fill the gaps however you want, but you can’t switch the order of the words in your piece or remove words from the original fragment.

Here is the fragment selected for this 2023 edition: Paen 16 by Pindar (52q Oxyrhynchus papyrus; late 2nd century AD; trans. William H. Race; Loeb 56)

……………… ] Lord Apollo, .…] for I pray ….] with willing (mind?) to give ….] power suffices and you were judged to be ….] most gentle to mortals.

Here is the Greek text for reference. Note that because the word "mind" is unsure in this translation, it will be acceptable to keep or modify this word.

-

If in doubt for any of these categories, remember that you can check submissions from the previous years to get an idea of how others have done before.

Submitting your piece

Please submit your piece through submissions on this blog. All entries must be tagged for the category they are being submitted to. but you can only choose 1 category per piece and each person may only submit 1 entry per category each year.

Entries must also be tagged for potentially triggering content and squicks. If your entry needs a trigger warning, kindly add them at the end of your submission and we will take care of adding them in. Check the rules below for further information about submissions.

Calendar of the event

Nov. 10: Official announcement and opening of submissions. Dec. 10: Final submission day. Dec. 11: Vote opening. Dec. 18: Vote closing. Dec. 19-20: Announcement of the winners!

No worries though! We will be posting reminders about each step when the time comes.

General rules

Roleplay and fanfic are not acceptable submissions. This is a religious festival, please respect our faith and do not submit an entry if you are roleplaying or writing fanfiction.

Unlike with the City Dionysia, entries do not necessarily have to be about specific deities or Hellenic polytheism except for the “Modern Hymn” category, which has to be dedicated to one or many gods of your choice.

There are no meter restrictions. This is up to the writer.

All stories, myths, and poems must be entered using the submissions button.

All entries must be tagged for the category they are being submitted to. Entries must also be tagged for potentially triggering content and squicks.

An entry may only be submitted to a single category.

Each person may only submit one entry per category each year.

Winners for each category will be decided by popular vote.

Admins of this blog cannot participate, for obvious reasons. As for now, this includes @thegrapeandthefig @verdantlyviolet

Questions about the rules? Check the blog for past answers, your answer might be in there. And if it's not, simply submit an ask. We'll answer in the best delays possible.

[hestiashearthfire]

Haloa 2024 was a smashing success! We offered prayers and libations to Demeter, Poseidon, and Dionysus, and then held a cookie decorating contest in their honor. In the spirit of Haloa, cookies were phallus-shaped, and all attendees got a mini crystal phallus to take home.

[thegrapeandthefig]

He needs no introduction, does he? Might still be a WIP, idk.

[pigeonflavouredcake]

Moved back to the window for Beltaine

[teawiththegods]

Could you explain whether Dionysus is a cthonic deity or not? 🥺🥺🥺 Thanks dear heart x

Hello, love!

Dionysus is a chthonic deity! Typically agricultural and harvest gods are seen as chthonic (think Demeter). Dionysus also has connections to the afterlife, death, the underworld, and reincarnation.

If anyone would like to add more to this please feel free to as my knowledge of Dionysus is limited.

[shewithbloodofdevotion]

Things That Remind Me Of Dionysus

Pinecones

Holiday Seasons/Winter

Cranberry Sprite

Harlequin Masks (my mother collects them)

Purple Colors

Juniper Trees

Pop Music

Glitter

Lipstick

Ivy

Bath And Body Works Cherry Merlot Scent

Berries

Singing

Honey

Fancy Chocolates

Piercings

Perfumes

On The Tequila by Alanis Morissette

Musicals

[satyrfag]

Torn Skin Hymn

Sweeter Prayers to Dionysos

They tell me not to pray on my knees: “Stand tall before God. Do not make yourself small.” But scraped knees are still sacred to me; a prayer that overtakes my body long before words come to me, released from its refuge somewhere deep inside stained-glass muscle memory.

If God is in the ground, in the dirt and clay, I kiss Him with torn skin as I fall to it.

It makes no difference if you make yourself small before God or stand tall; you are always small before God. This is the most basic lesson of faith. There is no looking God in the eye. There is only asking God to handle us gently with impossibly large hands. There is only asking God to make the smallness holy.

[binchtids]

Dionysus / "The Frogs" Game on Kickstarter!

hey y'all! there's 3 days left to back this neat game on Kickstarter (ending Saturday 8/13/22). It's an adaptation of Aristophanes' The Frogs, a Classic comedy wherein Dionysus takes a trip down to Hades to raise Euripedes, the famed and then-recently deceased playwright, from the dead. At one point, there's a rap battle between Dio and a bunch of literal frogs. The play was performed at the Lenaia in Athens 405 BC, and won first place!

The game is a point-and-click adventure with a neat visual style made by splicing & animating public domain artworks. I've played the demo-- it is a delight!

If you would like to support an indie dev, consider backing! What an intriguing way to experience a Classic Greek play.

[screeching-0wl]

A guide to worship of Dionysus - cheat sheets

Hellenic cheat sheets

If you like my content consider supporting me on: https://ko-fi.com/screeching0wlet

[dionysia-ta-astika]

The winners of this year's City Dionysia are now revealed! Thank you everyone for your hard work and dedication!

✒ For the Poetry category:

Savage & Free by @khaire-traveler

✒ For the Art category:

Untitled by @vdoes

✒ For the Retellings category:

Sparagmos (or Euripides, Eat Your Heart Out) by @delirpa

✒ and, finally, for the Original Myth category:

"Apothnesko and the Psychopomp" by @hillbillyoracle

Congratulations to our winners!

Continue writing and sharing your work with the world and the gods. Thank you again for your participation, and we look forward to seeing next time!

[twelfthremedy]

Dionysus Offerings

"Dionysus (or Dionysos) is the Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, madness, and wild frenzy."

Large Altars:

Wine/mead

Grape juice

Intoxicants

Grapes

Honey

Olive oil

Apples

Figs

Eggs

Goblets

Curved daggers

Pine incense or frankensince

Bull horns

Snake skin

Leopard or tiger print objects

Purple candles

Theatre masks

Sexual toys (He was sometimes worshipped as a giant phallus!)

Percussion instruments

Wine bottles

Small/Hidden Altars:

Fake/toy grapes

Leaves or curls from grapevines

Ivy leaves

Pine needles

Pinecones

Apple seeds

Bindweed

Wildflowers

Toys, photos, or art of any big cats, snakes, and/or bulls

Hymns

Songs you've written

Any art that you create

Any stories that you create

Art or pictures of the comedy and tragedy masks

Wine corks

Wine labels

Toy or miniature drums

Purple crystals like amethyst, grape agate, sugilite, etc.

Devotional Acts:

Make a playlist for Him

Dance and sing to your favorite songs or songs you'd think He would like

Throw a feast in His honor

Remembering to take your medication (if you have any) and taking care of your mental health

Support/donate to your local theatre in His name

Be a part of the theatre!

Stand up for those that are marginalized

Write stories/plays for Him

Invite Him to watch plays or movies with you, especially comedies or tragedies

Throw parties or attend them

Attend festivals

Attend a wine tasting

Go on wine tours

Attend parades

Masturbate or partake in sexual acts for Him (if you're comfortable doing so)

Drink alcohol or grape juice

Smoke pot (only if you want to)

Learn about winemaking

Support local vineyards

Wear wreaths made from ivy

Wear faux leopard or tiger print

Wear the color purple

Pray to Him for things such as protection while intoxicated/high, relaxation, improvement in your mental health, fertility, ecstasy, for everything going well in the theatre

Sources:

https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html

https://vocal.media/futurism/ways-of-worship-dionysus

Artwork from the game Hades

[countrydionysia]

Time to announce the winners!!!

For good Fortune! The 2023 Rural Dionysia is now officially over. The poll is now closed, and it is time to reveal the winners of this year's edition:

For the Freestyle poetry category, the winner is:

for furor club (óðinn and dionysos) by @disir-ex-machina

For the Modern Hymn category, the winner is

Dionysus by @beastial-bacchanal

and finally, for the “Complete the Fragment” category, the winner is

Sing the melody, calm your mind. by @piristephes

Thank you to everyone who has participated and voted and big congratulations to our three winners for this edition!

For those who celebrate it, receive our best wishes, and that you have a merry Rural Dionysia and I wish merry holidays to the others.

Reminder: The City Dionysia has its own blog @dionysia-ta-astika, so any upcoming news will be posted there. Give that blog a follow if you want to be updated. The City Dionysia is expected to be held between early February and mid-March 2024.

[cosmicdivine]

♥️PSA: I love the gods. ♥️

[thegrapeandthefig]

I find the parallels between Dionysus and Christ fascinating. Could you write a bit about that, how you interprete it for yourself and maybe recommend some sources?

I can't, simply because I'm not the best person to delve into the topic. My take on it would probably come across as sharply clinical and devoid of familiarity, as a byproduct of me being otherwise very estranged with Jesus as a spiritual figure. I think it would make for a much more interesting reading experience if someone who actually had deep ties with Christianity wrote about their interpretation of those parallels.

This said, when it comes to reading recommendations, I would begin with the chapter on Christianity in Richard Seaford's Dionysus, as a starting point. For a more in-depth and advanced read, I'd recommend Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity by Miguel Herrero de Jauregui.