Dionysos Melanaigis (Dionysos of the black goat-skin)
The cult of Dionysos as Melanaigis was founded by the daughters of Eleuther, whose number is not indicated. Like Semachos and Ikarios, Eleuther was seen as the founding hero of a settlement and a double of the god. In this instance Dionysos comes to the daughters as an apparition, a phasma, dressed in a black goatskin. They do not want the god in that form: they revile him. Thereupon he makes them raving mad. In order to be cured, they are obliged to worship Melanaigis, that is, the dark Dionysos in league with the spirits of the dead. It was in this quality that he was later, in Athens, to delight in tragedy. - Kerenyi, Dionysos
My Notes: Before finding the above passage, I was meditating on this epithet, imagining the god in a black goatskin, and the association with death came to mind - but not only death, but the shadow aspects of nature that we fear (and by extension, the shadow aspects of oneself). I see that symbolism in the above passages, especially when one considers the meaning of Eleuther, which is "free". Dionysos Melanaigis is telling us we must embrace those aspects that we revile. Not only because they are a part of us, or say something about us, but because they ARE. There is reason behind everything in nature. If you would change something about yourself, if indeed it needs changing, you must first understand it. But, like a god draped in black goatskins standing before you, it cannot just be ignored. At best, we will never be free. At worst, we will go mad.
Tarot Card drawn: Queen of Pentacles... This seemed like a strange card to go with this epithet at first. The Mythic Tarot, which I was using, shows a woman holding a bunch of grapes. The Rider-Waite deck shows a woman sitting in a black and grey throne with goat heads on the arms! Okay, so obviously there is something here... One of the tarot books I have says that she represents a “love for and unity with the world” more than any other minor card, and is “intensely aware of the magic in nature and the strength she derives from it.” Another tarot book points out the goats as a symbol of sexuality and adding a “trickster” element to the queen. Knowledge of natural cycles, death and rebirth, come to mind. Another key word for this queen is self-awareness. In considering this card with the epithet, the words “receptivity” and “otherness” also come to mind.
The cult of Dionysos as Melanaigis was founded by the daughters of Eleuther, whose number is not indicated. Like Semachos and Ikarios, Eleuther was seen as the founding hero of a settlement and a double of the god. In this instance Dionysos comes to the daughters as an apparition, a phasma, dressed in a black goatskin. They do not want the god in that form: they revile him. Thereupon he makes them raving mad. In order to be cured, they are obliged to worship Melanaigis, that is, the dark Dionysos in league with the spirits of the dead. It was in this quality that he was later, in Athens, to delight in tragedy. - Kerenyi, Dionysos
My Notes: Before finding the above passage, I was meditating on this epithet, imagining the god in a black goatskin, and the association with death came to mind - but not only death, but the shadow aspects of nature that we fear (and by extension, the shadow aspects of oneself). I see that symbolism in the above passages, especially when one considers the meaning of Eleuther, which is "free". Dionysos Melanaigis is telling us we must embrace those aspects that we revile. Not only because they are a part of us, or say something about us, but because they ARE. There is reason behind everything in nature. If you would change something about yourself, if indeed it needs changing, you must first understand it. But, like a god draped in black goatskins standing before you, it cannot just be ignored. At best, we will never be free. At worst, we will go mad.
Tarot Card drawn: Queen of Pentacles... This seemed like a strange card to go with this epithet at first. The Mythic Tarot, which I was using, shows a woman holding a bunch of grapes. The Rider-Waite deck shows a woman sitting in a black and grey throne with goat heads on the arms! Okay, so obviously there is something here... One of the tarot books I have says that she represents a “love for and unity with the world” more than any other minor card, and is “intensely aware of the magic in nature and the strength she derives from it.” Another tarot book points out the goats as a symbol of sexuality and adding a “trickster” element to the queen. Knowledge of natural cycles, death and rebirth, come to mind. Another key word for this queen is self-awareness. In considering this card with the epithet, the words “receptivity” and “otherness” also come to mind.
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