The Muses, as well as being associated with Apollo the sun-god are also spoken of in connection with Dionysus, or Bacchus, the god of animal life and vegetation and especially of the vine. He is thought of as the god of the happiness and exuberance that comes from youth or from wine, and is represented as wearing a crown of vine leaves or ivy. He was worshipped with strange ecstatic rites that seemed to lift the people out of their consciousness into communion with the gods. It is in these rites of Dionysus that drama is supposed to have had its origin, and for this reason, perhaps, more than any other, he is associated with the Muses. We have noticed, in the differentiation of the Muses, that Melpomene and Thalia, the muses of drama, were given wreaths of ivy - the ivy sacred to Dionysus. The worship of Dionysus had in it always more of wildness, and more of madness than the worship of Apollo. If a poet is to be regarded as inspired in the sense that the Dionysian revelers were inspired, a certain quality of insanity must belong to him.
For all good poets, epic as well as lyric, compose their beautiful poems not as work of art, but because they are inspired and possessed: like Bacchic maidens who draw milk and honey from the rivers, when they are under the influence of Dionysus, but not when they are in their right mind. And the soul of the lyric poet does the same, as they themselves tell us; for they tell us that they gather their strains from honeyed fountains out of the gardens and dells of the Muses; thither like the bees they wing their way. And this is true. For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles - for not by art does the poet sing but by power divine.
The power of the gods was believed to reach man through a series of intermediary forces and, through certain material things sacred to the gods, to be communicated to men. Thus, the power of Apollo and Dionysus was delegated to the Muses who should distribute it to the worthy among men. Everything, then, connected in story with the Muses or the gods was supposed to have their power. In the case of poetic inspiration we may see how various places or things associated with the belief in Apollo, Dionysus, or the Muses came to be regarded as sources or as symbols of inspiratory power. Throughout literature we shall find significant mention of the mounts of Parnassus, Helicon or Olympus, of the various holy springs or places of the oracles, of the lyre, the laurel, or the ivy, as denoting power of bestowing inspiration such as the Muses are called upon to give.
– The Idea of Poetic Inspiration in the Eighteenth Century by Lillian Bean
Dion were not related only to Zeus. There is a notable mention of them in relation to Dionysus on an inscription dating to the period of the last Macedonian King. On the pedestal of an honorary statue of Perseus (179-168 B.C.) it is mentioned that the “Mousaistai,” i.e. the worshippers of the Muses and Dionysus who formed a group together, offered the statue of the King to the Muses and to Dionysus to honour his virtue, his benevolence towards their “Koinon” and his piety […] The sanctuary of the Muses at Dion has not been found; there is, however, suggestive and reliable evidence that it might have been situated near the sanctuaries of Olympian Zeus and Dionysus, which were close to one another, in an area rich in water supply.
– Cults of Female Deities at Dion by Semeli Pingiatoglou
Reference to Lilith can be found in Egyptian, Sumerian, Arabic, Persian, and Babylonian myth and folklore.
Lilith’s
tale goes far back into time. Most people already know the tale of Adam
and Eve. It’s a Hebrew myth that Lilith was the first wife of Adam.
Yahweh, or God, created Adam and Lilith. Some say they were created as
twins joined together from the back. Other stories claim Adam was made
from pure dust from Earth and Lilith from other sediment from Earth. In
Hebrew lore, Lilith was created from Earth, in Sumerian tales, from Air.
In both versions, Adam tries to lay with Lilith. She demands to be
treated equally and desires not to be dominated. Lilith says the
creators name aloud and feels powerful. She then decides to run away to
live forever by the Red Sea. Some stories claim the power she felt was
so great it enabled her to fly away.
Lilith is said to have
became a female demon of the night. She was a woman of seduction and
equality. Lilith was a spirit of darkness and night. Both and angel and
demon of conception. She was blamed and accused for miscarriage,
stillbirth, crib death, infertility. She had the power over fertility
and childbirth. She had the power over sexual desire, erotic dreams and
sacred sex magic. She punishes the prudish and despises sanctimonious
people. She is a protective guardian over those she perceives as her
children, more importantly, her daughters.
Lilith living
exiled by the Red Sea, became a lover to demons and re-produced with
them. Yahweh sends three angels to bring Lilith back. “Said the Holy
One, ‘If she agrees to come back, it is good. If not, she must permit
one hundred of her children to die everyday.’ They told her God’s word,
but she did not wish to return.” - Alphabet of Ben Sira
Following this, Yahweh then created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs, unlike the ground as Lilith and Adam were.
Lilith
was demonized as a symbol of disobedience and promiscuity. She can also
be viewed and a woman who demanded equality, the original independent
female spirit.
get back is really putting things in perspective to me, not in a sense that it showed new parts of the story or that it has groundbreaking new information, but it’s in the details, it’s in observing how their body language was and what faces they made and how they behaved around each other. it’s in observing paul on the verge of tears, it’s in the way george looked at them while playing two of us, the way ringo is sitting there with his big eyes trying to clutch onto everything, and so many more little lost moments like that. it’s in the fact that we can see them existing as humans, talking to each other, making conversation, smiling and sometimes not smiling and just- being people. those small details that don’t change the story in a groundbreaking way, but shows us that they were not these mystical, larger-than-life figures, but oh so desperately human. it shows us that they were multifaceted and full of dimensions and that things are not as simple as “paul was an asshole” or “john didn’t care about being there” or “george resented paul and john” - not in so much as proving those things are wrong, but showing that they are only part of the truth, because they were real people and there was more to it. we all know that, in some level, even before get back, but seeing it makes it so much more concrete.
there were so many details and smiles and sadness and anger that are so human and that we never had a chance to so much as glance at before like this, and now with get back we get to witness it more fully. to me, that’s where it gets wonderful and transforming and just magical: because it allows us to look at them and go, wow, they truly were human beings. they lived breathed smiled laughed cried and existed in this world, once upon a time. they were here. they felt everything you can feel, the good the bad and the ugly. and in the end, that just - and i didn’t even know this was possible - makes me love the four of them even more than i did before.
ophelia, friedrich wilhelm theodor heyser // ophelia, jean-baptiste bertrand // ophelia, sir john everett millais // ophelia, léopold burthe // ophelia, theodor von der beek.
