Ecstasy and Possession: The Attraction of Women to the Cult of Dionysus

Abstract

Among the cults of classical antiquity, the worship of the Greek god Dionysus is one of the most intriguing, ranging in form from rural agricultural festivals in Greece and Asia Minor to complex mystery rites established throughout the Roman Empire. While various aspects of Dionysiac religion have received detailed scholarly treatment, existing studies have paid surprisingly little attention to the extent to which women appear to predominate in the cult as it may be reconstructed from the available sources. The frequent references to the involvement of women in the mythographers and historiographers have usually been explained away in modern scholarship by unsubstantiated appeals to the “emotional” needs of women, and by the association with fertility themes and fertility magic which are considered more appropriate to women than to men.