Dionysus, Hades and Soma: The Greek Lunar Cycle
Dionysus and Soma
With a clarified understanding of this “Lunar Cycle,” as it appears in the Celtic and Germanic mythologies, we can begin to look toward Greece to see if some of these same motifs and deities may be identifiable there. The prime candidate for the Greek “Soma” god becomes apparent at once by way of a near-exact myth once again involving the central Soma incarnation, Chyavana. It ought to come as no surprise that this Greek “Soma” candidate is the lord of divine intoxicating liquid, vegetation and mystical experience, Dionysus. The nexus between Dionysus and Chyavana-Soma is the close similarity of the stories of their births.
In the Vedic case, Chyavana's mother-to-be, Puloma, is pregnant with Chyavana. A conspiring raksasa demon, who desires to marry Puloma, turns into a pig and steals her away. This frightens Puloma into giving birth right then and there. The child's name, “Chyavana,” means “born-prematurely.” The bright splendor of Chyavana causes the demon to turn to ash immediately. In the Greek case, Dionysus' mother-to-be, Semele, is pregnant with Dionysus. Tricked by the conspiring goddess Hera, Semele compels Zeus to appear to her in his full glory as the form of lightning. He does so and Semele is burnt to ash immediately, causing Dionysus to fall from the ashes. Dionysus is thus considered prematurely born (and has to be temporarily sewn into Zeus' leg for further incubation). Perhaps his most characteristic epithet, “Dithyrambos,” is believed to be related to this trait of premature or double birth (though the etymology remains contentious). This premature birth is clearly important to the essence of the god, and, as we have previously put forward, it may correspond to the moon rising in the sky before the sky has yet grown dark. The moon is born prematurely each evening, before its proper time, which is night. The sudden “burning up” that follows this first birth may correlate to the sunset which fills the sky after the first rise of the moon. The moon then appears a second time in the darkened sky after the sunrise fades, as if born a second time (as Dionysus is born a second time, from Zeus).
Thus, in these two cases, we have a premature birth induced by mischief, wherein one of the primary figures is burnt to ash at the moment of the birth due to the bright splendor of a gods' sudden appearing (which god is the cause of this combustion is simply switched from the father to the infant), and the fact of this premature birth is seemingly made part of the newborn god's name. It seems, of course, that the roles have slightly shifted between the two versions. A demon has either been added to the Vedic version to cause the initial mischief and to be killed, or has been removed in the Greek case. The idea that the death of a goddess (Semele) might be ameliorated by the inclusion of a dispensable demon, who is killed instead, has a plausibility to it, yet it is generally too treacherous to speculate on such details. Then again, the Orphic parallel involves the Titans who have consumed Dionysus being turned to ash by Zeus, with Dionysus being “reborn” from their ashes. Thus the Titans would form a clearer match to the demon of the Vedic branch.
Again, it should come as no surprise that the lord of the soma "wine" (Chyavana-Soma) and the Greek god of sacred wine would be the same god. Mead is of course the Germanic version of the soma, ale is possibly the Irish, and the Greek liquid intoxicant is also referred to as methu, it being considered possible by scholars that some kind of mead may have been used by the proto-cult of Dionysus before the popularization of wine in Greece. (“Porphyry from 3rd century AD claimed on the authority of ‘Orpheus; that Zeus intoxicated Cronus with honey (that is, mead) since there was no wine at the time.” “These authorities may in fact be right that mead was known to Greeks before wine. The most telling clue is the fact that the Greek word for ‘intoxicant’ is methu, which likely meant mead; not only is the English word ‘mead’ related to methu, but in Sanskrit madhu means mead, leading back to a probably Indo-European root medhu. Already in Homer methu is equated with oinos (presumably wine).” “The name of Dionysus, the Greek god of intoxication, has also been found on two Linear B tablets (as di-wo-nu-so), in one case possibly connected to wine, and in the other to honey. This may show that Dionysus was connected to both wine and mead at this early time […] as an ancient commentator rightly realized, Dionysus is not said by Homer to be the ‘discoverer of wine’. Some scholars [See especially Harrison 1903: 323–324 and 1922: 413–425, whom Graves (1960: 108), among others, accepts.] have even argued that Dionysus was a beer (or mead) god before being a wine god, but the evidence is too sparse on this point. He may just as well have been a god of indiscriminate intoxication from various ingredients” (Max Nelson, The Barbarian’s Beverage, 14-15)). Indeed, the identification of Dionysus as Soma ought to have been in some degree anticipated, and the close similarity of Dionysus and Chyavana's births ought to confirm the parallel in large part. However, there are yet more lines we can draw between Dionysus and the various “Soma” gods we have found in the other branches, and these ought to put the equivalency beyond doubt.
At the forefront of the relevant points is the fact that, while Soma is a god of the moon (or a “lunar” god that was eventually assimilated to the moon itself), Dionysus is absolutely covered with “lunar” symbols. This is so much the case that Eliade says flatly of Dionysus, “Dionysus is both moon god and god of vegetation” (Patterns in Comparative Religion, 162). The specific set of symbols that makes this statement valid (and it is important that they are a set) are the bull, the serpent, the vine, and of course the waters or divine liquid. Dionysus is often portrayed with bull horns, and even in the form of a bull as at Kyzikos. He is invoked as “bull-footed” and his epithet bromios, “roarer,” is believed to pertain to his bull aspect, to his wind association, or both. In the Orphic version of his myth, he was said to transform into several animals, and lastly into a bull. Bulls were sacrificed to him during his festival, the Dionysia, and he is sometimes called Dionysus Tauros. The image of the cow, full with white milk, makes the bovine a natural lunar symbol, which may be reinforced by the coloration (black and white together is often seen as lunar, mirroring the illuminated and darkened portions of the moon) and by the general rotundity of the animal. More pertinently, the shape of the bull's horns was “long ago compared to a crescent and likened to the moon,” as Eliade says, while, “Lunar divinities of the Mediterranean and the East were represented under the form of a bull,” concluding, furthermore, that in Egypt the moon god was known as “the bull of the stars” (Patterns of Comparative Religion, 93). The bull is the repeated symbol for the fecundating power of the sky, the waters of heaven impregnating the earth as bull impregnates cow, which applies also to the powers of the moon. Thus there are multiple celestial gods who sometimes take the bull form: Father Sky, Moon god, and later Indra, among others, each seen as masculine fecundators who bring the fertilizing waters via rain to the feminine Earth.
Dionysus' bull form and prominent horns are thus his most compelling connections to the lunar sphere, but they are reinforced by his other lunar symbolism. Dionysus is often depicted as having a crown of serpents or even as serpent-bodied. The serpent is another primary lunar symbol, according to Eliade, due to the fact that it sheds its skin and regenerates itself just as the moon is seen to renew itself each month. The serpent is thus an earthly stand-in and repetition of the power of the moon. The fact that it burrows into the earth which is connected to the underworld and to vegetative powers reinforces the connection. Eliade explains that the serpent is connected to the moon
because it appears and disappears, and because it has as many coils as the moon has days (this legend is also preserved in Greek tradition) ; or because it is " the husband of all women ", ...all the symbols are directed to the same central idea: it is immortal because it is continually reborn, and therefore it is a moon " force " (Eliade, 163).
The vine, which Dionysus wears and the power of which Dionysus is seen to embody, also mirrors the serpent and connects to both the serpent and the vegetative power more generally, both seen as connected forces ruled by the moon – consider Soma as lord of plants. “The plant world comes from the same source of universal fertility, and is subject to the same recurring cycles governed by the moon's movements,” Eliade says. As god of wine, Dionysus was often depicted with either a bowl or chalice (as well as sometimes a drinking horn), both of course vessels used in various versions of the Holy Grail legend as the vessel of the sacred liquid. Finally, Dionysus' well-known dismemberment and rebirth is another lunar symbol. Just as the snake does, the moon sheds its old form, “dies,” and is reborn each month. So Dionysus is torn to pieces (these pieces may mirror the idea that the moon, as the “measurer,” is divided into phases which themselves divide the days, Dionysus thereby embodying the month) and then is born again whole. Consider also that Chyavana's myth centers around him being aged, having his eye violently poked out, then being renewed in youth; or that the associated Dadhyanc has his head cut off then replaced; or that the embodiment of the Norse sacred mead, Kvasir, is killed and his blood is used as the sacred liquid, whereas Dionysus is torn apart and consumed, and Mimir is beheaded but then lives again as a preserved head with the power of speech. These all seem to be connected lunar motifs, which supposition may be supported by the Slavic case, in which Jarilo (foster son of a lunar underworld god Veles, which ought to be a recognizable motif by now) is killed, dismembered, and then reborn. Jarilo may generally parallel the Horse Twin god, Freyr etc., but the fact that this motif has shifted merely one position, from the lunar underworld god to his foster son, only argues for its intimate connection to the lunar myth in which they both are involved.
Dionysus and Osiris
To find the origin of the exact form of the motif of Dionysus' dismemberment, we have to look to the non-Indo-European god who is known to have strongly influenced the Greek depiction of Dionysus. This foreign god is the Egyptian underworld god Osiris. Though non-Indo-European parallels are generally carefully avoided in the present study, the equivalency of Osiris and Dionysus, which the Greeks drew, and which they perceived clearly, is about as good of an extra-Indo-European parallel as you can possibly hope to find, a fact which will hopefully become apparent. Herodotus, for one, explicitly equated the two gods, saying, “In other ways the Egyptian method of celebrating the festival of Dionysus [meaning Osiris] is much the same as the Greek...they have puppets about 18 inches high; the genitals of these figures…are pulled up and down by strings…Flutes lead the procession, and the women…sing a hymn to Dionysus” (Herodotus, Histories, Book 2, 49, 2). Furthermore, the central myth of Osiris involves his death and dismemberment in a conflict with Set (who, as we will see, is in the position comparable to Thjazi, Hafgan etc.). In the conclusion of the myth, Osiris is reconstituted and reborn, becoming by this action the god of the Underworld. Reminiscent of this pattern, Dionysus in the Orphic myth is dismembered by the Titans, consumed, and then made whole again and brought back to life. Herodotus continues by stating unequivocally that the Dionysus cult has been influenced by Egyptian religion, and not vice versa, saying, “I will never admit that the similar ceremonies performed in Greece and Egypt are the result of mere coincidence... Nor will I allow that the Egyptian ever took over from Greece either this custom or any other” (Herodotus, Histories, Book 2, 50, 3). Many other ancient authorities also explicitly equated Osiris with Dionysus, including Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Nonnos, and Mnaseas, Diodorus Siculus saying, "there is only a difference of names" between the festivals of the two gods (Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, 1.13).
The equivalency of Dionysus and Osiris is further supported by numerous shared associations. Whereas Dionysus was the god of wine and of the grape vine, Osiris was called "Lord of Drunkenness" during the grape harvest (Sigfrid Hoedel-Hoenes, Life and Death in Ancient Egypt, 114), while wine was offered to and found on funerary monuments connected with him. In ancient papyri he is sometimes depicted with clusters of grapes (Papyrus of Nebseni, 1550 BCE; Papyrus of Nakht). Like the Soma gods generally, Osiris is associated with drink and food that grant immortality: “the bread and the beer of Osiris make the eater immortal," says the Book of the Dead (Book of the Dead, 40), and these are called "thy bread of eternity, and thy beer of everlastingness" in the Text of Pepi II (390). Ivy is sacred to Dionysus, while Osiris is said in Egypt to be its discoverer. Worshippers of Osiris are described by Plutarch as carrying thyrsoi like that associated with Dionysus, and pine cones are important symbols found on monuments of each god. Beyond the liquid of the wine, Dionysus is also the lord of all moisture generally ("the lord and master not only of wine, but of the nature of every sort of moisture" (Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, 35)), whereas, "all kinds of moisture are called the 'efflux of Osiris,'" as Plutarch records (Plutarch On Isis and Osiris, 35). Both gods are connected with the origin of Drama in their respective societies as well (see H. Jeremiah Lewis, Osiris and Dionysos Compared). Above all, these shared traits should demonstrate why and in which details the Greeks accepted the influence of Osiris on their cult of Dionysus.
Hence, while the question of the origin of Dionysus' dismemberment myth remains heavily debated, there is significant evidence to suggest that it may have been a syncretism via borrowing from the Egyptians. The fact that the precise form of the myth, the god dismembered and brought back to life, is seen in no other branches except the Slavic, in which branch it is connected instead to the Young Son, argues in favor of it being a non-Indo-European form of the myth, but the issue also remains quite a mystery. For the Slavic case we would then have to suppose either a Neolithic version of the myth shared from Egypt to Greece to the Slavic lands, or alternately a later influence of the borrowed Egyptian form on the Slavs, perhaps via contact with Greek culture forms, or by some other path.
If the form as we find it in the Dionysus mythos was a borrowing from Egypt, it was at least a fortunate syncretism. Eliade says of Osiris that he too is a lunar god. Furthermore, Osiris has a son with his sister Isis, and this son, Horus the Younger, thus stands in the same position that we have previously seen the Horse Twins or Morning Star god: like Freyr the Young Son of Soma God Njörðr, or Aengus the Young Son and foster son of Soma God Midir. Because Younger Horus' father has been killed and he is born in danger of Set's violence, he is brought up in secret by his mother. Hence he is often referred to as “Son of Isis.” This is paralleled closely, for instance, by Perceval, who is raised in the woods apart from his father, his mother attempting to protect him from the dangers of knighthood (Aengus is also explicitly brought up without knowledge of his true father or birthright). Welsh Pryderi, the possible model of Perceval, has also been argued to be the “Mabon ap Modron,” or “Young Son of the Mother,” which matches precisely Horus' titles “Horus the Young/Child, son of Isis,” or HarusaAset, Herupa Khered, Harseisis, etc.
Even the central motif that we have seen repeated in the Indo-European cases, of the poked out eye, appears in the Egyptian myth of this father and son as well, but in the Egyptian case even more explicitly connected with the moon, which should make clear to us that we have been on the right track. Here the eye-poking motif, as in the case of Perceval with the Red Knight, and partially in the case of Aengus who is in charge of the rambunctious children who perpetrate the poking, is again shifted to the Young Son instead of the Moon God father, but the Egyptians were also clear that Horus is a re-manifestation of Osiris, and thus they partly identified the two. The losing of Horus' eye in his battle with Set was explicitly seen to be a symbol of the darkening of the moon during its cycle or eclipses (Pinch 2004, 82-83, 91), just as we have previously theorized the symbolic meaning of the poking out of Chyavana and Midir's eye to be. The eye is then said to be either retrieved or healed, as it is also usually healed in the Indo-European cases discussed. Osiris also marries his own sister, just as Njörðr is said to be consort of his sister. Horus the Younger's battle with Set, in which the eye is lost, would then be in the very same position as the fight against Norse Thjazi, that against Welsh Hafgan, and that against the Red Knight of the Grail legend. These oppositional figures, as we have argued, are destructive solar gods, while Set is said to be a god of the desert. Interestingly, Set is also associated with thunder, while Thjazi's home is called “thunder home,” and while the armor of the Red Knight is of course red, Set is associated with the color red in relation to the red sand of the desert. As one commentator puts it, Set "was associated with the desert (which takes its name from the Egyptian word “dshrt” – the red place). He represented the fierce dry heat of the sun as it parched the land" (Hill, J, 2008).
Considering these mythic and symbolic parallels, which put Dionysus (and his influencer, Osiris) in a continuity with the previously analyzed “Soma” gods, we should proceed to a closer look at Dionysus' mythology to see if any other “Soma”-associated myths can be found there in relatively recognizable form.
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Dionysus, Hades and Soma: The Greek Lunar Cycle
The crucial “eye-poking” motif, always present in a similar form in the Lunar Cycle, is not absent from the Greek version either. Just as it is performed by the young Perceval in Chretien's Grail poem, by the youths in the kingdom of the Young Son Aengus, and perpetrated on the son of Osiris in the Egyptian case, so the eye poking is connected to the son of the Soma God Dionysus in the Greek case (in Vedic and Norse cases it is not directly connected to the Young Son(s)). Due to the apparent Egyptian influence on the Dionysus mythos, this son of the Greek god could be taken as repeating the lunar power of the father in the manner that Younger Horus does in relation to his father Osiris. Dionysus' son's name, meaning “wine drinker” or “wine-rich” relates him intimately to his father, to the vegetative power of the vine, and to the lunar liquid itself. The character of this son, then, could be impacted by a non-Indo-European influence of some kind, whether Egyptian or simply pre-Greek — however, we must remember that the Indo-European Young Son or Horse Twin god is also generally known for being a soma drinker (and distributer), thus the degree of outside influence on his character is indeterminate.
This son of Dionysus is Oenopion, who just like his doubles, the Horse Twins, is one of a pair of twins, his twin brother being Staphylus. When the hunter and giant Orion comes to Oenopion's kingdom, he assaults and attempts to violate Oenopion's daughter, Merope. Compare this assault to Thjazi abducting Iðunn in the Germanic parallel case, as well as the fact that Thjazi too is a giant and we have mentioned the questionable epithet skaut-giarn from the Eddic poem Hyndluljóð. In response to the assault of his daughter, Oenopion stabs Orion in the eye, blinding him. Thus Oenopion, this Young Son of the lunar god Dionysus, as in the parallel cases, pierces the eye of the assailant hunter, just as Perceval stabs the eye of the thieving Red Knight, the youths under the watch of Aengus poke out Midir's eye, and as Thjazi (whose crime is both a theft and assault of a goddess) too has his eyes removed after his offense. Orion is said then to carry Cedalion, the servant of Hephaestus, around on his shoulders, whereas Thjazi carries Loki through the sky in the form of an eagle.
As with the case of Soma, ancient commentators such as Diodorus Siculus believed there to have originally been several “Dionysuses.” These of course could have been several gods who were similar but distinct, or several instances of the same identical god, and these were then theoretically combined under the name of Dionysus to form the unitary mythos that has been left to us. In the Norse case we also named Njörðr, Kvasir and possibly Mímir as associated gods who were all connected to the mythos of the sacred waters and to the mead cycle and who could theoretically correspond to some of the separate gods who were combined in the Vedic and Greek cases. Njörðr as lord of waters and wealth generally and as the husband of the Sun Princess, Kvasir as an embodiment of the mead/soma itself and who is killed and consumed as Dionysus also is, and Mímir as the keeper of the specialized waters of illumination and arguably of an underworld domain, could each then correspond to different aspects of Dionysus/Soma, or, in the case of Mímir, of Yama overlapping Soma. There are, however, various ways we can conceptualize this relation.
Perusing the details of Dionysus’ mythos, we tally several other connections between him and the other Soma gods. Like Njörðr, Dionysus is also connected with the sea. Once, he hides in it, while another time he punishes a ship of sailors by turning them into dolphins. He stays with the daughters of Nereus in the Erythraian Sea, under the waves, "sprawled among the seaweed in Thetis’ bosom" (Dionysiaca 21.170). He is believed to have washed up in a chest on a beach of Brasia. Certain of his attendants were called the "sea women," or Halia. He arrives by ship during the Anthesteria, a central festival in his honor. He was called "god of the sea" and "god of the seacoast," the former in Pasagae and the latter in Chios, Sparta, and Sicyon. His grottoes and temples were often in marshes (Pausanias 2.23.1) (Athenaios 11.465 A). And as previously mentioned, he was considered a lord of all moisture, of the liquid element generally.
As Njörðr is, Dionysus is also associated with the wind, called “roarer” in this connection. He is also well-known for having two forms: the older and the younger Dionysus. This well matches the Chyavana tale wherein he begins as an aged ascetic before being renewed in youth, and this again reflects the waning and then renewal of the moon. The previously encountered “wasteland” motif may also be present in Dionysus' mythos. When wine is banned by Lycurgus, Dionysus makes the king's land become a wasteland, and only renews it after Lycurgus is ritualistically killed.
While the Soma god generally weds a daughter or descendant of the Sun god, and Chyavana indeed marries the great-grand-daughter of the Sun god, Dionysus weds Ariadne, who is indeed grand-daughter of the Sun, Helios. Ariadne also gives birth to twins (Oenopion and Staphylus), perhaps reflecting or doubling the birth of the Horse Twins which we have seen in other branches. Ariadne goes to the underworld and then returns, as Rhiannon does, and is made deathless and unaging, just as the princess Surya is said to be made immortal by her union with Soma in the Rig Veda hymn "Surya's Bridal." Dionysus ultimately places Ariadne's crown in the sky as stars, as Njörðr's wife Skaði has her father's eyes placed in the heavens as stars. After his blinding and recovery, Orion is also placed in the sky as a constellation upon his death, at the request of the goddesses, just as the eyes of Skaði's father Thjazi are so treated upon his death, at the request of Skaði. As with Irish Midir's and Norse Njörðr's marriages, Dionysus and Ariadne's marriage is not a purely happy one. Indeed, a similar drama develops as that found in Irish Midir's myth with his wives Fuamnach and Etain, who come into physical and magical conflict. For Ariadne and Dionysus' second wife, a princess from India, develop a rivalry and also come into conflict as well. Ovid says: “Among the captive girls of surpassing beauty was a princess whom Bacchus [Dionysus] liked too much. His loving wife wept and, as she paced the curving beach, delivered words like these, disheveled: ‘Come, waves, listen again to identical sobs. Come, sand, absorb again my weeping. I recall my cry” (Ovid, Fasti 3.459). In addition, Dionysus threatens Ariadne's previous husband Theseus and wins her from him, whereas Midir also must win Etain back from her then husband, Eochu Airem.
Dionysus is associated both with satyrs and music, while Soma is closely tied to the similar wild musical and sexual beings the Gandharvas. Interestingly, Hephaestus gives Dionysus two silver bowls, while the Grail (a salver) and a silver serving dish are both seen side by side in the Grail procession, and the silver bowls themselves may again be symbols of the moon.
When Dionysus is born, Hermes rescues him from the flame and gives him honey (common for birth rituals, but also an ingredient associated with the mead). We will see in a subsequent chapter how Hermes is the "Gandharva," who, as with the case of Welsh Pwyll, is the protege of the Soma god and thus very closely associated with him as his guardian and attendant. There is even a vase painted with the image of Hermes, Dionysus, and Ariadne, in which Hermes is gesturing at Ariadne, as if giving her to Dionysus. This again reaffirms the close connection of Hermes with Dionysus (as the Gandharva is similarly connected with Soma), Hermes as his attendant, and also reminds us of the Welsh scene in which the Gandharva Pwyll sleeps next to but protects the virginity of Arawn's wife until the return of Arawn.
Hephaestus and Dionysus
Of further interest is the fact that, just as the fire god Manawydan plays an important role in the latter portion of the Welsh Lunar Cycle, so the Greek fire god Hephaestus also appears in an important episode of Dionysus' myth. In this episode, Hephaestus, having been thrown from Olympos by Hera, returns to Hera with a gift of a finely-wrought golden throne. The throne is a trap, however, and when Hera sits upon it she is bound to it by invisible restraints. The other gods cry out for Hephaestus to release her. Only when Dionysus steps in and gets Hephaestus drunk with wine is he able to return him to Olympus and get him to free Hera. The theme of a great queen of the gods being frozen to the spot and imprisoned when she touches a finely made, magical, golden object once again reminds us of the manner in which Welsh Rhiannon is imprisoned in the Otherworld when she touches the golden bowl. At the same time, Hera sitting on the chair that triggers the crisis reminds us also of Pryderi sitting on the mound Gorsedd Arberth and triggering the enchanted wasteland, which event immediately precedes him and Rhiannon being trapped in the Otherworld by the golden bowl. This motif of the treacherous seat is reflected in the later Grail legends as the chair Siege Perilous, which kills anyone who sits on it and is not worthy of it.
The freeing of Hera from this enchanted imprisonment, just like the freeing of Rhiannon and the disenchanting of the wasteland (or the same in the Samvarana tale) is brought about by an action that can only be performed by the fire god. The Greek gods are in despair to get Hephaestus to come back to Olympus to free Hera, until Dionysus steps in to bring about this fire god's return. In the Welsh and Indian versions the need for the instrumental action of the fire god to end the crisis implies something to do with the sacrificial fire, generally pointing toward a renewal of the sacrifice, which is made explicit rather than symbolic in the Samvarana version, in which Samvarana must return to his sacrificial rites (with his bride) to cause the rain to fall once more and to heal the wasteland. Welsh fire god Manawydan in his version must discover the captors of Rhiannon and Pryderi and then force them to release the queen and her son, compelling them to lift the enchantment on the land at the same time. As such it would not be amiss to see Dionysus' pouring out of the sacred wine into the the belly of the fire god, making him drunk, and then sending him up to the gods, as an allegory for the soma or wine sacrifice itself. “After making him drunk Dionysos brought him to heaven," says Pausanias (Pausanias, Guide to Greece 1.20.3). The sacred wine is poured into the fire (Hephaestus), it becomes "drunk" and takes the offering up to the gods on Olympos, and only this, as in the other cases, frees the Great Queen and solves the crisis that her imprisonment or absence has brought about. This scene is found in many ancient depictions, with Dionysus leading a drunken Hephaestus on a donkey toward Olympos. This image would then be an image of the soma/wine sacrifice itself, a fire sacrifice fueled by the burnt offering of the sacred liquid, which has the power to free the gods and goddesses from obstruction, allow them to operate for the benefit of the world, and heal the wasteland. This is the mythic embodiment of the ancient understanding that the sacrifice made possible existence, the new day, flourishing, etc.
If we are confident from the connections between Dionysus and Soma discussed thus far, we may attempt to further “read into” the other Dionysus myths in this fashion, required as we are to recognize that the Greek myths often have come down to us in cryptic form, elaborated by creative license of the famous greek poets and altered by syncretisms with the other dominant cultures in and around the Mediterranean. As such, we may be permitted to attempt to speculate and to actively try to find an instance of the “Aesir-Vanir War” in the Dionysian myths. If this motif is not instead to be found in the myths of the Greek Horse Twin gods, the Dioskouroi, then there are a couple of other possible candidates, confrontations or battles that Dionysus is known to take part in. The most interesting of these possibilities may be Dionysus' campaign into India. The Indians, known for their spiritual elevation and for their wise Brahmin priests, could in this case be given as a symbol for the (priestly) “1st function,” in the Dumezilian sense, that function against which the “Aesir-Vanir War” is fought by the 3rd function gods. Dionysus’ fighting and overcoming of these Indians could then be the Soma god once again confronting and overcoming the first function, as Njörðr does in the Norse case. This interpretation may also be reinforced by the fact that Dionysus also fights against Poseidon in this war. Key to this connection is the fact that, in many places, Poseidon seems to take the role of the first function Vedic god Varuna, lord of water. For instance, when the Mitraic hero Theseus is born, Poseidon seems to be made a double of his father Aegeus, while when the Mitraic hero Yudhishthira is born, his father Pandu's double or spiritual father is Varuna, thus drawing an equivalency between Poseidon and Varuna. Varuna is a temperamental god who is the lord of all water, while Poseidon is temperamental lord of the sea. Poseidon is eldest son of Cronus and was the king of the gods before Zeus was, evidenced by the archaeological records of the Mycenaean period, while Varuna was the eldest and first chief of the gods who eventually yielded this kingship to Mitra and then Indra. Thus, while an expansion on this idea would require a separate explication, it is by no means out of the way to say that Poseidon could here be taking the role of the 1st Function sovereign, which we see Oðinn take in the Norse Aesir-Vanir War. We would then see Dionysus' fighting and overcoming of both the 1st function priestly and 1st function sovereign principles in this war.
A couple final notes to consider: Dionysus was originally associated with the three Charites, or Graces. Chief among these three is Aglaea, meaning “shining one,” who becomes Hephaestus' wife. Shining is not a rare adjective for a deity, but it is after all a specific epithet we see frequently associated with the various Sun Princesses/Daughters of the Sun in the various branches, while the number three also matches the number of goddesses connected to this cycle in the Norse myth: Iðunn, Skaði, Gerðr. Hence it very likely the Graces too are another iteration or cryptic reflection of the same solar daughters, or that they are in some way connected. Hermes, the Greek Gandharvic god, as we will see in a later section, is himself said by Nonnus to be wedded to one of the Graces, Peitho. A Mycenean seal ring shows two females dancing next to a male figure, who is interpreted as either Hermes or Dionysus. A relief at the colony of Thasos from the beginning of the 5th century BCE shows the Charites with Hermes and a female who is believed to be Peitho or Aphrodite, and a 4th century vase from Apulia also shows Hermes and Peitho together. However, the fact that both the Fire god and the Gandharvic god are said to marry Graces could reflect the repeated pattern we have seen, that one of the Sun Princesses is almost always transferred from one of the husbands to the other in the Lunar Cycle. If the Greek case follows the others, Hephaestus and Hermes could have originally been married to the same Grace, and over time these wives could have been made separate. Lastly, one of Dionysus' epithets is “completely hidden,” one interpretation of which could be the moon at its minimum, at the transition to the New Moon, hidden in darkness. Alternately, the Rig Veda says that Soma is “hidden” (RV, 1.23.14).
Dionysus, Hades and Soma: The Greek Lunar Cycle
Dionysus and Hades
Building on this understanding of Dionysus as Soma, we must make a further leap to consider if Hades too might be rooted in this same Indo-European “Soma” mythos. This connection is prompted by the aforementioned fact that the moon was often seen as an afterlife destination with the moon god as the lord of this destination (Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, The Moon and its Mystique). Dionysus, after all, with his vegetative powers rooted in the depths, is already a clearly chthonic god, who was often considered to have a "subterranean" aspect, called Dionysus Khthonion. But in addition, both Dionysus' explicit Egyptian parallel and influence, Osiris, and the Welsh “Soma” god, Arawn, are named as the Lord of the Underworld in their respective mythologies, while the Irish parallel, Midir, is suggested to be an underworld lord as well by his depiction with three cranes, likely symbols of death, who guard his castle and can steal the will to fight from any warrior, along with his habitation in the burial mounds. The Welsh underworld Annwn, whose lord is Arawn, is also said to be guarded by three cranes – as if more evidence was needed that these are the same god. Norse Mímir, too, has been argued by Victor Rydberg to be a lord of the afterlife, lord of an underworld “grove” or “holt.” Most importantly, perhaps, the identity of Dionysus and Hades has been asserted several times before. In his book Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, Philologist Karl Kerenyi put forward the thesis that one of the primary secrets of the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries, one of the most central and revered mystery cults of Ancient Greece, was that Dionysus is Hades. He cites the fact that the two gods have many overlapping and identical epithets, that certain of their statues have identical facial features, and that ancient writers such as Heraclitus and Euripedes imply or assert this identification in their writings, among other evidences. Clement of Alexandria quotes Heraclitus as saying, “… For were it not Dionysus to whom they institute a procession and sing songs in honor of the pudenda, it would be the most shameful action. But Dionysus, in whose honor they rave in bacchic frenzy, and Hades are the same…” (Fragment of Heraclitus (5th BC), quoted by Clement of Alexandria).
Kerenyi's case for the identification of these two gods is fascinating and multi-faceted. He points out that Persephone is abducted by Hades on the Nysian Plain, at the foot of Mount Nysa, the birthplace of Dionysus, and that this plain was dedicated to Dionysus. The ground is said to gape open when Hades emerges, while Dionysus has the epithet "the gaping one." Kerenyi claims that Demeter's rejection of wine while she mourns for her stolen daughter is a sign that her daughter's abductor is really the god of wine. Demeter says the drinking of wine at that time would be "contrary to themis, the order of nature" (Kerenyi, 207). He also notes that the pomegranate, the fruit given by Hades to Persephone, is a fruit associated strongly with Dionysus, describing, among other instances, an image in which, “a bearded, long-robed Dionysos was represented lying in a cave, holding in his hand a golden cup; around him grow the vine and the apple and the pomegranate tree" (Kerenyi, 134). Kerenyi also describes a votive engraving of the nameless chief god of the Mysteries, called in the dedication only Theos, or "God":
the recumbent god has the features rather of the bearded Dionysos than of Plouton [Hades]. In his right hand, he raises not a cornucopia, symbol of wealth, but a wine vessel with an animal's head, a rhyton; in his left, he bears the goblet for the wine. Over his head stands the dedication... “To Theos,” befitting the mystery god...On his couch sits his wife, identified by the dedication … “To Thea,” and differing from the Kore both in her features and in her headdress. Both female figures are assuredly Persephone, who showed her true face in the Mystery Night (152)
Thus he asserts that Persephone is here shown as the bride of Dionysus, making Dionysus one with Hades in such imagery. He points also to a painting on the Xenokles Cup which depicts what seems to be a wedding between Persephone and Dionysus, the couple attended by Hermes and Demeter on their left. With these evidences, among others, Kerenyi confidently concludes, “Kore and Thea are two different duplications of Persephone; Plouton and Theos are duplications of the subterranean Dionysos” (155), solidifying his thesis that “the wine god in his quality of Lord of the Underworld was the girl's ravisher” (35).
Can this proposed understanding of the sacred Mysteries be any further verified by comparison of the Hades myths with the other “Soma” myths? Indeed, if Kerenyi is correct and this identification was understood by the ancient initiates, they seemingly had good reasons, as comparative analysis will support. First of all, and crucially, we would have to treat the Hades myths as sometimes doubling some of the motifs we have traced already in the Dionysus myths. This doubling could then have been the result of separate tribes or even migrations bringing the two gods to prominence with different aspects emphasized, only later brought back together by those who could understand their equivalence. Or it could be the result of simple divergence over time after a splitting of the two gods. Such splitting could also come back to the idea that there were multiple connected gods who made up “Soma” and multiple known “Dionysuses.” Different regions may have focused on different iterations or aspects of the god. It is also possible that the Dionysus and Hades myths were simply rooted in the same original mythos, but diverged over time, becoming doubles or variants of one another. As Kerenyi himself puts it, discussing this tendency for the gods to be "doubled," “The student of Eleusinian mythology must acquire a kind of double sight if he wishes to do justice to the entire tradition – the literary and the pictorial – with all their contradictory statements which were allowed to stand side by side” (148).
In any event, we see once again in Hades' primary mythos a myth centered around the abduction and trapping of a goddess in the underworld, repeating the "Rhiannon" theme once more, and also possibly doubling the Hera and Hephaestus myth previously discussed. Persephone, daughter of Demeter is taken to the underworld by Hades, who allows her to leave, but only if she consumes nothing while there. She eats a certain number of pomegranate seeds, however, and so as a compromise she is allowed to live away from Hades for part of the year and to stay with him as his wife for the remainder. Thus we have, combined into one story, the marriage of a proposed “Soma” god (Hades) to his bride, and the trapping in the underworld of the goddess. Crucial to this interpretation is the fact that, exactly as in the Welsh Rhiannon myth and the Indian Samvarana-Tapati myth, when the goddess is trapped or stays too long in the otherworld location, away from the society that needs her, the world becomes a wasteland. When Persephone is away, crops die and nature is sapped of vitality. For this reason, her stay in the underworld is often seen as taking place during, and causing the conditions of, the harsh Summer or perhaps Winter. It must be said that the similar trapping of Welsh Pryderi and Rhiannon in the Otherworld is also frequently seen as connected to a concept of seasonal change, and Samvarana staying on the sacred mountain too long specifically causes the rains to stop. But the “wasteland” period caused by the absence of Persephone does not have to be tied to a particular seasonal timeframe, and can be seen in a more general sense as the archetypal wasteland found in the other Lunar Cycles, connected to the paradigmatic drought or blight brought on by the forgotten sacrifice.
It is Hermes, the proposed Gandharva, who brings Persephone out of the underworld (a subject found on Attic vases), just as the Gandharva Samvarana accompanies Tapati, after the help of Vasistha, back to society to heal the wasteland. Meanwhile the “Surya's Bridal” hymn explicitly states that Surya passes from Soma to the Gandharva, for safe keeping, just as Hermes has become a temporary guide for Persephone, a situation we also see with Welsh Pwyll, who stays with Arawn's wife for a time, like a surrogate husband and guardian.
We can thus see just how much has shifted around in the various versions, though we can now also track these shifts more precisely. Hermes' role in the myth (when he is considered as the Gandharva) also brings together the same set of gods once again: Soma (Hades), the Gandharva (Hermes), the Young Child (this time a daughter, Persephone), and the Great Queen (Persephone taking both the role of the mother Rhiannon and child Pryderi in a sense). The fact that there is no “Young Son” in this Greek version, as there is in the Welsh with Pryderi, but instead a “Young Daughter,” may have a distinct cause and be the result of a specific documented syncretism.
It is well-attested that Persephone took the place in this particular myth that had once been occupied by a goddess bearing the title Despoina. Likewise, this Despoina had a prominent mother figure in her myth. Kerenyi explains that "The older goddess who originally no doubt played the part of the mother was not entirely forgotten, even after Demeter had taken her place” (Kerenyi, Eleusis, 132). The religion of the pre-Greeks was thus dominated by a cult of a mother goddess and her daughter, a fact that has left its imprint on the form of the Demeter-Persephone myth. This mother goddess had both a daughter and a son (or a daughter and a horse, just as, for instance, the parallel Norse god Freyr is closely tied to his sister Freyja, or Irish Aengus to his sister Brigid, and as Pryderi is curiously born the same day as a special horse), but the son seems to have been overshadowed by the daughter, Despoina. This may explain why, while in the Welsh version both a goddess and “Young Son” are trapped in the underworld together, in the Greek version it is only a “Young Daughter” who takes on this role, her male horse-associated counterpart pushed out of the picture in accordance with an earlier local understanding.
Not only can we see the “Young Daughter” take the place otherwise occupied by “Young Son” and Mother Goddess together, but Despoina/Persephone's mother, the great Earth goddess Demeter, has a myth directly paralleled in Rhiannon's myth as well. That is, Rhiannon parallels both the mother goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, seemingly taking both roles in the Welsh version. Kerenyi, in fact, believed that Persephone and Demeter should be seen as merely two aspects of one goddess, saying that "Demeter represented the earthly aspect. Persephone another, rather ghostly and transcendent,” (33) and, “Demeter searched for her vanished daughter as though she were the lost half of herself and found her at last in the underworld” (130). He also explains that this doubling of aspects may have resulted from the overlaying of Demeter onto the pre-existing mother-daughter goddesses: "Obviously the grain goddess was a latecomer, fitted into an older genealogy, now in one way, now in another. The later conception that Demeter and not Rhea was Persephone's mother won out and became classical” (133). Therefore seeing the single Welsh goddess Rhiannon as taking the roles of both Demeter and Persephone would be perfectly natural.
Rhiannon's parallel with Demeter is this: Rhiannon is initially seen by Pwyll, the Gandharva, who sends riders after her, but she cannot be caught up to, though her horse appears only to amble. Later she gives birth to her son the same night a horse is born (he is a "Horse Twin" god, Pryderi), then she is punished for seeming to have killed her son even though he was only kidnapped (it is debated whether in an earlier version of the myth she actually did kill her son, sending him temporarily to the otherworld) by having to give people rides on her back like a horse, and finally she is made to wear the collars of a donkey during her imprisonment in the Otherworld. Repeatedly, she is made to take on the actions of a horse and to be identified and associated with horses (Irish Etain, "horse rider," is also closely tied to horses). In Demeter's myth, Poseidon Hippios (“of the horses”) sees Demeter and chases after her. To escape him, Demeter then turns into a horse (compare Rhiannon evading pursuit on her magically ambling horse after Pwyll sees her). Poseidon turns into a stallion, catches Demeter, and mates with her, whereas Rhiannon ultimately stops for Pwyll and pledges to be wed with him (much more similar in this last detail to the Indian version than to the Greek, which emphasizes this union as capture and violation).
Now, it is also attested that the earlier mate of Demeter in this archaic form of the myth was known simply as the Wanax, or “chief,” or by the name Paredros, “companion.” This was not originally Poseidon properly, but, due to the fact that Poseidon was the god generally given the title of Wanax, and the fact that this god was associated with underground streams as well as with horses, Demeter's mate became identified as Poseidon – again not Poseidon proper, but Poseidon Hippios. It is believed that this horse-associated Wanax was originally a separate being connected to underground rivers and springs. Considering the close similarity of Welsh Pwyll's encounter with and pursuit of the equine Rhiannon to this Poseidon's pursuit of the equine Demeter, we should examine the possibility that this Wanax Hippios may originally have been something more like Pwyll the Gandharva than the sea god Poseidon. The Gandharvas, after all, are heavily associated with the giving of horses. As a psychopomp (see Hermes) they are also associated with the underground liminal space approaching the underworld, and the rivers that flow and spring from that space (like the Styx, boundary of worlds, by which Hermes is often depicted). It is difficult to make an in-depth speculation of this kind due to the small amount of information on this Wanax, but due to the several connections we have pointed to thus far, the possibility should be more carefully examined in the future. As this was a very archaic figure, it is not clear whether he was Indo-European in origin or not, but the question of why Welsh Pwyll takes the parallel role remains intriguing.
Another curious myth associated with the bride – Skaði – of one of the "Soma" gods – Njorðr – also occurs in Demeter's tale. This is the scene in which the goddess, having lost a family member, her daughter, is made to laugh by the attending deities, specifically in order to quell the goddess' wrath and make peace. This happens when Demeter loses Persephone to the underworld god, and is then consoled, in early versions by the goddess Iambe, and in Orphic versions by the goddess Baubo. To pacify Demeter in her grief and anger (Demeter being known for the furious form she can take, Demeter Erinys), Iambe or Baubo jest, dance, and perform "obscene gestures," for example exposing their genitals to Demeter. Baubo even "throws herself on her back" in this obscene dance or gesture, and the result is that, though Demeter is not consoled, she is pacified, she "grows mild and tender” (40). This is strikingly similar to the performance that is given to the Norse goddess Skaði in the Prose Edda book Skaldskaparmal when her father has been killed. She too must be pacified, as well as repaid, in order to make peace. To appease her, the gods must attempt to make her laugh. So Loki ties a cord around the beard of a goat and connects the other end to his own testicles. As Baubo ends her obscene dance, her genitals exposed, by falling on her back, so Loki similarly ends, his testicles humorously pulled about, by falling in Skaði's lap. Until now it has been difficult to see how the contexts of these two scenes could connect them. Only with an understanding of both of these myths as important parts of the Lunar Cycle, the husbands of Skaði (Njörðr) and Persephone (Hades) being parallels, Demeter and Persephone being aspects of one another and partial parallels of Skaði, indeed the abduction of Iðunn which had immediately preceded this scene also being a parallel of the abduction of Persephone, can we see that these myths are after all in their right places. Only by understanding both Hades and Njörðr as "Soma" gods, or in a similar way intimately interrelated, can this parallel make complete sense.
Looking to the case of Iberia, we may even see a deity who forms an illuminating bridge between the Celtic underworld/Soma gods and Dionysus. This is Endovelicus, Iberian lord of the Underworld, associated with vegetation, grapes, the vine, crowns, pine cones, mountains, dreams, pigs, fertility, swans, dogs, and equated with Serapis, a Roman form of Osiris who also has a bull aspect. Each of these symbols can be seen connected with either Dionysus, Hades, or one of the other Celtic “Soma” cognates, Midir or Arawn. Grapes, vines, crowns and pine cones are all central symbols of Dionysus in his role as god of wine, fertility and vegetation. His origin on or association with a mountain is a part of his very name: “Dio nysus,” meaning god of Mount Nysa. Dreams are the purview of Hades, and he is known as “Plouton, master of the black-winged Oneiroi (dreams)” in an anonymous Greek lyric (V Anonymous, Fragments 963, from Demetrius, On Style, BC). Irish Midir is closely associated with swans, turning into a pair with his wife to escape Eochu Airem. Hades famously keeps the three-headed dog Cerberus who guards his realm. Arawn gives “the Swine of Arawn” to Pwyll as a token of friendship.
Just as Norse Njörðr is known as the god of wealth, and indeed Vedic Soma is repeatedly associated with wealth, while Welsh Arawn's underworld palace is said to be "the best supplied with food and drink, and vessels of gold and royal jewels" of all courts, so Hades too is seen as the lord of all the mineral and vegetative wealth held within the earth, and his quality of richness is emphasized in his byname, Plouton, which was also the name of his Roman analog, meaning “the rich one.” Thus Hades naturally fills the role of "god of wealth" repeatedly connected with the "Soma" god in his chthonic aspect. And while Hades is known for his two-pronged "bident," Irish Midir, at least, is said to carry a 5-pronged fork.
Further curiosities include the fact that Demeter goes to Helios, the Sun god, to find out who has stolen her daughter. He is the only one who can answer this question. In the Indian Samvarana tale, the (fire) priest Vasistha must go to the Sun god Vivasvat right before Samvarana and Tapati have their wasteland-causing dalliance on the otherworldly mountain, but this visit to the Sun god is in order to procure the Sun Princess' hand in marriage for Samvarana. Also during Demeter's mourning period, she is known to have sat on a simple chair, or, in an older version, on a particular rock, and stayed there without laughing. Due to the fact that Theseus sits on this same "laughless rock" or agelastos petra right before descending to the underworld, it may be said that the rock and the underworld have a close connection. Thus this chair/rock of Demeter may parallel the sacred mound that Pryderi and the others sit on to trigger the wasteland, and the chair of Hephaestus that Hera sits on to cause the crisis in that version. Finally, Kerenyi says of the marriage of Hades and Persephone that it was "the prototype of all marriages” (174), which is precisely the explicit role given to the marriage of Soma and Surya in the Rig Veda and elsewhere.
If the claims of Kerenyi and Heraclitus and the suggestion of Euripides are correct, and Hades is to be identified with Dionysus, then both the Eleusinian Mysteries and the cults of Dionysus and his unmixed wine could stem, at least in part (taking into account considerable layers of syncretism), from the myths of the Indo-European “Soma” cycle. In the case of Dionysus, there is significant documented Egyptian influence, while in the case of Hades we see significant influence from an earlier greek if not pre-greek substrate of myths, and these separate influences may have gone a long way to giving the two gods the seemingly separate characters they came to possess.
However, despite all the important connections we have arrayed in the foregoing, a second possibility has to be put forward. We have seen from the Celtic case just how many underworld gods there may have been in the Proto-Indo-European society: the “Soma” god, the god of the dead (Yama, Donn, perhaps Bran, etc.), the “Gandharva,” the Fire god (Manannan), the god of the wild hunt of ghosts (Gwynn, Rudra) not to mention underworld roles that may have belonged to the Horse Twins and Wind god. Hence we would be remiss if we did not consider the clear possibility that Hades and Dionysus were simply two lords of the underworld who overlapped in certain ways, shared certain traits and roles. From this perspective, it may be more proper to see the Dionysus cycle of myths that we have investigated as forming the first portion of the Lunar Cycle, Dionysus marrying Ariadne paralleling for instance the marriage of Arawn and his wife, Midir and Etain, Skaði and Njorðr, Soma and Surya, and Chyavana and Sukanya. This would also include the possible Aesir-Vanir War motif of Dionysus battling Poseidon and the Indian Brahmins, as well as the Dioskouroi winning their wives, Hilaeria and Phoibe. The Hades and Persephone cycle would follow this myth cycle just as the abduction of Rhiannon and Pryderi follows the aforementioned myths in the Welsh case. This brings up an unanswered question from the Welsh myth: while the Soma god Arawn appears as the lord of the Underworld of Annwn in the very beginning of the Welsh Lunar Cycle, when Rhiannon and Pryderi are whisked away to the Otherworld upon touching the golden bowl it is not at all clear who has taken them. We find out in the end that it was a friend of Gwawl, from whom Pwyll had taken Rhiannon, and this friend is named Llwyd ap Cil Coed. This name is mysterious, however, meaning “grey-blue, son of the depths of the woods,” and an underworld identity beneath the surface is a debated question. One might guess that it has been Arawn by another name, as he is a lord of the Underworld, but Arawn was so close and so fully allied to Pryderi's father Pwyll that they were nearly identified. It seems unlikely that he would perpetrate such a hostility on his ally's wife and son. The abductor of Rhiannon and Pryderi, who parallels Hades in this act of abduction, seems likely to have been a completely separate Otherworld deity from the Soma god. Among those left on our list of underworld gods when we remove the Soma god (Arawn), the Gandharva (Pwyll), the Fire god (Manawydan) and the Horse Twin (Pryderi), would be the parallel of Vedic Yama or the parallel of Vedic Rudra.
If the Hades abduction myth follows after Dionysus' myths rather than fully overlapping them, this could still involve a certain amount of doubling, interchange of motifs, and even overlap between the sets of myths, and this could explain some of the parallels we have seen in the preceding. There is a kind of doubling redundancy to the Dioscouroi, Dionysus' twin sons, and Persephone and her forgotten brother that can be seen when lining all these traditions up, and this may come down to the question of variant versions of the myths and the various layers of syncretism we have previously discussed. Indeed, from this perspective the myths of Dionysus and Hades would still form one long cycle of connected myths: the totality of the Great Lunar Cycle. Furthermore, the naturally overlapping nature of Hades and Dionysus as underworld gods would explain many motifs that became shared or even interchanged between them. If this conclusion is the proper one to take from what we have seen, then Kerenyi and Heraclitus' theory of the identity of Hades and Dionysus could only be true from an esoteric perspective, seeing their essences as united on a deeper level. Whether this is the proper conclusion or whether Hades and Dionysus are indeed one, I leave an open question. To pursue it further would require looking at, for instance, a fuller comparison of Vedic Yama and Greek Hades, and investigating whether there was seen to be any overlap of Soma and Yama, either in an esoteric sense, or if at their roots they could have even come from a shared origin. As it stands, it appears to us most prudent to consider Yama and Soma separately and thus to consider Hades and Dionysus likewise.
However, we will add one final line of speculation to this prospect. We have discussed how both Norse Mimir and Njorðr could be seen as aspects of the Soma mythos, Njorðr much more securely. Reflected upon with the Hades and Dionysus example in mind, the question of Njorðr and Mimir could face a similar problem, and we should be sure not to lump together what ought to be kept separate. In fact, it was Viktor Rydberg who first suggested that Mimir could be read as a parallel of both Vedic Soma and Vedic Yama. This could make some sense if Soma and Yama had any overlap in the Vedic sources, which again is beyond our scope. At present we will only state that Rydberg's argument for Mimir as Yama appears perhaps stronger than his argument for Mimir as Soma, considering that Lif and Lifthrasir are protected in something named after Mimir – Hoddmimis holt, “Hoard-Mimir's holt or grove” – during the great Fimbulwinter, to emerge when Ragnarok has ended in order to repopulate the world. Yima, the Iranic parallel of Vedic Yama, himself has an underground enclosure wherein he is instructed to keep men and women to wait out the “evil winters” of “deadly frost” that Ahura Mazda will send to destroy the earth. Even if Hoddmimis holt is merely a kenning for Yggdrasil, which scholars such as Simek and Lindow maintain on very tenuous evidence, this does not change the fact that the grove bears the name of Mimir. Lindow himself posits the case loosely by claiming that the grove of trees could even be in a location in the vicinity of Yggdrasil rather than Yggdrasil itself, and this would not at all disrupt the possible thread between Mimir and Yama. As such, if we could establish that Mimir parallels Yama and that Hades could as well, we could see why Mimir sometimes seems to overlap the sacred-water role associated with the Soma god, just as Hades sometimes overlaps Dionysus.
If we follow this speculative train a bit further, we can see that Bran, another likely Welsh underworld god, could fit into this larger pattern. We have said already how Bron becomes a name of the Grail King in later versions, and how the severed head at the Grail castle is reminiscent of the severed head of the god Bran that is central to Welsh myth. Thus Bran's presence is certainly felt in the Grail version of the Lunar Cycle. If the abductor of Rhiannon and Pryderi is unclear, Bran as such an underworld god is one possible candidate, as he is also a possible candidate for the Welsh parallel of Vedic Yama. Now, in the Welsh myth the severed head of the god Bran is taken back to Britain where it continues to speak and to guard the land. Norse Mimir himself is beheaded, his head preserved, and continues to dispense advice to Oðinn. The similarity between the myth of Mimir and that of Bran has remained puzzling, as in other points their myths do not coincide, but if they both could be seen as versions of the same “Yama” underworld god, then the mystery could be explained.
It is a popular theory that Irish Donn comes from the same root as this Yama, seeing that Eber Donn is the first of the Sons of Mil to die on reaching Ireland, and Donn becomes known as an underworld god, with the rocky island Tech Duinn known as his domain, while Vedic Yama is the first human to die, and becomes the lord of the underworld as a result. Next we have Dagda, who, while he has a much larger identity, also seems to have an underworld role, gives and takes life and presides at the burial mount Brugh na Boinne. He is sometimes called Dagda Donn, which could refer to many things including simply to a dark color or an adjective meaning “noble,” but could also indicate his underworld role, as if he had absorbed or overlapped the role of Donn. Meanwhile, we have previously suggested, and are not the first to do so, that Bran, the giant king with his cauldron of reviving could parallel the giant king Dagda with his cauldron of plenty and staff of reviving. We then would draw a line speculatively between Dagda and Bran in their underworld aspects, which could include the role of Donn aka Yama. As such, through this long and narrow line of connections, the talking head of Bran could be an actual match to the talking head of Mimir, and these could be seen in relation to the archetype of this “Yama.” From many directions we see the name of Yama popping up, a counterpart and counterpoint to the Soma underworld god. Against those who would claim Mimir is merely a local water spirit of some kind I would say only this: who then is the governing deity who governs the waters springing up from the underground and the spirits that manifest therein?
From a ritual perspective, we should also investigate whether the Mahavira earthen pot used in the Pravargya ceremony, introduced at the “head” of the soma sacrifice, and which is believed to stand in for the head of Vishnu, in which milk is boiled to be offered to the Asvins, could have originally been seen as the head of Yama instead of Vishnu. This would be a possibility based on the idea that Yama was the first man killed and thus that Yama was the original primordial sacrificial being, parallel of Norse Ymir and Roman Remus in this role. In Rig Veda 10.13.4 Yama sacrifices himself at High Priest Brihaspati's yajna sacrifice: “He, for God's sake, chose death to be his portion. He chose not, for men's good, a life eternal
They sacrificed Bṛhaspati the Ṛṣi. Yama delivered up his own dear body.” Vishnu could have replaced Yama in this role as his cult rose to prominence, but Yama would have been the more archaic being whose dismembered body is the sacrifice. If this line of inquiry could prove valid, then the severed head motif relating to the possible “Yama” parallels we have discussed could have partially survived in its ritual form in the Mahavira pot, a key part of the soma sacrifice.
We offer these last notes only as a sketch and await further research into these questions.
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Works Cited:
Athenaios
Carl Kerenyi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter
Clement of Alexandria, Fragments of Heraclitus
Demetrius, On Style
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History
Egyptian Book of the Dead
Herodotus, Histories
Hill, J, 2008, https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/
H. Jeremiah Lewis, “Dionysos and Osiris Compared” http://alkman1.blogspot.com/2006/12/osiris-and-dionysos-compared.html
The Mahabharata
Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion
Nonnus, Dionysiaca
Ovid, Fasti
Papyrus of Nebseni
Papyrus of Nakht
Pausanias, Guide to Greece
Pinch 2004
Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris
The Poetic Edda
The Prose Edda
The Rig Veda
Sigrid Hoedel-Hoenes, Life and Death in Ancient Egypt, 114
Text of Pepi II
Theoi.com
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