Baubo

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Greek terracotta figure of a Baubo found in Priene

Baubo ( ancient Greek Βαυβώ) is a figure from Greek mythology who appears particularly in the myths of the early Orphics . It belongs to the myth of the fertility goddess Demeter . The figure Iambe from the Homeric Hymns is identified with her.

myth

Baubo is a resident of Eleusis, is married to Dysaules and is the mother of Triptolemus and Eubuleus and the daughters Protonoe and Nesa (or Nisa ) or, after the reading, by Karl Müller der Mise .

Its name already indicates the connection to the Eleusinian mystery cult : Βαυβώ means "womb". Together with Baubon she is interpreted - like the couple Iambe / Iambos  - according to Charles Picard , Marie-Joseph Lagrange and Alfred Loisy as a personification of sexuality. According to others, the cult activities assigned to them had apotropaic significance. Ludwig Radermacher , Erwin Rohde and Robert Eisler suspect the origin of the figure Baubo in a dog-shaped, female frightening demon from the retinue of the Hecate analogous to Gorgo , Gello , Mormo and others.

From her role in the Eleusinian mystery cult, Baubo's job as a companion of Demeter also results: after the kidnapping of her daughter Persephone by the underworld god Hades , Demeter mourns and is cheered up by Baubo with obscene jokes. Specifically, one of these jokes was exposing the vulva .

In Arnobius describes how Baubo, a resident of Eleusis, completely exhausted by the search for her daughter Demeter ( Ceres in Arnobius) takes with him, asks them to neglect not quite her Kykeon brings a mixing rank from wine and Grain, which the goddess refuses and in no way lets herself be encouraged in her grief. Baubo then resorted to other means: she went and made her abdomen smooth and soft like a child (that is, probably to shave the pubic hair), then she returned, began to joke and finally uncovered her smooth abdomen.

And Clemens of Alexandria quotes the corresponding passage from the Orphica :

Said it and pulled up the robes and showed
the whole formation of the body and was not ashamed.
And little Iakchos
laughed and slapped Baubo's breasts with his hand .
As soon as the goddess noticed this,
she immediately smiled from the heart,
then took the bare vessel in which the mixed drink was served to her.

Arnobius expressly notes that the gesture of the Baubo is to be seen as a parallel and correspondence to the presentation of the Phallos in the cult of Dionysus . Accordingly, it has been concluded that the Baubo representation (that is, portraits of women with bare abdomen, mostly with widely spread thighs) is an apotropaic vulva, just as the fascinum is an apotropaic phallos.

Some terracotta figures from the Demeter sanctuary in Priene show women with bare abdomen designed as faces. It has therefore been speculated that it was a representation of the Baubo, i.e. that the Baubo joke was that she had painted a stomach face and that this face was the (beardless) child Iakchos mentioned in the orphic fragment.

As art-historical term as are Baubo figurines or short Baubos a group of relatively small terracotta -Figurinen referred to the Roman Greco-mainly from Egypt and come crouching women with bared vulva show. It is believed that they can be assigned to the cult of Isis or the syncretistic amalgamation of Isis and Demeter and of Osiris and Dionysus. The name probably goes back to a classification coined by Margaret Murray in an article about depictions of female fertility.

reception

Baubo experienced modern reception most prominently in Goethe's drama Faust: The Tragedy First Part , where she appears as a participant in Walpurgis Night :

  Voice.
Old Baubo comes alone,
she rides a mother pig.
  Choir.
So honor to whom honor is due!
Mrs. Baubo in front! and led!
A good pig and mother on it, then
the whole crowd of witches follows.

Goethe's description was perhaps inspired by Roman terracotta statues depicting a naked woman, possibly Baubo, riding a pig. Goethe's quote is taken up by Settembrini in Thomas Mann's Der Zauberberg .

A modern reception in the sense of a return to mythology in the GDR literature of the 80s is the story Baubo by Franz Fühmann .

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pausania's description of Greece 1.14.2.
  2. ↑ Suda sv Δυσαύλης and Valerius Harpokration Lexicon on the ten speakers sv Δυσαύλης.
  3. ^ Karl Müller Fragmenta historicorum graecorum . Volume 2, p. 339.
  4. ^ Wolfgang Fauth: Baubo. In: Little Pauly. Sp. 843.
  5. ↑ Arnobius adversus nationes 5.25-29.
  6. ↑ Clemens Protreptikus 20–21, also Orphic Fragments 52 ( core : Orphicorum fragmenta. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1922.)
  7. ↑ The κόλπος translated here as “breasts” also means “vulva”, see z. B. Euripides Helena 1159.
  8. ^ Translation by Otto Stählin from: Des Clemens von Alexandreia selected writings. J. Kösel & F. Pustet, Kempten & Munich 1934 ( unifr.ch ).
  9. ↑ Devereux in particular devoted a broad investigation to this aspect.
  10. ↑ Today in the Antikensammlung Berlin .
  11. ^ Hermann Diels : Arcana Cerealia in Miscelanea Salinas. Palermo 1907, p. 8.
  12. ^ Marcella Pisani: The Collection of Terracotta Figurines in the British School at Athens . In: The Annual of the British School at Athens . Volume 101, 2006, p. 290, doi: 10.1017 / S006824540002133X .
  13. ^ MA Murray: Female Fertility Figures. In: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Volume 64 (1934), ISSN  1359-0987 , pp. 93-100, doi: 10.2307 / 2843950 , JSTOR 2843950 .
  14. ↑ Faust, Verse 3962-3967: Text see Wikisource .
  15. ^ Fritz Graf: Baubo. In: The New Pauly. Illustration in Devereux: Baubo, p. 75.
  16. ↑ On Goethe's reception see also Rolf Cantzen : Saugute Histories. The pig in literature. (PDF; 54 kB) Broadcast: Thursday, November 13, 2008, 8:30 a.m., SWR 2. Südwestrundfunk. SWR2 Wissen - Manuskriptdienst, p. 3–4 ("In 'Faust' Johann Wolfgang von Goethe combines Nordic pig myths and Greek fertility cults." / "And this Baubo appears in Goethe as a witch's wife, she rides a fertile mother pig").
  17. ↑ Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain. Roman (= large commented Frankfurt edition. Works, letters, diaries). Edited by Michael Neumann. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-10-400300-9 , p. 405 ( preview in Google book search). -
    Laura Baginski - from Baubo to Vulviva. In: feuilletonfrankfurt.de, August 18, 2012, retrieved on March 28, 2020 (“Writer father Thomas Mann, in turn, takes up his century novel“ The Magic Mountain ”, fifth chapter, in the fifth chapter following the“ Dance of Death ” Section "Walpurgis Night" - unfortunately obviously uncritical - back to Goethe's Walpurgis Night. ").
  18. ↑ Franz Fühmann : The ear of Dionysius. Stories. Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1985, pp. 54–72, the narrative itself is from 1984.