Nysa (myth)

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Nysa ( Greek  Νύσα ) is a place of Greek mythology . It is the name of the birthplace of the god Dionysus and the name of the plain where the kidnapping of the Kore / Persephone took place.

Birth of Dionysus

The nymphs of Nysa prepare a bath for the newborn Dionysus, House of Aion, Paphos (Cyprus), 4th century. A.D.

Homer already mentioned the mountain Nyseion ( Νυσήϊον ) as the place where Dionysus grew up under the protection of the nymphs . The mountain is named after Nysa , Dionysus' wet nurse .

Even in antiquity, there was no agreement about a localization. Numerous places related to viticulture were associated and eventually named accordingly. Eustathios of Thessalonike locates Nysa in the Caucasus , but names Boeotia , Arabia , India and Libya as alternatives . Stephanos of Byzantium names 10 cities named Nysa, some of which are real (e.g. Nysa on the meander ), others are mythical.

A nysa also appears in Herodotus in Aithiopia . Since at that time Ethiopia was counted as part of India, this Nysa was therefore identified with the Indian Nysa of Dionysus, in the course of the expansion of the geographical horizon due to the Alexander move, it was obvious to locate the Nysa occupied by Herodotus in the now better known India: So Nysa appears to Arrian as a very real city, located between the rivers Kabul and Indus . Dionysus founded the city after the conquest of India and named it Nysa ( Νῦσα ) in honor of his wet nurse . The nearby mountains of Meros are named after the thigh ( μηρός ) of Zeus , from which Dionysus was born (see thigh birth ). The residents are not Indians, but descendants of companions of Dionysus and parts of the army who remained in India as invalids. Accordingly, there have been similar dubious attempts at localization in modern times (e.g. on the Swat , on the Kabul, the Meros as Pamir , etc.)

In Pliny is Nysa with Skythopolis , one of the cities of the Decapolis in Syria identified. In fact, the cult of Dionysus seems to have had a special meaning there.

In connection with this, the Nyseion Mountains appear in the Dionysiacs of Nonnos of Panopolis during the confrontation between Dionysus , who comes from Carmel , and Lycurgus , who drives Dionysus' wet nurses over the mountains with an invincible battle ax and finally forces the god himself to join the sea Tethys to take refuge. Lycurgus is in and of itself linked with Thrace , but already at the turn of the 5th to 4th century BC. The myth seems to have been transferred to Syria, where Lycurgus was possibly equated with an Arab deity.

Abduction of Persephone

According to the Homeric hymn , the Nysa was the name of the plain ( Νύσιον πεδίον Nysion pedion ) where the kidnapping of the Kore, the daughter of Demeter, by Hades , the ruler of the underworld, took place. There she played with her companions, the Oceanids , and picked flowers. At the command of Zeus a wonderful, amazing flower, the daffodil, grew there . But when Kore bent down, the earth opened and Hades jumped out on his chariot. He grabbed the girl and dragged her down to the underworld, where he made her Persephone, Queen of the Dead.

Typhon

Apollonios of Rhodes brings another ambiguity , who in the Argonautica casually linked the Nysa plain with the conquest of the monster Typhon by Zeus : the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece was said to have sprung from the earth on the rock of Typhon in the Caucasus , near the mountains and the plain of Nysa, where Typhon, conquered by Zeus, lies in bands under the Sirbonian Sea , the Sirbonian Sea being located at the eastern end of the Nile Delta .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homer Iliad 6,132f
  2. ↑ Eustathios von Thessalonike Commentary on the Iliad 6.33
  3. ↑ Stephanos of Byzantium sv Νῦσαι
  4. ↑ Herodotus Histories 2.146
  5. ↑ Arrian Anabasis 5.1.1-6
  6. ↑ Arrian Indika 1.4-5
  7. ↑ Pliny Naturalis historia 5.74
  8. ↑ R. Barkay: Dionysiac Mythology on City Coins of Nysa-Scythopolis. In: Proceedings of the XIth International Numismatic Congress (Brussels 1991) , Vol. 1, 1993, pp. 371-375
  9. ↑ Antimachos von Kolophon fr. 127 in: Bernhard Wyss: Antimachi Colophonii reliquiae. Berlin 1936
  10. ↑ Etymologicum magnum sv Δαμασκός
  11. ↑ P. Chuvin: Mythologie et geographie dionysiaques. 1991, pp. 254-271
  12. ↑ Homeric Hymus 2 To Demeter 5-19
  13. ↑ Apollonios of Rhodos Argonautika II.1196ff