Silenus
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Silenus or Silenus ( ancient Greek Σιληνός Silēnós or Σειληνός Seilēnós , Latin Silenus, Selenus ) is an individualized figure in Greek mythology compared to little differentiated satyrs and silenas . This includes typical forms of pictorial representation as well as a specific costume in a satyr play, the figure of the Papposil .
myth
origin
The origin is unclear: according to Nonnos of Panopolis he jumped from earth, thus a son of Gaia , according to Claudius Aelianus the son of a nymph , a son of Hermes he is said to have been or a son of Pan with a nymph.
Nonnos ascribes three sons to Silenus: Astraios , Maron and Leneus . According to Pliny he is the father of Staphylos who introduced the custom of mixing wine with water, in the Bibliotheke of Apollodorus it is with an ash nymph Melia as the father of the Centaurs Pholos named and Strabo he is with Melia's father Dolion , the Ancestor of the Bithynian Dolions .
Educator of Dionysus
He was the teacher of Dionysus and with the maenads his companion on his parades. One of the Orphic hymns is addressed to Silenus:
Nourishing, hear, most glorious, me, Bakcho's tutor, most
excellent you of the Silenians, honored to the eternal and all
mortal men after three years of sweeping years;
Loud and pure, honorable, organizer of the festivities;
Exulting, always sleepless with the beautifully girdled wet nurses,
who lead the Naïds, and the Bacchae in the wreath of ivy:
near 'all-divine consecration' devotion with all the satyrs,
animal form, in the cheers of King Bakchos,
And with the Bacchae fill Lenaios' perfection Solemnity,
nocturnal orgies celebration by revealing holy consecrations,
Thyrsos-glad, in shouting, cheering up by round songs!
The "after three kehrendem years [...] arranger of Feiergepränges" that every 2 years (three years after the inclusive counting) in Delphi taking place at the time of the winter solstice festival of Trieteris , in which the Thyiaden Athens and Delphi to a common nocturnal celebration united in the mountain forests of Parnassus , after the Athenians Dionysia, the most important festival of the Dionysus cult .
Silenus and Midas
However, Silenus is not only an old drinker and reveler in Dionysus' entourage, but also a source of wisdom, which is shown in the story of Silenus and the Phrygian king Midas . In one version of the story, Silenus made fun of Midas' long ears, which revealed the king's kinship with the Silenians and satyrs. Midas therefore decided to take Silenus prisoner and for this purpose mixed the water of a well with wine and let Silenos drink from it, so that he was drunk and could be captured. The well is said to have been near Ankyra in Phrygia .
In the case of Ovid , Claudius Aelianus and Hyginus Mythographus , however, there is no talk of a capture: Silenus, as Dionysus' companion on the campaign to India, lost contact with the troops and was accepted by Midas as an honored guest. In gratitude for this, Dionysus granted Midas the fulfillment of a wish. As is known, Midas fatally wished that everything he touched would turn into gold.
Silenus' report of the land beyond the Ocean
The "mixed stories" ( varia historia ) of Claudius Aelianus from the 2nd century contain an astonishing account of the countries beyond the Ocean. The wise Silenus is said to have told King Midas that Europe, Asia and Africa are islands surrounded by the great Ocean and that there is only one huge continent beyond the Ocean.
There lived people who were not only twice as big, but also twice as old. There are many big cities there with strange customs and traditions, but above all two cities: Machimon ( Μάχιμον ) and Eusebe ( Εὐσεβῆ ), extremely warlike Machimon and extremely peaceful Eusebe.
In Eusebe there is constant peace and prosperity, the earth bears fruit without the need for the plow or the ox, one does not have to fertilize or sow. The citizens of Eusebe lived disease free and died laughing. They are so pious that the gods often talked to them personally.
The citizens of Machimon, on the other hand, are very belligerent, always armed and always fighting. They subjugate the neighboring peoples and the city ruled over numerous other cities. The number of inhabitants is more than 2 million. Sometimes the Machimonians die of disease, but only rarely, mostly they fell through stone or wood in war, because they are not vulnerable to steel weapons. They had such an abundance of gold and silver that gold was less valuable for them than iron was for us.
Once they took a trip to our islands. Ten million of them crossed the sea until they came to the land of the Hyperboreans . When they found out that the Hyperboreans are considered to be the happiest among human beings, but that the Hyperboreans led an inferior, glorious life in their eyes, they decided that it was not worthwhile to continue exploring or conquering our world.
Furthermore, on the furthest shore of the country there is said to be a place called Anoston ( stenνοστον ), a place of no return, similar to a sea bay. There it is neither dark nor light, but a reddish haze prevails there. Two rivers poured out there, one of sorrow and one of joy. Trees the size of plane trees grow on the banks of the rivers . Anyone who tasted the fruits of the trees on the river of grief would only shed tears and feel sadness throughout their life. On the other hand, anyone who eats the fruit of a tree by the river of joy will always be happy from now on, forget any longing, begin to become younger, throw away the years, become a youth again, a boy and die a happy infant.
Whatever one might think of this miraculous account, the geographic knowledge of Silenus seems to have been more of a theoretical kind, since otherwise he would not have gotten so lost in Phrygia, Asia Minor (i.e. on his doorstep, so to speak) that he would have received the hospitality of King Midas had to take.
presentation
Silenus
... as a mask
... and Socrates
With the development of the satyr game, Silenus had established himself as an individualized type. He is the leader of the Choir of Satyrs.
Famous is the place in the banquet of Plato , in the Alcibiades Socrates compares with Silenus: "I maintain that is that he quite similar whether those Silenen, which are found in the workshops of sculptors maintain as these artists to present them with shepherds pipes or flutes, ; but if you take them apart on both sides, it turns out that they include idols. ”As beautiful as that with the idol hidden inside may be, the comparison is dubious as far as the exterior is concerned.
The comical mask shows a bearded old man with a bald head, bulging eyes and a wide, flat nose, similarly he is depicted in sculpture and painting. He often appears drunk and is then supported by his drinking companions. So it forms the center of the Komos , the noisy parade of revelers at night. His mount is always the donkey, which makes its roar, which was so useful in the giants' battle, sound at the wrong time.
Ovid tells the story in the Fasti that Cybele invites the gods, nymphs and satyrs to a festival, but not Silenus, who appears anyway with his donkey. At the end of the festival everyone is drunk and sinks senseless, with the exception of Priapus , who thinks the moment is suitable for attacking Vesta's chastity. Then the donkey roars, Vesta is startled and Priapus has to flee shamefully from the angry goddess.
From the 5th century onwards, a specific type of Papposil ( Σειληνός πάππος "Father Silenos") develops , a Silenos in sheep's clothing, whereby the sheepskin sometimes covers the whole body, as can be seen on the statue of the Berlin Antiquities Collection , sometimes only is loosely wrapped around the hips.
In modern painting, the subject of the drunken silenus is repeatedly taken up. Well-known examples are the corresponding works by Rubens or José de Ribera in the 17th century.
See also
literature
- Gerhield Conrad: The Silenus. Transformations of a figure in the Greek satyr play. Scientific publishing house Trier 1997, ISBN
- Theodor Heinze, Balbina Bäbler: Silenus. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9 , column 552 f.
- Anneliese Kossatz-Deissmann: Silenos . In: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). Volume VII, Zurich / Munich 1994, p. 762.
- Adrian Stähli : The denial of lust: erotic groups in ancient sculpture. Reimer, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-496-01195-5
Web links
- Seilenos in the Theoi Project (English)
- over 400 photos of representations of the Silenus, in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
- Silenus - picture story by Wilhelm Busch
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nonnos Dionysiaka 29,243ff
- ↑ Claudius Aelianus Varia historia 3.18
- ^ Maurus Servius Honoratius to Virgil Eclogues 6
- ↑ Nonnos Dionysiaka 14.96ff; 29,243ff
- ↑ Pliny Naturalis historia 7,199
- ↑ Libraries of Apollodor 2.83
- ↑ Strabo 12,4,8
- ↑ Diodorus 4,4,3
- ↑ Lenaios is an epithet of Dionysus, see Lenaen .
- ^ Orphic Hymn 54. Translation by David Karl Philipp Dietsch.
- ↑ Flavius Philostratos Life of Apollonios of Tyana 1.22
- ↑ Pausanias 1, 4, 5
- ↑ Ovid Metamorphoses 11.86ff
- ↑ Claudius Aelianus Varia Historia 3.18
- ↑ Hyginus Mythographus Fabulae 191
- ↑ Plato Symposium 215b-216e
- ^ Translation by Franz Susemihl (1855)
- ↑ Ovid Fasti 6,319ff
- ↑ Julius Pollux Onomasticon 4.142