The Coexistence of Contradictions in Ancient Greek Theater and Dionysian Ri̇tes
Nazım SarıkayaAlthough the claim that theater is derived from ritual is a hypothesis due to lack of written sources, structural similarities between ritual and drama reinforce this idea. Many anthropologists agree that comedy and tragedy genres are the advanced artistic forms of Dionysian religious rituals. Dionysus has two different faces at the same time; on the one hand, a frivolous god, expressed in laughter, celebration, pleasure and rebirth, and a serious deity who is associated with crying, suffering, fear and death on the other. In this study, an attempt is made to try explain the Dionysus cult, which is supposed to be the origin of theater, from the mythology to the rituals, from the Greek society to the forms of mimetic representation. Categories such as religion and art, ritual and drama, comedy and tragedy are intertwined in Dionysus. The contradictions in the rituals have continued to exist in the theater, despite changing form.
Dionysosçu Ritüeller ve Antik Yunan Tiyatrosunda Karşıtlıkların Biraradalığı
Nazım SarıkayaTiyatronun ritüelden türediği iddiası yazılı kaynak yetersizliğinden dolayı bir hipotez olsa da ritüel ve dram arasındaki yapısal benzeşimler bu düşünceyi güçlendirmektedir. Birçok antropolog, komedya ve tragedyanın Dionysosçu dinsel ritüellerin gelişkin sanatsal formları oldukları konusunda fikir birliğindedir. Dionysos aynı anda iki farklı yüze sahiptir; bir yanda gülme, kutlama, haz ve yeniden doğumla ifade edilen ciddiyetsiz bir tanrı diğer yanda ağlama, acı ve ölümle ilişkilendirilen ciddi bir tanrıdır. Bu çalışmada tiyatronun kökeni olan Dionysos kültü mitolojiden ritüellere, Yunan toplumundaki karşılığından mimetik temsil biçimlerine kadar barındırdığı karşıtlıklar üzerinden açıklanmaya çalışılacaktır. Din ve sanat, ritüel ve dram, komedya ve tragedya gibi kategoriler Dionysosçulukta iç içe geçmiştir. Ritüeldeki karşıtlıklar biçim değiştirse de tiyatroda var olmaya devam etmiştir.
Dionysianism has turned his face to the cyclical movement in the nature in terms of bringing death and life, pain and pleasure together. In nature, the conflict between young and old, summer and winter is linked reproduction and renewal. At the same time, this movement contains pain and death in itself. The cult of Dionysus can be seen as expressing this reality of nature, the combination of opposites through ritual and drama. The cult of Dionysus, which arrived in Athens somewhere in the 12-10th centuries BC from Egypt, Sumeria, Babylonia and Phrygia, is the result of the human relationship with nature. This study tries to show that the cult of Dionysus uniquely combines the patterns of meaning produced through contrasts. While rational thought that shapes today's culture produces pure meanings through either / or categorical distinction, Dionysianism produces blurred meanings through both / and association. In Dionysianism, there is mourning in celebration, crying in laughter and pleasure in pain. Because Dionysus is sacred and dirty, it is represented by grapes and bread, as well as phallus and pharmakoi, and his disciples pray and swear for him. We tried to explain the rituals in Dionysus and other communities through the common themes of “Death and Rebirth”, Sacrifice and Fertility ”,“ Sexuality, Wine and Feast ”,“ God Representation and Mask ”. These titles appeared in the rituals as repetitive motifs, albeit in different contexts, and opposites (death and rebirth, innocence and sinfulness, savagery and serenity, etc.) co-existed in each. The theme of “Death and Rebirth”, which is characteristic of Dionysian ritual and drama, has appeared in all rituals starting from mythology. Not only for Dionysianism, it can be said that the most prominent feature of the rituals turning their face to nature is this theme. Buddhist Tatars, for example, do not mourn death because they know that Buddha will be reborn in a child's body, and African Trobriands believe in the reincarnation of souls moving between death and birth. As the only creature in nature who knows that one day he will die, human beings are dragged into different actions to overcome the unknownness of death. Dionysian rituals aim to reach the knowledge of life and death. If the people participating in these rituals were able to return to society without losing their minds, they became mature, melting and crossing the threshold. The theme of “Sacrifice and Fertility” is also seen in Dionysian rituals such as Eleusis, Eirosione, Thesmophoria, Sparagmos, Arretophoria, which were realized to reach the god. In these rituals, there is integration with God by drinking the blood of the sacrificial victim (Dionysus) and eating its flesh. With the act of sacrifice, God dies on one side and lives on the other side. Thus, the theme of fertility was applied both to the product of the land and to the people who met god. The section “Sexuality, Wine and Feast” focuses on the revelry atmosphere in rituals. But these activities are not only centered on happiness, fun and pleasure, but also include disgust, anxiety, fear and pain. In the words of Nietzsche, these rituals are at the height of “lust and savagery and flood of sexual disinterest that puts the family institution at its feet”. For Dionysians, sexuality and wine is a means to reach god. The person rises from the familiar state of being to the stage of indifference (ecstasy), where everything is lost. Mystagogos, the pioneer of the ritual, exists as the representative of God at the beginning of the ceremony. In the 7th century BC., this person will lead the ritual by wearing a mask and will lead to a representative base in the ritual. From a categorical perspective, it can be thought that ritual and drama correspond to different extremes. However, this study emphasized that ritual and drama are intertwined in ancient Greece. It was claimed that the rituals contained dramatic elements because of the representation of God through the mask, gathering of almost all rituals around a story and relying on a conflict.
