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In prehistory, worshippers of fertility religions believed that annual growth and decay (summer and winter) mirror the stages in the life of the god; his mournful death and happy resurrection, celebrated with rites and lamentation and rejoicing. Adonis, Dionysus, Tammuz, Attis, Osiris are all similar vegetation deities. In the celebration of the god, the form is dramatic, the substance is magic -- sympathetic magic (like produces like, effect resembles cause). In other words, the magician suggests that he can produce any effect he desires by imitating it. The magician, or priest, and his celebrants imitate through dance, mime, the death, the suffering, the resurrection of the god which will cause a sympathetic reaction in the universe: the winter and summer continuum in the growing year.
Dionysus worship involved sexual ecstasy, orgies, and drugs in connection with the harvest.
Theater (mime and dance) arises from the celebration of fertility gods such as Dionysus
The theater dedicated to Dionysus is on the Acropolis, a religious site, comprising several constructions, one of which is the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the patron saint of Athens, Athena.
"The City Dionysia, considered so sacred that at first admission was free and minor violations of the law during the performances were punished as sacrilege, began elaborately with a procession of the ancient image of Dionysus along the road toward the village of Eleutherae and then back to Athens by torchlight. The image was then placed in or near the dancing circle (orchestra) of the theatre with appropriate rites. After a second day of dithyrambic events, consisting of contests by ten dancing and singing choruses of men and boys, fifty in each chorus, a day was devoted to comedies, with five playwrights competing; then came three days of tragic performances. Six days were consumed by the great spring festival of March-April . . . during the last three days, there were actually five performances daily: three tragedies and a burlesque, or "satyr play," in the morning,and one or two comedies in the afternoon. Three playwrights competed for the prize in tragedy, each with three tragedies and satyr play" (Gassner 5). The six days were later reduced to 5 during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.)
Day 1: procession of image of Dionysus
Day 2: Singing and dancing contests
Day 3: Comedy competition
Day 4: Tragedy competition, followed by satyr play
Day 5: Tragedy competition, followed by satyr play
Day 6: Tragedy competition, followed by satyr play
Glassner, John. A Treasury of the Theatre. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1963.
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