Cultus Bacchanalia

The cult of Bacchanalia centered around the worship of Dionysus, god of ecstasy. Initially a secretive and exclusive cult, it’s membership eventually numbered in the thousands and its activities went from ritual orgies and revelry to political subversion and assassination causing it to be banned by the Roman Senate in 186 BCE.

“Men as well as women indulged in the most unnatural appetites, and those who attempted to stop or to oppose such odious proceedings fell as victims. It was, as Livy says, a principle of the society to hold every ordinance of god and nature in contempt. Men, as if seized by fits of madness, and under great convulsions, gave oracles; and the matrons, dressed as Bacchae, with disheveled hair and burning torches in their hands... Men who refused to take part in the crimes of these orgies, were frequently thrown into dark caverns and despatched, while the perpetrators declared that they had been carried off by the gods.”

Leonhard Schmitz, Ph.D, F.R.S.E, Rector of the High School of Edinburgh

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