lambe and Baubo : A study in ritual laughter Arans, Olga R., Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988
lambe and Baubo : A study in ritual laughter
Arans, Olga R., Ph.D.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988
The mystic cult of Eleusis was surrounded with the uttermost veneration in classical antiquity. It also had remained perhaps the most inexpugnable stronghold of classi - cal paganism. Its documented life-span extends for two thousand years : it survived well into the fifth century A.D. , when Christianity was already a predominant religion. In the pagan mind, the Eleusinian cu t appeared as universally beneficial for the whole of mankind. The Mysteries conveyed to the initiate s some blissful knowledge of the beginning and the end of life, and promised a reward after death.
p.v. The first and most explicit literary account comes from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which suggests the archaic period as the terminus ante quern of the origin of the myth.
The essence of the story i s as follows : Wandering in search for her lost daughter, Demeter find s hospitality in Eleusis , where a wise woman lambe by her jokes makes the mourning goddess laugh and break her fast . As a result , Demeter stays with the people of Eleusis, revea s to them the art of ploughing the land and sowing crops , and institutes the secret rites of her mysteries . Thus, the seemingly inappropriate jokes of lambe play a crucial part in the origin of agriculture and in the institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries .
In later sources, mostly identified as Orphic , in place of lambe there appears a woman named Baubo
p v1. The laughter of grieving Demeter, caused by aischrologia and anasyrmos, sets the aetiological paradigm for the ritual laughter, which constituted an essential part of the Eleusinian Mysteries . Yet the sources and the original semantics of ritual laughter are not limit d to the esoteric experience of the initiated mystai , or t o the religious drama of Eleusis . In it s broader background, the sacred laughter i s deeply rooted in folk traditions.
p v11
lambe/Baubo is a type quite unusual for Greek mythology. Her appearance is humble: a servant maid, or an old woman from simple folks, ridiculous and unattractive - quite a contrast to the idealized, beautiful and ever youthful world of the classical pantheon. And yet this homely figure is known from high hieratic poetry: the so called "Homeric" and "Orphic" hymns. For some reasons yet unexplained, she appears to be highly relevant to the main cluster of Eleusinian images: the separation and reunion of the Mother and Daughter; the hieros gamos; the divine child .
p. x. In the past the Baubo has been discussed from a sexual, psychoanalytic point of view- exhibiting the vulvae, and Jungian collective unconscious ) the archetype of the wise old women or the great mother)
p 1
from Homer
lambe knowing wisdom offered her a compact seat , and threw upon it a silver-white fleece .
p 2 lambe knowing wisdom, with jokes and profuse derision made the holy lady smile and laugh, and t o change her disposition for a cheerful mood. C205] As for lambe, she has been pleasing her henceforth in the sacred rites .
p 3 The main theme of this folklore is refusal and consent
Sitting on the fleece ; laughter; partaking of ritual food ; agrarian fertility ; descent to the Underworld and return ; consummation of marriage appear as a chain of metaphorical transformation s of the single semantic core.
p 4 so Iambe is the hostess who brings the goddess to rest with people and ultimately to give them the agricultural secrets such as the plough. She doesn't need introduction as she is known to folk
the chair with the fleece symbolises thronism of Orphism, purification as part of the initiation, receiving hospitality, bonds between host and guest,. the fleece is a symbol of growth and potency, linked t the chthonic power of wilderness and potency
p 11
Another source on lambe, independent of the Homeric Hymn, comes from the late third century B.C. : the choriambic Hymn to Demeter by Philicus , preserved in a fragmentary papyrus. The grieving Demeter renders the land barren, and some goddesses and local women of Attic a try unsuccessfully to propitiate her wit h a ritual of adoration , when lambe suddenly appear
p 12
and together in a ring around her all the swarm of women did obeisance with their foreheads to the ground. For leaves to throw upon the goddess, plants from t he barren earth - all that was left - they had. Now by some chance Halimous sent forth that old woman, all unknown among her mountain-haunts, yet timely come . The tale of humour is good for the solemn spirit. - S he stood there and cried at once aloud and boldly "Don't throw her the fodder of goats! That is no remedy for a starving god; it is ambrosia that supports her delicate belly! Now do you, great Spirit, give ear to lambe from Attica. I have some benefits to offer. I have given tongue to foolish chatter like a country-cousin gossip. These goddesses have given you, Goddess, chalices and . . wreaths and water drawn in the stream: and now from these women your gift is the grass, the diet of the timorous deer. Not one of such boons is mine to give: yet, if you will relax your sorrow, I will set free...s with her rustic chatter :
p 15 more detail comes from an early third century B.C. source, Philochorus, fr. 103 (Atthis II) - FGH 328 ed.
lambe: some say that lambe is a daughter of Echo and Pan, and that she made the distressed Demeter laugh at her pranks, naughty words, and improper gestures .
p 16
The Thracian origin of lambe might in part be ex - plained as a stereotype of a slave ; i t might also be a remnant of some prehistoric connection between Eleusis and Thrace
p 24 These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians. And this is what Orpheus has written . I will quote for you the exact words by Orpheus, so that you receive the testimony of shamelessness from the very mystagogue: having said this , she stripp d her clothes , and displayed all the unseemly shape of the body. The child Iacchus was there , (or : Iacchus was still a child) ; and he kept stretching hi s hands to her, laughing under Baubo*s bosom: as soon as the goddess notice d this, she smile d i n her spirit , and took the gleaming vessel , filled wit h kykeon.
p 50 There is , indeed, no archaeological evidence of the worship of KTGLS i n Eleusis . While the other symbols of the cult , such as the ear of wheat, the pigs , the serpents , the torches , the divine Youth, and the figures of the Mother and Daughter, are found among the debris of the ancient site , the e are neither dedicatory images i n shape of female genitals , nor vase paintings which picture women raising their skirts , nor even the name of Baubo (or, for that matter, of lambe) in epigraphic monuments.
p 51 In Greece, there i s no known custom of women pulling up their clothes ; instead, such customs existed in Egypt. (Her. 11.60 ; Diod.1.85). I n an Egyptian myth , the goddess Hathor makes her father, the Sun-god Ra, laugh and return t o the assembly of gods by raising her clothes before his eyes . (Chester Beatt y Papyrus, ca.1160 B.C.) There are many female figurine s i n a Baubo-like position found in the Greek colonies of Egypt.
p 55 It puts an emphasis on the role of Orphism in the history of Eleusinian cult.
p 65 A remarkable phenomenon is that those al1-too-human conditions - laughter, ludicrous behavior, scandalous exposures and altercation - first are realized in the divine , and not in the human characters . This i s also related to the forms of worship , in which laughter and obscenity belong to th
p 68 All in all, laughter appears in mythology as a creative force. In the Gnostic poem KoaponoLa, the demiurge creates world by laughter. A Neoplatonic allegory by Proclus interpret s the Homeric laughter of the gods as cosmic energy the realm of the divine.
p 73 I n the Peloponnesian ritual s of Artemis Korythalia , rooted in tribal initiations, the participants wore masks of clay, representing old wrinkled female faces. and Artemis Kordake, the eponym of the kordax , the ludicrous and frivolous dance adopted by Old Comedy. The kordax was associated with the topical figure of the drunken and wanton old crone. (Aristoph . Nub. 554-556):
p 75 There is a tendency in the ancient tradition to present the nurse as an obscene image. Such are the terracotta figurines of the ugly, naked, squatting (urinating?) old woman holding a baby.(26) The nurse appears in literature as a natural confidant and go-between, a helper in love-affairs.(27) The roles of nurse and of match-maker often fuse their ritual semantics. Both aspects represent the consecutive stages of assistance in the process of maturation: from infancy into adolescence, and from adolescence into adulthood. The nursing aspect of Artemis makes her th e protectres s of young childre n and nurses. The nurse s celebrate d the cul t of Artemis Korythali a wit h a ritua l feast , th e Tithenidia .
p 76 The type of the old impudent woman, who makes her appearance i n the cult s of Dionysus , Demeter/Kore and Ar - temis , is reflected in the figure of lambe/Baubo. (Cf. Baubo as a wet-nurse of Iacchus or Demeter). The exchange of jokes and mockery between men and women constitute d a ritual of the cult of Apollo Aigletes on the island Anaphe. The aetiological myth makes the Argonaut s land fro m the stormy sea on this island , newly born of Earth by a lightnig arrow sent by Apollo . Rejoicing over their unexpected salvation , the male and female participant s o f the expedition taunt each other around the sacrificial fire.
p 78 RITUAL MOCKERY AND SACRIFICE OF THE PLOUGHING BULL. The cult of Heracles in Rhodes was celebrated with ritual blasphemy. This custom was provided by the legend of the hungry Heracles taking away a pair of bulls from the local ploughman. Enjoying the roasted bulls, Heracles listened with laughter to the curses of the poor fellow, spoilt of his livelihood. Later, however, after having established himself as a god, Heracles appointed that ploughman his pries t and institute d the rite of sacrificing two yoked bulls with cursing , in commemoration of that most pleasant party. the killing of a bull was punishable. The bull in paleolthic times was for food but in ancient times was for husbandry.
hunger, laughter , fasting are common themes, from Herakles eating the bull, to Demeter eating/ not eating, to Persephone eating the Pomegranate, to people not eating when agriculture dies.
p 83
The dead in folklore are always hungry ; they have to be fed on the commemorative banquets and burial offerings ; their feeding means the return of their life . The life of the dead, as well as the prosperity of the living , are in the join t custody of the Two Goddesses.(34) The plentiful banquet-tables of the Haloa, and especially the genital - shaped ritual pastry , might combine the celebration of life with the giving of new life t o the dead through eating ,
p 88 The Eleusinia n myth deals with the phenomenon known a s the "Neolithic revolution" , which took place around 7000 B.C. , when the cumulative results of the previous development around the Mediterranean basin suddenly brought about t h e major transformation from the hunting-gathering to the farming community.
The new way of life spread through the Easter n Mediterranean world .
Demeter represents this as the loss of the golden age, replaced with work and death.
p 88-9
The recently excavated Neolithic site of Catal Huyuk in Anatolia , which flourishe d ca . 6200-5300 B.C. , reveals t h e symbolic complexity of Neolithic culture , which anticipated much of the imagery that in later times dominated t h e Aegean area , including the Minoan world , the Eleusinian religion of the Two Goddesses, and even Orphism. I t i s worthy of note that the so-called "veiled goddess" i n a Baubo-like position was already known to the shrines of Catal Huyuk: see M. Settegast , op. cit. , p.190 f . This goddess combines the veiled Demeter and Baubo in one image of a mystical nature .
p 89 the author offers a feminist interpretation of the cult. myth, where men are small, weak, in the background. Agrarian work was mostly female, as is laughter
p 94 The pig i s a common metaphor for female sexuality and fertility . fertility, nudity, the fields.
p 96 A number o f scholar s have suggested an analogy between Demeter's laughter and the custom of burial laughter , widespread i n world folklore .
p 98
The custom of funeral laughter is attested in the ancient world: such is the Roman scurra, employed in burial processions. Strabo (16.776) tells of Egyptian nomads who inter their dead with relentless laughter. Herodotus (5.4) describes the Thracian customs of bewailing a new birth and laughing and rejoicing over a death.(3) The so-called Zapdoyuos TGAUS is known, among other versions, for the Sardinian custom of killing one's old parents by burning or throwing them from a precipice with laughter. The sources report either that the elders laugh, rejoicing over their own happy end, or their family members lapgh at the sight of their departure
p 101
The clue to this complex of motifs is the metaphor of laughter as new life . Laughter not only accompanies death , but sometimes appears as the means of revival of the dead .
thoughts- Freud- humour and its relation to the unconscious.
Demeter's laughter marks the transition between life and death . On their way to Eleusis , the mystai had to expose themselves t o the "derision on the bridge
p 102
The bridge in folklore i s a symbol of the passage between different worlds. To cross the bridge to die or be born ; t o cross the water of life . The rainbow is the bridge between the earth and the sky .
p 104
The procession of Eleusinian mystai , crossing the bridge, enacts the ritual katabasis into the realm of death. Mockery and teasing mark the reversible nature of this transition . As the mystai imitate the journey of Demeter, the figure who makes jokes on the bridge is , in all probability , lambe/Baubo.
p 108 The laughles s Demeter, enterin g Eleusi s i n humble
disguise and sittin g on the 'AYGAaWos TrcTpa, undergoes a
form of ritua l death . (Indeed , the morta l world i s alread y a
nether world fo r an Olympian goddess.) Furthermore, the
Orphic traditio n explicitl y mentions her K«Tafla<rLS to the
Underworld (Orph. hymn. 41 ed. Quandt). The Eleusinia n saga
treat s Eleusi s as a ritua l equivalen t of the Underworld or
as an intermediate poin t betueen the thre e worlds (o f the
dead, of the living , and of the immortals) . This liminalit y
i s vali d both fo r the mythologica l dramatis personae and fo r
the initiate s of the Mysteries .
p 109 A.B. Cook interpret s Baubo as the Queen of the Underworld, th e mistres s of th e Orphic initiations . Her vagina i s the gate of life and regeneration : she adopts the mystai, who enter this passage, as born into immortality
p110
This may coincide with the semantics of the lyre i n the hands of Priene figurine s of the gastrocephalic "Baubo" (fig . 1): both the ladder and the lyre symbolize the principle of gradual ascension . The "Orphic" nature of the Priene statuette s i s supported by the role of the lyre in Orphic symbolism, also Jacob's ladder - Gen. 28:12). Ladder and lyre, as well as bridge or rainbow, are mediative symbols.
As the passage of sopls, Bapbo's vulva is also the descensus Averno, or the Agelastos Petra. So also is the Megarian llcTpa 'AyaKAnOpCs, which marked the entrance to the nether world; from this stone Demeter called for her daughter.(29) The Petroma - the two joined stones risingfrom the earth , which annuall y moved apar t and then close d
again i n Phenaetian rite s of Demeter Eleusini a (Paus .
VIII.15.1) ; the x«<rp« TTIS Yhs , swallowing Persephone wit h
the pigs of Eubouleus (Kern, Orph. p.115; 125), and th e
furrow i n th e ploughland (cf . Varro, De ling . Lat. V.39 , on
the connection : ager aratus/porca) - al l thos e belong to th e
single metaphorical chain of Eleusinian mysticism .
p 113
puberty rites for girls
Obscene dances with masks of an old wrinkled female face were a part of the Peloponnesian puberty rites of girls, connected with the cult of Artemis Korythalia.(
p 114
The origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries from the female puberty rites is a theory still debated . The mystery of the Mother and the Daughter, severing their ties and finding a new union , encompasses the existential experience of womanhood. The Two Goddesses appear as a single uni t of eternal becoming. Kore dies as the Daughter and lives as the Mother
p 115 The wedding of Kore, the starting scene of the story, the girls picking flowers
p 118 the theme of marriage underscores where marriage is arranged, by law and not a happy event for most girls at this time
p 121 the wedding is the ritual death of the bride
p 123
as Kore picks the flower and Earth opens under her feet and lets Hades snatch the bride . Thus, laughter , the plucking of the flower, and the consumation of the marriage appear to be metaphorically equivalent . Earth , the laughing matchmaker, appears
The vital function of the Baubo-type in the female rites of passage (puberty rites ; wedding ) is to lead young females through the hardships of womanhood and to equip them with a liberating insight into what Cicero called the initia vitae .
p 124
One peculiar theme of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter deserves close r consideration . Demeter appears i n Eleusis disguised as an old woman.
p125
Three older women, Demeter, Metaneira, and lambe (also known as YpaCa), are the most active characters of the story .
For all three , the old age is paradoxical : for Demeter i t i s illusory ; Metaneira gives birth in her old age; lambe, with her impropriety , behaves in a manner unbecoming an old person. In a sense, all three appear as variants of the same image.
I n the Orphic versions , Baubo combines the function s of lambe (jester ) and Metaneira (queen-mother) of the Homeric Hymn. One of the most controversial features of the myth of Baubo i s the child Iacchus at her bosom, who makes Demeter smile as he reaches out to the exposed private parts of Baubo. L. Prell r regarded Baubo as the nurse of Iacchus. She is also known as the nurse of Demeter herself
More than one woman was in charge of bringing up the Holy Child of Eleusinian Mysteries: the Grand Relief of Demeter and Kore instructing Triptolemus and the Mycenaean ivory group of two women with a child probably represent the Two Goddesses - kourotrophoi. The identity of Iacchus has been by and large established as Dionysos at the breast.The child Iacchus at the divine KOATTOL might also represent symbolically the initiate of the Mysteries , adopted by the goddess. A full-grow n man or older child at the divine bosom generally signifies the winning of the sacred kingdom through the adoption by hierogamy with the deity
p 129
The birth of the mystical child reportedly was the central point of the Eleusinian rites. The new-born child is the ear of wheat,
p 132
The Baubo-type may be traced back to the Neolithic goddess in parturient position at the Anatolian site Catal Huyuk (ca.6000 B.C.). In the Greek world, the Baubo-type is documented from the Minoan times (ca. 2000 B.C.).(19) This type continues in the sixth century B.C. carved amulets from Egypt (fig.6). (20)
p134
Thus, BauboMetaneira appears as a "drunken wife" with child. Eleusinian symbolism reveals its inner proximity to the genre of Attic Comedy: behind the figures Df the drunken and wanton wife, dancing kordax, and of the aged mother Baubo-Metaneira, there hides the image of the goddess of vegetation, thirsty for fertilizing moisture.
p 138
old women and virgin s are the two types most likely to bear children in folklore . Both images meet in the Eleusinian cult ; i t i s not only the old mother (DemeterBaubo-Iambe-Metaneira,) but also the Maiden , PersephoneKore, who give s birth to a child .
p 142 laughter is giving birth, the child
The theme of laughter virtually pervades the story of the birth of Isaac to the old couple Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 17-21). First, it is Abraham who laughs at the announcement of the forthcoming birth of his son; then Sarah laughs, and later denies her laughter; then she says that everyone will laugh at her. Laughter is mentioned altogether seven times (17:17; 18:12,13,15; 21,6), and the very name of the child means "Laughter". The theme of laughter also foreshadows symbolically the subsequent sacrifice of Isaac by his father (=death and rebirth).(35) Sarah, the laughing old woman, sterile in youth and fertile in her old age, is yet another example of the persistence of the folkloric pattern.
p 146 the relationship between fire and laughter, the myth of Demeter and Kore, the torches,
The mystic cult of Eleusis was surrounded with the uttermost veneration in classical antiquity. It also had remained perhaps the most inexpugnable stronghold of classi - cal paganism. Its documented life-span extends for two thousand years : it survived well into the fifth century A.D. , when Christianity was already a predominant religion. In the pagan mind, the Eleusinian cu t appeared as universally beneficial for the whole of mankind. The Mysteries conveyed to the initiate s some blissful knowledge of the beginning and the end of life, and promised a reward after death.
p.v. The first and most explicit literary account comes from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which suggests the archaic period as the terminus ante quern of the origin of the myth.
The essence of the story i s as follows : Wandering in search for her lost daughter, Demeter find s hospitality in Eleusis , where a wise woman lambe by her jokes makes the mourning goddess laugh and break her fast . As a result , Demeter stays with the people of Eleusis, revea s to them the art of ploughing the land and sowing crops , and institutes the secret rites of her mysteries . Thus, the seemingly inappropriate jokes of lambe play a crucial part in the origin of agriculture and in the institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries .
In later sources, mostly identified as Orphic , in place of lambe there appears a woman named Baubo
p v1. The laughter of grieving Demeter, caused by aischrologia and anasyrmos, sets the aetiological paradigm for the ritual laughter, which constituted an essential part of the Eleusinian Mysteries . Yet the sources and the original semantics of ritual laughter are not limit d to the esoteric experience of the initiated mystai , or t o the religious drama of Eleusis . In it s broader background, the sacred laughter i s deeply rooted in folk traditions.
p v11
lambe/Baubo is a type quite unusual for Greek mythology. Her appearance is humble: a servant maid, or an old woman from simple folks, ridiculous and unattractive - quite a contrast to the idealized, beautiful and ever youthful world of the classical pantheon. And yet this homely figure is known from high hieratic poetry: the so called "Homeric" and "Orphic" hymns. For some reasons yet unexplained, she appears to be highly relevant to the main cluster of Eleusinian images: the separation and reunion of the Mother and Daughter; the hieros gamos; the divine child .
p. x. In the past the Baubo has been discussed from a sexual, psychoanalytic point of view- exhibiting the vulvae, and Jungian collective unconscious ) the archetype of the wise old women or the great mother)
p 1
from Homer
lambe knowing wisdom offered her a compact seat , and threw upon it a silver-white fleece .
p 2 lambe knowing wisdom, with jokes and profuse derision made the holy lady smile and laugh, and t o change her disposition for a cheerful mood. C205] As for lambe, she has been pleasing her henceforth in the sacred rites .
p 3 The main theme of this folklore is refusal and consent
Sitting on the fleece ; laughter; partaking of ritual food ; agrarian fertility ; descent to the Underworld and return ; consummation of marriage appear as a chain of metaphorical transformation s of the single semantic core.
p 4 so Iambe is the hostess who brings the goddess to rest with people and ultimately to give them the agricultural secrets such as the plough. She doesn't need introduction as she is known to folk
the chair with the fleece symbolises thronism of Orphism, purification as part of the initiation, receiving hospitality, bonds between host and guest,. the fleece is a symbol of growth and potency, linked t the chthonic power of wilderness and potency
p 11
Another source on lambe, independent of the Homeric Hymn, comes from the late third century B.C. : the choriambic Hymn to Demeter by Philicus , preserved in a fragmentary papyrus. The grieving Demeter renders the land barren, and some goddesses and local women of Attic a try unsuccessfully to propitiate her wit h a ritual of adoration , when lambe suddenly appear
p 12
and together in a ring around her all the swarm of women did obeisance with their foreheads to the ground. For leaves to throw upon the goddess, plants from t he barren earth - all that was left - they had. Now by some chance Halimous sent forth that old woman, all unknown among her mountain-haunts, yet timely come . The tale of humour is good for the solemn spirit. - S he stood there and cried at once aloud and boldly "Don't throw her the fodder of goats! That is no remedy for a starving god; it is ambrosia that supports her delicate belly! Now do you, great Spirit, give ear to lambe from Attica. I have some benefits to offer. I have given tongue to foolish chatter like a country-cousin gossip. These goddesses have given you, Goddess, chalices and . . wreaths and water drawn in the stream: and now from these women your gift is the grass, the diet of the timorous deer. Not one of such boons is mine to give: yet, if you will relax your sorrow, I will set free...s with her rustic chatter :
p 15 more detail comes from an early third century B.C. source, Philochorus, fr. 103 (Atthis II) - FGH 328 ed.
lambe: some say that lambe is a daughter of Echo and Pan, and that she made the distressed Demeter laugh at her pranks, naughty words, and improper gestures .
p 16
The Thracian origin of lambe might in part be ex - plained as a stereotype of a slave ; i t might also be a remnant of some prehistoric connection between Eleusis and Thrace
p 24 These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians. And this is what Orpheus has written . I will quote for you the exact words by Orpheus, so that you receive the testimony of shamelessness from the very mystagogue: having said this , she stripp d her clothes , and displayed all the unseemly shape of the body. The child Iacchus was there , (or : Iacchus was still a child) ; and he kept stretching hi s hands to her, laughing under Baubo*s bosom: as soon as the goddess notice d this, she smile d i n her spirit , and took the gleaming vessel , filled wit h kykeon.
p 50 There is , indeed, no archaeological evidence of the worship of KTGLS i n Eleusis . While the other symbols of the cult , such as the ear of wheat, the pigs , the serpents , the torches , the divine Youth, and the figures of the Mother and Daughter, are found among the debris of the ancient site , the e are neither dedicatory images i n shape of female genitals , nor vase paintings which picture women raising their skirts , nor even the name of Baubo (or, for that matter, of lambe) in epigraphic monuments.
p 51 In Greece, there i s no known custom of women pulling up their clothes ; instead, such customs existed in Egypt. (Her. 11.60 ; Diod.1.85). I n an Egyptian myth , the goddess Hathor makes her father, the Sun-god Ra, laugh and return t o the assembly of gods by raising her clothes before his eyes . (Chester Beatt y Papyrus, ca.1160 B.C.) There are many female figurine s i n a Baubo-like position found in the Greek colonies of Egypt.
p 55 It puts an emphasis on the role of Orphism in the history of Eleusinian cult.
p 65 A remarkable phenomenon is that those al1-too-human conditions - laughter, ludicrous behavior, scandalous exposures and altercation - first are realized in the divine , and not in the human characters . This i s also related to the forms of worship , in which laughter and obscenity belong to th
p 68 All in all, laughter appears in mythology as a creative force. In the Gnostic poem KoaponoLa, the demiurge creates world by laughter. A Neoplatonic allegory by Proclus interpret s the Homeric laughter of the gods as cosmic energy the realm of the divine.
p 73 I n the Peloponnesian ritual s of Artemis Korythalia , rooted in tribal initiations, the participants wore masks of clay, representing old wrinkled female faces. and Artemis Kordake, the eponym of the kordax , the ludicrous and frivolous dance adopted by Old Comedy. The kordax was associated with the topical figure of the drunken and wanton old crone. (Aristoph . Nub. 554-556):
p 75 There is a tendency in the ancient tradition to present the nurse as an obscene image. Such are the terracotta figurines of the ugly, naked, squatting (urinating?) old woman holding a baby.(26) The nurse appears in literature as a natural confidant and go-between, a helper in love-affairs.(27) The roles of nurse and of match-maker often fuse their ritual semantics. Both aspects represent the consecutive stages of assistance in the process of maturation: from infancy into adolescence, and from adolescence into adulthood. The nursing aspect of Artemis makes her th e protectres s of young childre n and nurses. The nurse s celebrate d the cul t of Artemis Korythali a wit h a ritua l feast , th e Tithenidia .
p 76 The type of the old impudent woman, who makes her appearance i n the cult s of Dionysus , Demeter/Kore and Ar - temis , is reflected in the figure of lambe/Baubo. (Cf. Baubo as a wet-nurse of Iacchus or Demeter). The exchange of jokes and mockery between men and women constitute d a ritual of the cult of Apollo Aigletes on the island Anaphe. The aetiological myth makes the Argonaut s land fro m the stormy sea on this island , newly born of Earth by a lightnig arrow sent by Apollo . Rejoicing over their unexpected salvation , the male and female participant s o f the expedition taunt each other around the sacrificial fire.
p 78 RITUAL MOCKERY AND SACRIFICE OF THE PLOUGHING BULL. The cult of Heracles in Rhodes was celebrated with ritual blasphemy. This custom was provided by the legend of the hungry Heracles taking away a pair of bulls from the local ploughman. Enjoying the roasted bulls, Heracles listened with laughter to the curses of the poor fellow, spoilt of his livelihood. Later, however, after having established himself as a god, Heracles appointed that ploughman his pries t and institute d the rite of sacrificing two yoked bulls with cursing , in commemoration of that most pleasant party. the killing of a bull was punishable. The bull in paleolthic times was for food but in ancient times was for husbandry.
hunger, laughter , fasting are common themes, from Herakles eating the bull, to Demeter eating/ not eating, to Persephone eating the Pomegranate, to people not eating when agriculture dies.
p 83
The dead in folklore are always hungry ; they have to be fed on the commemorative banquets and burial offerings ; their feeding means the return of their life . The life of the dead, as well as the prosperity of the living , are in the join t custody of the Two Goddesses.(34) The plentiful banquet-tables of the Haloa, and especially the genital - shaped ritual pastry , might combine the celebration of life with the giving of new life t o the dead through eating ,
p 88 The Eleusinia n myth deals with the phenomenon known a s the "Neolithic revolution" , which took place around 7000 B.C. , when the cumulative results of the previous development around the Mediterranean basin suddenly brought about t h e major transformation from the hunting-gathering to the farming community.
The new way of life spread through the Easter n Mediterranean world .
Demeter represents this as the loss of the golden age, replaced with work and death.
p 88-9
The recently excavated Neolithic site of Catal Huyuk in Anatolia , which flourishe d ca . 6200-5300 B.C. , reveals t h e symbolic complexity of Neolithic culture , which anticipated much of the imagery that in later times dominated t h e Aegean area , including the Minoan world , the Eleusinian religion of the Two Goddesses, and even Orphism. I t i s worthy of note that the so-called "veiled goddess" i n a Baubo-like position was already known to the shrines of Catal Huyuk: see M. Settegast , op. cit. , p.190 f . This goddess combines the veiled Demeter and Baubo in one image of a mystical nature .
p 89 the author offers a feminist interpretation of the cult. myth, where men are small, weak, in the background. Agrarian work was mostly female, as is laughter
p 94 The pig i s a common metaphor for female sexuality and fertility . fertility, nudity, the fields.
p 96 A number o f scholar s have suggested an analogy between Demeter's laughter and the custom of burial laughter , widespread i n world folklore .
p 98
The custom of funeral laughter is attested in the ancient world: such is the Roman scurra, employed in burial processions. Strabo (16.776) tells of Egyptian nomads who inter their dead with relentless laughter. Herodotus (5.4) describes the Thracian customs of bewailing a new birth and laughing and rejoicing over a death.(3) The so-called Zapdoyuos TGAUS is known, among other versions, for the Sardinian custom of killing one's old parents by burning or throwing them from a precipice with laughter. The sources report either that the elders laugh, rejoicing over their own happy end, or their family members lapgh at the sight of their departure
p 101
The clue to this complex of motifs is the metaphor of laughter as new life . Laughter not only accompanies death , but sometimes appears as the means of revival of the dead .
thoughts- Freud- humour and its relation to the unconscious.
Demeter's laughter marks the transition between life and death . On their way to Eleusis , the mystai had to expose themselves t o the "derision on the bridge
p 102
The bridge in folklore i s a symbol of the passage between different worlds. To cross the bridge to die or be born ; t o cross the water of life . The rainbow is the bridge between the earth and the sky .
p 104
The procession of Eleusinian mystai , crossing the bridge, enacts the ritual katabasis into the realm of death. Mockery and teasing mark the reversible nature of this transition . As the mystai imitate the journey of Demeter, the figure who makes jokes on the bridge is , in all probability , lambe/Baubo.
p 108 The laughles s Demeter, enterin g Eleusi s i n humble
disguise and sittin g on the 'AYGAaWos TrcTpa, undergoes a
form of ritua l death . (Indeed , the morta l world i s alread y a
nether world fo r an Olympian goddess.) Furthermore, the
Orphic traditio n explicitl y mentions her K«Tafla<rLS to the
Underworld (Orph. hymn. 41 ed. Quandt). The Eleusinia n saga
treat s Eleusi s as a ritua l equivalen t of the Underworld or
as an intermediate poin t betueen the thre e worlds (o f the
dead, of the living , and of the immortals) . This liminalit y
i s vali d both fo r the mythologica l dramatis personae and fo r
the initiate s of the Mysteries .
p 109 A.B. Cook interpret s Baubo as the Queen of the Underworld, th e mistres s of th e Orphic initiations . Her vagina i s the gate of life and regeneration : she adopts the mystai, who enter this passage, as born into immortality
p110
This may coincide with the semantics of the lyre i n the hands of Priene figurine s of the gastrocephalic "Baubo" (fig . 1): both the ladder and the lyre symbolize the principle of gradual ascension . The "Orphic" nature of the Priene statuette s i s supported by the role of the lyre in Orphic symbolism, also Jacob's ladder - Gen. 28:12). Ladder and lyre, as well as bridge or rainbow, are mediative symbols.
As the passage of sopls, Bapbo's vulva is also the descensus Averno, or the Agelastos Petra. So also is the Megarian llcTpa 'AyaKAnOpCs, which marked the entrance to the nether world; from this stone Demeter called for her daughter.(29) The Petroma - the two joined stones risingfrom the earth , which annuall y moved apar t and then close d
again i n Phenaetian rite s of Demeter Eleusini a (Paus .
VIII.15.1) ; the x«<rp« TTIS Yhs , swallowing Persephone wit h
the pigs of Eubouleus (Kern, Orph. p.115; 125), and th e
furrow i n th e ploughland (cf . Varro, De ling . Lat. V.39 , on
the connection : ager aratus/porca) - al l thos e belong to th e
single metaphorical chain of Eleusinian mysticism .
p 113
puberty rites for girls
Obscene dances with masks of an old wrinkled female face were a part of the Peloponnesian puberty rites of girls, connected with the cult of Artemis Korythalia.(
p 114
The origin of the Eleusinian Mysteries from the female puberty rites is a theory still debated . The mystery of the Mother and the Daughter, severing their ties and finding a new union , encompasses the existential experience of womanhood. The Two Goddesses appear as a single uni t of eternal becoming. Kore dies as the Daughter and lives as the Mother
p 115 The wedding of Kore, the starting scene of the story, the girls picking flowers
p 118 the theme of marriage underscores where marriage is arranged, by law and not a happy event for most girls at this time
p 121 the wedding is the ritual death of the bride
p 123
as Kore picks the flower and Earth opens under her feet and lets Hades snatch the bride . Thus, laughter , the plucking of the flower, and the consumation of the marriage appear to be metaphorically equivalent . Earth , the laughing matchmaker, appears
The vital function of the Baubo-type in the female rites of passage (puberty rites ; wedding ) is to lead young females through the hardships of womanhood and to equip them with a liberating insight into what Cicero called the initia vitae .
p 124
One peculiar theme of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter deserves close r consideration . Demeter appears i n Eleusis disguised as an old woman.
p125
Three older women, Demeter, Metaneira, and lambe (also known as YpaCa), are the most active characters of the story .
For all three , the old age is paradoxical : for Demeter i t i s illusory ; Metaneira gives birth in her old age; lambe, with her impropriety , behaves in a manner unbecoming an old person. In a sense, all three appear as variants of the same image.
I n the Orphic versions , Baubo combines the function s of lambe (jester ) and Metaneira (queen-mother) of the Homeric Hymn. One of the most controversial features of the myth of Baubo i s the child Iacchus at her bosom, who makes Demeter smile as he reaches out to the exposed private parts of Baubo. L. Prell r regarded Baubo as the nurse of Iacchus. She is also known as the nurse of Demeter herself
More than one woman was in charge of bringing up the Holy Child of Eleusinian Mysteries: the Grand Relief of Demeter and Kore instructing Triptolemus and the Mycenaean ivory group of two women with a child probably represent the Two Goddesses - kourotrophoi. The identity of Iacchus has been by and large established as Dionysos at the breast.The child Iacchus at the divine KOATTOL might also represent symbolically the initiate of the Mysteries , adopted by the goddess. A full-grow n man or older child at the divine bosom generally signifies the winning of the sacred kingdom through the adoption by hierogamy with the deity
p 129
The birth of the mystical child reportedly was the central point of the Eleusinian rites. The new-born child is the ear of wheat,
p 132
The Baubo-type may be traced back to the Neolithic goddess in parturient position at the Anatolian site Catal Huyuk (ca.6000 B.C.). In the Greek world, the Baubo-type is documented from the Minoan times (ca. 2000 B.C.).(19) This type continues in the sixth century B.C. carved amulets from Egypt (fig.6). (20)
p134
Thus, BauboMetaneira appears as a "drunken wife" with child. Eleusinian symbolism reveals its inner proximity to the genre of Attic Comedy: behind the figures Df the drunken and wanton wife, dancing kordax, and of the aged mother Baubo-Metaneira, there hides the image of the goddess of vegetation, thirsty for fertilizing moisture.
p 138
old women and virgin s are the two types most likely to bear children in folklore . Both images meet in the Eleusinian cult ; i t i s not only the old mother (DemeterBaubo-Iambe-Metaneira,) but also the Maiden , PersephoneKore, who give s birth to a child .
p 142 laughter is giving birth, the child
The theme of laughter virtually pervades the story of the birth of Isaac to the old couple Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 17-21). First, it is Abraham who laughs at the announcement of the forthcoming birth of his son; then Sarah laughs, and later denies her laughter; then she says that everyone will laugh at her. Laughter is mentioned altogether seven times (17:17; 18:12,13,15; 21,6), and the very name of the child means "Laughter". The theme of laughter also foreshadows symbolically the subsequent sacrifice of Isaac by his father (=death and rebirth).(35) Sarah, the laughing old woman, sterile in youth and fertile in her old age, is yet another example of the persistence of the folkloric pattern.
p 146 the relationship between fire and laughter, the myth of Demeter and Kore, the torches,
Comments
Post a Comment