Prosymnus

Prosymnus or Polymnus, in Greek mythology, was a shepherd living near the reputedly bottomless Alcyonian Lake, hazardous to swimmers, which lay in the Argolid, on the coast of the Gulf of Argos, near the prehistoric site of Lerna.

When the wine god Dionysus went to Hades to rescue his mother Semele, Prosymnus guided him to the entrance by rowing him to the middle of the lake. The reward demanded by Prosymnus for this service was the right to make love to Dionysus. However, when Dionysus returned to earth by a different route, he found that Prosymnus had meanwhile died. Dionysus kept his promise by carving a piece of fig wood into the shape of a phallus and inserting it into his anus, thus ritually sodomizing himself, while seated on the tomb of Prosymnus. This, it is said, was given as an explanation of the presence of a fig-wood phallus among the secret objects revealed in the course of the Dionysian Mysteries.

This story is not told in full by any of the usual sources of Greek mythological tales, though several of them hint at it. It is reconstructed on the basis of statements by Christian authors; these have to be treated with reserve because their aim is to discredit pagan mythology. [Hyginus, "Astronomy" 2.5; Clement of Alexandria, "Protreptikos" 2.34.2-5; Arnobius, "Against the Gentiles" 5.28 Harv|Dalby|2005|pp=108-117]

Annual nocturnal rites took place at the Alcyonian Lake in classical times; Pausanias refuses to describe them. [Pausanias, "Guide to Greece" 2.37; Plutarch, "Isis and Osiris" 35 Harv|Dalby|2005|p=135]

References

ources

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

PROSUMNUS vel potius Prosymnus — de quo sic Arnob. l. 5. Cum inter homines, inquiunt. esset adhuc Nysius, et Semeleius Liber, nôsse inferos expetivit, et sub Tartari sedibus quidnam rerum ageretur, inquirere: sed cupiditas haec eius nonnullis difficultatibus impediebatur, quod… … Hofmann J. Lexicon universale
Dionysus — Bacchus redirects here. For other uses, see Bacchus (disambiguation). This article is about the Greco Roman deity. For other uses of the names Dionysus and Dionysos , see Dionysos (disambiguation). For other uses of the theophoric name Dionysius … Wikipedia
List of Greek mythological figures — A listing of Greek mythological beings. Many of the gods and goddesses had Roman and Etruscan equivalents. See also family tree of the Greek gods and the list of Greek mythological creatures. For a list of the deities of many cultures (including… … Wikipedia
Semele — otheruses : Stimula redirects here. For the genus of grass skipper butterflies, see Stimula (butterfly).In Greek mythology, Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mortal mother [Although Dionysus is called the son of Zeus (see… … Wikipedia
Lerna — In classical Greece, Lerna [Corinthian Lerna was a summer resort near Corinth.] was a region of springs and a former lake near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Argos. Its site near the village Mili at the Argolic Gulf is most famous… … Wikipedia
Dionysian Mysteries — Dionysus in Bacchus by Caravaggio The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of ancient Greece and Rome which used intoxicants and other trance inducing techniques (like dance and music) to remove inhibitions and social constraints, liberating the… … Wikipedia
Andrew Dalby — (born Liverpool, 1947) is an English linguist, translator and historian who most often writes about food history.Dalby studied at the Bristol Grammar School, where he learned some Latin, French and Greek; then at the University of Cambridge.… … Wikipedia
LGBT themes in mythology — Part of a series on LGBT themes in mythology Regional mythologies … Wikipedia

Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Prosymnus

Look at other dictionaries:

Share the article and excerpts

Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Wikipedia

Prosymnus

Look at other dictionaries:

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link