Dionysos at the Symposium

Dionysos is, according to the scholarship, characterised by his epiphanic tendency. This is thought to explain the unusual frequency of his appearances on sympotic vessels in the frontal mode, meeting the eyes of the viewer. No other deity faces his mortal audience so frequently. Scholarship often describes Dionysian epiphany as inherently dangerous, a powerfully transformative confrontation with ‘otherness’ that mortals must approach in the right frame of mind or suffer madness or death. Cognitively speaking, while eye contact can indicate confrontation, the same stimulus frequently initiates feelings of closeness and intimacy. The assumption that Dionysian frontality is a metaphor for danger neglects this. This paper will re-examine the enclosed, intoxicating context in which this eye contact was made. I will argue that ritual permeated the symposium, priming participants to create a world in which Dionysos was not only represented, but actually present – and that he came as a friend.