Dionysus is easily seen as the ‘mad, drunken god’ and has constantly be repressed,and been a symbol of activities and actions that should be repressed, by both history and society. However, the madness that the god of wine embodies should be nothing sort of celebrated as the ‘madness’ of Dionysus needs to be something we as humans strive towards. “Wine has in it something of the spirit of infinity which brings the primal world to life again (Otto 101), not speaking specifically of wine, becoming drunk with something, whether it be art, literature, or even compassion is the doorway to the true realities of life that are tucked away otherwise. Creativity, which is the singular thing that allows us to be truly free, is still greatly suppressed in our culture resulting in the loss of identity and potential artists that would only serve to better their environments. Charles Baudelaire famously said in his prose novel, Paris Spleen, to, “Be always drunken.
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Artists who have chosen to become drunk with creativity are, in a sense, Dionysus; they are able to detect and reveal the underlying issues within our cultures and have a “breath-taking, unavoidable presence” (Otto 89), much like the mask of Dionysus does. Artists are the modern gods of confrontation. The sacred ability to create is a sort of madness, something to become drunk upon, as it is seen as dangerous to the culture. It reveals the struggles within one’s ‘perfect’ society and forces the viewer to question themselves and their current state, whether it be the current state of their life, their country, or the world as a whole. The frenzied nature of an artist that is brimming with creativity can easily be likened to one drunk on the ideology of the Cult of Dionysus as they were the ones to dance wildly, and with abandon for the constraints of
Artists who have chosen to become drunk with creativity are, in a sense, Dionysus; they are able to detect and reveal the underlying issues within our cultures and have a “breath-taking, unavoidable presence” (Otto 89), much like the mask of Dionysus does. Artists are the modern gods of confrontation. The sacred ability to create is a sort of madness, something to become drunk upon, as it is seen as dangerous to the culture. It reveals the struggles within one’s ‘perfect’ society and forces the viewer to question themselves and their current state, whether it be the current state of their life, their country, or the world as a whole. The frenzied nature of an artist that is brimming with creativity can easily be likened to one drunk on the ideology of the Cult of Dionysus as they were the ones to dance wildly, and with abandon for the constraints of