Silen and DionysosToday I want to share a wonderful and
rare coin, showing Silen with the infant
Dionysos on
his knees. The coin itself I have already posted some time before. Here is the "story behind the coin". As usually this article is overloaded with all kinds of information which I found interesting.
The Coin:Lydia, Sardeis,
pseudo-autonomous, 2nd century AD
AE 22, 5.81g, 21.99mm, 165°
obv. CARDIA - NWN
Head of
Dionysos, wearing ivy-wreath
rev. CARDIANWN
Silen, bearded, nude, std. r. on basket, holding in r. hand
kantharos and with l.
hand infant
Dionysos std. l. on
his knees, stretching
his arms to him
ref. L.Beger Thes. Brand.Select. I (1696!), p.501, fig.I;
Mionnet supplement (1835),
no. 445, cites Beger (Thanks to Mauseus);
not in
von Aulock, Copenhagen,
BMC,
Lindgren, Imhoff Lydien St., Righetti,
Isegrimvery
rare, about VF, sand
patinaPedigree:
ex Hauck&Aufhäuser
This coin was originally called 'Dionysos with child', in error, because this motive is mythological unknown. And the kanthoros is known as attribut for Silen too, f.e. on tetradrachms of Naxos/Sicily or obols from
Thasos. Furthermore the figure is too muscular for
Dionysos. The object on which Silen is seated is not well defined. I vote for a cista mystica - especially because of the structure of the surface. Such a cista you can find f.e. besides Silen on a
frieze of a sarcophagus showing the wedding of
Dionysos and
Ariadne. It belongs to the cult of
Dionysos.
Mythology:1) Origin:
In the
Greek mythology Silen or
Silenos is the son of
Pan, god of shepherds, or
Hermes, and a nymph. In Nysa at the river Meander (often confused with an island Nysa in
Libya) he was nursed by
nymphs and later became
king of Nysa. He was married with Nais. From
nymphs he
had a great number of sons, Silens or Seilenoi, all looking like him: a composite being of
man and
horse, but looking different than a
Centaur: Silen
had a snub nose and the tail, the hooves and the ears of a
horse.
2) Relations to
Dionysos:
Hermes has brought the infant
Dionysos to Silen for education. So Silen in Nysa became the teacher of
Dionysos and has taught him all sciences. Silen was teacher not only of
Dionysos, but for Olympos or Maron too. Eventually this is a relic of
his role as a kind of
good puck as he was hold in
Athens. Later together with the Maenads he was the companion of
Dionysos on
his wars and traits (thiasos). It was said that Silen almost always was drunk and
had problems with the truth. Nevertheless he was praised for
his worldly wisdom, which however was biased heavily pessimistic, and for
his divinatory skills.
3) Silen before Midas:
When
Dionysos once was tracking from
Thrace to
Boeotia with
his wild entourage Silen fell behind and was found drunk by gardeners of
king Midas in
his rose gardens. He was bound and brought before the
king. For five days Silen told Midas wondrous tales of a country in the
West beyond the Okeanos. It was decorated with gorgeous cities and populated with huge, happy and long-living inhabitants. And it was famous for its exemplary legal system. Once they have undertaken a big expedition to the Hyperboreans. But when they were told that this country was the best of the Old World they returned heavily disappointed.
Then Silen told about an horrible water whirl at the
border of the world. In its vicinity two rivers were flowing with two different kinds of fruits at their
banks. The fruits of the first tree made the humans sad, so that they must weep and moan and would slowly but inexorably pine away. The fruits of the other tree made young again even old
men. They developed back through
youth to infancy and then vanished at all.
Five days Midas listened eagerly to
his narrations and then asked him what the best was for
men. Only after longer urging Silen answered, that the best thing for a
man is not to be born, and if already born, to die as soon as possible.
Dionysos was afraid of the whereabouts of
his old teacher and sent a messenger to Midas to ask how much he would demand for releasing Silen. Midas was predicted to became fabulous wealthy and so he asked for the gift that all that he touched with
his hands changed to gold. That happened immediately, but dishes and drinks changed to gold too, so that Midas threatened to die of starvation or of thirst. Midas begged
Dionysos for
help and
Dionysos commanded him to go to the river Paktolos near the Tmolos mountain and to have a wash. So Midas was freed from this disastrous gift. But the Paktolos river is famous for the gold of its sands until today. Later Midas was adopted by
king Gordios of
Phrygia and after
his death became
king of
Phrygia himself.
4) Silen and the Gigantomachia
Silen, riding on
his ass, was together with
Dionysos participant in the Gigantomachia. By the awful crying of
his old pack donkey he has frightened the Giants. They
had never heard such a crying and thought that the Gods
had created a new unknown beast and sent against them. They fled. It is said that he has killed Enkelados too. But this whole myth is a later Alexandrian invention, in which Silen was involved by
his connection to
Dionysos.
Background:Silen and Satyr can't be separated (
Pauly). The etymology is non-Greek. We have only few literarily material, more archaeological and in visual art.
Homer doesn't know them. Both are composed beings of
man and
horse, but in contrast to Centaurs more human-like. Originally Silen was an autonomous demon, without any connection to
Dionysos, a serious,
wise,
music loving god of the forest, and like all demons he could do
good and evil. Often they are found in plural, and they owned a secret knowledge, deep wisdom and experience. They
had a relation to springs and
had given hooves because of that because horses in
Greek mythology were connected to springs too. So they could cause a
spring by beating with their hooves. Some Silens are known by their names: Silen,
Marsyas, Maron (called too son of
Dionysos, see Euripides), Nysos (equated with Silen too), Astraios (a son of Silen), Sabakchos (who is said to have laid
hands on
Hera) and others. Their female antagonists were the Nymph, whom they often stalked.
Probably they were originated from Northern
Greece, but were known elsewhere too, in
Phrygia probably first by
Marsyas, but Silens were never river-gods. Midas came from
Macedonia and is transferred later to
Phrygia (look at the article about Gordios in this
thread!). Coessential demons are known from several locations under different names. The Satyroi came from the Peleponnesos and the satyr play probably came to
Athens from there. The connection to
Dionysos is secondary. But thereby they were connected to wine and drunkenness and changed from the nativ demonic creatures of nature to the ridiculous figures we know today. They were included in the entourage of the god and silly and contemptible features emerged. In this process the satyr play - which was connected with the
Dionysos cult -
had big influence. As Papposilen he appeared as father of the satyr chorus. Here we have the origin of the senile baldheaded Silen from the 5th century BC. We know that
Socrates was called Silen and Satyr too.
Papposilen was the oldest and most serene of them and became the educator of
Dionysos, at first in Sophokles' Dionysiskos. The oldest depiction we find on a vase painting in the Museo Gregoriano:
Hermes hands over the infant
Dionysos to Papposilen. Alexandrinian are the inventions of Nonnos giving him the sons Maron, Astraios and Leneus. Similarly horns and ram-feet are later
additions and - complety un-Hellenic - taken over from
Pan. That Silen should be a son of
Hermes or
Pan from a nymph stems from Servius to Vergil's Buc. 6, 13 and lacks any origin.
According to Pausanias Silens have been mortal. Graves should have be seen in the country of Hebrews and in
Pergamon.
Cults are barely known. There was a temple in Elis where Methe (drunkenness) presents a
cup of wine to him. Usually he was worshipped together with
Dionysos, who was said to have worn an amethyst against drunkenness!
Some notes on the Tales of Silen before Midas:The first story, told by Aelian in
his Varia
Historia, resembles strongly Solon's story about Atlantis. Why this story was ascribed to the drunken Silen we can read at Plutarch. Solon has undertaken several journeys to
Asia Minor and
Egypt. According to Plutarch Solon has believed the story about Atlantis which he has heard in
Egypt and also used for an epic poem. Aelian seems to have known a comedy of Thespis in which Thespis has mocked about the utopian lies of Solon and has depicted Solon as restless wandering Silen.
The philosophical
part of the story has passed down by Aristoteles (Eudemos, fgr.44) and
Cicero (Tusculanae disputationes I, 114f.). "Miserable ephemeral race of hardship and distress, how you can force me to tell you that would better for you not to be heard. Then only in unawareness of your own misery your life can elapse without suffering." And then culminates in the famous sentence: "The best of all is unreachable for you at all: not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. But for you - once you were born -the next best is, to die as soon as possible." This extremely pessimistic sentence we have expected to find rather at one of the Seven Wises than at Silen. But this sentence is evidence for
his deep wisdom. Later it was adopted by many philosophers, f.e. Schopenhauer. Alfred Polgar has contradicted this sentence: "Not to be born is the best, says the
wise. But who ever has this luck? To whom ever happens that? Under hundreds of thousands barely one."
Note: The term 'satire' previously was ascribed to Satyr in error (hence the older
writing satyra), especially to the ram-leaps of the Attic tragedy. Actually it cames from
Lat. satira, from 'satura lanx' =
bowl filled with fruits.
History of Arts:In archaic art Silens were depicted often ithyphallic, with thick heads and awkward, f.e. on Chalkidic vases, and often together with
nymphs. On numerous Attic vases they became - despite all animal shape - more graceful and human. Here they are already affiliated to
Dionysos and subordinated. The Silen no more is the autonomous demon of archaic times. We see him in the Dionysian Thiasos with wine, musik and dance. They are often in company with donkeys and
mules, possibly a very old connection. The ass's ears are a typical attribut.
During the so-called Severe
Style, as we see at Epiktetos or on the
cup of Brygos, to name only few, the depiction under the influence of the satyr play was developed to grotesqueness.
In the following time of the Beautiful
Style the Silens and
Satyrs became under the influence of Phidias noble, gentle and serene
men. Their common attribut now is the
thyrsos which was taken from the Menads. They are playing double flute or
lyra. Two different
types developed: A more youthful Silen and an older, senile one who deserves a walking stick. Here originates the allocation of the role of Dionysos' teacher as it is shown on the - already mentioned - nice vase painting of the Museo Gregoriano, where Silen is seated on a rock and
Hermes hands over the infant
Dionysos to him. Among the mythological scenes we find depictions of the
Marsyas myth and the myth were Silen was captured by Midas.
Lysippos has created a new
type in
his group with the infant
Dionysos. He accentuates the fatherly, clement and
wise. Here Silen resembles more a poet or a philosopher.
His body is muscular and powerful. We find no flabbiness. Only a slight fullness of
his belly points to the gourmand. This depiction we find obviously on my coin!
In Hellenistic times he was a favoured theme on sarcophaguses - and here especially the depiction of the wedding of
Dionysos and
Ariadne - and as fountain figure, also
apotropaic.
In Baroque this theme has been picked up again, f.e. by Anthonis van Dyck and Peter-Paul Rubens. A modern
sculpture we know from Alfred Hrdlicka.
I have added
(1) the pic (Satyr with Flute'. Tondo of an Attic red-figured
bowl of Epiktetos
(
signed), 520-500 BC, Vulci. Today in the Bibliotheque nationale de
France in
Paris.
(2) A pic of the statue 'Silen with infant Dionysos' from the Louvre/Paris. Found in
16th century AD in the gardens of Sallust and belonging to the coll. Borghese until
the
French under Napoleon take it to
Paris. Possibly this statue is the Silen from
Porticus
Octavia, mentioned by Plinius (n.h. 36, 4, 8). Probably this is a
Roman copy of Lysipp's statue (310-300 BC)
(3) A pic of the painting 'The drunken Silen', AD 1616/17, from
Peter Paul Rubens (AD
1577-1640), today in Alte Pinakothek in München/Germany. We see a humanistic
interpreted scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses. This painting once hung in the house of
the artist.
Sources
- Herodot, Histories
- Ovid, Metamorphoses
- Vergil, Ecloges (VI)
Literature:
- Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon
- Roscher, Mythologie der Griechen und Rö
mer- Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen
-
Robert Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie
- Der Kleine
Pauly-
WikipediaBest regards