It occured to me today that, although I assume they were unknown to the ancient Greeks, bananas are probably the perfect ritual food for Dionysus.
Fruit in general is appropriate because Dionysus is a god of vegetation, fertility, and growing things, and fruit is not only literally the product of Dionysus’s realm, but it is also highly symbolic of everything Dionysus stands for.
So why specifically a banana? Of course the grape is an obvious symbol for the god of wine. But Dionysus is also a god of virility, passion, and hyperphallic masculine sexuality, and frankly, a banana looks like a penis.
So eat your bananas and hail Dionysus! How do you like that, Ray Comfort?
Sailing to Byzantium 
LOL
I think Dionysus is best summed up as the god of liminal abandon. It’s a beautiful thing.
And we all know that a banana was created by God to perfectly fit in the hand … er, um, … in Katyjane’s hand. 😉
(I’m cracking myself up today.)
Agreed!
I heard that the standard breed of modern bananas can’t reproduce sexually…
Well, this mental image just about made my entire week!
Blunt, perhaps, but totally true and on-topic. Thanks!
Hail Dionysus!
re chanson:
well, you know, back then, smaller was better (this even went so far as to influence Michelangelo’s David or The Creation of Adam)…so even those wild bananas could be what they were going for.
Your post is certainly interesting. But it suffers from a common misconception: that Dionysus was the god of wine, fertility etc. That was only for the uninitiated in ancient Greece. Those who knew more – the mysts – had studied the Orphic texts, in which it becomes clear that Dionysus (who was put by Zeus into the seat of the king of gods when he was born) was none other than Fanitas returning.
Since Fanitas, the creator of everything, was actually androgynous, it can’t be that a symbol of only the male genitals is enough to capture the fullness of Dionysus…
Interesting. I strongly suspect you made all of that up. Care to cite a source?
Of course! You could start here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphic#Mythology to see that the basis of what I say is true. I’ll do some research and post a couple of links more here
Do you read Greek?
And a couple more…
http://timelessmyths.com/classical/primeval.html#Protogonus
http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Phanes.html
In the second link you can find also some references to translated ancient texts, although not the full Orphic texts, alas…
See where this all leads?
Meh, color me unimpressed. I simply don’t find Orphism all that compelling, and I definitely see no reason to privilege it over other Hellenic religious approaches simply because it’s own adherents did. The fact that it was a mystery religion doesn’t mean it’s somehow truer or more likely to be true.
I’m not saying it’s false or wrong, mind you. I’m just saying I see no reason to privilege it. I think all of the theoi are manifestations of the supreme cosmic reality. And maybe Dionysus is somehow closer to that. But I also think they are at the same time extremely individual and particular.
So I’m saying that Dionysus may indeed be a kind of living incarnation of Protogenos–maybe even more so than the other gods–but that does not mean that his maleness or his godhood over wine and fertility is a misconception for the uninitiated. Maybe that’s contradictory to you, but I think the gods have no problem being contradictory. They are gods after all.
Sure, Kullervo, the point here was not to impress you after all… You asked for some sources, so I gave a few.
I personally think that the initiates of the Great Mysteries of the ancient – and current – times, in all religions, possessed a far deeper understanding of the divine than followers of exoteric doctrines ever could approach. But that’s just my view..
The Orphics mere showed one side of a very, very multi-faceted god. It does not make what they taught any lesser, or greater.