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This overview explores
BACCALAUREATE. Those who earn this degree, owe their LAURELS (or BACCA) to the
memory of BACCHUS ( DIONYSUS).
To earn a BACHELOR degree is a cause for LAUD
and LAUDATORY celebration because BACCHUS or DIONYSUS was also called LAUDATOR.
His other name was LIBER, perhaps because knowledge provides LIBERTY while also
it is a source for some to take excessive liberties, a characteristic of LIBERTINES
and of those excessively fond of LIBIDO.
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A virtuous Bacchus (da Vinci). |
The wreath of bachelors is made of BAY LEAF or BACCA LAURI, or LAUREL in
Spanish. Bachelors should remember that as LAUREATES they are presumed to have
the capacity for "self-illumination" through the ability to take DELIGHT in the
LIGHT shed by knowledge "of self". The knowledge "of else" is represented by
Apollo and Athena.
Many people would agree that mankind, since recorded history, has been fond of
wine and other social lubricants like dance and music.
"Wine, song and women" underscore such ideas.
The saying "IN VINO VERITAS", implying that "wine
facilitates veracity" reverberates for centuries. It is unfortunate that, for
the most part, it has been forgotten that MAENADS, the devotees of
BACCHUS, stood for
MEASURED MODERATION and a
COMMENSURATE MIND or MENTALITY rather than, as now,
unrestrained "craze" or
FRENZY. Such shifts in meaning, particularly if derogatory to the ancients,
often reflect the successful efforts of Christian monks to distort ancient documents.
Perhaps, those who study behavior and psychiatry (
PHRENOLOGY) should explore why, those who claim to love God, often have a penchant to
mislead posterity. It is noteworthy that among the Olympian Gods,
who were rather promiscuous, BACCHUS or Dionysus is singled out as a faithful husband.
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Bacchus saved and married
Ariane (Pittoni; Pellegrini). |
Bacchic or Dionysian mysteries underscore the paradoxes
and vulnerabilities of human nature. Intelligent people, such as
Cicero, when exposed to these mysteries, were positively impressed.
Such mysteries continue to perplex us. Note the behavior of some
recent United States Presidents that defy reason.
Human nature remains a recalcitrant mystery and DIONYSUS or BACCHUS remind
mortals of this enduring enigma.
Mythology stresses
that when DIONYSUS came to this world, he was ignored
by mankind. In the "Bacchae", Euripides illustrates
the punishment of mortals by Dionysus. The BACCHANALIA, which
meant DEVOTIONS and the BACCHANTS who were the devotees,
can be seen as related to the mysteries of the mind. Several current events in
the United States illustrate how the mix of money, greed, and religious zeal
with politics and power can become toxic. Prominent DEBAUCHED behaviors by
corporate and political rulers are not to be blamed on BACCHUS but should be
seen as a disdain toward DIONYSUS and the rest of us.
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| Bacchus, "the twice born",
so called because his mother was consumed by |
| love and his gestation was completed
in the thigh of his father Zeus. |
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- Compiled by W. Wertelecki, M.D. |
| Related Overview: MARDI GRAS |
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