The Origins of Carnival Part 2

Isaiah 5 verses 11-23

[11] Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
[12] And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
[13] Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
[14] Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
[15] And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
[16] But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
[17] Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
[18] Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
[19] That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
[20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
[21] Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
[22] Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
[23] Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!



Isasiah 14 verses 9-17

[5] The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
[6] He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
[7] The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
[8] Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
[9] Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
[10] All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
[11] Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
[12] How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
[13] For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
[14] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
[15] Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
[16] They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
[17] That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?


Ezekiel 28 verse 12-18

[12] Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
[13] Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
[14] Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
[15] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
[16] By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
[17] Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
[18] Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.


The Roman god Bacchus originated initially in Greece and perhaps even before and was called Dionysus.

Dionysus is a Greek god, son of Zeus and Semele; his worship entered Greece from Thrace c.1000 BC. Originally a god of the fertility of nature, associated with wild and ecstatic religious rites, in later traditions he is a god of wine who loosens inhibitions and inspires creativity in music and poetry.

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Dionysus (Lexico)

Archeologists in Rome have stumbled on a large marble head of Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, the ancient Roman god of wine, dance and fertility.

The discovery was made during excavations in the heart of the city, near the remains of the ancient Roman Forum.

The head would have belonged to a large statue of the god dating back to the imperial era.

The archaeologists were digging around the remains of a medieval wall when they found the marble head, which they believe represents Dionysus, who the Romans knew as Bacchus."


....Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, the mortal daughter of the king of Thebes.

He was known as the god of wine, winemaking and grape cultivation, as well as of fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy.

He was worshiped by the ancient Greeks as one of the 12 Olympians before being incorporated into the Roman pantheon of gods as Bacchus.

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2,000-year-old marble head of god Dionysus discovered under Rome



The Roman god Bacchus (Dionysus) is said to generally have female followers

As Dionysus apparently represented the sap, juice, or lifeblood element in nature, lavish festal orgia (rites) in his honour were widely instituted. These Dionysia (Bacchanalia) quickly won converts among women. Men, however, met them with hostility. In Thrace Dionysus was opposed by Lycurgus, who ended up blind and mad.

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Dionysus (Encyclopedia Brittanica)

Maenad, a female follower of the Greek god of wine, Dionysus. The word maenad comes from the Greek maenades, meaning “mad” or “demented.” During the orgiastic rites of Dionysus, maenads roamed the mountains and forests performing frenzied, ecstatic dances and were believed to be possessed by the god. While under his influence they were supposed to have unusual strength, including the ability to tear animals or people to pieces (the fate met by the mythical hero and poet Orpheus). In Roman religion, Dionysus’s counterpart was Bacchus, and his female followers were called bacchantes.

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Maenad (Encyclopedia Britannica)



Collins Dictionary explains that Bacchante is

1.a priestess or female votary of Bacchus
2.a drunken female reveller

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Merriam Webster defines a priestess as:

1: a woman authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion
2: a woman regarded as a leader (as of a movement)

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Additionally Cambridge Dictionary defines a priestess as:

a woman who performs religious duties in some religions that are not Christian

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The worship of Dionysus, whom the Romans called Bacchus, or rather the Bacchic mysteries and orgies (Bacchanalia), are said to have been introduced from southern Italy into Etruria, and from thence into Rome (Liv. XXXIX.8), where for a time they were carried on in secret, and, during the latter period of their existence, at night. The initiated, according to Livy, did not only indulge in feasting and drinking at their meetings, but when their minds were heated with wine, they indulged in the coarsest excesses and the most unnatural vices. Young girls and youths were seduced, and all modesty was set aside; every kind of vice found here its full satisfaction. But crimes did not remain confined to these meetings; for false witnesses, forgeries, false wills, and denunciations proceeded from this focus of crime. Poison and assassination were carried on under the cover of the society; and the voices of those who had been fraudulently drawn into these orgies, and would cry out against the shameless practices, were drowned by the shouts of the Bacchantes, and the deafening sounds of drums and cymbals.

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BACCHANA′LIA

The naked man on the pot looks pretty happy. Arms ecstatically outstretched, framed by grapes and vines, legs akimbo, he has an enormous erection. But this isn’t some erotic piece of art from the Classical or Baroque worlds. This terracotta pot dates back over 8000 years – to the Stone Age – and to the beginning of society itself.

...The academic Norman O. Brown would declare that ‘resisting madness can be the maddest form of being mad’. He was inspired in part by the legacy of Nietzsche, who claimed that Dionysiac intoxication was the basis of all creativity. The radical German philosopher would tragically end his life mentally unstable, signing his name Dionysos and dancing naked around his rooms in pursuit of Dionysiac excess.

He wasn't the only one so inspired. Jim Morrison styled himself the ‘new Dionysos’ and his band The Doors championed the unlocking of the doors of perception. But the Greeks were right when they described the gifts of Dionysos as being ‘both a joy and a burden’ for mankind. It seems that Morrison was alcohol-dependent when he died.

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Party animals: How ancient cultures let loose Bacchus-style