Religion, State and Democracy

A Reappraisal of the Fifth-Century B.C. Libations to Dionysus in the Theatre Attested in Plut. Cim. 8, 8-9

Abstract

This paper examines a fifth-century B.C. obscure ceremony: the libations to Dionysus poured by the ten generals during the Athenian Dionysia in the theatre – a practice attested only by Plutarch’s Life of Cimon. The investigation here conducted firstly contextualises the libations as a religious ritual and, secondly, analyses its performers from a historico-political perspective. While highlighting the problematics for assessing and interpreting the libations as an unambiguous event, the paper investigates: (a) what the performers did during a libation; (b) who were the ordinary officers of the libations; and (c) to what extent democratic ideology was involved during the ritual.