In the Eleusinian Mysteries, the bakchoi were the branches of initiates that carried out the procession along the Sacred Way, the twenty-one kilometer hike from Athens to Eleusis.[1] The term is sometimes distinguished from mystai (initiate), specifically the Eleusinian initiate, only for the purpose of emphasis since the two words are considered synonymous.[2] The bacchoi was considered a transformed state after performing initiations and this was described by Euripides in the case of his Cretans, who proclaimed they were made holy – mystai and bacchoi – after cleansing themselves through initiation.[3]

Bacchoi is sometimes attached to other terms. For instance, there is Iacchoi-Bacchoi, where Iacchos served as a synonym for Bacchus.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Walter Burkert, Homo necans: interpretationen altgriechischer Opferriten und Mythen (Berolini: DeGruyter, 1972), pp. 306–307.
  2. ↑ Graf, Fritz; Johnston, Sarah Iles (2013). Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets. Oxon: Routledge. p. 121. ISBN 9780415508025.
  3. ↑ III, Radcliffe G. Edmonds (2004). Myths of the Underworld Journey: Plato, Aristophanes, and the 'Orphic' Gold Tablets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 105. ISBN 0521834341.
  4. ↑ Blavatsky, Helena; Pococke, Edward; Taylor, Thomas; Wilder, Alexander (2018). The holy rites of Eleusis were Archaic Wisdom-Religion dressed in Greek garb. Philaletheians UK. p. 49.


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