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Διονυσιάζουσαι (Dionysiazousai)
(“Women Celebrating the Dionysia”)
Discussion PCG VII (1989) 758-9; Olson 2007, 169-72; Hughes 2008, 1-22;
Sommerstein 2009, 116-7; Orth, HGL II (2014) 1046.
Title For comic titles signifying participation of women in religious celebrations
cf. Aristophanes’ Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι “Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria” and
Σκηνάς Καταλαμβάνουσαι “Women Claiming Tent-Sites”, Platon’s Al άφ’ Ιερών
“Women from the Festival” and Philippides’ Άδωνιάζουσαι “Women Celebrating
the Adonia”.61 Titles referring generally to a celebration are Epicharm’s Έορτά
“Festival”, Eupolis’ Βάπται “Dyers”, Pherecrates’Invc^ ή Παννυχίς “Kitchen or All-
Night Festival”, Platon’s'Eopvai “Festivals”, Autocrates’ Τυμπανισταί “Drummers”,
Lysippus’, Diodes’ and Antiphanes’ Βάκχαι “Bacchae”. Other ‘Dionysian’ titles in
Timocles are Δημοσάτυροι, Διόνυσος andlicdpioi Σάτυροι.
In Old Comedy, women participating in religious activities were associated
with their taking the opportunity to dance, drink and indulge in ecstatic behavior;
cf. Ar. Lys. 1-3 (with Henderson 1987, ad locd) άλλ’ εϊ τις εις Βακχεϊον αύτάς
έκάλεσεν, / ή ’ς Πανός ή ’πι Κωλιάδ’ εις Γενετυλλίδος, / ούδ’ άν διελθεΐν ήν άν υπό
τών τυμπάνων “Now if someone had invited the women to a revel for Bacchus,
or to Pan’s shrine, or to Genetyllis’s at Kolias, they would be jamming the streets
with their tambourines”. Male concerns with women plotting against men during
religious ceremonies are also depicted in Aristophanes’ Assembly Women (esp. w.
17-29), where the women participating in the Skira take political initiatives and
plan to take over the Assembly, and in Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria (esp.
w. 82-4), where the women plan to revenge themselves on Euripides because
he defames them in his comedies. On the other hand, ecstatic initiation rites,
practiced outside the established religious life of the city, and the persons involved
in them were regarded with suspicion and hostility; cf. Parker 1996,158-63. Also
in Attic forensic oratory, participation in ecstatic rites was a means of slandering
one’s opponent; cf. D. 18.59-60; 19.199, 249, 181.
Content As the present participle of the title suggests, the play includes an action
in progress; cf. Konstantakos 2000, 63; Orth 2013, 27 (on Ale. Com. Άδελφαι
Μοιχευόμεναι). A crucial matter for any speculation about the play is the question
of the precise nature of the ‘Dionysiazousai’. Should we think, for example, of
women officially participating in the whole program of the Dionysia, i. e. also at-
tending theatrical performances? But this is a very controversial issue, and modern
research has not provided a definite answer. Henderson 1991, 133-4 argues that
the absence of any mention of women in theatre is compatible with the conven-
tional protocols of silence’ about women. On the contrary, Goldhill 1994, 347-69

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Cf. Theocritus’ fifteenth idyll entitled Συρακόσιαι ή Άδωνιάζουσαι “Syracusian Women
or Women at the Adonia”.