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Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 23:09:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Alfred M Kriman <akriman@darwin.helios.nd.edu>
Message-Id: <199912270409.XAA08865@darwin.helios.nd.edu>
To: classics@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: QUERY: eucharistic Ceres & Bacchus

David Lupher
> In response to my query about Ceres and Bacchus in Christian
> religious iconography as Eucharistic symbols, Jim Holoka responded:
> >Try Hugo Rahner, Greek Myths and Christian Mystery.
....
> So there, in Mathews' passing comment, is the Dionysos-Eucharist
> connection (yes, I know: Ho"lderlin uses it in "Brot und Wein," but
> he's beyond my chronological range).  But, again, I'm looking for a
> pairing of Dionysos and Ceres in early Christian, medieval, or early
> modern art, esp. in churches.

Neither Rahner nor Hatch (_Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the
Christian Church_, uh, 1888) mention specifically *artistic* uses of
Ceres or Bacchus.  Of course, early Christianity developed in a context
of and contest with mystery religions, and there seems to be broad
agreement (see DL's post also) that mystery-cult conceptions influenced
the development of Christian language and practice, including baptism and
eucharist, but the evidence is apparently all literary or inscriptional.
A speculation (and it may be addressed in these books, which I haven't
studied): perhaps Christianity could most safely adopt outward forms from
mystery cults during the late fourth and fifth century, when they were a
weakening adversary, and when moreover pagan devotion was becoming more
fuzzily syncretistic and tending towards sun-worship (so Rahner); Dionysus
was coming to be represented in forms associated with the sun-god, so
perhaps one might expect less in the way of specifically Dionysian
imagery.

.