Medea is said to have killed and dismembered her brother whilst fleeing with Jason and the stolen fleece in order to delay their pursuers, who would be compelled to collect the remains of the prince for burial. According to some myths, Orpheus, regarded as a prophet of Orphic or Bacchic religion, died when he was dismembered by raging Thracian women. Later, after King Pentheus has banned the worship of Dionysus, the god lures him into a forest, to be torn limb from limb by Maenads, including his own mother Agave. In one scene guards sent to control the Maenads witness them pulling a live bull to pieces with their hands. It is associated with the Maenads or Bacchantes, followers of Dionysus, and the Dionysian Mysteries.Įxamples of sparagmos appear in Euripides's play The Bacchae. Sparagmos was frequently followed by omophagia (the eating of the raw flesh of the one dismembered). In Dionysian rite as represented in myth and literature, a living animal, or sometimes even a human being, is sacrificed by being dismembered. Sparagmos ( Ancient Greek: σπαραγμός, from σπαράσσω sparasso, "tear, rend, pull to pieces") is an act of rending, tearing apart, or mangling, usually in a Dionysian context. Maenads attacking Pentheus (Roman wall painting from the House of the Vettii, Pompeii)
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