Archaeology of a magical, distant land
Nysa, Anatrofi, Nymphs, Tropheus, Ambrosia, Hermes and Dionysus, Nektar and Theogonia (Paphos Mosaics)
Pafos, usually written Paphos in English, is a coastal town in the south-west of Cyprus. Pafos is the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, sex and beauty. In Greco-Roman times it was the island's capital and is famous for the remains of the Roman Governor's palace with extensive, fine mosaics. Another famous archaeological site there is the Tombs of the Kings. In the New Testament, Paul visited the town.
According to Sir William Jones, philologist and scholar of ancient India, "Meros is said by the Greeks to have been a mountain in India, on which their Dionysos was born, and that Meru, though it generally means the north pole in Indian geography, is also a mountain near the city of Naishada or Nysa, called by the Greek geographers Dionysopolis, and universally celebrated in the Sanskrit poems".
Drinking scene with Dionysus and Ariadne on his lap. Greco-Buddhist art from Gandhara, 3rd century CE
...as it is, the Greek story has it that no sooner was Dionysus born than Zeus sewed him up in his thigh and carried him away to Nysa in Ethiopia beyond Egypt; and as for Pan, the Greeks do not know what became of him after his birth. It is therefore plain to me that the Greeks learned the names of these two gods later than the names of all the others, and trace the birth of both to the time when they gained the knowledge.
- Herodotus, Histories 2:146
It is interesting to see that Herodotus connects the black inhabitants of Africa to the dark Indians, which must have made it easy to move Nysa to the valley of the river Swat, in the mysterious Indus country that was discovered by Alexander the Great. Here, he visited a city called Nysa near a mountain called Meros, 'thigh', which reminded the Macedonians of the myth that Dionysus was born from Zeus' thigh. The presence of ivy was sufficient evidence to prove the connection. Behind this story undoubtedly is the ancient Indian legend about the world mountain Meru. The story by Arrian of Nicomedia is told here; a description of this Indian sanctuary has survived in the Life of Apollonius by Philostratus, a late source that nevertheless contains authentic information about the Punjab.
- Nysa (at Livius)
Right: A second century BCE helmet with Hellenistic influences protects the head of a Parthian warrior from Nysa, capital of the Parthian homeland.
In Helios Rising, I illustrated the similarity between the birth accounts of Buddha and Dionysus, and how they - and various other 'divine men' in Classical Antiquity were Helios. This is the result of the Hellenisation brought about by the successors to Alexander the Great, across the Alexandrian cities and ports from Greco-India, into the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean. On the birth of Buddha:
Aspects of this story may have been borrowed from Hindu texts, such as the account of the birth of Indra from the Rig Veda. The story may also have Hellenic influences. For a time after Alexander the Great conquered central Asia in 334 BCE, there was considerable intermingling of Buddhism with Hellenic art and ideas. There also is speculation that the story of the Buddha’s birth was “improved” after Buddhist traders returned from the Middle East with stories of the birth of Jesus.
- The Birth of the Buddha, Legend and Myth by Barbara O'Brien
We continue to explore this Hellenistic culture, common to the multitude of peoples and nations across the world conquered by the Macedonians. As kings are known by a number of names, holding various titles, each expressed in different languages, so too is Helios, interpreted in each region, by each society, depending on their culture of language, history and faith, over time as each culture develops.
Dionysus and drama in the Buddhist art of Gandhara
This essay examines the relationships existing between Dionysian traditions of wine drinking and drama that reached the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, and the Buddhist culture and art that flourished in Gandhara (Eastern Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan) under the Kushan kings between the first and third centuries CE. By piecing together archaeological, artistic and literary evidence, it appears that along with viniculture and viticulture, Dionysian rituals, Greek theatre and vernacular drama also became rooted in these eastern lands. Continuous interactions with the Graeco-Roman world strengthened these important cultural elements. At the beginning of the Common Era Dionysian traditions and drama came to be employed by the Buddhists of Gandhara to propagate their own ideas. The creation of a body of artworks representing the life of the Buddha in narrative form along with the literary work of Ashvaghosha, may be an expression of the same dramatic format that developed locally along with a strong Dionysian ritual presence.
Pia Brancaccioa1 and Xinru Liu
Pia Brancaccio is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at Drexel University, Philadelphia. Her publications include Gandharan Buddhism: archaeology, art and text (2006, with Kurt Behrendt) and articles on Gandharan art.
Xinru Liu teaches at the College of New Jersey. She is the author of a number of books, including Ancient India and ancient China (1988) and Connections across Eurasia: transportation, communication, and cultural exchanges on the Silk Roads (2007, with Lynda Shaffer).
Journal of Global History (2009), 4:219-244 Cambridge University Press
Greek concepts of where Nysa was, are variable enough to suggest that a magical distant land was named 'Nysa' to explain the god's unreadable name, as the 'god of Nysa'. Infant Dionysus, god of the grapevine, was nursed by the rain-nymphs, the Hyades at Nysa.
There are a number of cities known as Nysa, called by the Greek geographers Dionysopolis. Much scholarly debate concerns the location of mythical Nysa and the historical cities named Dionysopolis. In recent years, archaeological excavations have been revealing.
Parthian Fortresses of Nisa, southwest of Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Nisa is described by some as one of the first capitals of the Parthians. It was traditionally founded by Arsaces I (reigned c. 250 BCE-211 BCE), and was reputedly the royal necropolis of the Parthian kings.
Coin of Mithridates I. The reverse shows Heracles and the inscription "Great King Arsaces, friend of Greeks". Italian Archaeological Mission in Old Nisa:
Report of the 2000 Season
Report of the 2001 Season
Report of the 2002 Season
Report of the 2003 Season
Report of the 2004 Season
Report of the 2005 Season
Report of the 2006 Season
Report of the 2007 Season
Report of the 2008 Season
Report of the 2009 Season
Old Nisa Bibliography
Excavations at Nisa have revealed substantial buildings, mausoleums and shrines, many inscribed documents, and a looted treasury. Many Hellenistic art works have been uncovered, as well as a large number of ivory rhytons, the outer rims (coins) decorated with Iranian subjects or classical mythological scenes.
Nisa was later renamed Mithradatkirt ("fortress of Mithradates") by Mithradates I of Parthia (reigned c. 171 BCE-138 BCE).
Nisa was totally destroyed by an earthquake, which occurred during the first decade for the past era.
A typical decoration on the monumental buildings of Old Nisa is the terracotta "metope" (loosely borrowing the Greek term). The Nisa metopes represent a hybrid both in form and decoration, and include design elements of western origin such as the lion proteome, the club of Hercules, and the anchor (a dynastic symbol of the Seleucids) and the typically local gorytos. A fragment of a metope decorated with the club of Hercules was found near the northern limit of the excavations (right).
As I mentioned earlier, Mithra, Mithras, the term Mithraic Mysteries and the kingly title Mithradates (for it is a title, not a name), are all referencing Helios. This parallels the many faces of the Helios, of which Dionysus is but one and this is true whether one is treating Seleucid or Parthian Persia.
As 'friend of the Greeks' on the coin (above left) illustrates, the dominant culture across this region and period is Greek and the process all cultures are undergoing is Hellenisation.
The search for and archaeological studies of possible Dionysopolis sites are discussed at length here:
Ancient Greek Colonies in the Black Sea 2 (Dimitrios V. Grammenos, Elias K. Petropoulos (ed.); BAR International Series; 1675 (1-2), Oxford: Archaeopress, 2001. Pp. viii, 1262).
The Hellenistic settlements in Europe, the islands, and Asia Minor by Getzel M. Cohen (Volume 17 of Hellenistic culture and society, University of California Press, 1995).
Though much remains unknown, or speculative, I note that the founding of these sites (and sometimes, their destruction) is due to the immediate successors of Alexander the Great. Their history is of these successors competing for their dominion and in this, Lysimachus is prominent.