Word Geek Meets Pagan Freak
http://www.consultsos.com/pandora/intr0903.htm
I hope that when you click on this it will link to the site properly. PandoraWordBox.com is a newsletter/site I subscribe to that is dedicated to linking the language of medicine and biology to the humanities—fine arts, poetry, and mythology). I’m not sure if you need a login to see this page. The text is copied here, but the links to other words and etimology, and the art on the actual page is worth exploring/viewing, if you’re geeky like me.
‘Tis the season, after all.
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Baccalaureate BS BA Bachelor
Bacchus Bacchanalia Debauched Bacchants
Laurels Libate Liberate Libertine
Oligophrenic Frantic Frenzy Schizophrenia
Bacchae or celebrants of Dionysus
This overview explores BACCALAUREATE. Those who earn this degree, owe their LAURELS (or BACCA) to the memory of BACCHUS ( DIONYSUS).
To earn a BACHELOR degree is a cause for LAUD and LAUDATORY celebration because BACCHUS or DIONYSUS was also called LAUDATOR. His other name was LIBER, perhaps because knowledge provides LIBERTY while also it is a source for some to take excessive liberties, a characteristic of LIBERTINES and of those excessively fond of LIBIDO.
The wreath of bachelors is made of BAY LEAF or BACCA LAURI, or LAUREL in Spanish. Bachelors should remember that as LAUREATES they are presumed to have the capacity for “self-illumination” through the ability to take DELIGHT in the LIGHT shed by knowledge “of self”. The knowledge “of else” is represented by Apollo and Athena.
Many people would agree that mankind, since recorded history, has been fond of wine and other social lubricants like dance and music. “Wine, song and women” underscore such ideas. The saying “IN VINO VERITAS”, implying that “wine facilitates veracity” reverberates for centuries. It is unfortunate that, for the most part, it has been forgotten that MAENADS, the devotees of BACCHUS, stood for MEASURED MODERATION and a COMMENSURATE MIND or MENTALITY rather than, as now, unrestrained “craze” or FRENZY. Such shifts in meaning, particularly if derogatory to the ancients, often reflect the successful efforts of Christian monks to distort ancient documents. Perhaps, those who study behavior and psychiatry ( PHRENOLOGY) should explore why, those who claim to love God, often have a penchant to mislead posterity. It is noteworthy that among the Olympian Gods, who were rather promiscuous, BACCHUS or Dionysus is singled out as a faithful husband.
Bacchic or Dionysian mysteries underscore the paradoxes and vulnerabilities of human nature. Intelligent people, such as Cicero, when exposed to these mysteries, were positively impressed. Such mysteries continue to perplex us. Note the behavior of some recent United States Presidents that defy reason.
Human nature remains a recalcitrant mystery and DIONYSUS or BACCHUS remind mortals of this enduring enigma. Mythology stresses that when DIONYSUS came to this world, he was ignored by mankind. In the “Bacchae”, Euripides illustrates the punishment of mortals by Dionysus. The BACCHANALIA, which meant DEVOTIONS and the BACCHANTS who were the devotees, can be seen as related to the mysteries of the mind. Several current events in the United States illustrate how the mix of money, greed, and religious zeal with politics and power can become toxic. Prominent DEBAUCHED behaviors by corporate and political rulers are not to be blamed on BACCHUS but should be seen as a disdain toward DIONYSUS and the rest of us.
Bacchus, “the twice born”, so called because his mother was consumed by
love and his gestation was completed in the thigh of his father Zeus.
– Compiled by W. Wertelecki, M.D.
March 2, 2006 at 5:32 pm
ooooh cool! Thanks for sharing.
March 2, 2006 at 8:01 pm
NEAT!! I’m going to cut and paste that into an email to a friend of mine. THANKS!!