View source for Silenus

{{short description|Ancient Greek mythological figure}}
{{Other uses|Silenus (disambiguation)}}
{{distinguish|Silenoz}}
{{Infobox deity
| type             = Greek
| name             = Silenus
| image            = Sileno del 100-150 con testa di età flavia, da originali del primo ellenismo della cerchia di lisisppo.JPG
| alt              = 
| caption          = [[Roman art|Roman copy]] of [[Hellenistic art|Hellenistic]] statue of Silenus holding a bunch of grapes and a cup of wine, [[Vatican Museums]] (Pius-Clementine Museum, Room of the Muses), Rome
| god_of           = God of [[drunkenness]] and [[winemaking]]
| abode            = [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]]
| symbol           = [[Wine]], [[grape]]s, [[kantharos]], [[thyrsos]], [[wineskin]], [[panthera|panther]], [[donkey]]
| consort          = [[Hermaphroditus]]
| parents          = [[Pan (god)|Pan]], or [[Hermes]] and [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaea]]
| siblings         = 
| children         = foster father of [[Dionysus]], [[Pholus (mythology)|Pholus]]
| Roman_equivalent = 
}}

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Silenus''' ({{IPAc-en|s|aɪ|ˈ|l|iː|n|ə|s}}; {{langx|grc|Σιληνός}} {{transliteration|grc|Sīlēnós}} {{IPA|grc|siːlɛːnós|}} or {{lang|grc|Σειληνός}} {{transliteration|grc|Seilēnós}} {{IPA|grc|seːlɛːnós|}}) was a companion and [[tutor]] to the [[wine]] [[Greek god|god]] [[Dionysus]]. He is typically older than the [[satyr]]s of the Dionysian retinue (''[[thiasos]]''), and sometimes considerably older, in which case he may be referred to as a '''Papposilenus'''. ''Silen'' <ref>{{Cite journal |last=van Hoorn |first=G. |date=November 1954 |title=Choes and Anthesteria |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/627643 |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=74 |doi=10.2307/627643 |jstor=627643 |via=Cambridge University Press|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and its plural ''sileni'' refer to the mythological figure as a type that is sometimes thought to be differentiated from a satyr by having the attributes of a horse rather than a goat, though usage of the two words is not consistent enough to permit a sharp distinction.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

In the [[decorative arts]], a "silene" is a Silenus-like figure, often a "mask" (face) alone.

==Evolution==
The original Silenus resembled a [[folkloric]] man of the forest, with the ears of a horse and sometimes also the tail and legs of a horse.<ref>Entry "Satyrs and silens", in: ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary''</ref> The later sileni were drunken followers of Dionysus, usually bald and fat with thick lips and squat noses, and having the legs of a human. Later still, the plural "sileni" went out of use and the only references were to one individual named Silenus, the teacher and faithful companion of the wine-god Dionysus.<ref>Kerenyi, p. 177.</ref>

{{Coin image box 1 double
| header =Coin from [[Mende (Chalcidice)|Mende]] depicting Silenus
| image = File:Mende 460-423 BC.jpg
| caption_left = '''[[Obverse and reverse|Obv:]]'''  Inebriated Silenus reclining on a [[donkey]], holding [[kantharos]] with wine
| caption_right = '''[[Obverse and reverse|Rev:]]''' Vine of four grape clusters within shallow linear incuse square, ΜΕΝΔΑΙΩΝ, ''of Mendians''
| width = 250
| footer = Silver [[tetradrachm]] from [[Mende (Chalcidice)|Mende]], 460–423 BC
| position = left| margin = 4
}}

A notorious consumer of wine, he was usually drunk and had to be supported by satyrs or carried by a [[donkey]]. Silenus was described as the oldest, wisest and most drunken of the followers of Dionysus, and was said in [[Orphic]] hymns to be the young god's tutor. This puts him in a company of phallic or half-animal tutors of the gods, a group that includes [[Priapus]], [[Hermaphroditus]], [[Cedalion]] and [[Chiron]], but also includes [[Pallas (son of Lycaon)|Pallas]], the tutor of [[Athena]].<ref>Kerenyi, p. 177.</ref>

When intoxicated, Silenus was said to possess special knowledge and the power of prophecy. The Phrygian King [[Midas]] was eager to learn from Silenus and caught the old man by lacing with wine a fountain from which Silenus often drank. As Silenus fell asleep, the king's servants seized and took him to their master. An alternative story was that when lost and wandering in [[Phrygia]], Silenus was rescued by peasants and taken to Midas, who treated him kindly. In return for Midas's hospitality Silenus told him some tales and the king, enchanted by Silenus's fictions, entertained him for five days and nights.<ref>J. Thompson (2010). [http://www.mythopoetry.com/mythopoetics/scholar09_thompson.html "Emotional Intelligence/Imaginal Intelligence"], in: ''Mythopoetry Scholar Journal'' '''1'''.</ref> Dionysus offered Midas a reward for his kindness toward Silenus, and Midas chose the power of turning everything he touched into [[gold]]. Another story was that Silenus had been captured by two shepherds, and regaled them with wondrous tales.

In [[Euripides]]'s [[satyr play]] ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'', Silenus is stranded with the satyrs in [[Sicily]], where they have been enslaved by the [[Cyclopes]]. They are the comic elements of the story, a parody of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'' IX. Silenus refers to the satyrs as his children during the play.

Silenus may have become a [[Latin]] term of abuse around 211 BC, when it is used in [[Plautus]]'s ''[[Rudens]]'' to describe Labrax, a treacherous [[pimp]] or ''leno'', as "...a pot-bellied old Silenus, bald head, beefy, bushy eyebrows, scowling, twister, god-forsaken criminal".<ref>Plautus</ref> In his satire ''The Caesars'', the emperor [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] has Silenus sitting next to the gods to offer up his comments on the various rulers under examination, including [[Alexander the Great]], [[Julius Caesar]], [[Augustus]], [[Marcus Aurelius]] (whom he reveres as a fellow [[philosopher-king]]), and [[Constantine I]].<ref>[http://www.mountainman.com.au/essenes/Julian_Caesares_Symposium_Kronia.htm ''The Caesars'' on-line English translation].</ref>

Silenus commonly figures in Roman bas-reliefs of the train of Dionysus, a subject for [[Sarcophagus|sarcophagi]], embodying the transcendent promises of Dionysian cult.

In Book VI of Pausanias's ''Description of Greece'', his grave is said to be "in the [[Land of Israel|land of the Hebrews]]".

<gallery mode="packed" heights="170" caption="Silenus as member of the Dionysian entourage">
File:Sarcophagus Dionysos Ariadne Glyptothek Munich.jpg|Front side of a [[Roman sarcophagus]], depicting the wedding of [[Dionysos]] and [[Ariadne]], with old Silenus figuring in their entourage (sixth figure from the right), 150–160 CE ([[Glyptothek]], [[Munich]])
File:Terracotta bell-krater (mixing bowl) MET DP111867.jpg|Papposilenus in a Dionysian procession, bell-krater from [[Paestum]], [[Magna Graecia]], {{circa|355 BC}} ([[Metropolitan Museum of Art]])
File:Borghese Vase-5-Hermitage.jpg|Satyr holding a [[thyrsus]], supporting a drunken ivy-wreathed silenus, from the [[Borghese Vase]], 1st century BC ([[Louvre]])
File:Pompeii - Casa del Centenario - Hermaphroditos.jpg|[[Hermaphroditos]] with Silenus and a [[maenad]], Roman [[fresco]] from the [[Casa del Centenario]], [[Pompeii]]
File:Pompeii - Hermaphroditus and Silenus.jpg|Hermaphroditus and Silenus. On the right a maenad with thyrsus. Roman fresco from [[Pompeii]], House of M. Epidi Sabini, IX.1.22.
File:Bacchus and Silenus BM 1899.2-15.1 n02.jpg|Bacchus pours out wine for a panther, while Silenus plays the lyre, painting from [[Boscoreale]], [[Campania]], {{circa|30 BC}} ([[British Museum]])
File:Roman fresco Villa dei Misteri Pompeii 005.jpg|Silenus playing a [[lyre]], detail of a fresco from the [[Villa of the Mysteries]], [[Pompeii]], {{circa|50 BC}}
</gallery>

===Papposilenus===
Papposilenus is a representation of Silenus that emphasizes his old age, particularly as a [[stock character]] in [[satyr play]] or [[Greek comedy|comedy]]. In [[vase painting]], his hair is often white, and as in statuettes, Papposilenus has a [[wikt:potbelly|pot belly]], flabby breasts and shaggy thighs. In these depictions, it is often clear that the Papposilenus is an actor playing a part. His costuming includes a body stocking tufted with hair (''mallōtos chitōn'') that seems to have come into use in the mid-5th century BC.<ref>Albin Lesky, ''A History of Greek Literature,'' translated by Cornelis de Heer and James Willis (Hackett, 1996, originally published 1957 in German), p. 226; Guy Hedreen, "Myths of Ritual in Athenian Vase-Paintings of Silens", in: ''The Origins of Theater in Ancient Greece and Beyond: From Ritual to Drama'' (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 151.</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Greek - Papposilenos Playing the Double Flute - Walters 541076.jpg|Papposilenus playing an [[aulos]], bronze from 3rd century BC, ([[Walters Art Museum]])
File:Papposilenoi Met 25.78.66 n01.jpg|Two papposilenoi as singers at the [[Panathenaia]] on an Attic [[red-figure pottery|red-figure]] [[krater|bell-krater]] attributed to [[Polion]], {{circa|420 BC}}
File:Altes romano 11.TIF|Actor as Papposilenus, {{circa|100 AD}}, after 4th century BC original ([[Altes Museum]], [[Berlin]])
</gallery>

==Wisdom==
<!-- Linked from 'Antinatalism'-->

A theme in Greek philosophy and literature is the wisdom of Silenus, which posits an [[antinatalist]] philosophy:

<blockquote>You, most blessed and happiest among humans, may well consider those blessed and happiest who have departed this life before you, and thus you may consider it unlawful, indeed blasphemous, to speak anything ill or false of them, since they now have been transformed into a better and more refined nature. This thought is indeed so old that the one who first uttered it is no longer known; it has been passed down to us from eternity, and hence doubtless it is true. Moreover, you know what is so often said and passes for a trite expression. What is that, he asked? He answered: It is best not to be born at all; and next to that, it is better to die than to live; and this is confirmed even by divine testimony. Pertinently to this they say that Midas, after hunting, asked his captive Silenus somewhat urgently, what was the most desirable thing among humankind. At first he could offer no response, and was obstinately silent. At length, when Midas would not stop plaguing him, he erupted with these words, though very unwillingly: 'you, seed of an evil genius and precarious offspring of hard fortune, whose life is but for a day, why do you compel me to tell you those things of which it is better you should remain ignorant? For he lives with the least worry who knows not his misfortune; but for humans, the best for them is not to be born at all, not to partake of nature's excellence; not to be is best, for both sexes. This should be our choice, if choice we have; and the next to this is, when we are born, to die as soon as we can.' It is plain therefore, that he declared the condition of the dead to be better than that of the living.
: – Aristotle, ''Eudemus'' (354 BCE), surviving fragment quoted in Plutarch, ''Moralia. Consolatio ad Apollonium'', sec. xxvii (1st century CE) (S. H. transl.)</blockquote>

This passage is redolent of [[Theognis]]'s ''Elegies'' (425–428). Silenus's wisdom appears in the writings of [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], who endorsed this famous dictum. Via Schopenhauer, Nietzsche discusses the "wisdom of Silenus" in ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]''.

Both [[Socrates]] and [[Aesop]] were sometimes described as having a physical appearance like that of Silenus, with broad flat faces and fat bellies.<ref>Ulrike Egelhauf-Gaiser, "The Gleaming Pate of the ''Pastophoros'': Masquerade or Embodied Lifestyle?", in: ''Aspects of Apuleius' Golden Ass, III'' (Brill, 2012), p. 59, citing passages in [[Plato]] and [[Xenophon]].</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180" caption="Drunken Silenus, from ancient to modern times">
File:Drunk papposilenus Louvre CA6530.jpg|Drunk papposilenus supported by two young men, Etruscan red-figure stamnos from Vulci, {{circa|300 BC}} ([[Louvre]])
File:Antalya Museum - Sarkophag 7c Silen.jpg|Silenus detail from a [[Roman sarcophagus|Roman-era marble sarcophagus]], 2nd century AD ([[Antalya Museum]])
File:Θεσσαλονίκη - Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο 1246.jpg|Fountain statue of a sleeping drunken Silenus, 1st century BC ([[Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki]])
File:Museum El Jem - Mosaic Silen with ass - Detail 1.jpg|Silenus carried toward his donkey ([[Roman mosaic|mosaic]] from [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman Africa]], present-day [[Tunisia]])
File:Peter Paul Rubens - The Drunken Silenus - WGA20298.jpg|Peter Paul Rubens: ''The Drunken Silenus'', c. 1620 ([[National Gallery]], [[London]])
File:Peter Paul Rubens - The Drunken Silenus - WGA20297.jpg|Peter Paul Rubens: ''The Drunken Silenus'', {{circa|1616}} ([[Alte Pinakothek]], [[Munich]])
File:Pomponio Amidano - Drunken Silenus on an Ass.jpg|[[Pomponio Amidano]]: ''Drunken Silenus on an Ass'', {{circa|1600}} ([[Blanton Museum of Art]], [[Austin, Texas|Austin]])
</gallery>

==Classical tradition==
{{Main article|Classical tradition}}

===In art===
In the [[Renaissance]], a [[court dwarf]] posed for the Silenus-like figure astride a tortoise at the entrance to the [[Boboli Gardens]], Florence. [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]] painted [[:Image:Rubens Der trunkene Silen.jpg|''The Drunken Silenus'']] (1616–17), now conserved in the [[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich – the subject was also treated by [[Drunken Silenus (van Dyck)|van Dyck]] and [[Drunken Silenus (Ribera)|Ribera]].

During the late 19th century in Germany and Vienna, symbolism from ancient Greece was reinterpreted through a new [[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] prism. Around the same time, [[Vienna Secession]] artist [[Gustav Klimt]] uses the irreverent, chubby-faced Silenus as a motif in several works to represent "buried instinctual forces".<ref>[[Carl Emil Schorske|Carl Schorske]] ''[[Fin-de-Siècle Vienna|Fin-de-Siècle Vienna – Politics and Culture]]'', 1980, page 221</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Piero di Cosimo - Bacco scoperto miele.jpg|[[Piero di Cosimo]]: ''[[The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus]]'', {{circa|1499}} ([[Worcester Art Museum]], [[Worcester, Massachusetts]])
File:Piero di cosimo, disavventure di sileno.jpg|Piero di Cosimo: ''The Misfortunes of Silenus'', {{circa|1500}} ([[Fogg Museum]], [[Harvard University]])
File:Peter Paul Rubens - Sleeping Silenus.jpg|[[Peter Paul Rubens]] and [[David Rijckaert II]]: ''Sleeping Silenus'', {{circa|1611}} ([[Academy of Fine Arts Vienna]])
File:Jusepe de Ribera Drunken Silenus.jpg|[[Jusepe de Ribera]]: ''[[Drunken Silenus (Ribera)|Drunken Silenus]]'', 1626 ([[Museo di Capodimonte]], [[Naples]])
File:Boudard Gruppo del Sileno.jpg|Jean-Baptiste Boudard: ''Group of the Silen'', marble sculpture in the Ducal Park, [[Parma]], 1766
File:Dalou Triomphe de Silène CP.jpg|[[Jules Dalou]]: ''Triomphe de Silène'', bronze sculpture, [[Jardin du Luxembourg]], Paris, 1897
File:Silenius with Some Perfect Ladies of Phrygia Gave a Cocktail Party.jpg|Rupert Bunny: ''Silenus with Some Perfect Ladies of Phrygia Gave a Cocktail Party'', {{circa|1938}} 
</gallery>

[[File:Silenus Braccio Nuovo Inv2292.jpg|thumb|Silenus with the child Dionysos, marble statue, Roman copy of the middle 2nd century AD after a Greek original by Lysippos ({{circa|300 BC}})]]

===In literature===
In ''[[Gargantua and Pantagruel]]'', [[Rabelais]] referred to Silenus as the foster father of Bacchus. In 1884 [[Thomas Woolner]] published a long narrative poem about Silenus. In [[Oscar Wilde]]'s 1890 novel ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', Lord Henry Wooton turns praise of folly into a philosophy which mocks "slow Silenus" for being sober. In [[Brian Hooker (poet)|Brian Hooker]]'s 1923 English translation of [[Edmond Rostand]]'s ''[[Cyrano de Bergerac (play)|Cyrano de Bergerac]]'', Cyrano disparagingly refers to the ham actor Montfleury as "That Silenus who cannot hold his belly in his arms."

Professor Silenus is a character in [[Evelyn Waugh]]'s first novel, ''[[Decline and Fall]]''. He features as the disaffected architect of King's Thursday and provides the novel with one of its primary motifs. In the prophetic style of the traditional Greek Silenus he informs the protagonist that life is

<blockquote>a great disc of polished wood that revolves quickly. At first you sit down and watch the others. They are all trying to sit in the wheel, and they keep getting flung off, and that makes them laugh, and you laugh too. It's great fun... Of course at the very centre there's a point completely at rest, if one could only find it.... Lots of people just enjoy scrambling on and being whisked off and scrambling on again.... But the whole point about the wheel is that you needn't get on it at all.... People get hold of ideas about life, and that makes them think they've got to join in the game, even if they don't enjoy it. It doesn't suit everyone...<ref>Michael Gorra (Summer, 1988). [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1208437 "Through Comedy toward Catholicism: A Reading of Evelyn Waugh's Early Novels"]. ''Contemporary Literature'' '''29''' (2): 201–220.</ref></blockquote>

Silenus is one of the two main characters in [[Tony Harrison]]'s 1990 [[satyr play]] ''[[The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus]]'', partly based on [[Sophocles]]'s play ''[[Ichneutae]]'' (5th century BC).

==Scientific nomenclature==
[[Carl Linnaeus]] used the feminine form ''[[Silene]]'' as the name of a genus of flowering plant.<ref>Umberto Quattrocchi, ''CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names'', 1999, {{ISBN|0-8493-2678-8}}, '''4''':2482</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Statue of Silerius. Exhibition in Taipei 2013.jpg|Statue of Silerius. Exhibition in Taipei 2013
File:Silver tetradrachm reverse Naxos Met L.1999.19.69.jpg|Silenus holding a [[kantharos]] on a [[tetradrachm]] from [[Naxos (Sicily)|Naxos]], [[Sicily]], 461–450 BC
File:Satyr kantharos lyre CdM De Ridder 812.jpg|Silenus holding a kantharos and a lyre. Tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix from [[Vulci]], [[Etruria]], {{circa|475–425 BC}}
File:Etruscan - Antefix with Head of Silenus - Walters 48354.jpg|[[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] terracotta [[antefix]] with head of Silenus, 4th century BC ([[Walters Art Museum]], [[Baltimore]])
File:Bacchus-2.jpg|Statue of Silenus, detail
File:Situla 88.3.jpg|Silenus mask, detail from a bronze stamnoid [[situla]], 330–310 BC ([[Vassil Bojkov Collection]], [[Sofia]])
File:Phaler Silenus CdM.jpg|Gold phaler (ornament worn by horses) representing Silenus, [[Syria]], 3rd century BC
File:Maschera di Papposileno.jpg|Mask of Silen, first half of 1st century BC
File:2 Roman bronze fulcra representing Silenus.jpg|Two Roman bronze fulcra (couch ornaments) representing Silenus, 1st century BC – 1st century AD ([[Art Institute of Chicago]])
File:Silenus Eros CdM.jpg|Silenus and [[Eros]] fragment from [[Latium]], early 1st century AD ([[Cabinet des médailles]], [[Paris]])
File:Mosaic_with_mask_of_Silenus.jpg|Mosaic with mask of Silenus
File:Statue Silenus Satyr Museum Delos102165.jpg|Statue of Silenus, 2nd century BC ([[Archaeological Museum of Delos]])
File:Delos_Dionysos.jpg|Statue of Silenus, [[Archaeological Museum of Delos]], detail
</gallery>

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Guy Michael Hedreen, 1992. ''Silens in Attic Black-figure Vase-painting: Myth and Performance'' (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan) Catalogue of the corpus.
* [[Karl Kerenyi]]. ''The Gods of the Greeks'', 1951.
* [http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/subcats.php?cat_1=5&cat_2=184 Over 300 images of Silenus at the Warburg Institute's Iconographic Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165115/http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/subcats.php?cat_1=5&cat_2=184 |date=2016-03-03 }}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Silenus}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Seilenos.html Seilenos at Theoi Project]
* [http://www.britannica.com/topic/Satyr#ref103188 Satyr and Silenus at Britannica Online]
* [http://www.maicar.com/GML/Silenus.html Silenus at Greek Mythology Link]

{{Greek mythology (deities)}}

{{Authority control}}
{{subject bar |commons=y |wikt=y }}

[[Category:Silenus| ]]
[[Category:Companions of Dionysus]]
[[Category:Greek gods]]
[[Category:Satyrs]]
[[Category:Mythological Greek tutors of gods]]
[[Category:Nature gods]]
[[Category:Alcohol gods]]
[[Category:Deities of wine and beer]]