Satyr
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searchAncient Greek Satyr statuette.
In
Greek mythology, satyrs (in
Greek, Σάτυροι — Sátyroi) are a troop of male companions of
Pan and
Dionysus— "satyresses" were a late invention of poets— that roamed the woods and mountains. In mythology they are often associated with male sex drive and vase-painters often portrayed them with
erections.
Contents[
hide]
1 Mythology1.1 In Greek mythology and art1.2 In Roman mythology and art2 Other references3 Baby satyr4 Satyrs and orangutan5 In popular culture6 See also7 References8 External links//
[
edit] Mythology
A bald, bearded, horse-tailed satyr balances a winecup on his erect phallus, on an Attic red-figured psykter, ca. 500-490 BC.
Their chief was called
Silenus, a minor deity associated (like
Hermes and
Priapus) with fertility. These characters can be found in the only remaining
satyr plays: Cyclops by
Euripedes and
Sophocles' The Searching Satyrs. The satyr play was a lighthearted follow-up attached to the end of each trilogy of tragedies in Athenian festivals honoring Dionysus. These plays would take a lighthearted approach to the heavier subject matter of the tragedies in the series, featuring heroes speaking in tragic
iambic verse and taking their situation seriously as "straight men" to the flippant, irreverent and obscene remarks and antics of the satyrs. The groundbreaking tragic playwright
Aeschylus is said to have been especially loved for his satyr plays, but none of them survived.
Satyrs acquired their
goat-like aspect through later conflation with the Roman
Faunus, a carefree nature spirit of similar temperament. Hence satyrs are most commonly described as having the upper half of a man and the lower half of a goat. They are also described as possessing a long, thick tail, either that of a goat or a horse. Mature satyrs are often depicted with goat's
horns, while juveniles are often shown with bony nubs on their foreheads.
Attic painted vases depict mature satyrs as being strongly built with flat noses, large pointed ears, long curly hair, and full
beards, with
wreaths of vine or ivy circling their balding heads. Satyrs often carry the
thyrsus: the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone.
Satyr on a mountain goat, drinking with women.
Gandhara, 2nd-4th century.
Satyrs are described as roguish but faint-hearted folk — subversive and dangerous, yet shy and cowardly. As Dionysiac creatures they are lovers of wine, women and boys, and are ready for every physical pleasure. They roam to the music of pipes (
auloi),
cymbals,
castanets, and
bagpipes, and love to dance with the
nymphs (with whom they are obsessed, and whom they often pursue), and have a special form of dance called
sikinnis. Because of their love of wine, they are often represented holding winecups, and appear often in the decorations on winecups.
Satyrs are not
immortal, but grow old. On painted
vases and other Greek art, satyrs are represented in the three stages of a man's life: mature satyrs are bearded, and are shown as fat and
balding, both a humiliating and unbecoming disfigurement in Greek culture.
[
edit] In Greek mythology and art
Detail of an Attic
chalice depicting a satyr with a
tail and
erect penis,
Euphronios, end of the 6th century
Satyr and
maenad, shown on a red-figure Attic cup, ca. 510 BC–500 BC.,
Louvre,
Paris,
FranceIn earlier Greek art, satyrs appear as old and ugly, but in later art, especially in works of the
Attic school, this savage characteristic is softened into a more youthful and graceful aspect.
This transformation or humanization of the Satyr appears throughout late Greek art. Another example of this shift occurs in the portrayal of
Medusa and in that of the
Amazon, characters who are traditionally depicted as barbaric and uncivilized. The compassionate representation of the Satyr in a work of
Praxiteles known as the Resting Satyr shows the level of Greek civilization and their desire to accept all types of people.
Older satyrs were known as
sileni, the younger as
satyrisci. The
hare was the symbol of the shy and timid satyr. Greek spirits known as
Calicantsars have a noticeable resemblance to the ancient satyrs; they have goats' ears and the feet of
donkeys or goats, are covered with hair, and love women and the dance.
Although they are not mentioned by
Homer, in a fragment of
Hesiod's works they are called brothers of the mountain nymphs and
Kuretes, strongly connected with the cult of Dionysus, and are an idle and worthless race. In the Dionysus cult, male followers are known as satyrs and female followers as
maenads.
In Attica there was a species of drama known as the legends of gods and heroes, and the chorus was composed of satyrs and sileni. In the Athenian
satyr plays of the
5th century BC, the chorus commented on the action. This "satyric drama" burlesqued the serious events of the mythic past with lewd
pantomime and subversive mockery. One complete satyr play from the 5th century survives, the
Cyclops of
Euripides.
A
papyrus bearing a long fragment of a satyr play by
Sophocles, given the title 'Tracking Satyrs' (Ichneutae), was found at
Oxyrhynchus in
Egypt,
1907.
[
edit] In Roman mythology and art
A Satyr depicted on a Roman
mosaic in
Villa Romana del Casale, an archeological site near
Piazza Armerina in
Sicily,
ItalyThis satyr
gargoyle, affixed to the
Cathedral of St. Vincent (
Bern,
Switzerland), is posed in the act of choking a
mermaid.
Roman satyrs were conflated in the popular and poetic imagination with Latin spirits of woodland and with the rustic spirit Pan, called the
Panes.
Roman satyrs were described as goatlike from the haunches to the hooves, and were often pictured with larger horns, even
ram's horns. Roman poets often conflated them with the
fauns.
Roman
satire is a
literary form, a
poetic essay that was a vehicle for biting, subversive social and personal criticism. Though Roman satire is sometimes thoughtlessly linked to the Greek satyr plays, satire's only connection to the satyric drama is through the subversive nature of the satyrs themselves, as forces in opposition to urbanity,
decorum, and civilization itself.
[
edit] Other references
In the
King James Version of the Bible, Isaiah 13:21 and 34:14, the English word "satyr" is used to represent the
Hebrew sh'lrlm, "hairy ones". In
Hebrew folklore, sh'lrlm are a type of demon or supernatural being which inhabits waste places. There is an allusion to the practice of sacrificing to the sh'lrlm (often translated as "devils") in Leviticus 17:7. They correspond to the "shaggy demon of the mountain-pass" (
azabb al-akaba) of old
Arab legend.
Christian mythology demonised all
pagan nature spirits such as satyrs by associating them with
demons and
devils, though they do resemble the Jewish goat-man demon
Azazel to whom the
scapegoats were sent.
[
edit] Baby satyr
A statue of a female satyr holding two infants
A child satyr (center) depicted in
Titian's painting
Bacchus and Ariadne c.1520-1523
Baby satyrs, or child satyrs, are
mythological creatures related to the satyr. They appear in popular
folklore,
classical artworks,
film, and in various forms of local art.
Some classical works depict young satyrs being tended to by older, sober satyrs, while there are also some representations of child satyrs taking part in
Bacchanalian/Dionysian rituals (including drinking
alcohol, playing
musical instruments, and
dancing).
The presence of a baby or child satyr in a classical work, such as on a
Greek vase, was mainly an aesthetic choice on the part of the artist. However, the role of a child in Greek art might imply a further meaning for baby satyrs:
Eros, the son of
Aphrodite, is consistently represented as a child or baby, and Bacchus, the divine sponsor of satyrs, is seen in numerous works as a baby, often in the company of the satyrs. A prominent instance of a baby satyr outside
ancient Greece is
Albrecht Dürer's
1505 engraving, "Musical Satyr and Nymph with Baby (Satyr's Family)". There is also a
Victorian-era napkin ring depicting a baby satyr next to a barrel, which further represents the perception of baby satyrs as partaking in the Bacchanalian festivities.
See Revivals, Reveries, and Reconstructions: Images of Antiquity in Prints from 1500 to 1800, an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.There are also many works of art of the
rococo period depicting child or baby satyrs in Bacchanalian celebrations. Some works depict female satyrs with their children; others describe the child satyrs as playing an active role in the events, including one instance of a painting by
Jean Raoux (1677–1735). "Mlle Prévost as a Bacchante" depicts a child satyr playing a tambourine while Mlle Prévost, a dancer at the Opéra, is dancing as part of the Bacchanal festivities.
[1][
edit] Satyrs and orangutan
In the 17th century, the satyr legend came to be associated with stories of the
orangutan, a great ape now found only in
Sumatra and
Borneo. Many early accounts which apparently refer to this animal describe the males as being sexually aggressive towards human women and towards females of its own species. The first scientific name given to this ape was
Simia satyrus.
[
edit] In popular culture
The Satyr is an oft-made reference to the Dionysian in
Friedrich Nietzsche's
The Birth of Tragedy.
In Guillermo del Toro's film
Pan's Labyrinth, a young girl encounters a faun at the entrance to a magical kingdom. He gives her three challenges to determine if she is the long-lost princess of the Underworld.
The Pastoral Symphony section of
Disney's
Fantasia features baby satyrs.
In
Disney's
1997 film
Hercules, the character Phil is an
amalgamation of the hero
Philoctetes and the stereotypical satyr; his circumstances are those of the classical Philoctetes, but he looks like a satyr and exhibits satyr-like desires for wine and women.
In
Ridley Scott's
Legend, the villain Darkness bears many similarities to a satyr (both in appearance and in nature). Scott said that he wanted Darkness to be "very sexual", so wanted him to be a satyr.
The Satyr is the name of a satirical newspaper written by students of
Manchester University.
Satyr is the name of the union of the four revues at the faculty of science of the university of Copenhagen.
Gnostic satyrs of both genders appear in
Umberto Eco's
Baudolino.
A Satyr appears in the episode The Satyr in series 2 of
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
In the
God of War series of video games, Satyrs are enemies that possess great skill with the staffs they wield.
In the
Warcraft series, Satyrs are a mostly hostile race of corrupted
night elves who are allied with the
Burning Legion.
[
edit] See also
Look up
satyr in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Faun -
ItalianLeszi -
Slavic mythologyPanes - early
Greek mythSileni - early
Greek mythologyTorgo - one of the main characters (and by far the most popular) in the movie
Manos: The Hands of FateCentaur - half man/half horse from
Greek mythologyUrisk- Goat-Man Fairy from
Scottish folkloreUSS Satyr (ARL-23)[
edit] References
Harry Thurston Peck Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898: "Faunus", "Pan", and "Silenus".
[
edit] External links
SatyroiSatyrs in Cryptozoology
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