Philadelphia
(Brotherly Love)
Back ground
Philadelphia
was situated on the Cogamus River, a tributary of the Hermus (modern Gediz) and
was about 28 miles southeast of Sardis.
Its founders
intended it to be a center of Greek culture and language, a missionary outpost
for spreading Hellenism to the regions of Lydia and Phrygia. It benefited from
its location at the junction of several important trade routes, earning it the
title “gateway to the east.” The city was located on the edge of the
Katakekaumene (burned land), a volcanic region whose fertile soil was ideally
suited for vineyards. In A.D. 17 a powerful earthquake rocked Philadelphia,
along with Sardis and 10 other nearby cities.
In gratitude
for Caesar Tiberius’s financial aid in rebuilding their city, the
Philadelphians joined with several other cities in erecting a monument to him.
Philadelphia
was a center of the wine industry. Its chief deity was Dionysus (Bacchus), the
god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in
Greek mythology. He was also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the Romans
and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy
and dripping with honey. It is a beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be
used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. He is
also the Liberator (Eleutherios), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees
his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive
restraints of the powerful. Those who partake in his mysteries are possessed
and empowered by the god himself. His cult is also a "cult of the
souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as
a divine communicant between the living and the dead.
©2012 Kenute P. Curry.
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