I had some ado to prevent Joy and myself from
relapsing into Paganism in Attica! At Daphni it was hard not to pray to Appolo
the Healer. But somehow one didn’t feel it would have been very wrong — would
have only been addressing Christ sub specie Apollinius. (Roger Lancelyn Green
quoting C.S. Lewis in the biography C.S. Lewis: A Biography)
C.S. Lewis’s love
affair with Greek paganism is clearly seen in the selection of characters for
his masterfully written and much-beloved series, The Chronicles of Narnia. The
mysterious and wonderful world of Narnia is home not only to the Christ-like
Aslan, but is teeming with the icons of ancient pantheistic and idolatrous religions.
Pagan gods, demi-gods, and Aslan all dwell together in harmony.
These characters include:
The Roman God Bacchus: Worshipped by millions of pagans from the
ancient world as the god of wine, Bacchus is associated with drunkenness,
revelry, and immorality. In The Chronicles of Narnia, Bacchus makes occasional
visits to Narnia. He is mentioned in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and
makes an appearance in Prince Caspian, as does Silenus, a figure from Greek
mythology who was the teacher of Bacchus. In Greek mythology, Bacchus goes by
the name Dionysus.
Maenads: The ancient Greeks and Romans knew the maenads as the
special attendants to Bacchus (which is why they also went by the names Bacchae
and Bacchantes). The word maenad literally means “raving ones.” They were
believed to have occult powers. In Narnia, they are “madcap” girls that still
attend to Bacchus. Of Maenads, Wikipedia has this interesting explanation:
“They were known as wild, insane women who could not be reasoned with. The
mysteries of Dionysus inspired the women to ecstatic frenzy; they indulged in
copious amounts of violence, bloodletting, sex, and self-intoxication and
mutilation. They were usually pictured as crowned with leaves, clothed in
fawnskins and carrying the Thyrsus and dancing with the wild abandonment of
complete union with primeval nature.”
Fauns: Half humans and half goats, fauns find their origin in
Roman mythology as followers of the gods Pan (god of the field) and Bacchus
(god of wine). They are generally portrayed in myth as troublemakers. Fauns
play a central role in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and can be found
throughout The
Chronicles of Narnia, but unlike their Roman counterparts, Lewis’s
fauns are kind, beloved creatures.
Centaurs: In religious worship and mythology, centaurs are
half human, half horse — wicked demi-gods given to violence and sexual excess. (Exception:
The centaur Chiron (trainer of Achilles) was depicted as just.) Centaurs are
important figures in the Narnian landscape. Lewis portrays them as generally
loyal to Aslan, and as star-gazers that tell the future by the stars.
Dryad and Naiads: Pantheism (the worship of God in nature) is
a critical element of ancient paganism. Dryads are yet another mythological
manifestation of this anti-Christian idolatry. A dryad is a tree spirit linked
to an individual tree. In Lewis’s Narnia, Dryads are mysterious, tree/spirit
beings who are faithful to Aslan and Narnia itself. In ancient mythology,
naiads were water nymphs. (They appear less frequently than Dryads in the Chronicles.)
The
Temple to Bacchus at Baalbek, Lebanon
Bacchus is a rather insignificant figure in The Chronicles of Narnia, but he is
unequivocally there. Lewis presents him as a cute, rollicking Narnian. Lewis
draws from the specifics of Greek myth when describing the entourage of Bacchus
(maenads, Silenus, etc.). The point I would make seems painfully obvious —
Bacchus is a pagan deity who (like Baal) represents all that Christianity
despises and seeks to overthrow. There is nothing even remotely Christian about
favorably including such a figure in a book or series of books which hopes to
present an analogy for Christianity.
The following scholarly overview of the worship ritual of the god of wine can be found here:
The core ritual associated with the worship of
Dionysus [Bacchus] was orgiastic, meaning that it involved states of
trance-like ecstasy, “outside-of-oneselfness,” merging with and possession by
the god. It was celebrated every two years, at mid-winter near the time of the
solstice, on barren mountain tops, especially Mt. Parnassus overlooking Delphi.
There were three parts to this ritual:
Oreibasia (mountain dancing): To the accompaniment of flutes, drums, and
cymbals, the worshippers, particularly women, danced themselves into ecstatic
trances.
Sparagmos (tearing to pieces): In these trances they caught snakes and small
animals and dismembered them with their bare hands.
Omophagia (eating raw flesh): By eating the bloody flesh of these animals, the
worshippers became one with the god and with the wild natural forces that he
represented.
These facets of Dionysian ritual are woven into many myths. For example, the
poet Orpheus angered some maenads by rejecting all women, so these women
dismembered him.