Is Dionysus Ability To Drive The King To Be Mad?

When it came to the pagan’s, they had different views of madness in which they were spiritual in a way rather than real life. An example of this is when it stated in the reading about how Dionysus apparently had the ability to drive the king to be mad. By being mad, he felt the need to kill his own son which ultimately was Dionysus’s fault. This is more of a spiritual idea instead of realistic because the idea of driving someone to go mad is almost impossible. Another example is the idea that those who are possessed become mad as well. This is shown in the story when Agave murdered her own son by “seized his left arm, below the elbow, pushed her foot against the poor man’s ribs, then tore his shoulder out. The strength she had it was not her

Christians saw connection with a certain power and madman, it stated in the reading. From the reading, it explained how inside of one of the men was a certain spirit and when begged to leave and find someone else, it did listen but Jesus was in the presence of this. This is an example of the god/demon possession because a type of demon would possess a person but then Jesus, who was the only God who was found in human form in the real world, would come and save them. The demons would be spirits who did not mean harm at all times but they did have the ability to possess a human being. It has also been said in the readings that these demons were sent to tournament humankind so obviously they would be doing anything they could to do just that. An example of this from the story was “your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Eghigian 38). By having faith, they were cured of their madness. By following the idea of god/possession causing madness, this allows the Chrisitan views to be more spiritual in nature rather than in real life. Unlike with the pagan religion, from the readings, it seems as if Jesus is more powerful than any other being in the real world at this time. Jesus was more powerful than a demon or anything else along those lines, that he is the cure to the madness that people were