Comus

In Greek mythology, Comus (/ˈkoʊməs/;^[1] Ancient Greek: Κῶμος, Kōmos) is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Dionysus. He was represented as a winged youth or a child-like satyr^[2] and represents anarchy and chaos. His mythology occurs in the later times of antiquity. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged clothes. He was depicted as a young man on the point of unconsciousness from drink. He had a wreath of flowers on his head and carried a torch that was in the process of being dropped. Unlike the purely carnal Pan or purely intoxicated Dionysos, Comus was a god of excess.

Comus in art and literature

A description of Comus as he appeared in painting is found in Imagines (Greek Εἰκόνες, translit. Eikones) by Philostratus the Elder, a Greek writer and sophist of the 3rd century AD.

Dionysos sails to the revels of [the island of] Andros and, his ship now moored in the harbour, he leads a mixed throng of Satyroi (Satyrs) and Bakkhantes (Bacchantes) and all the Seilenoi (Silens). He leads Gelos (Laughter) and Komos (Comus, Revelry), two spirits most gay and most fond of the drinking-bout, that with the greatest delight he may reap the river's harvest.^[3]

In John Milton's masque Comus (1634), the god is described as the son of Bacchus and Circe and attempts to tempt a virtuous lady to licentious acts. This is a post-classical invention. In 1748 the work was adapted by John Dalton to fit 18th-century theatrical conventions, in particular considerably extending its musical content.^[4]^[5]

There have been a number of paintings of episodes from the play, including a set of eight watercolours commissioned from William Blake in 1801;^[6] Samuel Palmer's The Dell of Comus (1855, now in the Brighton Museum);^[7] and Edwin Landseer's The Defeat of Comus, originally painted in 1843 for the garden pavillion in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

During the 18th century a Temple of Comus was built as a venue in the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens,^[8] where it was depicted by Canaletto during his visit to London and later made the subject of a popular print.^[9]

As a dramatic character, Comus appears at the start of Ben Jonson's masque Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (1618) and in Les fêtes de Paphos (The Festivals of Paphos, 1758), an opéra-ballet by Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville. He alse features in the baroque operas Les plaisirs de Versailles (1682) by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and King Arthur (1691) by Henry Purcell and John Dryden.

References

^ Avery, Catherine B., ed. (1962). New Century Classical Handbook. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. p. 318.
^ Smith, William (1849). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
^ Philostratus the Elder. Imagines. p. 1.25.
^ Miss Ludlow, A General View of the Fine Arts, Critical and Historical, London 1851, p. 455
^ Comus, a Mask (Now adapted to the Stage)
^ "Illustrations to Milton’s Comus", The William Blake Archive
^ Brighton Museum
^ Marcia R. Pointon, Milton & English Art, Manchester University Press, 1974, p. 41
^ Foundling Museum

Text and gallery at Theoi Greek Mythology
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Comus" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links

Media related to Comus at Wikimedia Commons

[1] Avery, Catherine B., ed. (1962). New Century Classical Handbook. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. p. 318.

[2] Smith, William (1849). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

[3] Philostratus the Elder. Imagines. p. 1.25.

[4] Miss Ludlow, A General View of the Fine Arts, Critical and Historical, London 1851, p. 455

[5] Comus, a Mask (Now adapted to the Stage)

[6] "Illustrations to Milton’s Comus", The William Blake Archive

[7] Brighton Museum

[8] Marcia R. Pointon, Milton & English Art, Manchester University Press, 1974, p. 41

[9] Foundling Museum

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