Before I share some of the imprecations which contain historiolae concerning Dionysos’ interactions with Yahweh, Ašmedai, Masṭēmā and other entities from Jewish and related traditions, I figured I’d post some background information for y’all.
To begin with, here are some older pieces from the House of Vines which you may or may not already be familiar with:
- Dionysos and the Jews
- The Jewish God in Alexandria
- mangling dogs in Bacchic frenzy
- Hail Semachus and his Daughters!
- The Ivy-Covered Cross

Roman period, 2nd century CE
Marble
H: 124; W: 61 cm
Israel Antiquities Authority
1990-821
And here are an assortment of academic articles:
- The Afterlife of Orphism: Jewish, Gnostic and Christian Perspectives by Guy G Stroumsa
- Babylonian Jewish Society: The Evidence of the Incantation Bowls by Avigail Manekin Bamberger and Simcha Gross
- Beth Shean/Scythopolis in Late Antiquity: Cult and Culture, Continuity and Change by Katharina Heyden
- A Dated Inscription from Beth Shean and the Cult of Dionysos Ktistes in Roman Scythopolis by Leah Di Segni
- Death and Eternal Life at Beth Shean by Stephanie Hagan
- The development of Jewish ideas of angels : Egyptian and Hellenistic connections, ca. 600 BCE to ca. 200 CE by Annette Evans
- Dionysos and His Retinue in the Art of Late Roman and Byzantine Palestine by Renate Rosenthal-Heginbottom
- Dionysos in the Decapolis by Sonia Mucznik
- Dionysus Between Sāsānian Iran and Roman Allusions by Robert Schulz
- Divorcing Lilith: From the Babylonian Incantation Bowls to the Cairo Genizah by Dan Levene and Gideon Bohak
- Dramatis Personae in the Jewish Magic Texts: Some Differences between Incantation Bowls and Geniza Magic by Shaul Shaked
- Elephantine papyri and ostraca s.v. Wikipedia
- Eshem-Bethel and Herem-Bethel: New Evidence from Amherst Papyrus 63 by Karel van der Toorn
- In Praise of Gods & Goddesses in Aramean Egypt: Papyrus Amherst 63 by Tawny Holm
- Jewish Magic Literature in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages by Peter Schäfer
- Judahite Pillar Figurines: More Questions than Answers by Robert Deutsch
- The Judean Pillar-Figurines and the Archaeology of Asherah by Ron Tappy
- The “Man-Bull” and the «Master of Animals» in Mesopotamia and in Iran by Alireza Taheri
- Marzēaḥ s.v. Wikipedia
- Moses/Musaeus/Mochos and his God Yahweh, Iao, and Sabaoth, seen from a Graeco-Roman perspective by G.H. van Kooten
- New Gold Lamellae and Amulet Capsules from (Judaeo-Christian) Graves at Juliopolis by Roy D. Kotansky and Melih Arslan
- Old-Babylonian, Middle-Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian, Jewish-Babylonian? Thoughts about Transmission Modes of Mesopotamian Magic through the Ages by Nathan Wasserman
- Outside the Canon? Three Unique Figurines from Beth Shemesh, Socho, and Jerusalem by Raz Kletter
- A Paganized Version of Psalm 20:2-6 from the Aramaic Text in Demotic Script by Charles F. Nims and Richard C. Steiner
- Popular religion in ancient Judah during the 8th and 7th centuries BC by Valia Papanastasopoulou
- A Promise of Wisdom: The Classical Origins of the Odysseus and the Sirens Mosaic Floor from Scythopolis (Bet-Shean) by Nava Sevilla Sadeh
- Reading Dionysus: Euripides’ Bacchae and the Cultural Contestations of Greeks, Jews, Romans, and Christians by Courtney Friesen
- A Study in Conceptual Parallels: Graeco-Roman Binding Spells and Babylonian Incantation Bowls
by Ortal-Paz Saar - Syncretistic and confessional features in Mesopotamian incantation bowls by Tapani Harviainen
- The Visits of St. Sabas to Beth Shean by Gabriel Mazor
- Was YHWH worshipped in the Aegean? by Nissim Amzallag

Alot for me to read tonight and tomorrow!
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To copy the Asatruar of the 90s/00s: “we are a religion with homework.”
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I remember you saying that on your Dionysos website before you gave birth to Neos Alexandria ( how’s that for a flashback? )
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Damn, that makes me feel old.
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