Satyr

Mythology

The satyrs do not appear at Homère, nor at Hésiode. Their name appears for the first time in a fragmentary passage of the Catalog of the women (sometimes allotted to Hésiode) devoted to the descent of Doros, one of wire of Hellen: one of the girls of Phoroneus is linked with a man (of which the name disappeared in a gap from the text), and generates five girls, who become mothers of the Satyrs, of the Nymphes of the mountains and Courètes (these the last two groups are thus brothers and sisters of the satyrs). The passage does not contain physical description and does not establish a bond between the satyrs and Dionysos: it specifies only that the satyrs are not good with nothing.

The first illustrated representations characters resembling satyrs date from 6th front century J.C. The Vase François watch three characters having the ears, the lower extremities and the tail of a horse. These characters are called Silènes. Other ceramics of the same time shows identical characters, as well as characters with the entirely human bodies, only equipped with one tail of horse and sometimes also with ears of horse. A kylix attic with red figures, dating from the end of the same century and allotted to the painter of Ambrosios, shows the name of " Satyros" (it is the second certificate in date of this name after that of the Catalog of the women ) to designate an unfortunately damaged character, but who was equipped with a tail of horse and probably of human legs; but it is difficult to know if " Satyros" was, in this precise case, used like a name of species or an individual name.

These examples show that:

with the antiquated time, the first representations of the satyrs makes rather of them hybrids semi-men, semi-horses (the satyr " classique" , semi-man semi-goat, appears a little later, lower cf);
the distinction between satyrs and silenes is difficult, even impossible, to establish. It is even probable that the Greeks of the time did not make clear distinction between these characters, or although similar characters were called by a name or the other according to the areas.

It is starting from the end of the Life century that, on the vases attics, these characters more and more often appear at the sides of Dionysos.

With the traditional time, finally, the satyrs acquire their most known characteristics:

In the Athenian theater, the satyric dramas put in scene choruses made up of these characters, who from now on are called " satyres". In the Cyclops of Euripide and the Sleuthhounds of Sophocle, it is the chief of the chorus of the satyrs which is called Silène and is presented as their father (that can let suppose that the two names became about synonymous, or although Silène became an individual character).
From second half of 5th front century J.C., the satyrs illustrated on the vases attics are more and more often hybrids semi-men, semi-goats, equipped with a shorter tail and shoes. Vases of the Life century and beginning of Ve century show satyrs as perfect companions of Dionysos: they drink, play of the aulos, dance and continue their heats of the Ménades and young girls who resist to them (they are caught some even sometimes with the ass which is used as mounting in Dionysos). Their representations almost always have a comic goal.

Derived direction

By analogy with the lustful and libidineux behavior allotted to the satyr, one commonly employs this term to qualify a lustful and obsessed man who seeks sexual relationships with unknown factors, in particular of the little girls, or which is devoted to reprehensible acts (Exhibitionnisme, Voyeurisme).

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