Introduced into Rome (c. 200 BC) from Magna Graecia or by way of Greek-influenced Etruria, the bacchanalia were held in secret and attended by women only, in the grove of Simila, near the Aventine Hill, on 16 and 17 March. [...] Dionysus is equated with both Bacchus and Liber (also Liber Pater). Liber ("the free one") was a god of fertility, wine, and growth, married to Libera. [...] Evius is an epithet of his used prominently in Euripides' play, The Bacchae. (Source: Wikipedia on Cult of Dionysus)
And in Biblical context:
HERE Symmachus, greatly wondering at what was spoken, says: What, Lamprias, will you permit our tutelar God, called Evius, the inciter of women, famous for the honors he has conferred upon him by madmen, to be inscribed and enrolled in the mysteries of the Jews? Or is there any solid reason that can be given to prove Adonis to be the same with Bacchus? (Source: Plutarch, Quaestiones Convivales, bk. 4, ch. 6)
In tone this is very similar to the Buddhist one, having a seeming fertility ritual connotation.
In context of Frisian Eewa and above Buddhist Evam plus Greco-Roman Evius, there's more:
In the ocean, he says, there is a small island, not very far out to sea, situated off the outlet of the Liger River; and the island is inhabited by women of the Samnitae, and they are possessed by Dionysus and make this god propitious by appeasing him with mystic initiations as well as other sacred performances; and no man sets foot on the island, although the women themselves, sailing from it, have intercourse with the men and then return again. And, he says, it is a custom of theirs once a year to unroof the temple and roof it again on the same day before sunset, each woman bringing her load to add to the roof; but the woman whose load falls out of her arms is rent to pieces by the rest, and they carry the pieces round the temple with the cry of "Ev-ah,"[133] and do not cease until their frenzy ceases; and it is always the case, he says, that some one jostles the woman who is to suffer this fate. But the following story which Artemidorus has told about the case of the crows is still more fabulous [further various stories, including how Celts socially punish fatties]
133 The "Ev-ah" is a joyful hallelujah in honour of Dionysus, one of whose numerous cult-names is "Evas."
To be teared up is the fate of Dionysus, who was cut up and eaten by Titans. The practise exists in various distant cultures, up to our modern times, as collective cultic practise for groups of young men or soldiers to tear up and eat raw chicken or birds (other animals here). I'm unaware of any actual openly done human killing rituals of that type, so perhaps it's a fabulous story.
Nordic wrote: 21 Sep 2026, 12:26I'm unaware of any actual openly done human killing rituals of that type, so perhaps it's a fabulous story.
To me it becomes ever more clear that these bizarre elements must have been propagandistic fantasies of the Renaissance (or later) authors of these texts. Partly based on true elements (often sacred, in this case ÉWA), but giving them a disgusting twist.
Another example in Lex Frisionum (fake Old Frisian Law book, written 1617 in Latin by a Frisian Humanist):
Whoever breaks into a sanctuary and removes one of the sacred objects is taken to the seashore; there, on the sands covered by the tide, his ears are slit and he is castrated and sacrificed to the god whose temple he desecrated.
