This card is actually called the "Idiot," stemming from the Greek IDIOTES, which in ancient Greece referred not to a "dummy" but to an ordinary citizen, somebody of no great importance.

Within the context of this Tarot, the Idiot is elevated through the "divine madness" of Dionysian ecstasy to the status of a "Carnival King." The entry into Fooldom is specifically defined as a brief transformative interlude, a moment of "inspired frenzy... the blind leap into the Abyss." By giving ourselves over to such moments of ecstacy, Ospsopsaus says, we create the opportunity to transform ourselves and the world around us.

The reveler on this card is surrounded by Dionysian iconography -- a headdress of seven feathers atop an ivy crown, the pelt of a fawn, grapes and figs, the thyrsus (a staff wrapped by ivy, with a pine cone mounted on its tip)...and a panther that trails behind him. As is the case with the dog that frequently accompanies the modern fool, we're not sure if the panther is tagging along solely for accompaniment or trying to warn this fellow, perhaps about the snake which he might very well step on in a moment or two. But both of these animals are among those sacred to Dionysos. See, for example:

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/clas/clas231/diopan1.jpg

When we compare the Pythagorean Idiot to other mythologically-based Fools, we see some interesting similarities as well as some divergences. In the Mythic Tarot, for example, it is Dionysos himself who is seen, this time wearing the vined crown but goat horns instead of feathers. (The goat is another animal in his bestial retinue, frequently sacrificed at his rites.) He is emerging out a cave towards the dawn; chances are that this cave is the entrance to the underworld, because Dionysos, the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, has come back from the dead on at least one occasion, and is one of the few beings, mortal or god, to bring someone back from Hades. (The eagle perched above the cave entrance is an aspect of Zeus, his father.)

While the Pythaogrean and Mythic Fools show figures in an ecstatic, Bacchic dance, the Fool of Brian Williams's Renaissance Tarot has the poise and confidence of a runway model strutting his stuff. (Dionysos himself appears in the upper right corner, with his panther to the left.) He's dressed as a court jester, but he does have the plumes in his hair and the thyrsus, although this one is adorned by grapes and a skull, symbolizing, Williams tells us, "Bacchic abandon and terror."  

It's important that we remember that terror; while one aspect of the Fool's leap into "divine madness" is ecstatic awareness, there is also the risk of genuine madness for those unprepared to deal with such radical transformations. It's here that we're reminded that the Fool is taking part in a ritual that has a beginning and an end. He is only King until the Carnival is over, at which point he becomes one of the Idiotes once more... but hopefully the richer for his experience.  

Ron