In
ancient Greek religion and
myth, Dionysus (; grc,
Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness,
religious ecstasy
Religious ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euph ...
,
festivity, and
theatre. The
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
called him Bacchus ( or ; grc,
Βάκχος ) for a frenzy he is said to induce called ''bakkheia''. As Dionysus Eleutherios ("the liberator"), his wine, music, and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His ''
thyrsus
A thyrsus /ˈθɜːrsəs/ or thyrsos /ˈθɜːrˌsɒs/ (Ancient Greek: θύρσος) was a wand or staff of giant fennel ('' Ferula communis'') covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and topped with a pine cone, arti ...
'', a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself.
His origins are uncertain, and
his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as
Thracian
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...
, others as Greek. In
Orphic religion
Orphism (more rarely Orphicism; grc, Ὀρφικά, Orphiká) is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus ...
, he was variously a son of
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
and
Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after ...
; a chthonic or underworld aspect of Zeus; or the twice-born son of Zeus and the mortal
Semele
Semele (; Ancient Greek: Σεμέλη ), in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.
Certain elements of the cult of Dionysus and Semele came from ...
. The
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries ( el, Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are th ...
identify him with
Iacchus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Iacchus (also Iacchos, Iakchos) ( el, Ἴακχος) was a minor deity, of some cultic importance, particularly at Athens and Eleusis in connection with the Eleusinian mysteries, but without any significant ...
, the son or husband of
Demeter. Most accounts say he was born in Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner. His attribute of "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults, as he is a god of
epiphany
Epiphany may refer to:
* Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight
Religion
* Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ
** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...
, sometimes called "the god that comes".
Wine was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus and was his earthly incarnation.
Wine could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness.
[ Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, the initial driving force behind the development of theatre in Western culture.][ The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his ]maenad
In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids, ...
s feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god
A dying-and-rising, death-rebirth, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god or goddess dies and is resurrected.Leeming, "Dying god" (2004)Miles 2009, 193 Examples of gods who die and later return to life are most often cited f ...
.[Corrente, Paola. 2012]
Dioniso y los Dying gods: paralelos metodológicos.
Tesis doctoral, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Romans identified Bacchus with their own Liber Pater, the "Free Father" of the Liberalia
In ancient Roman religion, the Liberalia (March 17) was the festival of Liber Pater and his consort Libera. T.P. Wiseman, ''Remus: a Roman myth'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133. The Romans celebrated Liberalia with sacrifices, proce ...
festival, patron of viniculture, wine and male fertility, and guardian of the traditions, rituals and freedoms attached to coming of age and citizenship, but the Roman state treated independent, popular festivals of Bacchus (Bacchanalia
The Bacchanalia were unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult of Liber, and probably arrived in Rome ...
) as subversive, partly because their free mixing of classes and genders transgressed traditional social and moral constraints. Celebration of the Bacchanalia was made a capital offence, except in the toned-down forms and greatly diminished congregations approved and supervised by the State. Festivals of Bacchus were merged with those of Liber and Dionysus.
Name
Etymology
The ''dio-'' prefix in Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
(Diónūsos; /di.ó.nyː.sos/) has been associated since antiquity with ''Zeus'' ( genitive ''Dios''), and the variants of the name seem to point to an original ''*Dios-nysos''. The earliest attestation is the Mycenaean Greek
Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries BC), before the hypothesised Dorian invasion, often cited as the '' terminus ad quem'' for th ...
dative form ''(di-wo-nu-so)'',[Palaima, Thomas G. University of Texas at Austin, 1998](_blank)
/ref> featured on two tablets that had been found at Mycenaean Pylos and dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. At that time, there could be no certainty on whether this was indeed a theonym
A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), " god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity.
Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and ...
, but the 1989–90 Greek-Swedish Excavations at Kastelli Hill, Chania, unearthed, ''inter alia'', four artefacts bearing Linear B inscriptions; among them, the inscription on item KH Gq 5 is thought to confirm Dionysus's early worship.[
]
In Mycenaean Greek the form of Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
is ''di-wo''. The second element is of unknown origin. It is perhaps associated with Mount Nysa
Nysa may refer to:
Greek Mythology
* Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus
* Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...
, the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the Nysiads), although Pherecydes of Syros
Pherecydes of Syros (; grc-gre, Φερεκύδης ὁ Σύριος; fl. 6th century BCE) was an Ancient Greek mythographer and proto- philosopher from the island of Syros. Little is known about his life and death. Some ancient testimonies cou ...
had postulated as an archaic word for "tree" by the sixth century BC. On a vase of Sophilos
Sophilos ( grc, Σώφιλος; active about 590 – 570 BC) was an Attic potter and vase painter in the black-figure style. Sophilos is the oldest Attic vase painter so far to be known by his true name. Fragments of two wine basins ( dino ...
the Nysiads are named ().[Martin Nilsson (1967). Vol. I, p. 567.] Kretschmer asserted that () is a Thracian
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...
word that has the same meaning as (), a word similar with () (daughter in law, or bride, I-E *snusós, Sanskr. ''snusā''). He suggested that the male form is () and this would make Dionysus the "son of Zeus". Jane Ellen Harrison
Jane Ellen Harrison (9 September 1850 – 15 April 1928) was a British classical scholar and linguist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. She ...
believed that the name Dionysus means "young Zeus". Robert S. P. Beekes
Robert Stephen Paul Beekes (; 2 September 1937 – 21 September 2017) was a Dutch linguist who was emeritus professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at Leiden University and an author of many monographs on the Proto-Indo-European langu ...
has suggested a Pre-Greek
The Pre-Greek substrate (or Pre-Greek substratum) consists of the unknown pre-Indo-European language(s) spoken in prehistoric Greece before the coming of the Proto-Greek language in the Greek peninsula during the Bronze Age. It is possible that ...
origin of the name, since all attempts to find an Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
etymology are doubtful.
Meaning and variants
Later variants include and in Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...
; in Thessaly
Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...
; and in Ionia; and in Aeolia, besides other variants. A prefix is found in other names, such as that of the Dioscures, and may derive from ''Dios'', the genitive of the name of Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
.
Nonnus, in his '' Dionysiaca'', writes that the name Dionysus means "Zeus-limp" and that Hermes named the new born Dionysus this, "because Zeus while he carried his burden lifted one foot with a limp from the weight of his thigh, and ''nysos'' in Syracusan language means limping".Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
, '' Dionysiaca'
9.20–24
In his note to these lines, W. H. D. Rouse writes "It need hardly be said that these etymologies are wrong". The '' Suda'', a Byzantine encyclopedia based on classical sources, states that Dionysus was so named "from accomplishing ιανύεινfor each of those who live the wild life. Or from providing ιανοεῖνeverything for those who live the wild life."
Origins
Academics in the nineteenth century, using study of philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
and comparative mythology
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used ...
, often regarded Dionysus as a foreign deity who was only reluctantly accepted into the standard Greek pantheon at a relatively late date, based on his myths which often involve this theme – a god who spends much of his time on earth abroad, and struggles for acceptance when he returns to Greece. However, more recent evidence has shown that Dionysus was in fact one of the earliest gods attested in mainland Greek culture.[ The earliest written records of Dionysus worship come from Mycenaean Greece, specifically in and around the ]Palace of Nestor
The Palace of Nestor (Modern Greek: Ανάκτορο του Νέστορα) was an important centre in Mycenaean times, and described in Homer's ''Odyssey'' and ''Iliad'' as Nestor's kingdom of "sandy Pylos".
The palace featured in the story of ...
in Pylos, dated to around 1300 BC.[Kerényi, Karl. 1976. ''Dionysus''. Trans. Ralph Manheim, Princeton University Press. ] The details of any religion surrounding Dionysus in this period are scant, and most evidence comes in the form only of his name, written as ''di-wo-nu-su-jo'' ("Dionysoio" = 'of Dionysus') in Linear B, preserved on fragments of clay tablets that indicate a connection to offerings or payments of wine, which was described as being "of Dionysoio". References have also been uncovered to "women of Oinoa", the "place of wine", who may correspond to the Dionysian women of later periods.[
Other Mycenaean records from Pylos record the worship of a god named Eleuther, who was the son of Zeus, and to whom oxen were sacrificed. The link to both Zeus and oxen, as well as etymological links between the name Eleuther or Eleutheros with the Latin name ]Liber Pater
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber ( , ; "the free one"), also known as Liber Pater ("the free Father"), was a god of viticulture and wine, male fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of th ...
, indicates that this may have been another name for Dionysus. According to Károly Kerényi
Károly (Carl, Karl) Kerényi ( hu, Kerényi Károly, ; 19 January 1897 – 14 April 1973) was a Hungarian scholar in classical philology and one of the founders of modern studies of Greek mythology.
Life Hungary, 1897–1943
Károly Ker ...
, these clues suggest that even in the thirteenth century BC, the core religion of Dionysus was in place, as were his important myths. At Knossos
Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city.
Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...
in Minoan Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
, men were often given the name "Pentheus", who is a figure in later Dionysian myth and which also means "suffering". Kerényi argued that to give such a name to one's child implies a strong religious connection, potentially not the separate character of Pentheus who suffers at the hands of Dionysus' followers in later myths, but as an epithet of Dionysus himself, whose mythology describes a god who must endure suffering before triumphing over it. According to Kerényi, the title of "man who suffers" likely originally referred to the god himself, only being applied to distinct characters as the myth developed.
The oldest known image of Dionysus, accompanied by his name, is found on a dinos
In the typology of ancient Greek pottery, the ''dinos'' (plural ''dinoi'') is a mixing bowl or cauldron. ''Dinos'' means "drinking cup," but in modern typology is used (wrongly) for the same shape as a '' lebes'', that is, a bowl with a spherica ...
by the Attic potter Sophilos
Sophilos ( grc, Σώφιλος; active about 590 – 570 BC) was an Attic potter and vase painter in the black-figure style. Sophilos is the oldest Attic vase painter so far to be known by his true name. Fragments of two wine basins ( dino ...
around 570 BC and is located in the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. By the seventh century, iconography found on pottery shows that Dionysus was already worshiped as more than just a god associated with wine. He was associated with weddings, death, sacrifice, and sexuality, and his retinue of satyrs and dancers was already established. A common theme in these early depictions was the metamorphosis, at the hand of the god, of his followers into hybrid creatures, usually represented by both tame and wild satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exa ...
s, representing the transition from civilized life back to nature as a means of escape.
Epithets
Dionysus was variably known with the following epithets:
Acratophorus, ''Ἀκρατοφόρος'' ("giver of unmixed wine"), at Phigaleia
Phigalia or Phigaleia or Phigalea ( grc, Φιγαλεία or ΦιγαλέαSo in Polybius, ''The Histories (Polybius), The Histories, iv. 3. or Φιγάλεια or ΦιγαλίαSo in Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias), also known as Phialia (Φι ...
in Arcadia
Arcadia may refer to:
Places Australia
* Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* Arcadia, Queensland
* Arcadia, Victoria
Greece
* Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese
* Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...
.
Aisymnetes, ''Αἰσυμνήτης'' (insensitive) who rules the faith
Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
Religious people ofte ...
(μοίρα).
Acroreites at Sicyon.
Adoneus, a rare archaism in Roman literature, a Latinised form of Adonis
In Greek mythology, Adonis, ; derived from the Canaanite word ''ʼadōn'', meaning "lord". R. S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, p. 23. was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite.
One day, Adonis was gored by ...
, used as epithet for Bacchus.
Aegobolus ''Αἰγοβόλος'' ("goat-shooter") at Potniae Potniae or Potniai ( grc, Πότνιαι) was a village of ancient Boeotia, on the road from Thebes to Plataea, distant 10 stadia from the former city. It was in ruins in the time of Pausanias (2nd century), and contained a grove sacred to Demeter ...
, in Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...
.
Aesymnetes
Aesymnetes (Greek: , from , ''aisa'', a "just portion", hence "a person who gives everyone their just portion") was the name of an ancient Greek elected office similar to, and sometimes indistinguishable from, tyrant. The plural is ''aesymnetai''. ...
''Αἰσυμνήτης'' ("ruler" or "lord") at Aroë and Patrae
)
, demographics_type1 =
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, demographics1_title2 =
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, timezone1 = EET
, utc_offset1 = +2
, ...
in Achaea.
Agrios ''Ἄγριος'' ("wild"), in Macedon
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an Classical antiquity, ancient monarchy, kingdom on the periphery of Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. Th ...
ia.
Androgynos ''Ἀνδρόγυνος'' ( androgynous, specifically in intercourse) referring to the god taking both an active male and a passive female role.
Anthroporraistes, ''Ἀνθρωπορραίστης '' ("man-destroyer"), a title of Dionysus at Tenedos.
Bassareus, ''Βασσαρεύς'' a Thracian name for Dionysus, which derives from ''bassaris'' or "fox-skin", which item was worn by his cultists in their mysteries.
Bougenes, ''Βουγενής or Βοηγενής'' ("borne by a cow"), in the Mysteries of Lerna
In classical Greece, Lerna ( el, Λέρνη) was a region of springs and a former lake near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Ancient Argos, Argos. Even though much of the area is marshy, Lerna is located on a geographically narrow poi ...
.
Braetes, ''Βραίτης'' ("related to beer") at Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...
.
Briseus ''Βρῑσεὐς'' ("he who prevails") in Smyrna
Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...
.
Bromios ''Βρόμιος'' ("roaring", as of the wind, primarily relating to the central death/resurrection element of the myth, but also the god's transformations into lion and bull, and the boisterousness of those who drink alcohol. Also cognate with the "roar of thunder", which refers to Dionysus' father, Zeus "the thunderer".)
Choiropsalas ''χοιροψάλας'' ("pig-plucker": Greek ''χοῖρος'' = "pig", also used as a slang term for the female genitalia). A reference to Dionysus's role as a fertility deity.
Chthonios ''Χθόνιος'' ("the subterranean")
Cittophorus ''Κιστοφόρος'' ("basket-bearer, ivy-bearer"), Alludes To baskets being sacred to the god.
Dimetor ''Διμήτωρ'' ("twice-born") Refers to Dionysus's two births.
Dendrites ''Δενδρίτης'' ("he of the trees"), as a fertility god.
Dithyrambos, ''Διθύραμβος'' used at his festivals, referring to his premature birth.
Eleutherios ''Ἐλευθέριος'' ("the liberator"), an epithet shared with Eros
In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the ear ...
.
Endendros ("he in the tree").
Enorches
In Greek mythology, Enorchus (Ancient Greek: Ἐνόρχης) or Enorches (''Enorchês'') was a son of Thyestes by his sister Daeta. He was born out of an egg and built a temple to Dionysus, who was hence called ''Dionysus Enorches'', though ''Eno ...
("with balls"), with reference to his fertility, or "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the baby Dionysus "into his thigh", understood to mean his testicles). used in Samos
Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greece, Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a se ...
and Lesbos
Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Asia Minor by the nar ...
.
Eridromos ("good-running"), in Nonnus' ''Dionysiaca.''
Erikryptos ''Ἐρίκρυπτος'' ("completely hidden"), in Macedonia.
Euaster (Εὐαστήρ), from the cry "euae".
Euius (Euios), from the cry "euae" in lyric passages, and in Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
' play, ''The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
''.
Iacchus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Iacchus (also Iacchos, Iakchos) ( el, Ἴακχος) was a minor deity, of some cultic importance, particularly at Athens and Eleusis in connection with the Eleusinian mysteries, but without any significant ...
, ''Ἴακχος'' a possible epithet of Dionysus, associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries ( el, Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are th ...
. In Eleusis, he is known as a son of Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
and Demeter. The name "Iacchus" may come from the Ιακχος (''Iakchos''), a hymn sung in honor of Dionysus.
Indoletes, ''Ἰνδολέτης'', meaning slayer/killer of Indians. Due to his campaign against the Indians.
Isodaetes, ''Ισοδαίτης'', meaning "he who distributes equal portions", cult epithet also shared with Helios.
Kemilius, ''Κεμήλιος'' (''kemas'': "young deer, pricket").
Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan"), as a fertility god connected with mystery religions
Mystery religions, mystery cults, sacred mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates ''(mystai)''. The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy a ...
. A winnowing fan was used to separate the chaff from the grain.
Lenaius, '' Ληναίος'' ("god of the wine-press")
Lyaeus, or Lyaios (Λυαῖος, "deliverer", literally "loosener"), one who releases from care and anxiety.
Lysius, ''Λύσιος'' ("delivering, releasing"). At Thebes there was a temple of Dionysus Lysius.
Melanaigis ''Μελάναιγις'' ("of the black goatskin") at the Apaturia
Apaturia ( el, ) were ancient Greek festivals held annually by all the Ionian towns, except Ephesus and Colophon. At Athens the Apaturia took place on the 11th, 12th and 13th days of the month of Pyanepsion (mid-October to mid-November), on whi ...
festival.
Morychus Μόρυχος ("smeared"); in Sicily, because his icon was smeared with wine lees at the vintage.
Mystes ''Μύστης'' ("of the mysteries") at Tegea
Tegea (; el, Τεγέα) was a settlement in ancient Arcadia, and it is also a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the Tripoli municipality, of which it is a municipal un ...
in Arcadia
Arcadia may refer to:
Places Australia
* Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* Arcadia, Queensland
* Arcadia, Victoria
Greece
* Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese
* Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...
.
Nysian ''Nύσιος'', according to Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus (; grc-gre, Φιλόστρατος ; c. 170 – 247/250 AD), called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probab ...
, he was called like this by the ancient India
According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...
ns. Most probably, because according to legend he founded the city of Nysa
Nysa may refer to:
Greek Mythology
* Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus
* Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...
.
Oeneus, ''Οἰνεύς'' ("wine-dark") as god of the wine press
A winepress is a device used to extract juice from crushed grapes during wine making. There are a number of different styles of presses that are used by wine makers but their overall functionality is the same. Each style of press exerts contro ...
.
Omadios ("flesh-eater"), Eusebius
Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...
writes in Preparation for the Gospel that, Euelpis of Carystus states that, in Chios
Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of masti ...
and Tenedos
Tenedos (, ''Tenedhos'', ), or Bozcaada in Turkish, is an island of Turkey in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively, the island constitutes the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale Province. With an area of it is the third l ...
they did human sacrifice to Dionysus Omadios.
Phallen , (''Φαλλήν'') (probably "related to the phallus"), at Lesbos
Lesbos or Lesvos ( el, Λέσβος, Lésvos ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece. It is separated from Asia Minor by the nar ...
.
Phleus ("related to the bloοm of a plant").
Pseudanor ''Pseudanor'' (GreekΨευδάνωρpseudo- + anēr "false man", metaphorically an "effeminate man") was a Macedonian epithet applied to Dionysus. Other Macedonian appellations to the god were ''Agrios'' (Ἄγριος) "wild" (as god of the coun ...
''Ψευδάνωρ'' (literally "false man", referring to his feminine qualities), in Macedon
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an Classical antiquity, ancient monarchy, kingdom on the periphery of Archaic Greece, Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. Th ...
ia.
Perikionius, ''Περικιόνιος'' ("climbing the column (ivy)", a name of Dionysus at Thebes.
Semeleios (Semeleius or Semeleus), an obscure epithet meaning 'He of the Earth', 'son of Semele'. Also appears in the expression ''Semeleios Iakchus plutodotas'' ("Son of Semele, Iakchus, wealth-giver").
Skyllitas, ''Σκυλλίτας'' ("related to the vine-branch") at Kos.
Sykites, ''Συκίτης'' ("related to figs"), at Laconia.
Taurophagus, ''Ταυροφάγος'' ("bull eating").
Tauros ''Ταῦρος'' ("a bull"), occurs as a surname of Dionysus.
Theoinus, ''Θέοινος'' (wine-god of a festival in Attica).
Τhyiοn, ''Θυίων'' ("from the festival of Dionysus 'Thyia' ''(Θυῐα)'' at Elis").
Thyllophorus, ''Θυλλοφόρος'' ("bearing leaves"), at Kos.
In the Greek pantheon
Pantheon may refer to:
* Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building
Arts and entertainment Comics
*Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization
* ''Pantheon'' (Lone S ...
, Dionysus (along with Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
) absorbs the role of Sabazios
Sabazios ( grc, Σαβάζιος, translit=Sabázios, ''Savázios''; alternatively, ''Sabadios'') is the horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians. Though the Greeks interpreted Phrygian Sabazios as both Zeus and Dionysus, rep ...
, a Thracian
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...
/ Phrygian deity. In the Roman pantheon
The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Greek counterparts (see ''interpretatio graeca''), integrating Greek mythology, Greek myths, ancient Greek art, iconography, and sometimes Religion in ancient Greece, ...
, Sabazius became an alternative name for Bacchus.
Worship and festivals in Greece
Dionysus worship became firmly established by the seventh century BC. He may have been worshiped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by Mycenaean Greeks
Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...
; and traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...
.[
]
Dionysia
The Dionysia
The Dionysia (, , ; Greek: Διονύσια) was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies. It was the s ...
, Haloa
Haloa or Alo (Ἁλῶα) was an Attic festival, celebrated principally at Eleusis, in honour of Demeter (Δήμητρα, η Αλωαίη), protector of the fruits of the earth, of Dionysus, god of the grape and of wine, and Poseidon (Ποσει ...
, Ascolia
Ascolia, in Ancient Greece, was a yearly feast that the peasants of Attica celebrated in honor of Dionysus. The rites included sacrificing a goat, chosen because goats were prone to eating and destroying grapevines, and using its skin to make a foo ...
and Lenaia
The Lenaia ( grc, Λήναια) was an annual Athenian festival with a dramatic competition. It was one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in Athens in Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January. T ...
festivals were dedicated to Dionysus. The Rural Dionysia (or Lesser Dionysia) was one of the oldest festivals dedicated to Dionysus, begun in Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean S ...
, and probably celebrated the cultivation of vines. It was held during the winter month of Poseideon (the time surrounding the winter solstice, modern December or January). The Rural Dionysia centered on a procession, during which participants carried phalluses, long loaves of bread, jars of water and wine as well as other offerings, and young girls carried baskets. The procession was followed by a series of dramatic performances and drama competitions.[Sir Arthur Pickard-Cambridge. The Dramatic Festivals of Athens. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953 (2nd ed. 1968). ]
The City Dionysia (or Greater Dionysia) took place in urban centers such as Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and Eleusis, and was a later development, probably beginning during the sixth century BC. Held three months after the Rural Dionysia, the Greater festival fell near the spring equinox in the month of Elaphebolion (modern March or April). The procession of the City Dionysia was similar to that of the rural celebrations, but more elaborate, and led by participants carrying a wooden statue of Dionysus, and including sacrificial bulls and ornately dressed choruses. The dramatic competitions of the Greater Dionysia also featured more noteworthy poets and playwrights, and prizes for both dramatists and actors in multiple categories.[Brockett, Oscar Gross (1968). History of the Theatre. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 18–26.]
Anthesteria
The Anthesteria (Ἀνθεστήρια) was an Athenian festival that celebrated the beginning of spring. It spanned three days: Pithoigia (Πιθοίγια, "Jar-Opening"), Choes (Χοαί, "The Pouring") and Chythroi (Χύτροι "The Pots"). It was said the dead arose from the underworld during the span of the festival. Along with the souls of the dead, the Keres
In Greek mythology, the Keres (; Ancient Greek: Κῆρες), singular Ker (; Κήρ), were female death-spirits. They were the goddesses who personified violent death and who were drawn to bloody deaths on battlefields. Although they were pre ...
also wandered through the city and had to be banished when the festival ended.[(Photius, Lexicon, s.v. "Thyraze Kares.")
To the doors, Kares, it is no longer Anthestria": some authorities contented that this is what is said to the crowd of Karian slaves, since at the Anthestria they join in the feast and do not do any work. Therefore, when the festival is over, they send them back out to work with the words, "To the doors, Keres, it is no longer Anthestria." since the souls ]eres
Eres (English: "You Are") may refer to:
* "Eres" (Alejandro Fernández song), 2008
* "Eres" (Café Tacuba song), 2003
* "Eres", a song by Anahí from her album ''Inesperado'', 2016
* "Eres", a song by José María Napoleón, 1975, later covered ...
wander about through the city at the Anthestria. On the first day, Wine vats were opened. The wine was opened and mixed in honour of the god. The rooms and the drinking vessels were adorned with flowers along with children over three years of age.
On the second day, a solemn ritual for Dionysus occurred along with drinking. People dressed up, sometimes as members of Dionysus's entourage, and visited others. Choes was also the occasion of a solemn and secret ceremony. In one of the sanctuaries of Dionysus in the Lenaeum, which for the rest of the year was closed. The basilissa (or basilinna), wife of the basileus, underwent through a symbolic ceremonial marriage to the god, possibly representing a Hieros gamos
''Hieros gamos'', hieros (ἱερός) meaning "holy" or "sacred" and gamos (γάμος) meaning marriage, or Hierogamy (Greek , "holy marriage"), is a sacred marriage that plays out between a god and a goddess, especially when enacted in a symb ...
. The basilissa was assisted by fourteen Athenian matrons (called Gerarai
''Gerarai'' ( grc-gre, Γεραραί), also known by the latinization of names, latinized form ''Gerarae'', were priestesses (Hiereiai) of Dionysus in ancient Greek religion.
They presided over sacrifices and participated in the festivals of The ...
) who were chosen by the basileus and sworn to secrecy.
The last day was dedicated to the dead. Offerings were also offered to Hermes
Hermes (; grc-gre, wikt:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travelle ...
, due to his connection to the underworld. It was considered a day of merrymaking. Some poured Libation
A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid, or grains such as rice, as an offering to a deity or spirit, or in memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures today.
Various substanc ...
s on the tombs of deceased relatives. Chythroi ended with a ritual cry intended to order the souls of the dead to return to the underworld. Keres
In Greek mythology, the Keres (; Ancient Greek: Κῆρες), singular Ker (; Κήρ), were female death-spirits. They were the goddesses who personified violent death and who were drawn to bloody deaths on battlefields. Although they were pre ...
were also banished from the festival on the last day.
To protect themselves from evil, people chewed leaves of whitethorn and smeared their doors with tar to protect themselves. The festival also allowed servants and slaves to join in on the festivities.
Bacchic Mysteries
The central religious cult of Dionysus is known as the Bacchic or Dionysian Mysteries. The exact origin of this religion is unknown, though Orpheus
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with J ...
was said to have invented the mysteries of Dionysus.[Pseudo- Apollodorus, '' Bibliotheca']
''Library and Epitome'', 1.3.2
"Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria." Evidence suggests that many sources and rituals typically considered to be part of the similar Orphic Mysteries
Orphism (more rarely Orphicism; grc, Ὀρφικά, Orphiká) is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheu ...
actually belong to Dionysian mysteries.[ Some scholars have suggested that, additionally, there is no difference between the Dionysian mysteries and the mysteries of ]Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after ...
, but that these were all facets of the same mystery religion, and that Dionysus and Persephone both had important roles in it.[ Previously considered to have been a primarily rural and fringe part of Greek religion, the major urban center of ]Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
played a major role in the development and spread of the Bacchic mysteries.[
The Bacchic mysteries served an important role in creating ritual traditions for transitions in people's lives; originally primarily for men and male sexuality, but later also created space for ritualizing women's changing roles and celebrating changes of status in a woman's life. This was often symbolized by a meeting with the gods who rule over death and change, such as Hades and Persephone, but also with Dionysus' mother Semele, who probably served a role related to initiation into the mysteries.][
The religion of Dionysus often included rituals involving the sacrifice of goats or bulls, and at least some participants and dancers wore wooden masks associated with the god. In some instances, records show the god participating in the ritual via a masked and clothed pillar, pole, or tree is used, while his worshipers eat bread and drink wine. The significance of masks and goats to the worship of Dionysus seems to date back to the earliest days of his worship, and these symbols have been found together at a ]Minoan
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...
tomb near Phaistos
Phaistos ( el, Φαιστός, ; Ancient Greek: , , Minoan: PA-I-TO?http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11991/4031&ved=2ahUKEwjor62y3bHoAhUEqYsKHZaZArAQFjASegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1MwIv3ekgX-SxkJrbORipd ), also transliterated as Phaesto ...
in Crete.[
]
Eleusinian Mysteries
As early as the fifth century BC, Dionysus became identified with Iacchus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Iacchus (also Iacchos, Iakchos) ( el, Ἴακχος) was a minor deity, of some cultic importance, particularly at Athens and Eleusis in connection with the Eleusinian mysteries, but without any significant ...
, a minor deity from the tradition of the Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries ( el, Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are th ...
. This association may have arisen because of the homophony of the names Iacchus and Bacchus. Two black-figure
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic ( grc, , }), is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, although there are ...
lekythoi (c. 500 BC), possibly represent the earliest evidence for such an association. The nearly-identical vases, one in Berlin, the other in Rome, depict Dionysus, along with the inscription ''IAKXNE'', a possible miswriting of ''IAKXE''. More early evidence can be found in the works of the fifth-century BC Athenian tragedians Sophocles
Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...
and Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
. In Sophocles
Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...
' ''Antigone
In Greek mythology, Antigone ( ; Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is the daughter of Oedipus and either his mother Jocasta or, in another variation of the myth, Euryganeia. She is a sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene.Roman, L., & R ...
'' (c. 441 BC), an ode to Dionysus begins by addressing Dionysus as the "God of many names" (''πολυώνυμε''), who rules over the glens of Demeter's Eleusis, and ends by identifying him with "Iacchus the Giver", who leads "the chorus of the stars whose breath is fire" and whose "attendant Thyiads" dance in "night-long frenzy". And in a fragment from a lost play, Sophocles describes Nysa
Nysa may refer to:
Greek Mythology
* Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus
* Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...
, Dionysus' traditional place of nurture: "From here I caught sight of Nysa, haunt of Bacchus, famed among mortals, which Iacchus of the bull's horns counts as his beloved nurse". In Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
' ''Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
'' (c. 405 BC), a messenger, describing the Bacchic revelries on mount Cithaeron
Cithaeron or Kithairon (Κιθαιρών, -ῶνος) is a mountain and mountain range about sixteen kilometres (ten miles) long in Central Greece. The range is the physical boundary between Boeotia in the north and Attica in the south. It is mai ...
, associates Iacchus with Bromius
Bromius ( grc, Βρόμιος) in ancient Greece was used as an epithet of Dionysus/Bacchus. It signifies "noisy", "roaring", or "boisterous", from , to roar. According to Richard Buxton, Bromius (Bromios) is another name for a fundamental divin ...
, another of the names of Dionysus, saying, they "began to wave the thyrsos ... calling on Iacchus, the son of Zeus, Bromius, with united voice."
An inscription found on a stone stele (c. 340 BC), found at Delphi, contains a paean to Dionysus, which describes his travels. From Thebes, where he was born, he first went to Delphi where he displayed his "starry body", and with "Delphian girls" took his "place on the folds of Parnassus", then next to Eleusis, where he is called "Iacchus":
:And in your hand brandishing your night-
:lighting flame, with god-possessed frenzy
:you went to the vales of Eleusis
:...
:where the whole people of Hellas'
:land, alongside your own native witnesses
:of the holy mysteries, calls upon you
:as Iacchus: for mortals from their pains
:you have opened a haven without toils.
Strabo, says that Greeks "give the name 'Iacchus' not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries". In particular, Iacchus was identified with the Orphic
Orphism (more rarely Orphicism; grc, Ὀρφικά, Orphiká) is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus ...
Dionysus, who was a son of Persephone. Sophocles mentions "Iacchus of the bull's horns", and according to the first-century BC historian Diodorus Siculus, it was this older Dionysus who was represented in paintings and sculptures with horns, because he "excelled in sagacity and was the first to attempt the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed". Arrian, the second-century Greek historian, wrote that it was to this Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone, "not the Theban Dionysus, that the mystic chant 'Iacchus' is sung". The second-century poet Lucian also referred to the "dismemberment of Iacchus".
The fourth- or fifth-century poet Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
associated the name Iacchus with the "third" Dionysus. He described the Athenian celebrations given to the first Dionysus Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus ( grc-gre, Ζαγρεύς) was sometimes identified with a god worshipped by the followers of Orphism, the "first Dionysus", a son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans and reb ...
, son of Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after ...
, the second Dionysus Bromios, son of Semele
Semele (; Ancient Greek: Σεμέλη ), in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.
Certain elements of the cult of Dionysus and Semele came from ...
, and the third Dionysus Iacchus:
:They he Athenians
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
honoured him as a god next after the son of Persephone, and after Semele's son; they established sacrifices for Dionysos late born and Dionysos first born, and third they chanted a new hymn for Iacchos. In these three celebrations Athens held high revel; in the dance lately made, the Athenians beat the step in honour of Zagreus and Bromios and Iacchos all together.
By some accounts, Iacchus was the husband of Demeter. Several other sources identify Iacchus as Demeter's son. The earliest such source, a fourth-century BC vase fragment at Oxford, shows Demeter holding the child Dionysus on her lap. By the first-century BC, Demeter suckling Iacchus had become such a common motif, that the Latin poet Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...
could use it as an apparently recognizable example of a lover's euphemism. A scholiast on the second-century AD Aristides
Aristides ( ; grc-gre, Ἀριστείδης, Aristeídēs, ; 530–468 BC) was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed "the Just" (δίκαιος, ''dikaios''), he flourished in the early quarter of Athens' Classical period and is remembe ...
, explicitly names Demeter as Iacchus' mother.
Orphism
In the Orphic
Orphism (more rarely Orphicism; grc, Ὀρφικά, Orphiká) is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus ...
tradition, the "first Dionysus" was the son of Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
and Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after ...
, and was dismembered by the Titans
In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...
before being reborn. Dionysus was the patron god of the Orphics, who they connected to death and immortality, and he symbolized the one who guides the process of reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is ...
.
This Orphic Dionysus is sometimes referred to with the alternate name Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus ( grc-gre, Ζαγρεύς) was sometimes identified with a god worshipped by the followers of Orphism, the "first Dionysus", a son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans and reb ...
( grc-gre, Ζαγρεύς). The earliest mentions of this name in literature describe him as a partner of Gaia and call him the highest god. Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
linked Zagreus with Hades, as either Hades' son or Hades himself. Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' ''katachthonios'' alter ego", Timothy Gantz
Timothy Nolan Gantz (23 December 1945 – 20 January 2004) was an American classical scholar and the author of ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources''. Gantz received his Bachelor of Arts from Haverford College in 1967, and h ...
thought it likely that Zagreus, originally, perhaps, the son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone. However, no known Orphic sources use the name "Zagreus" to refer to the Orphic Dionysus. It is possible that the association between the two was known by the third century BC, when the poet Callimachus
Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide varie ...
may have written about it in a now-lost source. Callimachus, as well as his contemporary Euphorion, told the story of the dismemberment of the infant Dionysus, and Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
sources quote Callimachus as referring to the birth of a "Dionysos Zagreus", explaining that Zagreus was the poets' name for the '' chthonic'' aspect of Dionysus. The earliest definitive reference to the belief that Zagreus is another name for the Orphic Dionysus is found in the late first century writings of Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
. The fifth century Greek poet Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
' '' Dionysiaca'' tells the story of this Orphic Dionysus, in which Nonnus calls him the "older Dionysos ... illfated Zagreus", "Zagreus the horned baby", "Zagreus, the first Dionysos", "Zagreus the ancient Dionysos", and "Dionysos Zagreus".
Worship and festivals in Rome
Liber and importation to Rome
The mystery cult
Mystery religions, mystery cults, sacred mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates ''(mystai)''. The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy a ...
of Bacchus was brought to Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
from the Greek culture of southern Italy or by way of Greek-influenced Etruria. It was established around 200 BC in the Aventine grove of Stimula
Semele (; Ancient Greek: Σεμέλη ), in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.
Certain elements of the cult of Dionysus and Semele came from th ...
by a priestess from Campania
(man), it, Campana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographics1_title1 =
, demographics1_info1 =
, demog ...
, near the temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
where Liber Pater
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber ( , ; "the free one"), also known as Liber Pater ("the free Father"), was a god of viticulture and wine, male fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of th ...
("the Free Father") had a State-sanctioned, popular cult. Liber
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber ( , ; "the free one"), also known as Liber Pater ("the free Father"), was a god of viticulture and wine, male fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of the ...
was a native Roman god of wine, fertility, and prophecy, patron of Rome's plebeians (citizen-commoners), and one of the members of the Aventine Triad
The Aventine Triad (also referred to as the plebeian Triad or the agricultural Triad) is a modern term for the joint cult of the Roman deities Ceres, Liber and Libera. The cult was established ca. 493 BC within a sacred district ''(templum)'' on o ...
, along with his mother Ceres and sister or consort Libera. A temple to the Triad was erected on the Aventine Hill in 493 BC, along with the institution of celebrating the festival of Liberalia
In ancient Roman religion, the Liberalia (March 17) was the festival of Liber Pater and his consort Libera. T.P. Wiseman, ''Remus: a Roman myth'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133. The Romans celebrated Liberalia with sacrifices, proce ...
. The worship of the Triad gradually took on more and more Greek influence, and by 205 BC, Liber and Libera had been formally identified with Bacchus and Proserpina
Proserpina ( , ) or Proserpine ( ) is an ancient Roman goddess whose iconography, functions and myths are virtually identical to those of Greek Persephone. Proserpina replaced or was combined with the ancient Roman fertility goddess Libera, whose ...
. Liber was often interchangeably identified with Dionysus and his mythology, though this identification was not universally accepted. Cicero insisted on the "non-identity of Liber and Dionysus" and described Liber and Libera as children of Ceres.[
Liber, like his Aventine companions, carried various aspects of his older cults into official Roman religion. He protected various aspects of agriculture and fertility, including the vine and the "soft seed" of its grapes, wine and wine vessels, and male fertility and virility.][Cicero, ''De Natura Deorum'', 2.6O. See also St Augustine, ''De Civitatis Dei'', 4.11.] Pliny called Liber "the first to establish the practice of buying and selling; he also invented the diadem, the emblem of royalty, and the triumphal procession." Roman mosaics and sarcophagi attest to various representations of a Dionysus-like exotic triumphal procession. In Roman and Greek literary sources from the late Republic and Imperial era, several notable triumphs feature similar, distinctively "Bacchic" processional elements, recalling the supposedly historic "Triumph of Liber".[ Beard, Mary: ''The Roman Triumph'', The Belknap Press of ]Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England, 2007, pp. 315–317.
Liber and Dionysus may have had a connection that predated Classical Greece and Rome, in the form of the Mycenaean god Eleutheros, who shared the lineage and iconography of Dionysus but whose name has the same meaning as Liber.[ Before the importation of the Greek cults, Liber was already strongly associated with Bacchic symbols and values, including wine and uninhibited freedom, as well as the subversion of the powerful. Several depictions from the late Republic era feature processions, depicting the "Triumph of Liber".]
Bacchanalia
In Rome, the most well-known festivals of Bacchus were the Bacchanalia
The Bacchanalia were unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult of Liber, and probably arrived in Rome ...
, based on the earlier Greek Dionysia festivals. These Bacchic rituals were said to have included omophagic practices, such as pulling live animals apart and eating the whole of them raw. This practice served not only as a reenactment of the infant death and rebirth of Bacchus, but also as a means by which Bacchic practitioners produced "enthusiasm": etymologically, to let a god enter the practitioner's body or to have her become one with Bacchus.
In Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
's account, the Bacchic mysteries were a novelty at Rome; originally restricted to women and held only three times a year, they were corrupted by an Etruscan-Greek version, and thereafter drunken, disinhibited men and women of all ages and social classes cavorted in a sexual free-for-all five times a month. Livy relates their various outrages against Rome's civil and religious laws and traditional morality ('' mos maiorum''); a secretive, subversive and potentially revolutionary counter-culture. Livy's sources, and his own account of the cult, probably drew heavily on the Roman dramatic ''genre'' known as "Satyr plays", based on Greek originals. The cult was suppressed by the State with great ferocity; of the 7,000 arrested, most were executed. Modern scholarship treats much of Livy's account with skepticism; more certainly, a Senatorial edict, the ''Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus
The ''senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus'' ("senatorial decree concerning the Bacchanalia") is a notable Old Latin inscription dating to 186 BC. It was discovered in 1640 at Tiriolo, in Calabria, southern Italy. Published by the presiding praetor, ...
'' was distributed throughout Roman and allied Italy. It banned the former Bacchic cult organisations. Each meeting must seek prior senatorial approval through a praetor
Praetor ( , ), also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected '' magistratus'' (magistrate), assigned to discharge vari ...
. No more than three women and two men were allowed at any one meeting, and those who defied the edict risked the death penalty.
Bacchus was conscripted into the official Roman pantheon as an aspect of Liber, and his festival was inserted into the Liberalia
In ancient Roman religion, the Liberalia (March 17) was the festival of Liber Pater and his consort Libera. T.P. Wiseman, ''Remus: a Roman myth'', Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133. The Romans celebrated Liberalia with sacrifices, proce ...
. In Roman culture, Liber, Bacchus and Dionysus became virtually interchangeable equivalents. Thanks to his mythology involving travels and struggles on earth, Bacchus became euhemerised
Euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exagge ...
as a historical hero, conqueror, and founder of cities. He was a patron deity and founding hero at Leptis Magna
Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names in antiquity, was a prominent city of the Carthaginian Empire and Roman Libya at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda in the Mediterranean.
Originally a 7th-centuryBC Phoenician foundation, it was great ...
, birthplace of the emperor Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...
, who promoted his cult. In some Roman sources, the ritual procession of Bacchus in a tiger-drawn chariot, surrounded by maenads, satyrs and drunks, commemorates the god's triumphant return from the conquest of India. Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
believed this to be the historical prototype for the Roman Triumph
The Roman triumph (') was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory in the service of the state or in some historical tra ...
.
Post-classical worship
Late Antiquity
In the Neoplatonist
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some id ...
philosophy and religion of Late Antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
, the Olympian gods were sometimes considered to number 12 based on their spheres of influence. For example, according to Sallustius The names Sallustius/Saloustios and their vernacular variants Sallust(e) have been borne by many people:
* Sallust or Gaius Sallustius Crispus, historian of the 1st century BC
**Gardens of Sallust
* Gaius Sallustius Passienus Crispus, 1st-century A ...
, "Jupiter, Neptune, and Vulcan fabricate the world; Ceres, Juno, and Diana animate it; Mercury, Venus, and Apollo harmonize it; and, lastly, Vesta, Minerva, and Mars preside over it with a guarding power."[Sallustius, ''On Gods and the World'', ch. VI.] The multitude of other gods, in this belief system, subsist within the primary gods, and Sallustius taught that Bacchus subsisted in Jupiter.[
In the ]Orphic
Orphism (more rarely Orphicism; grc, Ὀρφικά, Orphiká) is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus ...
tradition, a saying was supposedly given by an oracle of Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
that stated "Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
, Hades, nd Helios-Dionysus" were "three gods in one godhead". This statement apparently conflated Dionysus not only with Hades, but also his father Zeus, and implied a particularly close identification with the sun-god Helios. When quoting this in his ''Hymn to King Helios'', Emperor Julian
Julian ( la, Flavius Claudius Julianus; grc-gre, Ἰουλιανός ; 331 – 26 June 363) was Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of Neoplaton ...
substituted Dionysus' name with that of Serapis
Serapis or Sarapis is a Graeco-Egyptian deity. The cult of Serapis was promoted during the third century BC on the orders of Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his r ...
, whose Egyptian counterpart Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...
was also identified with Dionysus.
Worship from the Middle Ages to the Modern period
Three centuries after the reign of Theodosius I
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
which saw the outlawing of pagan worship across the Roman Empire, the 692 Quinisext Council
The Quinisext Council (Latin: ''Concilium Quinisextum''; Koine Greek: , ''Penthékti Sýnodos''), i.e. the Fifth-Sixth Council, often called the Council ''in Trullo'', Trullan Council, or the Penthekte Synod, was a church council held in 692 at ...
in Constantinople felt it necessary to warn Christians against participating in persisting rural worship of Dionysus. The council decried the Bacchic rites of the feast day Brumalia
The Brumalia ( la, Brumalia ) were a winter solstice festival celebrated in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. In Rome there had been the minor holiday of Bruma on November 24, which turned into large scale end of the year festivities in Const ...
, "the public dances of women", ritual cross-dressing, the wearing of Dionysiac masks, and the invoking of Bacchus' name when "squeez ngout the wine in the presses" or "when pouring out wine into jars".
According to the Lanercost chronicle
The ''Lanercost Chronicle'' is a northern English history covering the years 1201 to 1346. It covers the Wars of Scottish Independence, but it is also highly digressive and as such provides insights into English life in the thirteenth century as w ...
, during Easter
Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
in 1282 in Scotland, the parish priest of Inverkeithing led young women in a dance in honor of Priapus and Liber, Father Liber, commonly identified with Dionysus. The priest danced and sang at the front, carrying a representation of the phallus on a pole. He was killed by a Christian mob later that year. Historian C. S. Watkins believes that Richard of Durham, the author of the chronicle, identified an occurrence of apotropaic magic with his knowledge of ancient Greek religion, rather than recording an actual case of survival of pagan rituals.
The late medieval Byzantine scholar Gemistus Pletho secretly advocated in favor of a return to paganism in medieval Greece.
In the eighteenth century, Hellfire Clubs appeared in Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain and Ireland. Though activities varied between the clubs, some of them were very pagan, and included shrines and sacrifices. Dionysus was one of the most popular deities, alongside deities like Venus (mythology), Venus and Flora. Today one can still see the statue of Dionysus left behind in the Hellfire Caves.
In 1820, Ephraim Lyon founded the Church of Bacchus in Eastford, Connecticut. He declared himself High Priest, and added local drunks to the list of membership. He maintained that those who died as members would go to a Bacchanalia for their afterlife.
Modern pagan and Polytheism, polytheist groups often include worship of Dionysus in their traditions and practices, most prominently groups which have sought to revive Hellenism (religion), Hellenic polytheism, such as the Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes (YSEE). In addition to libations of wine, modern worshipers of Dionysus offer the god grape vines, ivy, and various forms of incense, particularly styrax. They may also celebrate Roman festivals such as the Liberalia (March 17, close to the Spring equinox (Northern Hemisphere), Spring Equinox) or Bacchanalia
The Bacchanalia were unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult of Liber, and probably arrived in Rome ...
(Various dates), and various Greek festivals such as the Anthesteria, Lenaia
The Lenaia ( grc, Λήναια) was an annual Athenian festival with a dramatic competition. It was one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in Athens in Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January. T ...
, and the Greater and Lesser Dionysia
The Dionysia (, , ; Greek: Διονύσια) was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies. It was the s ...
s, the dates of which are calculated by the lunar calendar.
Identification with other gods
Osiris
In the interpretatio graeca, Greek interpretation of the Ancient Egyptian deities, Egyptian pantheon, Dionysus was often identified with Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...
. Stories of the dismemberment of Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...
and the re-assembly and resurrection by Isis closely parallel those of the Orphic Dionysus and Demeter. According to Diodorus Siculus, as early as the fifth century BC, the two gods had been syncretized as a single deity known as Dionysus-Osiris. The most notable record of this belief is found in Herodotus' 'Histories (Herodotus), Histories'. Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
also described his belief that Osiris and Dionysus were identical, stating that anyone familiar with the secret rituals associated with both gods would recognize obvious parallels, and that their dismemberment myths and associated public symbols are enough additional evidence that they are the same god worshiped by two different cultures.
Other syncretic Greco-Egyptian deities arose out of this conflation, including with the gods Serapis
Serapis or Sarapis is a Graeco-Egyptian deity. The cult of Serapis was promoted during the third century BC on the orders of Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his r ...
and Hermanubis. Serapis was believed to be both Hades and Osiris, and the Roman Emperor Julian considered him the same as Dionysus as well. Dionysus-Osiris was particularly popular in Ptolemaic Egypt, as the Ptolemies claimed descent from Dionysus, and as Pharaohs they had claim to the lineage of Osiris. This association was most notable during a deification ceremony where Mark Antony became Dionysus-Osiris, alongside Cleopatra as Isis-Aphrodite.
Egyptian myths about Priapus said that the Titans conspired against Osiris, killed him, divided his body into equal parts, and "slipped them secretly out of the house". All but Osiris' penis, which since none of them "was willing to take it with him", they threw into the river. Isis, Osiris' wife, hunted down and killed the Titans, reassembled Osiris' body parts "into the shape of a human figure", and gave them "to the priests with orders that they pay Osiris the honours of a god". But since she was unable to recover the penis she ordered the priests "to pay to it the honours of a god and to set it up in their temples in an erect position."
Hades
The fifth–fourth century BC philosopher Heraclitus, unifying opposites, declared that Hades and Dionysus, the very essence of indestructible life ''(Life, zoë)'', are the same god. Among other evidence, Karl Kerényi notes in his book that the Homeric Hymn "To Demeter", votive marble images and epithets all link Hades to being Dionysus. He also notes that the grieving goddess Demeter refused to drink wine, as she states that it would be against ''themis'' for her to drink wine, which is the gift of Dionysus, after Persephone's abduction, because of this association; indicating that Hades may in fact have been a "cover name" for the underworld Dionysus. He suggests that this dual identity may have been familiar to those who came into contact with the Eleusinian Mysteries, Mysteries. One of the epithets of Dionysus was "Chthonios", meaning "the subterranean".
Evidence for a cult connection is quite extensive, particularly in southern Italy, especially when considering the heavy involvement of death symbolism included in Dionysian worship; statues of Dionysus found in the Ploutonion at Eleusis gives further evidence as the statues found bear a striking resemblance to the statue of Eubouleus, also called ''Aides Kyanochaites'' (Hades of the flowing dark hair),[''Summary of Karl Kerényi:'' These attempts at a reconstruction would remain very fragmentary were we not, in conclusion, to look attentively into the face of the god Eubouleus. The Lord of the Underworld bore this name in the youthful form represented in the statue, ascribed to Praxiteles, which is now in the National Museum at Athens and probably stood originally in the place where it was found, the Ploutonion. This youth is Plouton himself – radiant but disclosing a strange inner darkness – and at the same time his double and servant, comparable to Hermes or Pais besides Kabeiros or Theos [p. 172]. ... The plentiful hair or long curls suggest rather Hades kyanochaites, Hades of the dark hair [p. 173].] known as the youthful depiction of the Lord of the Underworld. The statue of Eubouleus is described as being radiant but disclosing a strange inner darkness[ Ancient portrayals show Dionysus holding in his hand the kantharos, a wine-jar with large handles, and occupying the place where one would expect to see Hades. Archaic artist Xenocles portrayed on one side of a vase, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, each with his emblems of power; with Hades' head turned back to front and, on the other side, Dionysus striding forward to meet his bride Persephone, with the kantharos in his hand, against a background of grapes. Dionysus also shared several epithets with Hades such as ''Chthonios'', ''Eubouleus and Euclius''.
Both Hades and Dionysus were associated with a divine tripartite deity with ]Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...
. Zeus, like Dionysus, was occasionally believed to have an underworld form, closely identified with Hades, to the point that they were occasionally thought of as the same god.[
According to Marguerite Rigoglioso, Hades is Dionysus, and this dual god was believed by the Eleusinian tradition to have impregnated Persephone. This would bring the Eleusinian in harmony with the myth in which Zeus, not Hades, impregnated Persephone to bear the first Dionysus. Rigoglioso argues that taken together, these myths suggest a belief that is that, with Persephone, Zeus/Hades/Dionysus created (in terms quoted from Kerényi) "a second, a little Dionysus", who is also a "subterranean Zeus".][ The unification of Hades, Zeus, and Dionysus as a single tripartite god was used to represent the birth, death and resurrection of a deity and to unify the 'shining' realm of Zeus and the dark underworld realm of Hades.] According to Rosemarie Taylor-Perry,it is often mentioned that Zeus, Hades and Dionysus were all attributed to being the exact same god... Being a tripartite deity Hades is also Zeus, doubling as being the Sky God or Zeus, Hades abducts his 'daughter' and paramour Persephone. The taking of Kore by Hades is the act which allows the conception and birth of a second integrating force: Iacchos (Zagreus-Dionysus), also known as Liknites, the helpless infant form of that Deity who is the unifier of the dark underworld (chthonic) realm of Hades and the Olympian ("Shining") one of Zeus.
Sabazios and Yahweh
The Phrygian god Sabazios
Sabazios ( grc, Σαβάζιος, translit=Sabázios, ''Savázios''; alternatively, ''Sabadios'') is the horseman and sky father god of the Phrygians and Thracians. Though the Greeks interpreted Phrygian Sabazios as both Zeus and Dionysus, rep ...
was alternately identified with Zeus or with Dionysus. The Byzantine Greek encyclopedia, '' Suda'' (c. tenth century), stated: Sabazios ... is the same as Dionysos. He acquired this form of address from the rite pertaining to him; for the barbarians call the bacchic cry "sabazein". Hence some of the Greeks too follow suit and call the cry "sabasmos"; thereby Dionysos [becomes] Sabazios. They also used to call "saboi" those places that had been dedicated to him and his Bacchantes ... Demosthenes [in the speech] "On Behalf of Ktesiphon" [mentions them]. Some say that Saboi is the term for those who are dedicated to Sabazios, that is to Dionysos, just as those [dedicated] to Bakkhos [are] Bakkhoi. They say that Sabazios and Dionysos are the same. Thus some also say that the Greeks call the Bakkhoi Saboi.
Strabo, in the first century, linked Sabazios with Zagreus among Phrygian ministers and attendants of the sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos. Strabo's Sicilian contemporary, Diodorus Siculus, conflated Sabazios with the secret Dionysus, born of Zeus and Persephone, However, this connection is not supported by any surviving inscriptions, which are entirely to ''Zeus Sabazios''.
Several ancient sources record an apparently widespread belief in the classical world that the god worshiped by the Judaism, Jewish people, Yahweh, was identifiable as Dionysus or Liber
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber ( , ; "the free one"), also known as Liber Pater ("the free Father"), was a god of viticulture and wine, male fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of the ...
via his identification with Sabazios. Tacitus, Lydus, Cornelius Labeo, and Plutarch all either made this association, or discussed it as an extant belief (though some, like Tacitus, specifically brought it up in order to reject it). According to Plutarch, one of the reasons for the identification is that Jews were reported to hail their god with the words "Euoe" and "Sabi", a cry typically associated with the worship of Sabazius. According to scholar Sean McDonough, it is possible that Plutarch's sources had confused the cry of "Iao Sabaoth" (typically used by Greek speakers in reference to Yahweh) with the Sabazian cry of "Euoe Saboe", originating the confusion and conflation of the two deities. The cry of "Sabi" could also have been conflated with the Jewish term "sabbath", adding to the evidence the ancients saw that Yahweh and Dionysus/Sabazius were the same deity. Further bolstering this connection would have been coins used by the Maccabees that included imagery linked to the worship of Dionysus such as grapes, vine leaves, and cups. However the belief that the Jewish god was identical with Dionysus/Sabazius was widespread enough that a coin dated to 55 BC depicting a kneeling king was labelled "Bacchus Judaeus" (''BACCHIVS IVDAEVS''), and in 139 BC praetor Cornelius Scipio Hispalus deported Jewish people for attempting to "infect the Roman customs with the cult of Jupiter Sabazius".
Mythology
Various different accounts and traditions existed in the ancient world regarding the parentage, birth, and life of Dionysus on earth, complicated by his several rebirths. By the first century BC, some mythographers had attempted to harmonize the various accounts of Dionysus' birth into a single narrative involving not only multiple births, but two or three distinct manifestations of the god on earth throughout history in different lifetimes. The historian Diodorus Siculus said that according to "some writers of myths" there were two gods named Dionysus, an older one, who was the son of Zeus and Persephone, but that the "younger one also inherited the deeds of the older, and so the men of later times, being unaware of the truth and being deceived because of the identity of their names thought there had been but one Dionysus." He also said that Dionysus "was thought to have two forms...the ancient one having a long beard, because all men in early times wore long beards, the younger one being youthful and effeminate and young."
Though the varying genealogy of Dionysus was mentioned in many works of classical literature, only a few contain the actual narrative myths surrounding the events of his multiple births. These include the first century BC ''Bibliotheca historica'' by Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus, which describes the birth and deeds of the three incarnations of Dionysus; the brief birth narrative given by the first century AD Roman author Gaius Julius Hyginus, Hyginus, which describes a double birth for Dionysus; and a longer account in the form of Greek poet Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
's epic ''Dionysiaca'', which discusses three incarnations of Dionysus similar to Diodorus' account, but which focuses on the life of the third Dionysus, born to Zeus and Semele.
First birth
Though Diodorus mentions some traditions which state an older, Indian or Egyptian Dionysus existed who invented wine, no narratives are given of his birth or life among mortals, and most traditions ascribe the invention of wine and travels through India to the last Dionysus. According to Diodorus, Dionysus was originally the son of Zeus and Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after ...
(or alternately, Zeus and Demeter). This is the same horned Dionysus described by Hyginus and Nonnus in later accounts, and the Dionysus worshiped by the Orphics, who was dismembered by the Titans and then reborn. Nonnus calls this Dionysus Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus ( grc-gre, Ζαγρεύς) was sometimes identified with a god worshipped by the followers of Orphism, the "first Dionysus", a son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans and reb ...
, while Diodorus says he is also considered identical with Sabazius.[ However, unlike Hyginus and Nonnus, Diodorus does not provide a birth narrative for this incarnation of the god. It was this Dionysus who was said to have taught mortals how to use oxen to plow the fields, rather than doing so by hand. His worshipers were said to have honored him for this by depicting him with horns.][
]
The Greek poet Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
gives a birth narrative for Dionysus in his late fourth or early fifth century AD epic '' Dionysiaca''. In it, he described how Zeus "intended to make a new Dionysos grow up, a bullshaped copy of the older Dionysos" who was the Egyptian god Osiris. (Dionysiaca 4) Zeus took the shape of a serpent ("''drakon''"), and "ravished the maidenhood of unwedded Persephoneia." According to Nonnus, though Persephone was "the consort of the blackrobed king of the underworld", she remained a virgin, and had been hidden in a cave by her mother to avoid the many gods who were her suitors, because "all that dwelt in Olympos were bewitched by this one girl, rivals in love for the marriageable maid." (Dionysiaca 5) After her union with Zeus, Persephone's womb "swelled with living fruit", and she gave birth to a horned baby, named Zagreus. Zagreus, despite his infancy, was able to climb onto the throne of Zeus and brandish his lightning bolts, marking him as Zeus' heir. Hera saw this and alerted the Titans, who smeared their faces with chalk and ambushed the infant Zagreus "while he contemplated his changeling countenance reflected in a mirror." They attacked him. However, according to Nonnus, "where his limbs had been cut piecemeal by the Titan steel, the end of his life was the beginning of a new life as Dionysos." He began to change into many different forms in which he returned the attack, including Zeus, Cronus, a baby, and "a mad youth with the flower of the first down marking his rounded chin with black." He then transformed into several animals to attack the assembled Titans, including a lion, a wild horse, a horned serpent, a tiger, and, finally, a bull. Hera intervened, killing the bull with a shout, and the Titans finally slaughtered him and cut him into pieces. Zeus attacked the Titans and had them imprisoned in Tartaros. This caused the mother of the Titans, Gaia, to suffer, and her symptoms were seen across the whole world, resulting in fires and floods, and boiling seas. Zeus took pity on her, and in order to cool down the burning land, he caused great rains to Flood myth, flood the world. (Dionysiaca 6)
Interpretation
In the Orphic tradition, Dionysus was, in part, a god associated with the underworld. As a result, the Orphics considered him the son of Persephone, and believed that he had been dismembered by the Titans (mythology), Titans and then reborn. The myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus was alluded to as early as the fourth century BC by Plato in his ''Phaedo'', in which Socrates claims that the initiations of the Dionysian Mysteries are similar to those of the philosophic path. Late Neoplatonists such as Damascius explored the implications of this at length. The dismemberment of Dionysus (the ''sparagmos'') is often considered to be the most important myth of Orphism.
Many modern sources identify this "Orphic Dionysus" with the god Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus ( grc-gre, Ζαγρεύς) was sometimes identified with a god worshipped by the followers of Orphism, the "first Dionysus", a son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans and reb ...
, though this name does not seem to have been used by any of the ancient Orphics, who simply called him Dionysus. As pieced together from various ancient sources, the reconstructed story, usually given by modern scholars, goes as follows. Zeus had intercourse with Persephone in the form of a serpent, producing Dionysus. The infant was taken to Mount Ida, where, like the infant Zeus, he was guarded by the dancing Korybantes, Curetes. Zeus intended Dionysus to be his successor as ruler of the cosmos, but a jealous Hera incited the Titans to kill the child. Damascius claims that he was mocked by the Titans, who gave him a fennel stalk (''thyrsus'') in place of his rightful scepter.
Diodorus relates that Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and that his birth narrative is an allegory for the generative power of the gods at work in nature. When the "Sons of Gaia" (i.e. the Titans) boiled Dionysus following his birth, Demeter gathered together his remains, allowing his rebirth. Diodorus noted the symbolism this myth held for its adherents: Dionysus, god of the vine, was born from the gods of the rain and the earth. He was torn apart and boiled by the sons of Gaia, or "earth born", symbolizing the harvesting and wine-making process. Just as the remains of the bare vines are returned to the earth to restore its fruitfulness, the remains of the young Dionysus were returned to Demeter allowing him to be born again.[Diodorus Siculus]]
3.62–74
Second birth
The birth narrative given by Gaius Julius Hyginus (c. 64 BC – 17 AD) in ''Fabulae'' 167, agrees with the Orphic tradition that Liber (Dionysus) was originally the son of Jove (Zeus) and Proserpine (Persephone). Hyginus writes that Liber was torn apart by the Titans, so Jove took the fragments of his heart and put them into a drink which he gave to Semele
Semele (; Ancient Greek: Σεμέλη ), in Greek mythology, was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.
Certain elements of the cult of Dionysus and Semele came from ...
, the daughter of Harmonia and Cadmus, king and founder of Ancient Thebes (Boeotia), Thebes. This resulted in Semele becoming pregnant. Juno (mythology), Juno appeared to Semele in the form of her nurse, Beroe, and told her: "Daughter, ask Jove to come to you as he comes to Juno, so you may know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god." When Semele requested that Jove do so, she was killed by a thunderbolt. Jove then took the infant Liber from her womb, and put him in the care of Nysus. Hyginus states that "for this reason he is called Dionysus, and also the one with two mothers" (''dimētōr'').
Nonnus describes how, when life was rejuvenated after the flood, it was lacking in revelry in the absence of Dionysus. "The Horae, Seasons, those daughters of the lichtgang, still joyless, plaited garlands for the gods only of meadow-grass. For Wine was lacking. Without Bacchos to inspire the dance, its grace was only half complete and quite without profit; it charmed only the eyes of the company, when the circling dancer moved in twists and turns with a tumult of footsteps, having only nods for words, hand for mouth, fingers for voice." Zeus declared that he would send his son Dionysus to teach mortals how to grow grapes and make wine, to alleviate their toil, war, and suffering. After he became protector of humanity, Zeus promises, Dionysus would struggle on earth, but be received "by the bright upper air to shine beside Zeus and to share the courses of the stars." (Dionysiaca 7).
The mortal princess Semele then had a dream, in which Zeus destroyed a fruit tree with a bolt of lightning, but did not harm the fruit. He sent a bird to bring him one of the fruits, and sewed it into his thigh, so that he would be both mother and father to the new Dionysus. She saw the bull-shaped figure of a man emerge from his thigh, and then came to the realization that she herself had been the tree. Her father Cadmus, fearful of the prophetic dream, instructed Semele to make sacrifices to Zeus. Zeus came to Semele in her bed, adorned with various symbols of Dionysus. He transformed into a snake, and "Zeus made long wooing, and shouted "Euoi!" as if the winepress were near, as he begat his son who would love the cry." Immediately, Semele's bed and chambers were overgrown with vines and flowers, and the earth laughed. Zeus then spoke to Semele, revealing his true identity, and telling her to be happy: "you bring forth a son who shall not die, and you I will call immortal. Happy woman! you have conceived a son who will make mortals forget their troubles, you shall bring forth joy for gods and men." (Dionysiaca 7).
During her pregnancy, Semele rejoiced in the knowledge that her son would be divine. She dressed herself in garlands of flowers and wreathes of ivy, and would run barefoot to the meadows and forests to frolic whenever she heard music. Hera became envious, and feared that Zeus would replace her with Semele as queen of Olympus. She went to Semele in the guise of an old woman who had been Cadmus' wet nurse. She made Semele jealous of the attention Zeus gave to Hera, compared with their own brief liaison, and provoked her to request Zeus to appear before her in his full godhood. Semele prayed to Zeus that he show himself. Zeus answered her prayers, but warned her than no other mortals had ever seen him as he held his lightning bolts. Semele reached out to touch them, and was burnt to ash. (Dionysiaca 8). But the infant Dionysus survived, and Zeus rescued him from the flames, sewing him into his thigh. "So the rounded thigh in labour became female, and the boy too soon born was brought forth, but not in a mother's way, having passed from a mother's womb to a father's." (Dionysiaca 9). At his birth, he had a pair of horns shaped like a crescent moon. The Horae, Seasons crowned him with ivy and flowers, and wrapped horned snakes around his own horns.[
An alternate birth narrative is given by Diodorus from the Egyptian tradition. In it, Dionysus is the son of Amun, Ammon, who Diodorus regards both as the creator god and a quasi-historical king of Libya. Ammon had married the goddess Rhea (mythology), Rhea, but he had an affair with Amaltheia, who bore Dionysus. Ammon feared Rhea's wrath if she were to discover the child, so he took the infant Dionysus to ]Nysa
Nysa may refer to:
Greek Mythology
* Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus
* Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...
(Dionysus' traditional childhood home). Ammon brought Dionysus into a cave where he was to be cared for by Nysa, a daughter of the hero Aristaeus.[ Dionysus grew famous due to his skill in the arts, his beauty, and his strength. It was said that he discovered the art of winemaking during his boyhood. His fame brought him to the attention of Rhea, who was furious with Ammon for his deception. She attempted to bring Dionysus under her own power but, unable to do so, she left Ammon and married Cronus.][
]
Interpretation
Even in antiquity, the account of Dionysus' birth to a mortal woman led some to argue that he had been a historical figure who became deified over time, a suggestion of Euhemerism (an explanation of mythic events having roots in mortal history) often applied to demi-gods. The fourth century Roman emperor and philosopher Julian (emperor), Julian encountered examples of this belief, and wrote arguments against it. In his letter ''To the Cynic Heracleios'', Julian wrote "I have heard many people say that Dionysus was a mortal man because he was born of Semele, and that he became a god through his knowledge of theurgy and the Mysteries, and like our lord Heracles for his royal virtue was translated to Olympus by his father Zeus." However, to Julian, the myth of Dionysus's birth (and that of Heracles) stood as an allegory for a deeper spiritual truth. The birth of Dionysus, Julian argues, was "no birth but a divine manifestation" to Semele, who foresaw that a physical manifestation of the god Dionysus would soon appear. However, Semele was impatient for the god to come, and began revealing his mysteries too early; for her transgression, she was struck down by Zeus. When Zeus decided it was time to impose a new order on humanity, for it to "pass from the nomadic to a more civilized mode of life", he sent his son Dionysus from India as a god made visible, spreading his worship and giving the vine as a symbol of his manifestation among mortals. In Julian's interpretation, the Greeks "called Semele the mother of Dionysus because of the prediction that she had made, but also because the god honored her as having been the first prophetess of his advent while it was yet to be." The allegorical myth of the birth of Dionysus, per Julian, was developed to express both the history of these events and encapsulate the truth of his birth outside the generative processes of the mortal world, but entering into it, though his true birth was directly from Zeus along into the Neoplatonism, intelligible realm.[Julian, trans. by Emily Wilmer Cave Wright. To the Cynic Heracleios. ''The Works of the Emperor Julian'', volume II (1913) Loeb Classical Library.]
Infancy
According to Nonnus, Zeus gave the infant Dionysus to the care of Hermes
Hermes (; grc-gre, wikt:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travelle ...
. Hermes gave Dionysus to the Lamides, or daughters of Lamos, who were river nymphs. But Hera drove the Lamides mad, and caused them to attack Dionysus, who was rescued by Hermes. Hermes next brought the infant to Ino (Greek mythology), Ino for fostering by her attendant Mystis, who taught him the rites of the mysteries (Dionysiaca 9). In Apollodorus' account, Hermes instructed Ino to raise Dionysus as a girl, in order to hide him from Hera's wrath. However, Hera found him, and vowed to destroy the house with a flood; however, Hermes again rescued Dionysus, this time bringing him to the mountains of Lydia. Hermes adopted the form of Phanes, most ancient of the gods, and so Hera bowed before him and let him pass. Hermes gave the infant to the goddess Rhea (mythology), Rhea, who cared for him through his adolescence.[Nonnus, Dionysiaca 9. (trans. Rouse)]
Another version is that Dionysus was taken to the rain-nymphs of Nysa
Nysa may refer to:
Greek Mythology
* Nysa (mythology) or Nyseion, the mountainous region or mount (various traditional locations), where nymphs raised the young god Dionysus
* Nysiads, nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant ...
, who nourished his infancy and childhood, and for their care Zeus rewarded them by placing them as the Hyades (mythology), Hyades among the stars (see Hyades (star cluster), Hyades star cluster). In yet another version of the myth, he is raised by his cousin Macris on the island of Euboea.
Dionysus in Greek mythology is a god of foreign origin, and while Mount Nysa is a mythological location, it is invariably set far away to the east or to the south. The Homeric hymn, ''Homeric Hymn 1 to Dionysus'' places it "far from Phoenicia, near to the Nile, Egyptian stream". Others placed it in Anatolia, or in Ancient Libya, Libya ("away in the west beside a great ocean"), in Ethiopia (Herodotus), or Arabia (Diodorus Siculus).
According to Herodotus:
The '' Bibliotheca'' seems to be following Pherecydes, who relates how the infant Dionysus, god of the grapevine, was nursed by the rain-nymphs, the Hyades (mythology), Hyades at Nysa. Young Dionysus was also said to have been one of the many famous pupils of the centaur Chiron. According to Ptolemy Chennus in the Library of Photius, "Dionysus was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations."
Travels and invention of wine
When Dionysus grew up, he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice, being the first to do so; but Hera struck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the earth. In Phrygia the goddess Cybele, better known to the Greeks as Rhea, cured him and taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a progress through Asia teaching the people the cultivation of the vine. The most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India, which is said to have lasted several years. According to a legend, when Alexander the Great reached a city called Nysa near the Indus river, the locals said that their city was founded by Dionysus in the distant past and their city was dedicated to the god Dionysus. These travels took something of the form of military conquests; according to Diodorus Siculus he conquered the whole world except for Britain and Ethiopia.
Another myth according to Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
involves Ampelos, Ampelus, a satyr
In Greek mythology, a satyr ( grc-gre, σάτυρος, sátyros, ), also known as a silenus or ''silenos'' ( grc-gre, σειληνός ), is a male nature spirit with ears and a tail resembling those of a horse, as well as a permanent, exa ...
, who was loved by Dionysus. As related by Ovid, Ampelus became the constellation ''Vindemitor'', or the "grape-gatherer": ...not so will the Grape-gatherer escape thee. The origin of that constellation also can be briefly told. 'Tis said that the unshorn Ampelus, son of a nymph and a satyr, was loved by Bacchus on the Ismarian hills. Upon him the god bestowed a vine that trailed from an elm's leafy boughs, and still the vine takes from the boy its name. While he rashly culled the gaudy grapes upon a branch, he tumbled down; Liber bore the lost youth to the stars."
Another story of Ampelus was related by Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
: in an accident foreseen by Dionysus, the youth was killed while riding a bull maddened by the sting of a gadfly sent by Selene, the goddess of the Moon. The Moirai, Fates granted Ampelus a second life as a vine, from which Dionysus squeezed the first wine.
Return to Greece
Returning in triumph to Greece after his travels in Asia, Dionysus came to be considered the founder of the triumphal procession. He undertook efforts to introduce his religion into Greece, but was opposed by rulers who feared it, on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it.
In one myth, adapted in Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
' play ''The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
'', Dionysus returns to his birthplace, Thebes (Greece), Thebes, which is ruled by his cousin Pentheus. Pentheus, as well as his mother Agave (Theban princess), Agave and his aunts Ino (Greek mythology), Ino and Autonoe, disbelieve Dionysus' divine birth. Despite the warnings of the blind prophet Tiresias, they deny his worship and denounce him for inspiring the women of Thebes to madness.
Dionysus uses his divine powers to drive Pentheus insane, then invites him to spy on the ecstatic rituals of the Maenads, in the woods of Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus, hoping to witness a sexual orgy, hides himself in a tree. The Maenads spot him; maddened by Dionysus, they take him to be a mountain-dwelling lion, and attack him with their bare hands. Pentheus' aunts and his mother Agave are among them, and they rip him limb from limb. Agave mounts his head on a pike, and takes the trophy to her father Cadmus.
Euripides' description of this sparagmos was as follows:
“But she was foaming at the mouth, her eyes rolled all around; her mind was mindless now. Held by the god, she paid the man no heed. She grabbed his left arm just below the elbow: wedging her foot against the victim’s ribs she ripped his shoulder off – not by mere force; the god made easy everything they touch. On his right arm worked Ino, ripping flesh; Autonoë and the mob of maenads griped him, screaming as one. While he had breath, he cried, but they were whooping victory calls. One took an arm, a foot another, boot and all. They stripped his torso bare, staining their nails with blood, then tossed balls of flesh around. Pentheus’ body lies in fragments now: on the hard rocks, and mingled with the leaves buried in the woodland, hard to find. His mother stumbled across his head: poor head! She grabbed it, and fixed it on her thrysus, like a lions’s, to wave in joyful triumph at her hunt.”
The madness passes. Dionysus arrives in his true, divine form, banishes Agave and her sisters, and transforms Cadmus and his wife Harmonia (mythology), Harmonia into serpents. Only Tiresias is spared.
In the Iliad, when King Lycurgus of Thrace heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned Dionysus' followers, the Maenads. Dionysus fled and took refuge with Thetis, and sent a drought which stirred the people to revolt. The god then drove King Lycurgus insane and had him slice his own son into pieces with an axe in the belief that he was a patch of ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus. An oracle then claimed that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus lived, and his people had him drawn and quartered. Appeased by the king's death, Dionysus lifted the curse. In an alternative version, sometimes depicted in art, Lycurgus tries to kill Ambrosia, a follower of Dionysus, who was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and slowly strangled him.
Captivity and escape
The Homeric hymns, ''Homeric Hymn 7 to Dionysus'' recounts how, while he sat on the seashore, some sailors spotted him, believing him a prince. They attempted to kidnap him and sail away to sell him for ransom or into slavery. No rope would bind him. The god turned into a fierce lion and unleashed a bear on board, killing all in his path. Those who jumped ship were mercifully turned into dolphins. The only survivor was the helmsman, Acoetes, who recognized the god and tried to stop his sailors from the start.
In a similar story, Dionysus hired a Tyrrhenians, Tyrrhenian pirate ship to sail from Icaria to Naxos (island), Naxos. When he was aboard, they sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending to sell him as a slave. This time the god turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes so that the sailors went mad and, leaping into the sea, were turned into dolphins. In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses,'' Bacchus begins this story as a young child found by the pirates, but transforms to a divine adult when on board.
Many of the myths involve Dionysus defending his godhead against skeptics. Malcolm Bull notes that "It is a measure of Bacchus's ambiguous position in classical mythology that he, unlike the other Olympians, had to use a boat to travel to and from the islands with which he is associated". Paola Corrente notes that in many sources, the incident with the pirates happens towards the end of Dionysus' time among mortals. In that sense, it serves as final proof of his divinity, and is often followed by his descent into Hades to retrieve his mother, both of whom can then ascend into heaven to live alongside the other Olympian gods.
Descent to the underworld
Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias, in book II of his ''Description of Greece'', describes two variant traditions regarding Dionysus' katabasis, or descent into the underworld. Both describe how Dionysus entered into the afterlife to rescue his mother Semele, and bring her to her rightful place on Olympus. To do so, he had to contend with the hell dog Cerberus, which was restrained for him by Heracles. After retrieving Semele, Dionysus emerged with her from the unfathomable waters of a lagoon on the coast of the Argolid near the prehistoric site of Lerna
In classical Greece, Lerna ( el, Λέρνη) was a region of springs and a former lake near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Ancient Argos, Argos. Even though much of the area is marshy, Lerna is located on a geographically narrow poi ...
, according to the local tradition.[Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' book 2] This mythic event was commemorated with a yearly nighttime festival, the details of which were held secret by the local religion. According to Paola Corrente, the emergence of Dionysus from the waters of the lagoon may signify a form of rebirth for both him and Semele as they reemerged from the underworld.[Corrente, Paola and Sidney Castillo. 2019. "Philology and the Comparative Study of Myths", The Religious Studies Project (Podcast Transcript). 3 June 2019. Transcribed by Helen Bradstock. Version 1.1, 28 May 2019. Available at: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/podcast/philology-and-the-comparative-study-of-myths/] A variant of this myth forms the basis of Aristophanes' comedy ''The Frogs''.
According to the Christian writer Clement of Alexandria, Dionysus was guided in his journey by Prosymnus or Polymnus, who requested, as his reward, to be Dionysus' lover. Prosymnus died before Dionysus could honor his pledge, so to satisfy Prosymnus' shade, Dionysus fashioned a phallus from an olive branch and sat on it at Prosymnus' tomb. This story survives in full only in Christian sources, whose aim was to discredit pagan mythology, but it appears to have also served to explain the origin of secret objects used by the Dionysian Mysteries.
This same myth of Dionysus' descent to the underworld is related by both Diodorus Siculus in his first century BC work ''Bibliotheca historica'', and Pseudo- Apollodorus in the third book of his first century AD work '' Bibliotheca''. In the latter, Apollodorus tells how after having been hidden away from Hera's wrath, Dionysus traveled the world opposing those who denied his godhood, finally proving it when he transformed his pirate captors into dolphins. After this, the culmination of his life on earth was his descent to retrieve his mother from the underworld. He renamed his mother Semele, Thyone, and ascended with her to heaven, where she became a goddess. In this variant of the myth, it is implied that Dionysus both must prove his godhood to mortals, then also legitimize his place on Olympus by proving his lineage and elevating his mother to divine status, before taking his place among the Olympic gods.[
]
Secondary myths
Midas' golden touch
Dionysus discovered that his old school master and foster father, Silenus, had gone missing. The old man had wandered away drunk, and was found by some peasants who carried him to their king Midas (alternatively, he passed out in Midas' rose garden). The king recognized him hospitably, feasting him for ten days and nights while Silenus entertained with stories and songs. On the eleventh day, Midas brought Silenus back to Dionysus. Dionysus offered the king his choice of reward.
Midas asked that whatever he might touch would turn to gold. Dionysus consented, though was sorry that he had not made a better choice. Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the test. He touched and turned to gold an oak twig and a stone, but his joy vanished when he found that his bread, meat, and wine also turned to gold. Later, when his daughter embraced him, she too turned to gold.
The horrified king strove to divest the Midas Touch, and he prayed to Dionysus to save him from starvation. The god consented, telling Midas to wash in the river Pactolus. As he did so, the power passed into them, and the river sands turned gold: this etiological myth explained the gold sands of the Pactolus.
Love affairs
When Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, Dionysus found and married her. She bore him a son named Oenopion, but she committed suicide or was killed by Perseus. In some variants, Dionysus had her crown put into the heavens as the constellation Corona; in others, he descended into Hades to restore her to the gods on Olympus. Another account claims Dionysus ordered Theseus to abandon Ariadne on the island of Naxos, for Dionysus had seen her as Theseus carried her onto the ship and had decided to marry her. Psalacantha, a nymph, promised helped Dionysus court Ariadne in exchange for his sexual favours; but Dionysus refused, so Psalacantha advised Ariadne against going with him. For this Dionysus turned her into the plant with the same name.
Dionysus fell in love with a nymph named Nicaea (mythology), Nicaea, in some versions by Eros' binding. Nicaea however was a sworn virgin and scorned his attempts to court her. So one day, while she was away, he replaced the water in the spring she used to drink from with wine. Intoxicated, Nicaea passed out, and Dionysus raped her in her sleep. When she woke up and realized what had happened, she sought him out in order to harm him, but she never found him. She bore him Telete, Satyrus, and other sons. Dionysus named the ancient city of Nicaea after her.
In Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
's '' Dionysiaca'', Eros made Dionysus fall in love with Aura (mythology), Aura, a virgin companion of Artemis, as part of a ploy to punish Aura for having insulted Artemis. Dionysus used the same trick as with Nicaea to get her fall asleep, tied her up, and then raped her. Aura tried to kill herself, with little success. When she gave birth to twins sons by Dionysus, Iacchus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Iacchus (also Iacchos, Iakchos) ( el, Ἴακχος) was a minor deity, of some cultic importance, particularly at Athens and Eleusis in connection with the Eleusinian mysteries, but without any significant ...
and another boy, she ate one twin before drowning herself in the Sakarya River, Sangarius river.
Also in the ''Dionysiaca'', Nonnus relates how Dionysus fell in love with a handsome satyr named Ampelos, who was killed by Selene due to him challenging her. On his death, Dionysus changed him into the first grape-vine.
Other myths
A third descent by Dionysus to Hades is invented by Aristophanes in his comedy ''The Frogs''. Dionysus, as patron of the Athenian dramatic festival, the ''Dionysia'', wants to bring back to life one of the great tragedians. After a poetry slam, Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
is chosen in preference to Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
.
When Hephaestus bound Hera to a magical chair, Dionysus got him drunk and brought him back to Olympus after he passed out.
Callirrhoe was a Calydonian woman who scorned Coresus, a priest of Dionysus, who threatened to afflict all the women of Calydon with insanity (see Maenad). The priest was ordered to sacrifice Callirhoe but he killed himself instead. Callirhoe threw herself into a well which was later named after her.
Dionysus also sent a fox that was fated never to be caught on Thebes. Creon (king of Thebes), Creon, king of Thebes, sent Amphitryon to catch and kill the fox. Amphitryon obtained from Cephalus the dog that his wife Procris had received from Minos, which was fated to catch whatever it pursued.
Another account about Dionysus's parentage indicates that he is the son of Zeus and Gê (Gaia), also named ''Themelê'' (foundation), corrupted into ''Semele''.
Hyginus relates that Dionysus once gave human speech to a donkey. The donkey then proceeded to challenge Priapus in a contest about which between them had the better penis; the donkey lost. Priapus killed the donkey, but Dionysus placed him among the stars, above the Cancer (constellation), Crab.
Children
Iconography and depictions
Symbols
The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a Ferula, fennel staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a ''thyrsus
A thyrsus /ˈθɜːrsəs/ or thyrsos /ˈθɜːrˌsɒs/ (Ancient Greek: θύρσος) was a wand or staff of giant fennel ('' Ferula communis'') covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and topped with a pine cone, arti ...
''. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature describes him as womanly or "man-womanish". In its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession ''(thiasus)'' is made up of wild female followers (maenads) and bearded satyrs with ithyphallic, erect penises; some are armed with the ''thyrsus'', some dance or play music. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a bearded, drunken Silenus. This procession is presumed to be the cult model for the followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. Dionysus is represented by city religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society and he thus symbolizes the chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.
Dionysus was a god of resurrection and he was strongly linked to the Bull (mythology), bull. In a cult hymn from Olympia, Greece, Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is invited to come as a bull; "with bull-foot raging". Walter Burkert relates, "Quite frequently [Dionysus] is portrayed with bull horns, and in Kyzikos he has a tauromorphic image", and refers also to an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by the Titan (mythology), Titans.
The snake and phallus were symbols of Dionysus in ancient Greece, and of Bacchus in Greece and Rome. He typically wears a panther or leopard skin and carries a thyrsus. His iconography sometimes includes maenad
In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids, ...
s, who wear wreaths of ivy and serpents around their hair or neck.
The cult of Dionysus was closely associated with trees, specifically the fig tree, and some of his Epithet, bynames exhibit this, such as "he in the tree" or , "he of the tree". Peters suggests the original meaning as "he who runs among the trees", or that of a "runner in the woods". Janda (2010) accepts the etymology but proposes the more cosmological interpretation of "he who impels the (world-)tree". This interpretation explains how ''Nysa'' could have been re-interpreted from a meaning of "tree" to the name of a mountain: the axis mundi of Indo-European mythology is represented both as a world-tree and as a world-mountain.
Dionysus is also closely associated with the transition between summer and autumn. In the Mediterranean summer, marked by the rising of the dog star Sirius, the weather becomes extremely hot, but it is also a time when the promise of coming harvests grow. Late summer, when Orion (constellation), Orion is at the center of the sky, was the time of the grape harvest in ancient Greece. Plato describes the gifts of this season as the fruit that is harvested as well as Dionysian joy. Pindar describes the "pure light of high summer" as closely associated with Dionysus and possibly even an embodiment of the god himself. An image of Dionysus' birth from Zeus' thigh call him "the light of Zeus" (''Dios phos'') and associate him with the light of Sirius.[
]
Classical art
The god, and still more often his followers, were commonly depicted in the painted pottery of Ancient Greece, much of which made to hold wine. But, apart from some reliefs of maenad
In Greek mythology, maenads (; grc, μαινάδες ) were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Maenads were known as Bassarids, ...
s, Dionysian subjects rarely appeared in large sculpture before the Hellenistic period, when they became common. In these, the treatment of the god himself ranged from severe archaising or Neo Attic types such as the Dionysus Sardanapalus to types showing him as an indolent and androgynous young man, often nude. ''Hermes and the Infant Dionysus'' is probably a Greek original in marble, and the Ludovisi Dionysus group is probably a Roman original of the second century AD. Well-known Hellenistic sculptures of Dionysian subjects, surviving in Roman copies, include the Barberini Faun, the Belvedere Torso, the ''Resting Satyr''. The Furietti Centaurs and ''Sleeping Hermaphroditus'' reflect related subjects, which had by this time become drawn into the Dionysian orbit. The marble Dancer of Pergamon is an original, as is the bronze Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo, a recent recovery from the sea.
The Dionysian world by the Hellenistic period is a hedonistic but safe pastoral into which other semi-divine creatures of the countryside have been co-opted, such as centaurs, nymphs, and the gods Pan (god), Pan and Hermaphroditus, Hermaphrodite. "Nymph" by this stage "means simply an ideal female of the Dionysian outdoors, a non-wild bacchant". Hellenistic sculpture also includes for the first time large genre subjects of children and peasants, many of whom carry Dionysian attributes such as ivy wreaths, and "most should be seen as part of his realm. They have in common with satyrs and nymphs that they are creatures of the outdoors and are without true personal identity." The fourth-century BC Derveni Krater, the unique survival of a very large scale Classical or Hellenistic metal vessel of top quality, depicts Dionysus and his followers.
Dionysus appealed to the Hellenistic monarchies for a number of reasons, apart from merely being a god of pleasure: He was a human who became divine, he came from, and had conquered, the East, exemplified a lifestyle of display and magnificence with his mortal followers, and was often regarded as an ancestor. He continued to appeal to the rich of Imperial Rome, who populated their gardens with Dionysian sculpture, and by the second century AD were often buried in sarcophagi carved with crowded scenes of Bacchus and his entourage.
The fourth-century AD Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
is a spectacular cage cup which changes colour when light comes through the glass; it shows the bound King Lycurgus (Thrace), Lycurgus being taunted by the god and attacked by a satyr; this may have been used for celebration of Dionysian mysteries. Elizabeth Kessler has theorized that a mosaic appearing on the triclinium floor of the House of Aion in Nea Paphos, Cyprus, details a monotheistic worship of Dionysus. In the mosaic, other gods appear but may only be lesser representations of the centrally imposed Dionysus. The mid-Byzantine Veroli Casket shows the tradition lingering in Constantinople around 1000 AD, but probably not very well understood.
Early modern art
Bacchic subjects in art resumed in the Italian Renaissance, and soon became almost as popular as in antiquity, but his "strong association with feminine spirituality and power almost disappeared", as did "the idea that the destructive and creative powers of the god were indissolubly linked". In Bacchus (Michelangelo), Michelangelo's statue (1496–97) "madness has become merriment". The statue tries to suggest both drunken incapacity and an elevated consciousness, but this was perhaps lost on later viewers, and typically the two aspects were thereafter split, with a clearly drunk Silenus representing the former, and a youthful Bacchus often shown with wings, because he carries the mind to higher places.
Titian's ''Bacchus and Ariadne'' (1522–23) and ''The Bacchanal of the Andrians'' (1523–26), both painted for the Camerini d'alabastro, same room, offer an influential heroic pastoral, while Diego Velázquez in ''The Triumph of Bacchus'' (or ''Los borrachos'' – "the drinkers", c. 1629) and Jusepe de Ribera in his ''Drunken Silenus (Ribera), Drunken Silenus'' choose a genre realism. Flemish Baroque painting frequently painted the Bacchic followers, as in Van Dyck's Drunken Silenus (van Dyck), ''Drunken Silenus'' and many works by Rubens; Poussin was another regular painter of Bacchic scenes.
A common theme in art beginning in the sixteenth century was the depiction of Bacchus and Ceres caring for a representation of love – often Venus, Cupid, or Amore. This tradition derived from a quotation by the Roman comedian Terence (c. 195/185 – c. 159 BC) which became a popular proverb in the Early Modern period: ''Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus'' ("without Ceres (mythology), Ceres and Bacchus, Venus (mythology), Venus freezes"). Its simplest level of meaning is that love needs food and wine to thrive. Artwork based on this saying was popular during the period 1550–1630, especially in Northern Mannerism in Prague and the Low Countries, as well as by Rubens. Because of his association with the vine harvest, Bacchus became the god of autumn, and he and his followers were often shown in sets depicting the seasons.
Modern literature and philosophy
Dionysus has remained an inspiration to artists, philosophers and writers into the modern era. In ''The Birth of Tragedy'' (1872), the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche proposed that a tension between Apollonian and Dionysian aesthetic principles underlay the development of Greek tragedy; Dionysus represented what was unrestrained chaotic and irrational, while Apollo represented the rational and ordered. This concept of a rivalry or opposition between Dionysus and Apollo has been characterized as a "modern myth", as it is the invention of modern thinkers like Nietzsche and Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and is not found in classical sources. However, the acceptance and popularity of this theme in Western culture has been so great, that its undercurrent has influenced the conclusions of classical scholarship.
Nietzsche also claimed that the oldest forms of Greek Tragedy were entirely based upon the suffering Dionysus. In Nietzsche's 1886 work ''Beyond Good and Evil'', and later ''The Twilight of the Idols'', ''The Antichrist (book), The Antichrist'' and ''Ecce Homo'', Dionysus is conceived as the embodiment of the unrestrained will to power. In ''The Hellenic Religion of the Suffering God'' (1904), and ''Dionysus and Early Dionysianism'' (1921), the poet Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet), Vyacheslav Ivanov elaborates the theory of Dionysianism, tracing the origins of literature, and tragedy in particular, to ancient Dionysian mysteries. Ivanov said that Dionysus' suffering "was the distinctive feature of the cult" just as Christ's suffering is significant for Christianity. Karl Kerényi characterizes Dionysus as representative of the psychological life force (Greek ''Zoê''). Other psychological interpretations place Dionysus' emotionality in the foreground, focusing on the joy, Fear, terror or hysteria associated with the god. Sigmund Freud specified that his ashes should be kept in an Ancient Greek vase painted with Dionysian scenes from his collection, which remains on display at Golders Green Crematorium in London.
Modern film and performance art
Walt Disney depicted Bacchus in the "Pastoral" segment of the animated film ''Fantasia (1940 film), Fantasia'', as a Silenus#Evolution of the character, Silenus-like character. In 1969, an adaption of ''The Bacchae'' was performed, called ''Dionysus in '69 (theatrical production), Dionysus in '69''. A Dionysus in '69, film was made of the same performance. The production was notable for involving audience participation, nudity, and theatrical innovations. In 1974, Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove adapted Aristophanes' comedy ''The Frogs'' into a The Frogs (musical), modern musical, which hit broadway in 2004 and was revived in London in 2017. The musical keeps the descent of Dionysus into Hades to bring back a playwright; however, the playwrights are updated to modern times, and Dionysus is forced to choose between George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare.
In 2006, The Orion Experience, in the album ''Cosmicandy'', included a song titled "Cult of Dionysus". The song invokes themes from the god's cult. The entire album is described as "short, sharp, and ultimately memorable, glowing with a long-forgotten disco-synth energy." The song overall plays upon the god's themes of being devious and rebelling against social norms.
In 2014, Dionysus is featured in Smite (video game), Smite as a playable god under his Roman Bacchus name.
In 2018, Dionysus was featured in Hades (video game), Hades, an Indie game, indie Roguelike, rougelike action Dungeon crawl, dungeon crawler Video game, video game developed and published by Supergiant Games. He is one of the cousins of the protagonist and playable character, Zagreus, who is trying to escape the underworld and find his mother whilst his father, Hades, tries to stop him. Dionysus offers boons and assist the Son of Hades in his attempts to escape from the underworld. All of his boons and powers are based of his key traits from his Mythos, focusing on alcohol related abilities and negative effects on enemies to assist the protagonist. His characterisation in the game nods back to a lot of his stories and traits from the history of the character. His interactions with other Gods also highlight his character as mischievous, a lover of festivities and of course, wine. There is also the reference of the protagonist having the name Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus ( grc-gre, Ζαγρεύς) was sometimes identified with a god worshipped by the followers of Orphism, the "first Dionysus", a son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans and reb ...
, considered to be the first birth of Dionysus. He is voiced by Cyrus Nemati.
In 2018, the Australian musical project Dead Can Dance released an album entitled ''Dionysus (album), Dionysus''. Musician Brendan Perry described the inspiration for the album as a trance-like, "Dionysian" experience he had at a festival during a trip to rural Spain. "It's the spring festivals like that one where you see the real remnants of Dionysian festivals. They're all over the Mediterranean in remote places where Christian influence hasn't been as great. ... People wear masks and dance in circles almost like time has stood still in their celebrations." Perry chose to employ Mediterranean folk instruments that mimic natural sounds in addition to a vocal chorus, in order to evoke the atmosphere of an ancient festival.
In 2019, the South Korean boy band BTS released a rap-rock-synth-pop-hip hop music, hip hop track. named "Dionysus (song), Dionysus" as part of their album ''Map of the Soul: Persona''. The naming of this song comes from the association of the namesake with debauchery and excess, this is reflected in its lyrics talking about "getting drunk on art" - Pun, playing on the Korean words for "alcohol" (술 ''sul'') and "art" (예술 ''yesul'') as an example - alongside expressions about their stardom, legacy, and artistic integrity. The band's leader RM (rapper), RM in a press release described the song as, "the joy and pain of creating something" and "an honest track".
Parallels with Christianity
Numerous scholars have compared narratives surrounding the Christian figure of Jesus with those associated with Dionysus.
Death and resurrection
Some scholars of comparative mythology
Comparative mythology is the comparison of myths from different cultures in an attempt to identify shared themes and characteristics.Littleton, p. 32 Comparative mythology has served a variety of academic purposes. For example, scholars have used ...
identify both Dionysus and Jesus with the dying-and-rising god
A dying-and-rising, death-rebirth, or resurrection deity is a religious motif in which a god or goddess dies and is resurrected.Leeming, "Dying god" (2004)Miles 2009, 193 Examples of gods who die and later return to life are most often cited f ...
mythological archetype. On the other hand, it has been noted that the details of Dionysus' death and rebirth are starkly different both in content and symbolism from Jesus. The two stories take place in very different historical and geographic contexts. Also, the manner of death is different; in the most common myth, Dionysus was torn to pieces and eaten by the titan (mythology), Titans, but "eventually restored to a new life" from the heart that was left over.[Evans, Arthur. The God of Ecstasy. New York: St. Martins' Press, 1989]
Trial
Another parallel can be seen in ''The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
'' where Dionysus appears before King Pentheus on charges of claiming divinity, which is compared to the New Testament scene of Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate.[Powell, Barry B., ''Classical Myth''. Second ed. With new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998.] However, a number of scholars dispute this parallel, since the confrontation between Dionysus and Pentheus ends with Pentheus dying, torn into pieces by the mad women, whereas the trial of Jesus ends with him being sentenced to death. The discrepancies between the two stories, including their resolutions, have led many scholars to regard the Dionysus story as radically different from the one about Jesus, except for the parallel of the arrest, which is a detail that appears in many biographies as well.
Other parallels
E. Kessler has argued that the Dionysian cult developed into strict monotheism by the fourth century AD; together with Mithraism and other sects, the cult formed an instance of "pagan monotheism" in direct competition with Early Christianity during Late Antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
. Scholars from the sixteenth century onwards, especially Gerard Vossius, also discussed the parallels between the biographies of Dionysus/Bacchus and Moses (Vossius named his sons Dionysius Vossius, Dionysius and Isaac Vossius, Isaac). Such comparisons surface in details of paintings by Poussin.
John Moles has argued that the Dionysian cult influenced early Christianity, and especially the way that Christians understood themselves as a "new" religion centered around a savior deity. In particular, he argues that the account of Christian origins in the Acts of the Apostles was heavily influenced by Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
' ''The Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
''. Moles also suggests that Paul the Apostle may have partially based his account of the Eucharist, Lord's Supper on the ritual meals performed by members of the Dionysian cult.
Gallery
File:Dionysus Sarcophagus.jpg, Roman marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos and the Seasons (circa 260–270 AD)
File:Roman - Sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysus - Walters 2331 (2).jpg, Triumph of Dionysus
File:Exekias Dionysos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2044 n2.jpg, The Dionysus Cup, a sixth-century BC kylix with Dionysus sailing with the pirates he transformed to dolphins
File:Dionysus holding an egg and a cock, terracotta from Tanagra, Greece, c. 350 BC.jpg, Dionysus holding an egg and a cock, terracotta from Tanagra, Greece, c. 350 BC
File:Dionysos on a cheetah, Pella, Greece.jpg, Dionysos riding a leopard, Kingdom of Macedonia, Macedonian mosaic from Pella, Greece (fourth century BC)
File:Dionysos Sardanapalus.jpg, Statue of Dionysus Sardanapalus, Dionysus (Sardanapalus) (National Roman Museum, Museo Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme, Rome)
File:Bronze Head of Dionysos.JPG, Bronze head of Dionysus (50 BC – 50 AD) in the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
File:Remich Statue of Dionysus.JPG, Statue of Dionysus in Remich Luxembourg
File:Fane Table.jpg, A Bacchus themed table - the top was made in Florence (c. 1736) and the gilded wood base in Britain or Ireland (circa 1736–1740).
File:Testa di statua frontale dionisiaca, 310-290 ac ca, dal c.d. auguratorium del palatino.jpg, Head of a Dionysian statue, 310-290 BC, Palatine Museum
File:Bacchus (Giovanni Francesco Romanelli) - Nationalmuseum - 17103.tif, ''Bacchus'' – Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (seventeenth century)
File:Dionüszosz amfóra.jpg, Dionysian amphora
File:Dionüszosz kancsó.jpg, Dionysian jug
File:3326 - Athens - Stoà of Attalus Museum - Head of Dyonisos - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 9 2009.jpg, Terracotta vase in the shape of Dionysus' head (circa 410 BC) – on display in the Ancient Agora Museum in Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, housed in the Stoa of Attalus
File:Amphora with cult mask of Dionysus, by the Antimenes Painter, arounbd 520 BC, Altes Museum Berlin (13718436013).jpg, Amphora with cult mask of Dionysus, by the Antimenes Painter, around 520 BC, Altes Museum
File:Marble head of Dionysus, from the Gymnasium of Salamis, 2nd century AD, Cyprus Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus (22309811890).jpg, Marble head of Dionysus, from the Gymnasium of Salamis, second century AD, Cyprus Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus
File:Dionysos - Landesmuseum Württemberg.jpg, Cult mask of Dionysus from Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its ...
, fourth century BC
File:Marble_statuette_of_Dionysos_MET_DP367957.jpg, Marble statuette of Dionysos, early third century B.C, Metropolitan Museum
Genealogy
See also
* Alpos and Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
* Anthesteria, Ascolia
Ascolia, in Ancient Greece, was a yearly feast that the peasants of Attica celebrated in honor of Dionysus. The rites included sacrificing a goat, chosen because goats were prone to eating and destroying grapevines, and using its skin to make a foo ...
, Dionysia
The Dionysia (, , ; Greek: Διονύσια) was a large festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies and, from 487 BC, comedies. It was the s ...
and Lenaia
The Lenaia ( grc, Λήναια) was an annual Athenian festival with a dramatic competition. It was one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in Athens in Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January. T ...
* Dionysian Mysteries and Cult of Dionysus
* Pan (god), Ampelos, Cybele and Silenus
* Theatre of Dionysus
Notes
References
* Aristides, ''Aristides ex recensione Guilielmi Dindorfii, Volume 3'', Wilhelm Dindorf, Weidmann, G. Reimer, 1829
Hathi Trust Digital Library
* Aristophanes, The Frogs, ''Frogs'', Matthew Dillon, Ed., Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, 1995
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
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Internet Archive
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* Arrian, ''Anabasis of Alexander, Volume II: Books 5–7'', translated by P. A. Brunt. Loeb Classical Library No. 269. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
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Online version at Harvard University Press
*
* Bowie, A. M., ''Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy'', Cambridge University Press, 1993. .
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* Walter Burkert, Burkert, Walter, ''Greek Religion'', Harvard University Press
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* Clement of Alexandria, ''The Exhortation to the Greeks. The Rich Man's Salvation. To the Newly Baptized''. Translated by G. W. Butterworth. Loeb Classical Library No. 92. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
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Online version at Harvard University Press
Internet Archive 1960 edition
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Online version at Harvard University Press
*
* Diodorus Siculus, ''Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History''. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Twelve volumes. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989
Online version by Bill Thayer
* Edmonds, Radcliffe (1999), "Tearing Apart the Zagreus Myth: A Few Disparaging Remarks On Orphism and Original Sin", ''Classical Antiquity'' 18 (1999): 35–73
PDF
* Encinas Reguero, M. Carmen, "The Names of Dionysos in Euripides’ ''Bacchae'' and the Rhetorical Language of Teiresias", in ''Redefining Dionysos'', Editors: Alberto Bernabé, Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui, Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal, Raquel Martín Hernández. Walter de Gruyter, 2013. .
* Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
, ''Bacchae
''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. ...
'', translated by T. A. Buckley in ''The Tragedies of Euripides'', London. Henry G. Bohn. 1850
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
, ''Cyclops (play), Cyclops'', in ''Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs'', Cambridge. Harvard University Press. forthcoming
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
, ''Ion (play), Ion'', translated by Robert Potter in ''The Complete Greek Drama'', edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 1. New York. Random House. 1938
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...
, ''The Trojan Women'', in ''The Plays of Euripides'', translated by E. P. Coleridge. Volume I. London. George Bell and Sons. 1891
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Fantuzzi, Marco, "Sung Poetry: The Case of Inscribed Paeans" in ''A Companion to Hellenistic Literature'', editors: James J. Clauss, Martine Cuypers, John Wiley & Sons, 2010. .
* Lewis Richard Farnell, Farnell, Lewis Richard, ''The Cults of the Greek States'' vol 5, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 190
Internet Archive
cf. Chapter IV, "Cults of Dionysos"; Chapter V, "Dionysiac Ritual"; Chapter VI, "Cult-Monuments of Dionysos"; Chapter VII, "Ideal Dionysiac Types".
* Fowler, R. L. (2013), ''Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary'', Oxford University Press, 2013. .
* Lightfoot, J. L. ''Hellenistic Collection: Philitas. Alexander of Aetolia. Hermesianax. Euphorion. Parthenius.'' Edited and translated by J. L. Lightfoot. Loeb Classical Library No. 508. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010.
Online version at Harvard University Press
* Fox, William Sherwood, ''The Mythology of All Races'', v. 1, ''Greek and Roman'', 1916, General editor, Louis Herbert Gray.
* Timothy Gantz, Gantz, Timothy, ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
* Graf, F. (1974), ''Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens in vorhellenistischer Zeit'', Walter de Gruyter, 1974. .
* Graf, F. (2005), "Iacchus" in ''Brill's New Pauly, Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 6'', Lieden-Boston 2005.
* Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, .
* W. K. C. Guthrie, Guthrie, W. K. C., ''Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement'', Princeton University Press, 1935. .
* Hard, Robin, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology"'', Psychology Press, 2004, .
* Harder, Annette, ''Callimachus: Aetia: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary'', Oxford University Press, 2012. . (two volume set)
Google Books
* Jane Ellen Harrison, Harrison, Jane Ellen, ''Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'', second edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908
Internet Archive
* Herodotus; The Histories of Herodotus, ''Histories'', A. D. Godley (translator), Cambridge: Harvard University Press
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Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Hesiod, ''Theogony'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Homer, ''The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PhD in two volumes''. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Homer; ''The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes''. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Gaius Julius Hyginus, Hyginus, Gaius Julius, ''Fabulae'' in ''Apollodorus' ''Library'' and Hyginus' ''Fabulae'': Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma'', Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. .
* Janda, Michael, ''Die Musik nach dem Chaos'', Innsbruck 2010.
* Jameson, Michael. "The Asexuality of Dionysus." ''Masks of Dionysus''. Ed. Thomas H. Carpenter and Christopher A. Faraone. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993. . 44–64.
* Jiménez San Cristóbal, Anna Isabel, 2012, "Iacchus in Plutarch" in ''Plutarch in the Religious and Philosophical Discourse of Late Antiquity'', edited by Fernando Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta and Israel Mu Oz Gallarte, Brill, .
* Jiménez San Cristóbal, Anna Isabel 2013, "The Sophoclean Dionysos" in ''Redefining Dionysus'', Editors: Alberto Bernabé, Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui, Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal, Raquel Martín Hernández, Walter de Gruyter. .
* Károly Kerényi, Kerényi, Karl 1967, ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter'', Princeton University Press, 1991. .
* Károly Kerényi, Kerényi, Karl 1976, ''Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life'', Princeton University Press, 1996. .
* Ivan Mortimer Linforth, Linforth, Ivan M., ''The Arts of Orpheus'', Berkeley, University of California Press, 1941
Online version at HathiTrust
* Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, ''Sophocles: Fragments'', Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Loeb Classical Library No. 483. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
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Online version at Harvard University Press
* Otto Kern, Kern, Otto. ''Orphicorum Fragmenta'', Berlin, 1922
Internet Archive
* Lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...
, ''De rerum natura, De Rerum Natura'', William Ellery Leonard. E. P. Dutton. 1916
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Marcovich, Miroslav, ''Studies in Graeco-Roman Religions and Gnosticism'', Brill, 1988. .
* March, Jenny, ''Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Casell & Co, 2001.
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*
* Johann August Nauck, Nauck, Johann August, ''Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta'', Leipzig, Teubner, 1989
Internet Archive
* Nilsson, Martin, P., "Early Orphism and Kindred Religions Movements", ''The Harvard Theological Review'', Vol. 28, No. 3 (Jul., 1935), pp. 181–230.
* Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
, '' Dionysiaca''; translated by W. H. D. Rouse, Rouse, W H D, I Books I–XV. Loeb Classical Library No. 344, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940
Internet Archive
* Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis ( grc-gre, Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, ''Nónnos ho Panopolítēs'', 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Theb ...
, '' Dionysiaca''; translated by W. H. D. Rouse, Rouse, W H D, III Books XXXVI–XLVIII. Loeb Classical Library No. 346, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940
Internet Archive
* Ogden, Daniel, ''Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds'', Oxford University Press, 2013. .
* Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Parker, Robert (2002), "Early Orphism" in ''The Greek World'', edited by Anton Powell, Routledge, 2002. .
* Parker, Robert (2005) ''Polytheism and Society at Athens'', OUP Oxford, 2005. .
* Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias, ''Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
Sara Peterson, ''An account of the Dionysiac presence in Indian art and culture''
Academia.edu, 2016
* Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur, ''The Theatre of Dionysus at Athens'', 1946.
* Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
, ''Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris. The E at Delphi. The Oracles at Delphi No Longer Given in Verse. The Obsolescence of Oracles''. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Loeb Classical Library No. 306. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1936.
Online version at Harvard University Press
* Powell, Barry B., ''Classical Myth,'' 5th edition, 2007.
* Pseudo-Plutarch, ''De fluviis'', in ''Plutarch's morals, Volume V'', edited and translated by William Watson Goodwin, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1874
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Ridgeway, William, ''Origin of Tragedy'', 1910. Kessinger Publishing (June 2003). .
* Ridgeway, William, ''The Dramas and Dramatic Dances of non-European Races in special reference to the origin of Greek Tragedy, with an appendix on the origin of Greek Comedy'', 1915.
*Riu, Xavier,
', Rowman and Littlefield Publishers (1999). .
* Herbert Jennings Rose, Rose, Herbert Jennings, "Iacchus" in ''The Oxford Classical Dictionary'', second edition, N. G. L. Hammond, Hammond, N.G.L. and Howard Hayes Scullard (editors), Oxford University Press, 1992. .
* Rutherford, Ian, (2016) ''Greco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BC–AD 300'', Oxford University Press, 2016. .
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Internet Archive
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Online version at Harvard University Press
* Sophocles
Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...
, ''The Antigone of Sophocles, Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb'', Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1891
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library
* Strabo, Geographica, ''Geography'', translated by Horace Leonard Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press
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; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. (1924)
Books 6–14, at the Perseus Digital Library
* Sutton, Dana F., ''Ancient Comedy'', Twayne Publishers (August 1993). .
* Tripp, Edward, ''Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology'', Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). .
* Versnel, H. S., "ΙΑΚΧΟΣ. Some Remarks Suggested by an Unpublished Lekythos in the Villa Giulia", ''Talanta'
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PDF
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Further reading
* Livy
Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...
,
History of Rome, Book 39
13,'' Description of banned Bacchanalia in Rome and Italy
* Marcel Detienne, Detienne, Marcel, ''Dionysos at Large'', tr. by Arthur Goldhammer, Harvard University Press, 1989. . (Originally in French as ''Dionysos à ciel ouvert'', 1986)
Albert Henrichs, ''Between City and Country: Cultic Dimensions of Dionysus in Athens and Attica'', (April 1, 1990). Department of Classics, UCB. Cabinet of the Muses: Rosenmeyer Festschrift. Paper festschrift18.
Sara Peterson, ''An account of the Dionysiac presence in Indian art and culture''. Academia, 2016
*Frazer, James "The Golden Bough"
Kern, O. ''Dionysos (2)'' in ''Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft'', tr. into English
*Walter F. Otto "Dionysus: Myth and Cult"
*Redifining Dionysos, a large collaborative academic study on Dionysus and his worship in antiquity.
*Richard Seaford, Routledge "Dionysos"
*Henk Versnel "Heis Dionysus - One Dionysus? A polytheistic perspective" an examination of Greek religion and Dionysos himself.
External links
*
*
myths from original sources, cult, classical art
Ca 2000 images of Bacchus at the Warburg Institute's Iconographic Database
Iconographic Themes in Art: Bacchus , Dionysos
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