DIONYSUS

also called Bacchus, or (in Rome) Liber in Greco-Roman religion, a nature god of fruitfulness and vegetation, especially known as a god of wine and ecstasy. Though introduced from Thrace and Phrygia, the strange legends of his birth and death and his marriage to Ariadne, in origin a Cretan goddess, suggest that his cult represented a reversion to pre-Hellenic Minoan nature religion. According to the most popular tradition, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, a daughter of Cadmus (king of Thebes), but in origin a Phrygian earth goddess. Hera, the wife of Zeus, out of jealousy persuaded Semele to prove her lover's divinity by requesting him to appear in his real person. Zeus complied, but his power was too great for the mortal Semele, who was blasted with thunderbolts. Zeus, however, saved his son by sewing him up in his thigh, keeping him there until he reached maturity, so that he was twice born. Dionysus was then conveyed by the god Hermes to be brought up by the bacchantes (Maenads, or Thyiads) of Nysa, a purely imaginary spot. As Dionysus apparently represented the sap, juice, or lifeblood element in nature, lavish festal orgia (rites) in his honour were widely instituted. These Dionysia (Bacchanalia, q.v.) quickly won converts among the women in the post-Mycenaean world. The men, however, met it with hostility. According to tradition, Pentheus, king of Thebes, was torn to pieces by the bacchantes when he attempted to spy on their activities, while the Athenians were punished with impotence for dishonouring the god's cult. The women, nevertheless, abandoned their families and took to the hills, wearing fawn skins and crowns of ivy and shouting Euoi!, the ritual cry. Forming thyasi (holy bands) and waving thyrsoi (fennel wands bound with vine leaves and tipped with ivy), they danced by torchlight to the rhythm of the flute and the tympanon (kettledrum). While they were under the god's inspiration, the bacchantes were believed to possess occult powers, the ability to charm snakes and suckle animals, as well as preternatural strength that enabled them to tear living victims to pieces before indulging in a ritual feast (omophagia). The bacchantes hailed the god by his titles of Bromios (Thunderer), Taurokeros (Bull-Horned), or Tauroprosopos (Bull-Faced), in the belief that he incarnated the sacrificial beast. The worship of Dionysus flourished long in Asia Minor, particularly in Phrygia and Lydia, and his cult was closely associated with that of numerous Asiatic deities. Although Dionysus was believed to have descended to the underworld to bring back his mother Semele and was also associated with Persephone in southern Italy, any original connection between the god and the netherworld seems doubtful. Dionysus did, however, possess the gift of prophecy, and at Delphi he was received by the priesthood on almost equal terms with Apollo. He had an oracle in Thrace and was later patron of a healing shrine at Amphicleia in Phocis. The followers of Dionysus included spirits of fertility, such as the satyrs, and in his ritual the phallus was prominent. He often took on a bestial shape and was associated with various animals. His personal attributes were an ivy wreath, the thyrsus, and the kantharos, a large two-handled goblet. In early art he was represented as a bearded man, but later he was portrayed as youthful and effeminate. Bacchic revels were a favourite subject with vase painters, though the private lodges of Bacchus were rigorously suppressed throughout Italy by senatorial edict in 186 BC.