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"... Wait a moment while I
fetch you some mellow
wine, so that you may first make a
libation to
Zeus and the other immortals and then,
if you like, enjoy a drink yourself.
Wine is a great comfort to a weary man
..." [Hecabe 1 to
Hector 1. Homer,
Iliad
6.260]
"O Cyclops, son of the
sea-god, come see what kind of divine drink this is
that Greece provides from its vines, the gleaming
cup of Dionysus."
[Odysseus to
Polyphemus 2.
Euripides,
Cyclops
415]
Polyphemus 2:
Who is this Dionysus? Is he
worshipped as a god?
Odysseus: Yes, the best source of joy in life
for mortals.
[Euripides,
Cyclops
521]
"This is the effect of
your wine—for
wine is a crazy thing. It sets the
wisest man singing and giggling like a girl; it
lures him on to dance and it makes him blurt out
what were better left unsaid."
[Odysseus to
Eumaeus 1. Homer,
Odyssey
14.464]
"Moi je suis Bacchus qui
pressure pour les hommes le nectar
délicieux." [Ludwig van Beethoven (on
the 7th Symphony)]
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This is a god who gives pleasure to mankind: he
discovered honey, and the vine and its cultivation.
But some say that it was Aristaeus who discovered
honey, and that he competed with his honey against
the wine of Dionysus 2,
Zeus giving the first prize
to wine. Dionysus 2 was
attended by SATYRS and
MAENADS, whom he formed
into an army, making a campaign all over the
inhabited world as far as India. During his wars,
it is told, he arrayed himself in suitable arms and
in the skin of panthers, but in times of peace
during his festive gatherings, he wore
bright-coloured, luxurious, and effeminate
garments. It is said that Dionysus 2 loves the
panther because it is the most excitable of
animals, and leaps like a Maenad.
He instructed all men in the knowledge of his
rites, and some affirm that King Oeneus 2 of
Calydon was the first to
receive a vine-plant from Dionysus 2. On the other
hand, he punished severely those who opposed him
(like Lycurgus 1 and
Pentheus 1).
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Semele
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Zeus fell in love with
Semele, daughter of
Cadmus and Harmonia 1,
and consorted with her, but
Hera was jealous, and in
order to delude her husband's mistress, the goddess
took the shape of the girl's nurse Beroe 3,
persuading her to ask Zeus
to come to her as he comes to
Hera, so that she would
know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god. At
her suggestion then,
Semele made this fatal
request to Zeus, and being
unable to endure divine presence, was smitten by a
thunderbolt and gave birth to Dionysus 2
prematurely. This is how
Semele died, but later
her son Dionysus 2 brought her up from the
Underworld, named her
Thyone 1, and ascended with her to heaven, where
she was made immortal by
Zeus.
[About the pregnancy of
Semele see also Zagreus
below.]
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Childhood
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After Semele's death,
Zeus carried the abortive
child in his thigh, and when Dionysus 2 was born,
Zeus brought him to Nysa in
Arabia where he was reared by
NYMPHS. It is also said
that Hermes entrusted
Dionysus 2 to Athamas 1
and Ino (Semele's
sister), and persuaded them to rear him as a girl.
But Hera, or the Erinye
Tisiphone 1, drove them mad in such a way that
Athamas 1 hunted his
elder son Learchus as a deer, killing him; and Ino
cast herself into the sea, together with her little
son Melicertes.
Also the
CORYBANTES are named
as guardians of Dionysus 2 in his growing days, and
the daughters of Atlas
that are called the HYADES
1 or NYMPHS DODONIDES are sometimes said to
have been the nurses of Dionysus 2, and to have
been put to flight by Lycurgus 1, king of the
Edonians (Thrace) or the Arabians, who was the
first to expel Dionysus 2. Others say that the
NYMPHS LAMUSIDES took care of the child Dionysus 2,
and that they were maddened by
Hera.
And if one is to believe
Silenus, he himself
protected the child
Dionysus 2 from the
wrath of Hera.
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Silenus, protector of
the child Dionysus 2
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Hera persecutes him
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Hera hated Dionysus 2 so
much that she promised
Artemis to the giant
Alcyoneus 1 if he would fight against him. And to
the giant Chthonius 4 she promised
Aphrodite for
performing the same task.
Hera incited also the giant
Peloreus against Dionysus 2, and to the giant
Porphyrion 1 she promised
Hebe as his wife if he
would fight against the god.
Hera, they say, drove
Dionysus 2 mad, and with his mind in disorder, he
came to a large swamp that he could not cross. He
was there met by two asses, and one of them carried
him across the water so that he could reach a
temple of Zeus. When
Dionysus 2 came to the temple, he was freed at once
from his madness, and feeling gratitude for the
asses he put them among the stars (Asellus
Borealis, and Asellus Australis in Cancer), and
gave human voice to the Ass that had carried him.
This Ass is said to be the saddle-ass of
Silenus, the Satyr
adviser and instructor of Dionysus 2.
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Education completed
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Later the god came to Cybela in
Phrygia where
Rhea 1, the mother of the
gods, purified him and taught him the rites of
initiation.
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Lycurgus 1
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Dionysus 2 then came to the land of the
Edonians, who lived beside the river Strymon in
Thrace and were ruled by Lycurgus 1. This king was
the first to insult, persecute and expel Dionysus
2. Some have said that Charops 4, the grandfather
of Orpheus, warned
Dionysus 2 of Lycurgus 1's plot against him, and
when they met in battle Dionysus 2 conquered the
Thracians, and killed their king. But others have
said that Lycurgus 1 was maddened by the god, and
committed suicide. In any case, this is how Charops
4 became king in Thrace; for Dionysus 2, out of
gratitude for his aid, handed over the kingdom to
him, and instructed him in the secret rites of the
initiations. Later the son of Charops 4, Oeagrus,
took over both the kingdom and the initiatory
rites.
According to others, Dionysus 2, being
persecuted by Lycurgus 1, took refuge in the sea
with the Nereid Thetis, while the
MAENADS and
SATYRS that attended him
were taken prisoners. Later the
MAENADS were released
and Dionysus 2 drove Lycurgus 1 mad, so that he
struck his own son dead with an axe, imagining that
he was lopping a branch of a vine; and before he
recovered his mind, he cut off his son's
extremities.
Still others say that the
MAENADS almost killed
Lycurgus 1, who was saved by
Hera and made immortal, but
first, they add, he was driven mad by
Zeus so that no other man
should be as proud as he.
It is also told that the Edonians themselves
bound him to horses which rent him in pieces,
because they believed Dionysus 2, who had said that
the land would not bear fruit until Lycurgus 1 was
put to death.
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Pentheus 1
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Having come to Thebes,
Dionysus 2 induced the Theban women to abandon
their houses, and rave in Bacchic frenzy on Mount
Cithaeron, which is between Boeotia and Attica.
King Pentheus 1, a man
with strange ideas about law and order, attempted
to put a stop to these proceedings, declaring that
Dionysus 2 was no god, but he was torn limb from
limb either by his mother, who believed him to be a
wild beast, or by the
MAENADS.
King Pentheus 1 was
son of Echion 2, one of the so called
SPARTI, and of Agave 2,
one of the daughters of
Cadmus, the founder of
Thebes.
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Argos
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After Thebes, Dionysus
2 came to Argos, and
because they did not wish to honor him, he drove
the women mad, and they devoured the infants whom
they carried at their breasts.
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Pirates
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On another occasion, Dionysus 2 desired to sail
from Icaria to Naxos. He then hired a Tyrrhenian
pirate ship. But when the god was on board, they
sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending to sell
him as a slave. So Dionysus 2 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. Others say that Dionysus 2 came on board
after these SAILORS, having leapt ashore, captured
him, stripped him of his possessions, and tied him
with ropes.
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Ariadne
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When Theseus came to
Crete,
Ariadne, falling in love
with him, offered to help him if he would agree to
carry her away to Athens,
and have her to wife.
Theseus having agreed on
oath to do so, she asked
Daedalus to disclose
the way out of the labyrinth. And at his suggestion
she gave Theseus a
thread when he went in. Having found the
Minotaur, he killed
him, and gathering the thread he made his way out
again. By night he arrived with
Ariadne at Naxos, where
Dionysus 2 fell in love with
Ariadne and carried her
off, when deserted by
Theseus. He brought her
to Lemnos where she had
children by him. Some say that
Ariadne had children by
Theseus as well.
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Ariadne's final fate
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Ariadne's final fate
is most uncertain. Some affirm that she was killed
by Artemis, for
something that Dionysus 2 told the goddess. Others
declarte that she was turned into stone when
Perseus 1 shook in
front of her the face of
Medusa 1. Still others
assert that she hung herself because she was
abandoned by Theseus. It
is also told that
Theseus and
Ariadne, coming from
Crete, were driven out of
their course by a storm to Cyprus.
Ariadne was then big
with child, and Theseus
set her on shore alone, while he was borne out to
sea again by the storm.
Ariadne was taken into
the care of the Cyprian women, who helped her
during the pangs of travail, and gave her burial
when she died before her child was born. Yet others
say that Ariadne was
made immortal by Zeus, and
that Dionysus 2 set the Crown among the stars as a
memorial of the dead
Ariadne.
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Other loves
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Aura 2, a Phrygian huntress unacquainted with
love, daughter of the Titan Lelantus and the
Oceanid Periboea 8, was ravished by Dionysus 2
while asleep. She had twins but killed one of the
children and in despair she threw herself into the
river Sangarius, and was transformed into a
fountain by Zeus.
Nicaea was a huntress and nymph of Astacia with
whom Hymnus fell in love. She grew angry and killed
him as he was declaring his love for her. However,
having drunk wine, she
later fell asleep and Dionysus 2 took her
maidenhood.
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Others with identical name
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Zagreus or Dionysus 1, son of
Zeus by
Persephone or
Demeter (the first of
two or maybe three Dionysus), was killed by the
TITANS who destroyed him
with an infernal knife, cutting him into pieces.
For some time he appeared in different shapes, but
finally collapsed. It is also said that the
TITANS boiled him, but
his members were brought together by
Demeter, and he
experienced a new birth. It is said as well that
the son of Zeus and
Persephone was
dismembered by the
TITANS, and that
Zeus gave his heart, torn
to bits, to Semele in a
drink, and she was thus made pregnant. Iacchus, the
son of Aura 2, was honoured as a god next after the
son of Persephone and
after Semele's son
(Dionysus 2). Later the Athenians honoured all the
three together.
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