DIONYSUS - THE TWICE-BORN GREEK GOD OF WINE AND PLEASURE

                                       

                                                       

 

 

DIONYSUS  -  THE TWICE-BORN GREEK GOD OF WINE AND PLEASURE

Dionysus, in Greco-Roman religion, a nature god of fruitfulness and vegetation, especially known as a god of wine and ecstasy.

 

Originally Dionysus was the Greek god of fertility. Later, he came to be known chiefly as the god of wine and pleasure. The Romans called him Bacchus. 

 

 

                                      

 

 

Dionysus was the Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, madness and wild frenzy.

 

Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, a daughter of Cadmus (king of Thebes). Out of jealousy, Hera, the wife of Zeus, persuaded the pregnant Semele to prove her lover’s divinity by requesting that he appear in his real person. Zeus complied, but his power was too great for the mortal Semele, who was blasted with thunderbolts. However, Zeus saved his son by sewing him up in his thigh and keeping him there until he reached maturity so that he was twice born.

 

Dionysus is the God of wine, fruitfulness, parties, festivals, madness, chaos, drunkenness, vegetation, ecstasy, and the theater. 

His sacred animals include dolphins, serpents, tigers, and donkeys.

 

In art, he is depicted as either an older bearded god (particularly before 430 BC) or an effeminate, long-haired youth (particularly after 430 BC). His attributes include the thyrsus, a drinking cup, the grape vine, and a crown of ivy. He is often in the company of his theses, a group of attendants including satyrs, maenads, and his old tutor Silenus. The consort of Dionysus was Ariadne.

 

Ariadane was a princess who was abandoned on the island of Naxos. There, Dionysus saw Ariadne sleeping, fell in love with her, and later married her.

                                         

                         

Dionysus and Ariadne        

      

After Ariadne died, Dionysus traveled to the Underworld and brought her back to life to be his immortal wife. He deified her as the Goddess of Paths and Labyrinths.   

 

As Dionysus apparently represented the sap, juice, or lifeblood element in nature, lavish festal Georgia (rites) in his honor were widely instituted. These Dionysia (Bacchanalia) quickly won converts among women. Men, however, met them with hostility. In Thrace, Dionysus was opposed by Lycurgus, who ended up blind and mad.

 

In Thebes, Dionysus was opposed by Pentheus, his cousin, who was torn to pieces by the bacchantes when he attempted to spy on their activities. Athenians were punished with impotence for dishonoring the god’s cult. Their husbands’ resistance notwithstanding, women took to the hills, wearing fawn skins and crowns of ivy and shouting the ritual cry, “Euoi!” Forming that (holy bands) and waving thyrsoid (singular: thyrsus; fennel wands bound with grapevine and tipped with ivy), they danced by torchlight to the rhythm of the aulos (double pipe) and the tympan on (handheld drum). While they were under the god’s inspiration, the bacchantes were believed to possess occult powers and 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 (ōmophagia). 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.

Dionysus had the power to inspire and create ecstasy, and his cult had special importance for art and literature. Performances of tragedy and comedy in Athens were part of two festivals of Dionysus, the Lenaea and the Great (or City) Dionysia. Dionysus was also honored in lyric poems called dithyrambs. In Roman literature, his nature is often misunderstood, and he is simplistically portrayed as the jolly Bacchus who is invoked at drinking parties. In 186 BCE the celebration of Bacchanalia was prohibited in Italy.

 

Maenad was a female follower of Dionysus. The word maenad comes from the Greek maenads, meaning “mad” or “demented.” During the orgiastic rites of Dionysus, maenads roamed the mountains and forests performing frenzied, ecstatic dances and were believed to be possessed by the god.

 

The followers of Dionysus included spirits of fertility, such as the satyrs and sileni, and in his rituals the phallus was prominent. Dionysus often took on a bestial shape and was associated with various animals. His personal attributes were an ivy wreath, the thyrsus, and the kangaroos, a large two-handled goblet. In early Greek art, he was represented as a bearded man, but later he was portrayed as youthful and effeminate. Bacchic revels were a favorite subject of vase painters.

 

                                                    

 

 

As ruler of heaven Zeus led the gods to victory against the Giants (offspring of Gaea and Tartarus) and successfully crushed several revolts against him by his fellow gods.  Zeus was the protector of cities, the home, property, strangers, guests, and supplicants. 

 

Zeus was well known for his amorousness—a source of perpetual discord with his wife, Hera—and he had many love affairs with both mortal and immortal women. To achieve his amorous designs, Zeus frequently assumed animal forms, such as that of a cuckoo when he ravished Hera, a swan when he ravished Leda, or a bull when he carried off Europa. 

 

Zeus is the King of the gods, ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of the sky, weather, thunder, lightning, law, order, and justice.   Zeus is the youngest son of Cronus and Rhea. He overthrew Cronus and gained the sovereignty of heaven for himself. In art he is depicted as a regal, mature man with a sturdy figure and dark beard. His usual attributes are the royal scepter and the lightning bolt. His sacred animals include the eagle and the bull.

 

In art, Zeus was represented as a bearded, dignified, and mature man of stalwart build; his most prominent symbols were the thunderbolt and the eagle.

                                                                                 
Myth is a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief. It is distinguished from symbolic behavior (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (temples, icons). Myths are specific accounts of gods or superhuman beings involved in extraordinary events or circumstances in a time that is unspecified but which is understood as existing apart from ordinary human experience. The term mythology denotes both the study of myth and the body of myths belonging to a particular religious tradition.

The word myth derives from the Greek mythos, which has a range of meanings from “word,” through “saying” and “story,” to “fiction”; the unquestioned validity of mythos can be contrasted with logos, the word whose validity or truth can be argued and demonstrated. Because myths narrate fantastic events with no attempt at proof, it is sometimes assumed that they are simply stories with no factual basis, and the word has become a synonym for falsehood or, at best, misconception. In the study of religion, however, it is important to distinguish between myths and stories that are merely untrue.

 

 

Greek Mythology offers some interesting, amusing, and fascinating stories about the reigning Greek Gods on top of Mount Olympus.