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{{Short description|Ancient Greek god of winemaking and wine}}
{{Distinguish|Dionysius}}
{{Redirect-several|Dionysos|Bacchus|Bachus}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Dionysus{{pb}}<small>Bacchus</small>
| image = Dionysos Louvre Ma87 n2.jpg
| caption = [[Ancient Roman sculpture|Second-century Roman statue]] of Dionysus, after a [[Hellenistic art#Sculpture|Hellenistic model]] (ex-coll. [[Cardinal Richelieu]], [[Louvre]])<ref>Another variant, from the Spanish royal collection, is at the [[Museo del Prado]], Madrid: [[:File:Dioniso del tipo Madrid-Varese (M. Prado) 01.jpg|illustration]].</ref>
| god_of = God of wine, vegetation, fertility, [[festivity]], ritual madness, [[religious ecstasy]], and [[theatre]]
| member_of = the [[Twelve Olympians]]
| abode = [[Mount Olympus]]
| animals = Bull, [[Panther (legendary creature)|panther]], tiger or lion, goat, snake, leopard
| symbol = [[Thyrsus]], grapevine, ivy, [[Comedy and tragedy masks|theatrical masks]], phallus
| festivals = [[Bacchanalia]] (Roman), [[Dionysia]]
| parents = [[Zeus]] and [[Semele]]
| Roman_equivalent = Bacchus
| equivalent1_type = Egyptian
| equivalent1 = [[Osiris]]
| spouse = [[Ariadne]]
}}
{{Special characters}}
In [[ancient Greek religion]] and [[Greek mythology|myth]], '''Dionysus''' ({{IPAc-en|d|aɪ|.|ə|ˈ|n|aɪ|.|s|ə|s|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Dionysus.wav}}; {{langx|grc|[[wikt:Διόνυσος|Διόνυσος]]}} {{transliteration|grc|Diónysos}}) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, [[festivity]], insanity, ritual madness, [[religious ecstasy]], and [[theatre]].<ref>Hedreen, Guy Michael. ''Silens in Attic Black-figure Vase-painting: Myth and Performance''. University of Michigan Press. 1992. {{ISBN|9780472102952}}. p. 1</ref><ref>James, Edwin Oliver. ''The Tree of Life: An Archaeological Study''. Brill Publications. 1966. p. 234. {{ISBN|9789004016125}}</ref> He was also known as '''Bacchus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|æ|k|ə|s}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|ɑː|k|ə|s}}; {{langx|grc|[[wikt:Βάκχος|Βάκχος]]}} {{transliteration|grc|Bacchos}}) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]) for a frenzy he is said to induce called ''baccheia''.<ref>In Greek "both votary and god are called Bacchus". Burkert, p. 162. For the initiate as Bacchus, see [[Euripides]], ''[[Bacchae]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg017.perseus-eng1:476-518 491]. For the god, who alone is ''Dionysus'', see [[Sophocles]], ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'' 211 and Euripides, ''Hippolytus'' 560.</ref> His wine, music, and ecstatic dance were considered to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Csapo |first=Eric |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wzj7DAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |title=Theologies of Ancient Greek Religion |date=3 August 2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-71521-5 |editor-last=Eidinow |editor-first=Esther |location=New York |pages=118 |language=en |chapter=The 'Theology' of the Dionysia and Old Comedy}}</ref> His ''[[thyrsus]]'', 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 of Dionysus|cult]] and the freedoms he represents.<ref>Olszewski, E. (2019). [https://www.amphilsoc.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/attachments/Olszewski.pdf Dionysus’s enigmatic thyrsus]. ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'', ''163''(2), 153–173.</ref> Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself.<ref>Sutton, p. 2, mentions Dionysus as The Liberator in relation to the city [[Dionysia]] festivals. In [[Euripides]], ''[[Bacchae]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg017.perseus-eng1:370-385 379–385]: "He holds this office, to join in dances, [380] to laugh with the flute, and to bring an end to cares, whenever the delight of the grape comes at the feasts of the gods, and in ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over men."</ref>

His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as [[Thrace|Thracian]], others as Greek.<ref>Thomas McEvilley, ''The Shape of Ancient Thought'', Allsworth press, 2002, pp. 118–121. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vTfm8KHn900C&pg=PA118 Google Books preview]</ref><ref>Reginald Pepys Winnington-Ingram, ''Sophocles: an interpretation'', Cambridge University Press, 1980, p. 109 [https://books.google.com/books?id=OPo8nVmC9LQC&pg=PA109 Google Books preview]</ref><ref>Zofia H. Archibald, in Gocha R. Tsetskhladze (Ed.) ''Ancient Greeks west and east'', Brill, 1999, pp. 429 ff.[https://books.google.com/books?id=ctsUcNshh68C&pg=PA432 Google Books preview]</ref> In [[Orphism (religion)|Orphism]], he was variously a son of [[Zeus]] and [[Persephone]]; a [[chthonic]] or underworld aspect of Zeus; or the twice-born son of Zeus and the mortal [[Semele]]. The [[Eleusinian Mysteries]] identify him with [[Iacchus]], 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 [[Theophany|epiphany]], sometimes called "the god who comes".<ref>Rosemarie Taylor-Perry, 2003. ''The God Who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited''. Algora Press.</ref>

Wine was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus and was his earthly incarnation.<ref name=julian /> Wine could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness.<ref name=iconography/> Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, the initial driving force behind the [[History of theatre|development of theatre in Western culture]].<ref name=Brockett/> The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his [[maenad]]s feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead.<ref>{{cite book|first=Xavier|last=Riu|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wob1UszzkZwC&pg=PR7 |title = Dionysism and Comedy|publisher= Rowman and Littlefield|date= 1999|page=105|isbn= 9780847694426}}</ref> He is sometimes categorised as a [[Dying-and-rising deity|dying-and-rising god]].<ref name="corrente2012">Corrente, Paola. 2012. [https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/tesis?codigo=95410 Dioniso y los Dying gods: paralelos metodológicos.] Tesis doctoral, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.</ref> Scholars note parallels between Dionysus and [[Jesus]] as dying-and-rising gods, though key differences and contexts complicate direct comparisons.

Romans identified Bacchus with their own '''Liber Pater''', "the free Father" of the [[Liberalia]] 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]]) 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===
[[File:Dionysos kantharos BM B589.jpg|thumb|Dionysus extending a drinking cup ''([[kantharos]])'' (late sixth century BC)]]
The ''dio-'' prefix in [[Ancient Greek]] {{lang|grc|[[wikt:Διόνυσος|Διόνυσος]]}} ({{transliteration|grc|Diónūsos}}; {{IPA|grc|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''.{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=337}} The earliest attestation is the [[Mycenaean Greek]] [[Dative case|dative]] form {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀇𐀺𐀝𐀰}}}} ''(di-wo-nu-so)'',<ref name=":6">[https://sites.utexas.edu/scripts/files/2020/05/1998-TGP-LinearBandtheOriginsofGreekReligion.pdf Palaima, Thomas  G. University of Texas at Austin, 1998]</ref>{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=337}} featured on two tablets that had been found at [[Mycenaean Greece|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]],<ref>John Chadwick, ''The Mycenaean World'', Cambridge University Press, 1976, pp. 99ff: "But Dionysos surprisingly appears twice at Pylos, in the form ''Diwonusos'', both times irritatingly enough on fragments, so that we have no means of verifying his divinity."</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/default.aspx?static=12&wid=346747 |publisher=Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of ancient languages |title=The Linear B word di-wo-nu-so}}</ref> 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.<ref name="KHGq5">{{cite web |last=Raymoure |first=K. A. |url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/2012/11/02/khania-linear-b-transliterations/ |title=Khania Linear B Transliterations |work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B |publisher=Deaditerranean |date=2 November 2012 }}
{{cite web |title=Possible evidence of human sacrifice at Minoan Chania |url=http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.gr/2014/01/possible-evidence-of-human-sacrifice-at.html |website=Archaeology News Network |year=2014 |access-date=17 March 2014 |archive-date=17 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317045847/http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.gr/2014/01/possible-evidence-of-human-sacrifice-at.html |url-status=dead }} {{cite web |last=Raymoure |first=K. A. |url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/khania/kh-gq/ |title=Khania KH Gq Linear B Series |work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B |publisher=Deaditerranean }} {{cite web|title=KH 5 Gq (1)|website=Dāmos: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5670|publisher=[[University of Oslo]]}}</ref>
In Mycenaean Greek the form of [[Zeus]] is ''di-wo''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/Word/Show/16635 |title=The Linear B word di-wo |website=Palaeolexicon}}</ref> The second element {{lang|grc-Latn|-nūsos}} is of unknown origin.{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=337}} It is perhaps associated with Mount [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]], the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the [[Nysiads]]),<ref>Fox, p. 217, "The word Dionysos is divisible into two parts, the first originally Διος (cf. Ζευς), while the second is of an unknown signification, although perhaps connected with the name of the Mount Nysa which figures in the story of Lykourgos:&nbsp;... when Dionysos had been reborn from the thigh of Zeus, Hermes entrusted him to the nymphs of Mount Nysa, who fed him on the food of the gods, and made him immortal."</ref> although [[Pherecydes of Syros]] had postulated {{lang|grc-Latn|nũsa}} as an archaic word for "tree" by the sixth century BC.<ref>Testimonia of Pherecydes in an early fifth-century BC fragment, FGrH 3, 178, in the context of a discussion on the name of Dionysus: "''Nũsas'' (acc. pl.), he [Pherecydes] said, was what they called the trees."</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=*nu/sios&la=greek&can=*nu/sios0&prior=*nu=sa#Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=*nu=sa-contents |title=Greek Word Study Tool |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> On a vase of [[Sophilos]] the Nysiads are named {{lang|grc|νύσαι}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nusae}}).<ref name="Martin Nilsson 1967 p.567">Martin Nilsson {{lang|de|Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion}} (1967). Vol.&nbsp;I, p.&nbsp;567.</ref> [[Paul Kretschmer|Kretschmer]] asserted that {{lang|grc|νύση}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nusē}}) is a [[Thracian language|Thracian]] word that has the same meaning as {{lang|grc|νύμφη}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nýmphē}}), a word similar with {{lang|grc|νυός}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nuos}}) (daughter in law, or bride, I-E *snusós, Sanskr. ''snusā'').<ref>{{LSJ|nuo/s|νυός|cite}}.</ref> He suggested that the male form is {{lang|grc|νῦσος}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nūsos}}) and this would make Dionysus the "son of Zeus".<ref name="Martin Nilsson 1967 p.567"/> [[Jane Ellen Harrison]] believed that the name Dionysus means "young Zeus".<ref>[https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/mgr/mgr15.htm ''Myths of Greece and Rome'', by Jane Harrison (1928)].</ref> [[Robert S. P. Beekes]] has suggested a [[Pre-Greek]] origin of the name, since all attempts to find an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] etymology are doubtful.<ref name=":6" />{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=337}}

===Meaning and variants===

Later variants include {{lang|grc-Latn|Dionūsos}} and {{lang|grc-Latn|Diōnūsos}} in [[Boeotia]]; {{lang|grc-Latn|Dien(n)ūsos}} in [[Thessaly]]; {{lang|grc-Latn|Deonūsos}} and {{lang|grc-Latn|Deunūsos}} in [[Ionia]]; and {{lang|grc-Latn|Dinnūsos}} in [[Aeolis|Aeolia]], besides other variants. A {{lang|grc-Latn|Dio-}} prefix is found in other names, such as that of the [[Dioscures]], and may derive from ''Dios'', the genitive of the name of [[Zeus]].<ref>This is the view of Garcia Ramon (1987) and Peters (1989), summarised and endorsed in Janda (2010:20).</ref>

[[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".<ref name="9.20–24">[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/304/mode/2up 9.20–24].</ref> In his note to these lines, [[W. H. D. Rouse]] writes "It need hardly be said that these etymologies are wrong".<ref name="9.20–24"/> The ''[[Suda]]'', a Byzantine encyclopedia based on classical sources, states that Dionysus was so named "from accomplishing [διανύειν] for each of those who live the wild life. Or from providing [διανοεῖν] everything for those who live the wild life."<ref>''[[Suda]]'' s.v. [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&searchstr=delta,1185&field=adlerhw_gr&num_per_page=1 Διόνυσος] .</ref>

==Origins==
[[File:Gaziantep_Zeugma_Museum_Dionysos_Triumf_mosaic_1921.jpg|thumb|left|Dionysus triumph, a mosaic from the House of Poseidon, [[Zeugma Mosaic Museum]].]]

Academics in the nineteenth century, using study of [[philology]] and [[comparative mythology]], 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.<ref name=iconography/> The earliest written records of Dionysus worship come from [[Mycenaean Greece]], specifically in and around the [[Palace of Nestor]] in [[Pylos]], dated to around 1300 BC.<ref name=Kerenyi>Kerényi, Karl. 1976. ''Dionysus''. Trans. Ralph Manheim, Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0691029156|978-0691029153}}</ref> 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 Dionysus". References have also been uncovered to "women of Oinoa", the "place of wine", who may correspond to the Dionysian women of later periods.<ref name=Kerenyi/>

[[File:0320 - Archaeological Museum, Athens - Golden naiskos - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 11 2009.jpg|thumb|right|Golden naiskos with Dionysus, 2nd cent. BC.]]

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|Liber Pater]], indicates that this may have been another name for Dionysus. According to [[Károly Kerényi]], 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]] in Minoan [[Crete]], 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's 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.<ref name="Kerenyi" />

The oldest known image of Dionysus accompanied by his name is found on a [[dinos]] by the Attic potter [[Sophilos]] around 570 BC and is located in the [[British Museum]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1971-1101-1 |title=dinos |publisher=British Museum |date= |accessdate=18 July 2022}}</ref> 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]]s, representing the transition from civilised life back to nature as a means of escape.<ref name="iconography">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76w9x.7 |jstor=10.1163/j.ctt1w76w9x.7 |jstor-access=free |chapter=An Iconography in Process |last1=Isler-Kerényi |first1=Cornelia |last2=Watson |first2=Wilfred G. E. |title=Dionysos in Archaic Greece |year=2007 |pages=5–16 |publisher=Brill}}</ref>

A Mycenaean variant of Bacchus was thought to have been "a divine child" abandoned by his mother and eventually raised by "[[Nymph|nymphs]], [[Goddess|goddesses]], or even animals."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Janson |first1=Horst Woldemar |title=History of Art: The Western Tradition |last2=Janson |first2=Anthony F. |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2004 |isbn=0-13-182622-0 |editor-last=Touborg |editor-first=Sarah |edition=Revised 6th |volume=1 |location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |page=105 |author-link=Horst Woldemar Janson |editor-last2=Moore |editor-first2=Julia |editor-last3=Oppenheimer |editor-first3=Margaret |editor-last4=Castro |editor-first4=Anita}}</ref>

==Epithets==
{{Redirect|Bassareus| the genus of beetle|Bassareus (beetle)}}
[[File:Dionysos satyr Altemps Inv8606.jpg|thumb|The over-life size second-century AD [[Ludovisi Dionysus]], with panther, satyr and grapes on a vine, [[Palazzo Altemps]], Rome]]
[[File:MosaicEpiphany-of-Dionysus.jpg|thumb|Epiphany of [[Dionysus mosaic, Dion|Dionysus mosaic]], from the Villa of Dionysus (second century AD) in [[Dion, Greece]], Archeological Museum of Dion.]]
[[File:Bacchus and Silenus BM 1899.2-15.1 n01.jpg|thumb|A [[Roman art|Roman fresco]] depicting Bacchus, [[Boscoreale]], c. 30 BC]]
[[File:Cratère de Derveni 0031.jpg|thumb|Dionysus on the [[Derveni krater]].]]

Dionysus was variably known with the following [[epithet]]s:

'''Acratophorus''', ''Ἀκρατοφόρος'' ("giver of unmixed wine"), at [[Phigaleia]] in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.39.6 8.39.6].</ref>

'''Acroreites''' at [[Sicyon]].<!-- Translation, please --><ref>[[Stephanus of Byzantium]], ''s.v.'' {{lang|grc|Ακρωρεία}}</ref>

'''Adoneus''', a rare archaism in Roman literature, a Latinised form of '''[[Adonis]]''', used as epithet for Bacchus.<ref>Used thus by [[Ausonius]], ''Epigrams'', 29, 6, and in [[Catullus]], 29; see Lee M. Fratantuono, NIVALES SOCII: CAESAR, MAMURRA, AND THE SNOW OF CATULLUS C. 57, ''Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, New Series,'' Vol. 96, No. 3 (2010), p. 107, Note 2.</ref>

'''Aegobolus''' ''Αἰγοβόλος'' ("goat-shooter") at [[Potniae]], in [[Boeotia]].<ref>Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D6%3Aentry%3Daegobolus-bio-1 s.v. Aegobolus]; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:9.8.1 9.8.1–2].</ref>

'''[[Dionysus Aesymnetes|Aesymnetes]]''' ''Αἰσυμνήτης'' ("ruler" or "lord") at Aroë and [[Patras|Patrae]] in [[Achaea]].

'''Agrios''' ''Ἄγριος'' ("wild"), in [[Macedon]]ia.

'''Androgynos''' ''Ἀνδρόγυνος'' ([[Androgyny|"androgynous"]]), refers to the god assuming both the active, masculine and passive, feminine role during intercourse with male lovers.<ref name="androgynous">{{cite web |url=https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/alpha/2177 |title=Androgynous |last=Scaife |first=Ross |date=2 July 2000 |website=  Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography |publisher= Suda On Line and the Stoa Consortium |access-date=17 February 2024 |quote="Dionysos, as one doing both active, male things and passive, female ones. [...] Sexual intercourse, specifically, is envisaged here."}}</ref><ref name="passive">{{Cite web|url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/classical_myth,3.html|website=GLBTQ Encyclopedia|title=Classical Mythology|access-date=4 April 2025|last=Pequigney|first=Joseph|year=2002|publisher=New England Publishing Associates|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140415180456/http://www.glbtq.com/literature/classical_myth,3.html|archive-date=15 April 2014|quote="[He is willing] to accept anal penetration [...] to pay a debt."}}</ref>

'''Anthroporraistes''', ''Ἀνθρωπορραίστης '' ("man-destroyer"), a title of Dionysus at Tenedos.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=a)nqrwporraisths&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Bassareus''', ''Βασσαρεύς'' a Thracian name for Dionysus, which derives from ''bassaris'' or "fox-skin", which item was worn by his cultists in their mysteries.<ref>[[Erwin Rohde]], ''Psyché'', p. 269</ref><ref>Smith, William (1870) ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Vol 1'' {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070903233129/http://www.ancientlibrary.com:80/smith-bio/0479.html  p.470]}}; retrieved 11 November 2022</ref>

''' Bougenes''', ''Βουγενής or Βοηγενής'' ("borne by a cow"), in the Mysteries of [[Lerna]].<ref>Nilsson Vol I, p.571.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=bougenh/s&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>
[[File:Met, roman, sarcophagus with dyonisus on a panther w. attendants, four seasons, tellus and ocean 220-230 ca. 02.JPG|thumb|Marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysos, who is riding a panther, with attendants, the Four Seasons, Tellus and Ocean, c. 220–230]]
''' Braetes''', ''Βραίτης'' ("related to beer") at [[Thrace]].<ref>Harrison, Prolegomena p.414.</ref>

'''Brisaeus''', ''Βρισαῖος'', a surname of Dionysus, derived either from mount Brisa in Lesbos  or from a nymph Brisa, who was said to have brought up the god.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DB%3Aentry+group%3D8%3Aentry%3Dbrisaeus-bio-1 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Brisaeus]</ref>

'''Briseus''', ''Βρῑσεύς'' ("he who prevails") in [[Smyrna]].<ref>Aristid.Or.41</ref><ref>Macr.Sat.I.18.9</ref>

'''[[Bromius|Bromios]]''' ''Βρόμιος'' ("roaring", as of the wind, primarily relating to the central death/resurrection element of the myth,<ref>For a parallel see [[pneuma]]/[[psuche]]/[[wikt:anima|anima]] The core meaning is wind as "breath/spirit"</ref> but also the god's transformations into lion and bull,<ref>Bulls in antiquity were said to roar.</ref> and the boisterousness of those who drink alcohol. Also cognate with the "roar of thunder", which refers to Dionysus's father, Zeus "the thunderer".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdjiiigrEYgC&q=%22zeus+the+thunderer%22+-slot+-game&pg=PT78|title=Mythology For Dummies|last1=Blackwell|first1=Christopher W.|last2=Blackwell|first2=Amy Hackney|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781118053874|language=en}}</ref>)

'''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.<ref>McKeown, J.C. ''A Cabinet of Greek Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the Cradle of Western Civilization'', Oxford University Press, New York, 2013, p. 210)</ref><ref>[[Clement of Alexandria]], ''[[Protrepticus (Clement)|Exhortation to the Greeks]]'', 92: 82–83, Loeb Classical Library ([http://www.loebclassics.com/view/clement_alexandria-exhortation_greeks/1919/pb_LCL092.83.xml registration required]: accessed 17 December 2016)</ref>

'''Chthonios''' ''Χθόνιος'' ("the subterranean")<ref>Kerényi 1967; Kerényi 1976.</ref>

'''Cistophorus''' ''Κιστοφόρος'' ("basket-bearer, ivy-bearer"), Alludes To baskets being sacred to the god.<ref name="Suidas">{{Cite journal|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2405-8262_rgg4_sim_025853|title=Suidas|journal=Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart|doi=10.1163/2405-8262_rgg4_sim_025853|last1=Stephan|first1=Christian|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>Suidas s.v. Kistophoros :

"Kistophoros (basket-bearer, ivy-bearer) : It seems that baskets were sacred to Dionysos and the Two Goddesses [Demeter and Persephone]." [N.B. Derived from Harpocration s.v. kittophoros, the ivy-bearer.]</ref>

'''Dasyllius''' ''Δασύλλιος'' ("frequenting the woods") at [[Megara]].<ref name="Pausanias">[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [https://topostext.org/work/213#1.43.5 1.43.5]</ref>

'''Dimetor''' ''Διμήτωρ'' ("twice-born") Refers to Dionysus's two births.<ref name="Suidas"/><ref>{{Citation|last=Hau|first=Lisa Irene|title=Diodorus Siculus|date=1 July 2016|work=Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|doi=10.3366/edinburgh/9781474411073.003.0003|isbn=978-1-4744-1107-3}}</ref><ref>Suidas s.v. Dimetor :

"Dimêtôr (twice-born) : Dionysos."</ref><ref>Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 3. 62. 5 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.):

"Dionysos was named twice-born (''dimetor'') by the ancients, counting it as a single and first birth when the plant is set in the ground and begins to grow, and as a second birth when it becomes laden with fruit and ripens its grape-clusters—the god thus being considered as having been born once from the earth and again from the vine."</ref>

'''Dendrites''' ''Δενδρίτης'' ("of the trees"), as a fertility god.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DD%3Aentry+group%3D8%3Aentry%3Ddendrites-bio-1 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Dendrites]</ref>

'''[[Dithyrambos]]''', ''Διθύραμβος'' used at his festivals, referring to his premature birth.

'''Eleuthereus''' ''Ἐλευθερεύς'' ("of [[Eleutherae]]").<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rehm |first1=Rush |title=Understanding Greek Tragic Theatre |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-60684-0 |page=16 |url=https://www.google.gr/books/edition/Understanding_Greek_Tragic_Theatre/oKuuDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 |language=en}}</ref>

'''Endendros''' ("he in the tree").<ref>Janda (2010), 16–44.<!-- page no. required --></ref>

'''[[Enorches]]''' ("with balls"),<ref>Kerényi 1976, p. 286.</ref> with reference to his fertility, or "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus's sewing the baby Dionysus "into his thigh", understood to mean his testicles).<ref>Jameson 1993, 53. Cf. note 16 for suggestions of Devereux on "Enorkhes,"</ref> Used at [[Samos]] according to [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesyichius]],<ref>Hesych. s.v. [https://archive.org/details/hesychiialexand00schmgoog/page/512/mode/2up Ἐνόρχης].</ref> or [[Lesbos]] according to the [[scholiast]] on Lycophron's ''Alexandra''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hornblower |first1=Simon |title=LYKOPHRON AND EPIGRAPHY: THE VALUE AND FUNCTION OF CULT EPITHETS IN THE ''ALEXANDRA'' |journal=The Classical Quarterly |date=2014 |volume=64 |issue=1 |page=116 |doi=10.1017/S0009838813000578 |jstor=26546287 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26546287 |issn=0009-8388|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

'''Eridromos''' ("good-running"), in Nonnus's ''Dionysiaca.''<ref>Reece, Steve, "The Epithet ἐρίδρομος in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca," ''Philologus: Zeitschrift für antike Literatur und ihre Rezeption'' 145 (2001) 357–359, explains Nonnus' use of this epithet at Dionysiaca 23.28 as a translation of the moribund Homeric epithet ἐριούνιος, which in Cyprian means "good-running."</ref>

'''Erikryptos''' ''Ἐρίκρυπτος'' ("completely hidden"), in Macedonia.

'''Euaster''' (Εὐαστήρ), from the cry "euae".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/sol-entries/epsilon/3378|title=SOL Search|website=Cs.uky.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Euius''' ('''Euios'''), from the cry "euae" in lyric passages, and in [[Euripides]]'s play, ''[[The Bacchae]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=Eu)/ios&la=greek#Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=*eu)/ios-contents|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''[[Iacchus]]''', ''Ἴακχος'' a possible epithet of Dionysus, associated with the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]]. In [[Eleusis]], he is known as a son of [[Zeus]] 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001.perseus-grc3:9.524|title=Greek Anthology, Volume III, book 9, chapter 524|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>
[[File:The Conquest of India by Dionysus at the archaeological museum of Sétif, ca. 200–300 CE.jpg|thumb|The Conquest of [[India]] by Dionysus at the archaeological museum of [[Sétif]], c. 200–300 AD]]

'''Isodaetes''', ''Ισοδαίτης'', meaning "he who distributes equal portions", cult epithet also shared with Helios.<ref>{{cite book | last = Versnel | first = H.S. | title = Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual | volume = 1, Ter Unus. Isis, Dionysos, Hermes. Three Studies in Henotheism | publisher = [[Brill Publications]] | date = 2015 | isbn = 978-90-04-09266-2 | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=1el5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA119 119]}}</ref>

'''Kemilius''', ''Κεμήλιος'' (''kemas'': "young deer, pricket").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=kema/s|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, κεμάς|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref><ref>Alkaeus: Temple of Zeus, Hera and "Dionysus Kemilius" (Ζόννυσος Κεμήλιος) Nilsson Vol I p.575</ref>

'''Liknites''' ("he of the winnowing fan"), as a fertility god connected with [[Greco-Roman mysteries|mystery religions]]. A winnowing fan was used to separate the chaff from the grain.
[[File:MNRPalMassimoBaccoTesta.jpg|thumb|[[Tiber Dionysus|Detail of the bronze Ponte Garibaldi Bacchus]], Palazzo Massimo, Rome]]

'''Lenaius''', '' Ληναῖος'' ("god of the wine-press") <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=lh/naios&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Lyaeus''', or '''Lyaios''' (Λυαῖος, "deliverer", literally "loosener"), one who releases from care and anxiety.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=%CE%BB%CF%85%CE%B1%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

'''Lysius''', ''Λύσιος'' ("delivering, releasing"). At Thebes there was a temple of Dionysus Lysius.<ref>Nilsson Vol I p.574</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=lu/sios&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref><ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''[[Description of Greece]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.16.6&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160 9.16.6]; Fowler, [https://books.google.com/books?id=scd8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 p. 63].</ref>

'''Melanaigis''' ''Μελάναιγις'' ("of the black goatskin") at the [[Apaturia]] festival.

'''Morychus''' Μόρυχος ("smeared"); in Sicily, because his icon was smeared with wine [[Lees (fermentation)|lees]] at the vintage.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%81%CF%85%CF%87%CE%BF%CF%82&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>Mentioned by [[Erasmus]] in [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9371/9371-h/9371-h.htm ''The Praise of Folly'']</ref>
[[File:Wise old man Dionysus profile Palazzo Massimo alle Terme Rome.jpg|thumb|Sardanapalus-type Dionysus, showing Dionysus as an old dignified man Palazzo Massimo, Rome]]
'''Mystes''' ''Μύστης'' ("of the mysteries") at [[Korythio]] in [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcadia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=mu/sths&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref><ref>Pausanias 8.54.5</ref>

'''Nysian''' ''Nύσιος'', according to [[Philostratus]], he was called like this by the [[ancient India]]ns.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0638.tlg001.perseus-grc1:2.2|title=Philostratus the Athenian, Vita Apollonii, book 2, chapter 2|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> Most probably, because according to legend he founded the city of [[Nagara (ancient city)|Nysa]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://topostext.org/work/530#B1329|title=ToposText|website=topostext.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0074.tlg001.perseus-grc1:5.1|title=Arrian, Anabasis, book 5, chapter 1|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0530:book=5:chapter=2|title=Arrian, Anabasis, book 5, chapter 2|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

'''Oeneus''', ''Οἰνεύς'' ("wine-dark") as god of the [[wine press]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Suidas |title=Souidas. : Suidæ lexicon, Græce & Latine. Textum Græcum cum manuscriptis codicibus collatum a quamplurimis mendis purgavit, notisque perpetuis illustravit: versionem Latinam Æmilii Porti innumeris in locis correxit; indicesque auctorum & rerum adjecit Ludolphus Kusterus, Professor humaniorum literarum in Gymnasio Regio Berolinensi |date=1705 |publisher=Typis academicis|oclc=744697285}}</ref><ref>Suidas s.v. Oinops (quoting Greek Anthology 6. 44. 5 and 7. 20. 2) :

"Oinops (wine-dark): 'to wine-dark [so-and-so],' to black [so-and-so]. In the ''Epigrams'': '. . . from which we poured libations, as much [as is] right, to wine-dark Bakkhos and the Satyroi.' But ruddy (''oinôpos'') [means] wine-coloured, bright or black. 'Feeding on the ruddy grape-cluster of Bakkhos.'"</ref>

'''Omadios''', ''Ωμάδιος'' ("eating raw flesh"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ὠμάδιος |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:alphabetic+letter=*w:entry+group=3:entry=w)ma/dios |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|quote= =ὠμηστής, because he had human sacrifices at Chios and Tenedos}};{{Cite web |title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ὠμησ-τής |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:alphabetic+letter=*w:entry+group=4:entry=w)mhsth/s |access-date=8 June 2024 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|quote=eating raw flesh&nbsp;... epith. of Dionysus, = ὠμάδιος}}</ref>); [[Eusebius]] writes in [[Preparation for the Gospel]] that Euelpis of Carystus states that in [[Chios]] and [[Tenedos]] they did human sacrifice to Dionysus Omadios.<ref>''Orphic Hymns'', [https://archive.org/details/mysticalhymnsor00taylgoog/page/68/mode/2up?view=theater xxx. 5 (Taylor)], ([https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780891301196/page/26/mode/2up?view=theater Athanassakis and Wolkov]), [https://archive.org/details/mysticalhymnsor00taylgoog/page/108/mode/2up?view=theater lii. 7 (Taylor)], ([https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780891301196/page/42/mode/2up?view=theater Athanassakis and Wolkov]).</ref><ref>Porphyry, ''On Abstinance from Animal Food'', [https://archive.org/details/b28747197/page/86/mode/2up?view=theater ii. 55 and note 23, p. 87] ([https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/porphyry_abstinence_02_book2.htm#23 also at Tertullian.org]) (with citations to Orphic Hymns xxxix. 5 and li. 7 substituted for xxx. 5 and lii. 7).</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/historiens/eusebe/preparation4grec.htm#XVI|title=EUSEBE DE CESAREE : Préparation évangélique : livre IV (texte grec)|website=remacle.org}}</ref>

'''Patroos''', ''Πατρῷος'' ("paternal") at [[Megara]].<ref name="Pausanias"/>

'''Phallen ''', ''Φαλλήν'' (probably "related to the [[phallus]]"), at [[Lesbos]].<ref>Nilsson Vol I ,p.593.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=fallh/n|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, φαλλήν|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Phleus''' ("related to the bloοm of a plant").<ref>Φλοιός, Φλέος, Φλεύς . (Plut.quest. conviv. p. 683F, Aelian V.H. III 41, Herodian I p.400 Lenz) Nilsson Vol I p.584)</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=fle/os&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=flou=s&la=greek&can=flou=s0&prior=fle/ws#Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=flo/os-contents|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''[[Pseudanor]]''', ''Ψευδάνωρ'' (literally "false man", referring to his feminine qualities), in [[Macedon]]ia.

'''Pericionius''', ''Περικιόνιος'' ("climbing the column (ivy)", a name of Dionysus at Thebes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=perikio/nios|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, περικι_-όνιος|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Semeleios'''<ref>Opsomer, Jan. "La démiurgie des jeunes dieux selon Proclus". In: '' Études Classiques'' Tome 71, Nº. 1: Le "Timée" au fil des âges: son influence et ses lectures. 2003. pp. 18–19 (footnote nr. 47), 25 and 37–38 (footnote nr. 124). {{ISSN|0014-200X}}</ref> ('''Semeleius''' or '''Semeleus'''),<ref>[[Karl Ernst Georges|Georges, Karl Ernst]]. ''Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch''. Hannover: August 1918 (Nachdruck Darmstadt 1998). Band 2. Sp. 2582.</ref> an obscure epithet meaning 'He of the Earth', 'son of Semele'.<ref>Harrison, Jane Ellen. ''Themis''. Cambridge University Press. 1912. p. 421.</ref><ref>Naylor, H. Darnley. ''Horace Odes and Epodes: A study in word-order''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1922. p. 37.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.2307/4351533|jstor = 4351533|title = Structure and Design in Horace "Odes" 1. 17|year = 1994|last1 = Putnam|first1 = Michael C. J. |journal = The Classical World|volume = 87|issue = 5|pages = 357–375}}</ref><ref>Papaioannou, Sophia (2013). "Embracing Vergil’s 'Arcadia': Constructions and representations of a literary topos in the poetry of the Augustans". In: ''Acta Antiqua'' 53: 160–161. DOI: 10.1556/AAnt.53.2013.2-3.2.</ref> Also appears in the expression ''Semeleios Iakchus plutodotas'' ("Son of Semele, Iakchus, wealth-giver").<ref>Humphreys, S. C. ''The Strangeness of Gods: Historical perspectives on the interpretation of Athenian religion''. Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 235 (footnote nr. 34). {{ISBN|0-19-926923-8}}</ref>

'''Skyllitas''', ''Σκυλλίτας'' ("related to the vine-branch") at Kos.<ref>Hesych. σκυλλίς , κληματίς. Nilsson Vol. I , p.584.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=klhmati/s|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, κλημα^τ-ίς|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Sykites''', ''Συκίτης'' ("related to figs"), at Laconia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=su_k-i/ths&la=greek&can=su_k-i/ths0&d=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=suki/ths&i=1#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Taurophagus''', ''Ταυροφάγος'' ("bull eating").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=taurofa/gos|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, ταυρο-φάγος|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Tauros''' ''Ταῦρος'' ("a bull"), occurs as a surname of Dionysus.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Euripides.|title=The Bacchae|date=2019|publisher=Neeland Media LLC|isbn=978-1-4209-6184-3|oclc=1108536627}}</ref>

'''Theoinus''', ''Θέοινος'' (wine-god of a festival in Attica).<ref>Heshyh. Θεοίνια, Θέοινος Διόνυσος</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=qeoi/nos&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=qeoi/nia&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Τhyiοn''', ''Θυίων'' ("from the festival of Dionysus 'Thyia' ''(Θυῐα)'' at Elis").<ref>Paus.6.26.1</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=qui/a&la=greek#lexicon|title=Greek Word Study Tool|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

'''Thyllophorus''', ''Θυλλοφόρος'' ("bearing leaves"), at Kos.<ref>Hesych. θύλλα, φύλλα or κλάδοι.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=qu/lla|title=Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, θύλλα|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref>

In the Greek [[Pantheon (gods)|pantheon]], Dionysus (along with [[Zeus]]) absorbs the role of [[Sabazios]], a [[Thracians|Thracian]]/[[Phrygia]]n deity. In the [[Roman mythology|Roman pantheon]], Sabazius became an alternative name for Bacchus.<ref>Rosemarie Taylor-Perry, The God Who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited. Algora Press 2003, p. 89, cf. [[Sabazius]].</ref>

==Worship and festivals in Greece==
{{main|Cult of Dionysus}}
{{Ancient Greek religion}}
The worship of Dionysus had become firmly established by the seventh century BC.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tuKkxU4-ncC&q=dionysus+firmly+bc&pg=PA162|title=Backgrounds of Early Christianity|last=Ferguson|first=Everett|date=2003|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=9780802822215|language=en}}</ref> He may have been worshiped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by [[Mycenaean civilization|Mycenaean Greeks]];<ref>He appears as a likely theonym (divine name) in [[Linear B]] tablets as ''di-wo-nu-so'' ([[Chania|KH]] Gq 5 inscription),</ref><ref name="KHGq5" /> and traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient [[Minoan Crete]].<ref name=Kerenyi/>

===Dionysia===
{{main|Dionysia}}
The [[Dionysia]], [[Haloa]], [[Ascolia]] and [[Lenaia]] festivals were dedicated to Dionysus.<ref>McConachie, B., Nellhaus, T., Sorgenfrei, F. C., & Underiner, T. (2016). ''Theatre Histories: An Introduction'' (3rd ed.). Routledge.</ref> The [[Rural Dionysia]] (or Lesser Dionysia) was one of the oldest festivals dedicated to Dionysus, begun in [[Attica]], and probably celebrated the cultivation of wines. 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.<ref name=athens_festivals>Sir Arthur Pickard-Cambridge. The Dramatic Festivals of Athens. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953 (2nd ed. 1968). {{ISBN|0-19-814258-7}}</ref>

The City Dionysia (or Greater Dionysia) took place in urban centers such as [[Athens]] 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.<ref name=athens_festivals/><ref name=Brockett>Brockett, Oscar Gross (1968). History of the Theatre. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 18–26.</ref>

===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").<ref name=":0">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Anthesteria |volume= 2 | pages = 93–94 }}</ref> It was said the dead arose from the underworld during the span of the festival. Along with the souls of the dead, the [[Keres]] also wandered through the city and had to be banished when the festival ended.<ref name=":4">(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 [keres] wander about through the city at the Anthestria.</ref> On the first day, Wine vats were opened.<ref>(Plutarch, Table-talk, 655e.)

At Athens they inaugurate the new wine on the eleventh of the month, and they call the day pithoigia.</ref> The wine was opened and mixed in honour of the god.<ref>(Phanodemus, in Athenaeus, Deipnosophists XI. 456a; frag 12in FGrH 325.)

At the temple of Dionysus in Limnai ["The Marshes"] the Athenians bring the new wine from the jars age mix it in honour of the god and then they drink it themselves. Because of this custom Dionysus is called Limnaios, because the wine was mixed with water and then for the first time drunk diluted.</ref> The rooms and the drinking vessels were adorned with flowers along with children over three years of age.<ref name=":0" />

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 was closed for the rest of the year. The basilissa (or basilinna), wife of the basileus, underwent a symbolic ceremonial marriage to the god, possibly representing a [[Hieros gamos]]. The basilissa was assisted by fourteen Athenian matrons (called [[Gerarai]]) who were chosen by the basileus and sworn to secrecy.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Rice, David G. Stambaugh, John E.|title=Sources for the Study of Greek Religion Corrected Edition.|date=2014|publisher=Society of Biblical Literature|isbn=978-1-62837-067-6|oclc=893453849}}</ref>

The last day was dedicated to the dead. Offerings were also offered to [[Hermes]], due to his connection to the underworld. It was considered a day of merrymaking.<ref name=":0" /> Some poured [[Libation]]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.<ref name=":5" /> [[Keres]] were also banished from the festival on the last day.<ref name=":4" />

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 participate in the festivities.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" />

===Bacchic Mysteries===
{{main|Dionysian Mysteries|Orphism (religion)}}
[[File:Bacchic_procession,_Colosseum.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Marble relief of a Maenad and two satyrs in a Bacchic procession. AD 100, [[British Museum]], [[London]].]]
The central religious cult of Dionysus is known as the Bacchic or [[Dionysian Mysteries]]. The exact origin of this religion is unknown, though [[Orpheus]] was said to have invented the mysteries of Dionysus.<ref name="Apollodorus1.3.2">Pseudo-[[Apollodorus of Athens|Apollodorus]], ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Apollod.+1.3.2 ''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."</ref> Evidence suggests that many sources and rituals typically considered to be part of the similar [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic Mysteries]] actually belong to Dionysian mysteries.<ref name=iconography/> Some scholars have suggested that, additionally, there is no difference between the Dionysian mysteries and the mysteries of [[Persephone]], but that these were all facets of the same mystery religion, and that Dionysus and Persephone both had important roles in it.<ref name=iconography/><ref>Dickie, M.W. 1995. The Dionysiac Mysteries. In Pella, ZPE 109, 81–86.</ref> Previously considered to have been a primarily rural and fringe part of Greek religion, the major urban center of [[Athens]] played an important role in the development and spread of the Bacchic mysteries.<ref name=iconography/>

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 ritualising women's changing roles and celebrating changes of status in a woman's life. This was often symbolised by a meeting with the gods who rule over death and change, such as [[Hades]] and Persephone, but also with Dionysus's mother Semele, who probably served a role related to initiation into the mysteries.<ref name=iconography/>

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, 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]] tomb near [[Phaistos]] in Crete.<ref name=Kerenyi/>

===Eleusinian Mysteries===
[[File:Hans von Aachen - Bacchus, Ceres and Amor (?) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|''Bacchus, Ceres and Amor'', (1595–1605). Oil on canvas by [[Hans von Aachen]].]]
[[File:Naukratis Dionysus.jpg|thumb|right|Roman marble relief (first century AD) from [[Naukratis]] showing the Greek god Dionysus, snake-bodied and wearing an [[Egypt]]ian crown.]]

As early as the fifth century BC, Dionysus became identified with [[Iacchus]], a minor deity from the tradition of the [[Eleusinian Mysteries]].<ref>Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zmgXMbOtX9cC&pg=PA125 p. 125]; Bowie, A. M., p. 232; Harrison, [https://archive.org/details/prolegomenatostu00harr/page/540 pp. 540–542].</ref> This association may have arisen because of the homophony of the names Iacchus and Bacchus. Two [[black-figure]] [[Lekythos|lekythoi]] (c. 500 BC), possibly represent the earliest evidence for such an association. The nearly-identical vases, one in Berlin,<ref>[[Antikensammlung Berlin]] F1961 ([http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/1C4DA6AF-C361-4BE2-BD81-0CCBE7B2C1EA Beazley Archive 302354]).</ref> the other in Rome,<ref>[[National Etruscan Museum]] 42884, ([http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/C884C067-90A7-4F97-9E31-08D54C75039A Beazley Archive 9017720]).</ref> depict Dionysus, along with the inscription ''IAKXNE'', a possible miswriting of ''IAKXE''.<ref>Versnel, pp. 32 ff.; Bowie, A. M., p. 232.</ref> More early evidence can be found in the works of the fifth-century BC Athenian tragedians [[Sophocles]] and [[Euripides]].<ref>Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zmgXMbOtX9cC&pg=PA127 p. 127]; Graf 2005, "Iacchus".</ref> In [[Sophocles]]'s ''[[Antigone (Sophocles)|Antigone]]'' (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".<ref>Jiménez San Cristóbal 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FmTnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA279 p. 279], Bowie, A. M., pp. 232–233; Sophocles, ''Antigone'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg002.perseus-eng1:1115-1125 1115–1125], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg002.perseus-eng1:1146-1154 1146–1154]; Versnel, pp. 23–24. Jebb, in his [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0023%3Atext%3Dcomm%3Acommline%3D1146 note to line 1146 '''χοράγ᾽ ἄστρων'''], understands the Sophoclean use of the name "Iacchus" as specifically denoting the Eleusinian Dionysus.</ref> And in a fragment from a lost play, Sophocles describes [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]], Dionysus's 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".<ref>Jiménez San Cristóbal 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FmTnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA279 pp. 279–280]; Bowie, A. M., p. 233; [[Sophocles]], fragment 959 Radt (Lloyd-Jones, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/sophocles-fragments_not_assignable_any_play/1996/pb_LCL483.415.xml pp. 414, 415]).</ref> In [[Euripides]]'s ''[[The Bacchae|Bacchae]]'' (c. 405 BC), a messenger, describing the Bacchic revelries on mount [[Cithaeron]], associates Iacchus with [[Bromius]], another of the names of Dionysus, saying, they "began to wave the thyrsos&nbsp;... calling on Iacchus, the son of Zeus, Bromius, with united voice."<ref>Encinas Reguero, p. 350; Jiménez San Cristóbal 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FmTnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA282 p. 282, with n. 41]; Bowie, A. M., p. 233; [[Euripides]], ''[[The Bacchae|Bacchae]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg017.perseus-eng1:677-727 725]. Jiménez San Cristóbal also sees possible associations between Iacchus and Dionysus in Euripides: ''[[Ion (play)|Ion]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg010.perseus-eng1:1074-1089 1074–1086], ''[[The Trojan Women]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg011.perseus-eng1:1226-1231 1230], ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0006.tlg001.perseus-eng1:63-81 68–71], and fr. 586 Kannicht (''apud'' [[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.3.13 10.3.13]) = fr. 586 Nauck (Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.57.xml pp. 56, 57]).</ref>

An inscription found on a stone [[stele]] (c. 340 BC), found at [[Delphi]], contains a paean to Dionysus, which describes his travels.<ref>Bowie, E. L., [https://books.google.com/books?id=7MVWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 pp. 101–110]; Fantuzzi, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=K73Tt_X1YaoC&pg=PA189 189], [https://books.google.com/books?id=K73Tt_X1YaoC&pg=PA190 190], [https://books.google.com/books?id=K73Tt_X1YaoC&pg=PA191 191]; PHI Greek Inscriptions, [http://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/237910 BCH 19 (1895) 393].</ref> From [[Thebes, Greece|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",<ref>21–24, Bowie, E. L., [https://books.google.com/books?id=7MVWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 pp. 101–102].</ref> 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.<ref>27–35, Bowie, E. L., [https://books.google.com/books?id=7MVWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 p. 102].</ref>

[[Strabo]], says that Greeks "give the name 'Iacchus' not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries".<ref>[[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.3.10 10.3.10].</ref> In particular, Iacchus was identified with the [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]] Dionysus, who was a son of Persephone.<ref>Parker 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ff51JeXhHXUC&pg=PA358 p. 358]; Grimal, s.v. Iacchus, p. 224; Tripp, s.v. Iacchus, p. 313; Smith 1870, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DI%3Aentry+group%3D1%3Aentry%3Diacchus-bio-1 s.v. Iacchus].</ref> 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".<ref>Jiménez San Cristóbal 2013, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FmTnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA279 pp. 279–280]; [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.2], see also [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1–2].</ref> [[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".<ref>[[Arrian]], ''[[Anabasis of Alexander]]'' [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/arrian-anabasis_alexander/1976/pb_LCL236.181.xml?rskey=NlzLtT&result=1&mainRsKey=nBdH9M 2.16.3]</ref> The second-century poet [[Lucian]] also referred to the "dismemberment of Iacchus".<ref>[[Lucian]], ''De Saltatione'' ("The Dance") 39 ([https://archive.org/stream/lucianhar05luciuoft#page/250/mode/2up Harmon, pp. 250, 251]).</ref>

The fourth- or fifth-century poet [[Nonnus]] associated the name Iacchus with the "third" Dionysus. He described the Athenian celebrations given to the first Dionysus [[Zagreus]], son of [[Persephone]], the second Dionysus [[Bromios]], son of [[Semele]], and the third Dionysus Iacchus:
:They [the Athenians] 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.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/492/mode/2up 48.962–968].</ref>

By some accounts, Iacchus was the husband of Demeter.<ref>Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA134 p. 134]; Grimal, s.v. Iacchus, p. 224; Tripp, s.v. Iacchus, p. 313; Rose, ''Oxford Classical Dictionary'' s.v. Iacchus; scholiast on [[Aristophanes]], ''[[The Frogs|Frogs]]'' 324 (Rutherford 1896, [https://archive.org/stream/scholiaaristopha01ruthuoft#page/316/mode/2up p. 316]).</ref> Several other sources identify Iacchus as Demeter's son.<ref>Marcovich, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nh8VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA23 p. 23]; Parker 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ff51JeXhHXUC&pg=PA358 p. 358]; Graf 1974, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PDoL_7pzJhEC&pg=PA198 p. 198].</ref> The earliest such source, a fourth-century BC vase fragment at Oxford, shows Demeter holding the child Dionysus on her lap.<ref>Marcovich, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nh8VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA23 p. 23]; Bianchi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PxOeT0NWzwoC&pg=PA18 p. 18]; Graf 1974, [https://books.google.com/books?id=PDoL_7pzJhEC&pg=PA198 p. 198]; [[Ashmolean Museum]] at Oxford, Inv. 1956-355.</ref> By the first-century BC, Demeter suckling Iacchus had become such a common motif, that the Latin poet [[Lucretius]] could use it as an apparently recognisable example of a lover's euphemism.<ref>Parker 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ff51JeXhHXUC&pg=PA358 p. 358 n. 139]; [[Lucretius]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0550.phi001.perseus-eng1:4.1141-4.1191 4.1168–1169]. [[Arnobius]], ''Adversus Gentes'' [https://archive.org/stream/thesevenbooksofa00arnouoft#page/n183/mode/2up 3.10 (p. 157)] referring to the Lucretius verse, lists "the full-breasted Cerses nursing Iaccus" as a sight "the mind longs" to see. Compare with [[Photius]], [https://dcthree.github.io/photios-images/#nanogallery/photios/pages/02_00215_0 s.v. Ἴακχος] and [[Suda]], [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?login=guest&enlogin=guest&db=REAL&field=adlerhw_gr&searchstr=iota,16 s.v. Ἴακχος (iota,16)], which identify Iacchus with ''Διόνυσος ἐπὶ τῷ μαστῷ'' ('Dionysus at the breast').</ref> A scholiast on the second-century AD [[Aelius Aristides|Aristides]], explicitly names Demeter as Iacchus's mother.<ref>Parker 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ff51JeXhHXUC&pg=PA358 p. 358 n. 139]; scholiast on [[Aelius Aristides|Aristides]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=6N1EAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA648 Vol. 3, p. 648 213, 18 Dindorf].</ref>

===Orphism===
[[File:Satyr Bacchus Petit Palais ADUT00240.jpg|thumb|right|[[Satyr]] giving a [[grapevine]] to Bacchus as a child; [[cameo glass]], first half of the first century AD; from Italy]]
In the [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]] tradition, the "first Dionysus" was the son of [[Zeus]] and [[Persephone]], and was dismembered by the [[Titans]] before being reborn.<ref>Gantz, p. 118; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456.</ref> Dionysus was the patron god of the Orphics, who they connected to death and immortality, and he symbolised the one who guides the process of [[reincarnation]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Norman C.|last=McClelland|title=Encyclopedia of Reincarnation and Karma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S_Leq4U5ihkC |year=2010|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-5675-8|pages=76–77}}</ref>

This Orphic Dionysus is sometimes referred to with the alternate name [[Zagreus]] ({{langx|grc|Ζαγρεύς}}). The earliest mentions of this name in literature describe him as a partner of [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] and call him the highest god. [[Aeschylus]] linked Zagreus with Hades, as either Hades's son or Hades himself.<ref>Sommerstein, [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-attributed_fragments/2009/pb_LCL505.237.xml?result=1&rskey=f0foz8 p. 237 n. 1]; Gantz, p. 118; Smyth, [https://archive.org/stream/aeschyluswitheng02aescuoft#page/458/mode/2up p. 459].</ref> Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' ''katachthonios'' alter ego", [[Timothy Gantz]] 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.<ref>Gantz, p. 118.</ref> 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]] may have written about it in a now-lost source.<ref>Gantz, pp. 118–119; West 1983, pp. 152–154; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=335 pp. 309–311].</ref> Callimachus, as well as his contemporary [[Euphorion of Chalcis|Euphorion]], told the story of the dismemberment of the infant Dionysus,<ref>[[Callimachus]], fr. 643 Pfeiffer (= [[Euphorion of Chalcis|Euphorion]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euphorion_chalcis-poetic_fragments/2010/pb_LCL508.227.xml fr. 14 Lightfoot]); Gantz, p. 118–119; West 1983, p. 151; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=335 pp. 309–310].</ref> and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] 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.<ref>[[Callimachus]], fr. 43.117 Pfeiffer (= [https://books.google.com/books?id=a5YdwJJatoAC&pg=PA190 fr. 43b.34 Harder]); Harder, p. 368; Gantz, p. 118; West 1983, pp. 152–153; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=336 p. 310].</ref> 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]].<ref>Linforth, pp. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=337 311], [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=343 317–318]; [[Plutarch]], ''The E at Delphi'' [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-moralia_e_delphi/1936/pb_LCL306.223.xml?rskey=IgdtC4&result=1&mainRsKey=ndQO1U 389 A].</ref> The fifth century Greek poet [[Nonnus]]'s ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' tells the story of this Orphic Dionysus, in which Nonnus calls him the "older Dionysos &nbsp;... illfated Zagreus",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/208/mode/2up 5.564–565].</ref> "Zagreus the horned baby",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/224/mode/2up 6.165].</ref> "Zagreus, the first Dionysos",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/348/mode/2up 10.294].</ref> "Zagreus the ancient Dionysos",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/128/mode/2up 39.72].</ref> and "Dionysos Zagreus".<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/314/mode/2up 44.255].</ref>

==Worship and festivals in Rome==
Bacchus was most often known by that name in Rome and other locales in the Republic and Empire, although many "often called him Dionysus."<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last1=McIntosh |first1=Jane |title=History of the World in 1,000 Objects |last2=Chrisp |first2=Peter |last3=Parker |first3=Philip |last4=Gibson |first4=Carrie |last5=Grant |first5=R. G. |last6=Regan |first6=Sally |date=October 2014 |publisher=[[DK (publisher)|DK]] and the [[Smithsonian]] |isbn=978-1-4654-2289-7 |location=New York |page=83 |author-link=Jane McIntosh |author-link2=Peter Chrisp}}</ref>

===Liber and importation to Rome===
[[File:Colossal statue of Antinous as Dionysus-Osiris.jpg|left|thumb|Colossal statue of [[Antinous]] as Dionysus.]]
[[File:Wall painting - Dionysos with Helios and Aphrodite - Pompeii (VII 2 16) - Napoli MAN 9449 - 01.jpg|thumb|Dionysus with long torch sitting on a throne, with [[Helios]], [[Aphrodite]] and other gods. Antique fresco from [[Pompeii]].]]
The [[mystery cult]] of Bacchus was brought to [[Rome]] from the [[Magna Graecia|Greek culture of southern Italy]] or by way of Greek-influenced [[Etruria]]. It was established around 200 BC in the [[Aventine Hill|Aventine]] grove of [[Semele#Semele in Roman culture|Stimula]] by a [[Paculla Annia|priestess]] from [[Campania]], near the [[Aventine Triad|temple]] where [[Liber Pater]] ("the Free Father") had a State-sanctioned, popular cult. [[Liber]] was a native Roman god of wine, fertility, and prophecy, patron of Rome's [[plebeian]]s (citizen-commoners), and one of the members of the [[Aventine Triad]], 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]]. 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]].<ref>[[T. P. Wiseman]], "Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica", ''The Journal of Roman Studies'', Vol. 78 (1988), p. 7, note 52.</ref> Liber was often interchangeably identified with Dionysus and his mythology, though this identification was not universally accepted.<ref>Grimal, Pierre, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology''], Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}.[https://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&pg=PA259]</ref> Cicero insisted on the "non-identity of Liber and Dionysus" and described Liber and Libera as children of Ceres.<ref name=cicero/>

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.<ref name=cicero>Cicero, ''De Natura Deorum'', 2.6O. See also St Augustine, ''De Civitatis Dei'', 4.11.</ref> 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."<ref>See Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'', 7.57 (ed. Bostock) at Perseus: [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137&layout=&loc=7.57 Tufts.edu]</ref> 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".<ref name="Mary Beard 2007, pp. 315">[[Mary Beard (classicist)|Beard, Mary]]: ''The Roman Triumph'', The Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]], Cambridge, Mass., and London, England, 2007, pp. 315–317.</ref>

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.<ref name=Kerenyi/> 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".<ref name="Mary Beard 2007, pp. 315"/>

===Bacchanalia===
{{Main|Bacchanalia}}
[[File:Sacrificio a Baco (Massimo Stanzione).jpg|thumb|left|''Sacrifice to Bacchus''. Oil on canvas by [[Massimo Stanzione]], c. 1634]]
In Rome, the most well-known festivals of Bacchus were the [[Bacchanalia]], based on the earlier Greek Dionysia festivals. These Bacchic rituals were said to have included [[Omophagia|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.<ref>Russell, Bertrand. History of Western Philosophy.Routledge, 1996, p. 25</ref><ref>Kraemer, Ross S. "Ecstasy and Possession: The Attraction of Women to the Cult of Dionysus." The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 72 60 Jan.–Apr. 1979.</ref>

[[File:Schutze Bacchus.jpg|thumb|right|''Bacchus with leopard'' (1878) by [[Johann Wilhelm Schütze]]]]
In [[Livy]]'s account (late 1st century BC), 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.<ref>... "the Bacchic passages in the Roman drama, taken over from their Greek models, presented a pejorative image of the Bacchic cult which predisposed the Romans towards persecution before the consul denounced the cult in 186." Robert Rouselle, Liber-Dionysus in Early Roman Drama, ''The Classical Journal'', 82, 3 (1987), p. 193.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |quote=Certainly it is hard to imagine anything less consistent with Roman [[mos maiorum]] than the anarchic hedonism of satyrs. It was precisely libido, that morally subversive aspect of the Bacchic cult, that led to its brutal suppression&nbsp;... |author-link=T. P. Wiseman |last=Wiseman |first=T.P. |title=Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |year=1988 |volume=78 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.2307/301447 |jstor=301447 |s2cid=161849654 |url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/301447 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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]]'' (186 BC) was distributed throughout Roman and allied Italy. It banned the former Bacchic cult organisations. Each meeting must seek prior senatorial approval through a [[praetor]]. 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 Roman culture, Liber, Bacchus and Dionysus became virtually interchangeable equivalents. Thanks to his mythology involving travels and struggles on earth, Bacchus became [[Euhemerism|euhemerised]] as a historical hero, conqueror, and founder of cities. He was a patron deity and founding hero at [[Leptis Magna]], birthplace of the emperor [[Septimius Severus]], who promoted his cult. In some Roman sources, the ritual procession of Bacchus in a tiger-drawn chariot, surrounded by maenads, satyrs and drunkards, commemorates the god's triumphant return from the conquest of India. [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] believed this to be the historical prototype for the [[Roman Triumph]].<ref>Pliny attributes the invention of the triumph to "Father [[Liber]]" (who by Pliny's time was identified with Bacchus and Dionysus): see Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'', 7.57 (ed. Bostock) at Perseus: [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137&layout=&loc=7.57 Tufts.edu]</ref>
{{clear}}

==Post-classical worship==
===Late Antiquity===
[[File:Bacchus_-_Paris-2010-_Musée_du_Louvre.jpg|thumb|180px|left|Statue of Bacchus, Paris, [[Louvre Museum]] (second century AD)]]

In the [[Neoplatonist]] philosophy and religion of [[Late Antiquity]], the Olympian gods were sometimes considered to number 12 based on their spheres of influence. For example, according to [[Sallustius (Neoplatonist)|Sallustius]], "Jupiter, Neptune, and Vulcan fabricate the world; Ceres, Juno, and Diana animate it; Mercury, Venus, and Apollo harmonise it; and, lastly, Vesta, Minerva, and Mars preside over it with a guarding power."<ref name=sallustius>Sallustius, ''On Gods and the World'', ch. VI.</ref> The multitude of other gods, in this belief system, subsist within the primary gods, and Sallustius taught that Bacchus subsisted in Jupiter.<ref name=sallustius/>

In the [[Orphic]] tradition, a saying was supposedly given by an oracle of [[Apollo]] that stated "[[Zeus]], [[Hades]], [and] [[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'', [[Julian (emperor)|Emperor Julian]] substituted Dionysus's name with that of [[Serapis]], whose Egyptian counterpart [[Osiris]] was also identified with Dionysus.

===Worship from the Middle Ages to the Modern period===
[[File:Paulus Bor - Bacchus - WGA02449.jpg|thumb|Bacchus by [[Paulus Bor]]]]
Three centuries after the reign of [[Theodosius I]] which saw the [[Persecution of pagans under Theodosius I|outlawing of pagan worship]] across the Roman Empire, the 692 [[Quinisext Council]] in Constantinople felt it necessary to warn Christians against participating in persisting rural worship of Dionysus, specifically mentioning and prohibiting the feast day [[Brumalia]], "the public dances of women", ritual cross-dressing, the wearing of Dionysiac masks, and the invoking of Bacchus's name when "squeez[ing] out the wine in the presses" or "when pouring out wine into jars".<ref>''Concilium Constantinopolitanum a. 691/2 in Trullo habitum''. Canon 62. H. Ohme (ed.) Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, Series Secunda II: Concilium Universale Constantinopolitanum Tertium, Pars 4. {{ISBN|978-3-11-030853-2}}. Berlin/Boston Oktober 2013.</ref>

According to the [[Lanercost Chronicle|Lanercost chronicle]], during [[Easter]] 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maxwell|first1=Herbert|title=The Chronicle of Lanercost, 1272–1346|url=https://archive.org/details/chronicleoflaner02maxw|date=1913|publisher=Glasgow : J. Maclehose|location=Glasgow, Scotland|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chronicleoflaner02maxw/page/29 29]–30}}</ref> Historian C. S. Watkins believes that Richard of Durham, the author of the chronicle, identified an occurrence of [[apotropaic magic]] (by making use of his knowledge of [[ancient Greek religion]]), rather than recording an actual case of the survival of a pagan ritual.<ref>C. S. Watkins: ''History and the Supernatural in Medieval England'', Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2007, pp. 88–92.</ref>

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 (mythology)|Flora]]. Today one can still see the statue of Dionysus left behind in the [[Hellfire Caves]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ashe |first1= Geoffrey |title= The Hell-Fire Clubs: A History of Anti-Morality |url=https://archive.org/details/hellfireclubshis0000ashe |url-access=registration |date=2000 |publisher= Sutton Publishing |location= Gloucestershire |page=[https://archive.org/details/hellfireclubshis0000ashe/page/114 114] |isbn= 9780750924023 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Bayles |first1= Richard |title= History of Windham County, Connecticut |url= https://archive.org/details/historyofwindham00bayl |date=1889 |publisher= New York, Preston }}</ref>

[[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).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ysee.gr/greekwheel.html |title=Hearth of Hellenism: The Greek Wheel of the Year|last= Nasios|first= A.|accessdate= 24 January 2009 |website=www.ysee.gr}}</ref> In addition to libations of wine, modern worshipers of Dionysus offer the god grape vines, ivy, and various forms of incense, particularly [[styrax]].<ref>Christos Pandion Panopoulos, Panagiotis Meton Panagiotopoulos, Erymanthos Armyras, Mano Rathamanthys Madytinos (Editor, Translator), Lesley Madytinou (Editor, Translator), Vasilios Cheiron Tsantilas. 2014. ''Hellenic Polytheism: Household Worship''. {{ISBN|1503121887}}.</ref> They may also celebrate Roman festivals such as the Liberalia (17 March, close to the [[Spring equinox (Northern Hemisphere)|Spring Equinox]]) or [[Bacchanalia]] (Various dates), and various Greek festivals such as the [[Anthesteria]], [[Lenaia]], and the Greater and Lesser [[Dionysia]]s, the dates of which are calculated by the [[lunar calendar]].<ref>{{cite web |title= Dionysus |url= http://www.neokoroi.org/religion/gods/dionysus/ |website= Neokoroi.org |publisher= Neokoroi |access-date= 3 August 2017}}</ref>

==Identification with other gods==
===Osiris===
[[File:Triptych Panel with Painted Image of Serapis - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Painted wood panel depicting Serapis, who was considered the same god as Osiris, Hades, and Dionysus in [[Late Antiquity]]. Second century AD.]]
In the [[interpretatio graeca|Greek interpretation]] of the [[Ancient Egyptian deities|Egyptian pantheon]], Dionysus was often identified with [[Osiris]].<ref>Rutherford 2016, [https://books.google.com/books?id=oBqHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA67 p. 67].</ref> Stories of the dismembering of [[Osiris]] and his re-assembly and resurrection by [[Isis]] closely parallel those of the Orphic Dionysus and Demeter.<ref>Rutherford 2016, [https://books.google.com/books?id=oBqHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA69 p. 69].</ref> According to Diodorus Siculus,<ref>Diod. [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#6 4.6.3].</ref> as early as the fifth century BC, the two gods had been syncretised as a single deity known as [[Dionysus-Osiris]]. The most notable record of this belief is found in [[Herodotus]]'s '[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Herodotus |title=Histories |publisher=George Rawlinson Translation |at=Book 2 }}</ref> [[Plutarch]] was of the same opinion, recording  his belief that Osiris and Dionysus were identical and stating that anyone familiar with the secret rituals associated with the two gods would recognise obvious parallels between them, noting that the myths of their dismembering and their associated public symbols constituted sufficient additional evidence to prove that they were, in fact the same god worshiped by the two cultures under different names.<ref>Plutarch, ''Isis and Osiris''. Trans. Frank Cole Babbitt, 1936.</ref>

Other syncretic Greco-Egyptian deities arose out of this conflation, including with the gods [[Serapis]] 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kampakoglou |first1=Alexandros v |title=Danaus βουγενής: Greco-Egyptian Mythology and Ptolemaic Kingship |date=2016 |publisher=Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies |pages=119–122 }}</ref> This association was most notable during a deification ceremony where [[Mark Antony]] became Dionysus-Osiris, alongside [[Cleopatra]] as Isis-Aphrodite.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Kenneth |title=Octavian's Propaganda and Antony's De Sua Ebrietate |date=1929 |publisher=Classical Philology |pages=133–141|edition=24th}}</ref>

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's penis, which since none of them "was willing to take it with him", they threw into the river. Isis, Osiris's wife, hunted down and killed the Titans, reassembled Osiris's 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."<ref>Diod. [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/1A*.html#21 1.21.1–3]</ref>

===Hades===
[[File:Locri Pinax Of Persephone And Hades.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Pinax of Persephone and Hades on the throne, from the holy shrine of Persephone at Locri.]]
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.<ref>Heraclitus, encountering the festival of the ''Phallophoria'', in which [[Phallus|phalli]] were paraded about, remarked in a surviving fragment: "If they did not order the procession in honor of the god and address the phallus song to him, this would be the most shameless behavior. But Hades is the same as Dionysos, for whom they rave and act like [[bacchantes]]", Kerényi 1976, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA239 pp. 239–240].</ref> Among other evidence, [[Karl Kerényi]] notes in his book<ref>Kerényi 1967.</ref> that the Homeric Hymn "To Demeter",<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerényi:'' "The Hymn tells us that Persephone was abducted in Nysion pedion, or the Nysian Plain, a plain that was named after the Dionysian mountain of Nysa. Nysa was regarded as the birthplace and first home of Dionysus. The divine marriage of Plouton and Persephone was celebrated on 'the meadow'. The dangerous region that Kore let herself be lured to in search of flowers was likely not originally connected to Plouton but to Dionysus, as Dionysus himself had the strange surname of 'the gaping one', though despite this the notion that the wine god in his quality as the Lord of the Underworld does not appear on the surface of the hymn. People would not be able to detect the hidden meaning it if it wasn’t for archaic vase portrayals." ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter'' [pp. 34, 35].

"The Hymn to Demeter later mentions that Queen Metaneira of Eleusis later offers the disguised Demeter a beaker of sweet wine, something that Demeter refuses on the grounds that it would be against themis, the very nature of order and justice, for her to drink red wine and she instead invents a new beverage called kykeon to drink instead. The fact that Demeter refuses to drink wine on the grounds that it would be against themis indicates that she is well aware of who Persephone's abductor is, that it is the Subterranean cover name of Dionysus. The critic of the mysteries, the severe philosopher Herakleitos once declared "Hades is the same as Dionysos." The subterranean wine god was the ravisher, so how could Demeter accept something that was his gift to mankind" [p. 40]</ref> votive marble images<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerényi:''

"The book later refers to Herakles initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries so that he may enter the Underworld. In the iconography after his initiation Herakles in shown wearing a fringed white garment with a Dionysian deerskin thrown over it. Kore is shown with her mother Demeter and a snake twined around the Mystery basket, foreshadowing the secret, as making friends with snakes was Dionysian [p. 58].
The god of the Anthesteria was Dionysus, who celebrated his marriage in Athens amid flowers, the opening of wine jars, and the rising up of the souls of the dead [p. 149].
There are two reliefs in a marble votive relief of the fourth century BC. One depicts Kore crowning her mother Demeter, the deities at the second altar are Persephone and her husband Dionysus as the recumbent god has the features of the bearded Dionysus rather than of Plouton. In his right hand, he raises not a cornucopia, the symbol of wealth, but a wine vessel and in his left, he bears the goblet for the wine. Over their heads an inscription reads "To the God and Goddess" [pp. 151, 152].
The fragments of a gilded jar cover of the Kerch type show Dionysus, Demeter, little Ploutos, Kore, and a curly-haired boy clad in a long garment, one of the first son's of the Eleusinian king who was the first to be initiated.
On another vase, Dionysus sits on his omphalos with his thryrsos in his left hand, sitting opposite Demeter, looking at each other severely. Kore is shown moving from Demeter towards Dionysus, as if trying to reconcile them [p. 162]. ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter''</ref> and epithets<ref>''Summary of Karl Kerényi:''

Kore and Thea are two different duplications of Persephone; Plouton and Theos are duplications of the subterranean Dionysus. The duplication of the mystery god as subterranean father and subterranean son, as Father Zagreus and the child Zagreus, husband and son of Persephone, has more to do with the mysteries of Dionysus than with the Eleusinian Mysteries. But a duplication of the chthonian, mystical Dionysus is provided even by his youthful aspect, which became distinguished and classical as the son of Semele from the son of Persephone. Semele, though not of Eleusinian origin, is also a double of Persephone [p. 155]. ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter''</ref> 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]]'' (the very nature of order and justice) 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.<ref>Kerényi 1967, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ds1Wg01wzeYC&pg=PA40 p. 40].</ref> He suggests that this dual identity may have been familiar to those who came into contact with the [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Mysteries]].<ref>Kerényi 1976, p.&nbsp;240.</ref> One of the epithets of Dionysus was "Chthonios", meaning "the subterranean".<ref>Kerényi 1976, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA83 83], [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA199 199].</ref>

[[File:Αναθηματικό ανάγλυφο με τον Διόνυσο και τον Πλούτωνα 9888.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Votive relief of Dionysus and [[Pluto (mythology)|Pluto]] with adorant. Fourth century BC. From [[Karystos]], Archaeological Museum of [[Chalcis]].]]

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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=What is a God?: Studies in the Nature of Greek Divinity|last=Loyd |first=Alan B|publisher= The Classical Press of Wales |year=2009|isbn= 978-1905125357|quote=The identification of Hades and Dionysus does not seem to be a particular doctrine of Herakleitos, nor does it commit him to monotheism. The evidence for a cult connection between the two is quite extensive, particularly in Southern Italy, and the Dionysiac mysteries are associated with death rituals.}}</ref> Statues of Dionysus<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.my-favourite-planet.de/images/people/d-01/dionysus/athens_dj-28082013-2-0833c_dionysus-eleusis.jpg|format=JPG|title=Photographic image|website=My-favourite-planet.de|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.my-favourite-planet.de/images/people/d-01/dionysus/athens_dj-28082013-2-0826d_dionysus-eleusis.jpg|format=JPG|title=Photographic image|website=My-favourite-planet.de|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref> found in the Ploutonion at Eleusis give 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),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/NAMA_181_Eubouleus_2.JPG/477px-NAMA_181_Eubouleus_2.JPG|format=JPG|title=Photographic image|website=Upload.wikimedia.org}}</ref><ref name = kerenyi1723>''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].</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ds1Wg01wzeYC&pg=PA172 p. 172].</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter|last=Kerényi|first=Karl|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=1991|isbn=9780691019154}}</ref><ref name = kerenyi1723/> 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's 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=London+B+425&object=Vase|title=London B 425 (Vase)|website=Perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref> 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]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=Rigoglioso>{{Cite book|title=Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity|last=Rigoglioso|first=Marguerite|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2010|isbn=978-0-230-11312-1}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Rigoglioso/>

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".<ref name=Rigoglioso/> 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The God who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited|last=Taylor-Perry|first=Rosemarie|publisher=Barnes & Noble|year=2003|isbn=9780875862309|pages=4, 22, 91, 92, 94, 168}}</ref> According to Rosemarie Taylor-Perry,<ref name=":2"/><ref name=Rigoglioso/><blockquote>it is often mentioned that Zeus, Hades and Dionysus were all attributed to being the exact same god&nbsp;... 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.</blockquote>

===Sabazios and Yahweh===
[[File:HandOfSabazius.JPG|thumb|Bronze hand used in the worship of Sabazios ([[British Museum]]).<ref name="britishmuseum">{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=463786&partId=1&people=94919&peoA=94919-1-9&page=1|publisher=britishmuseum.org|title= British Museum Collection |access-date=6 March 2017}}</ref> Roman first–second century AD. Hands decorated with religious symbols were designed to stand in sanctuaries or, like this one, were attached to poles for processional use.<ref name="britishmuseum2">{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=465292&partId=1&people=94919&peoA=94919-1-9&page=1|website=Britishmuseum.org|title= British Museum Collection |access-date=6 March 2017}}</ref>]]
The [[Phrygia]]n god [[Sabazios]] was alternately identified with Zeus or with Dionysus. The Byzantine Greek encyclopedia, ''[[Suda]]'' (c. tenth century), stated:<ref>Sudas, under "Sabazios", "saboi"; Sider, David. "Notes on Two Epigrams of Philodemus". ''The American Journal of Philology'', '''103'''.2 (Summer 1982:208–213) pp. 209ff.</ref> <blockquote>Sabazios&nbsp;... 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]]&nbsp;... 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.</blockquote>

[[Strabo]], in the first century, linked Sabazios with Zagreus among Phrygian ministers and attendants of the sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos.<ref>Strabo, ''Geography'', 10.3.15.</ref> Strabo's Sicilian contemporary, [[Diodorus Siculus]], conflated Sabazios with the secret Dionysus, born of Zeus and Persephone,<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], 4.4.1.</ref> However, this connection is not supported by any surviving inscriptions, which are entirely to ''Zeus Sabazios''.<ref>E.N. Lane has taken pains to dismiss this widespread conflation: Lane, "Towards a definition of the iconography of Sabazios", ''Numen'' '''27''' (1980:9–33), and ''Corpus Cultis Jovis Sabazii:'', in ''Études Préliminaires aux Religions Orientales dans l'Empire Romain: Conclusions'' '''100'''.3 (Leiden, etc: Brill) 1989.</ref>

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]] 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 M. 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".<ref>McDonough 1999, pp. 88–90</ref>

==Mythology==
[[File:Roman - Sarcophagus Depicting the Birth of Dionysus - Walters 2333.jpg|left|thumb|350px|Birth of Dionysus, on a small sarcophagus that may have been made for a child ([[Walters Art Museum]])<ref>{{cite web|publisher= [[The Walters Art Museum]]|url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/16574|title= Sarcophagus Depicting the Birth of Dionysus}}</ref>]]
[[File:Römischer Meister um 20 001.jpg|thumb|The education of Dionysus. Fresco, now in the [[Museo Nazionale Romano]], Rome, {{Circa|20 AD}}]]

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 harmonise the various accounts of Dionysus's 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,<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.1].</ref> 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."<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.5].</ref> He also said that Dionysus "was thought to have two forms&nbsp;... the ancient one having a long beard, because all men in early times wore long beards, and the younger one being long-haired, youthful and effeminate and young."<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#5 4.5.2].</ref>

[[File:Dionysus, marble bust Knossos, 2nd century AD, AMH, 145410.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Marble bust of youthful Dionysus. Knossos, second century AD. [[Archaeological Museum of Heraklion]].]]
[[File:Protome bearded Dionysus early 4 c BC, Prague Kinsky, NM-HM10 7671, 140956.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Wall protome of a bearded Dionysus. [[Boeotia]], early fourth century BC.]]

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;<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#75 5.75.4], noted by Kerényi 1976, "The Cretan core of the Dionysos myth" p. 111 n. 213 and pp. 110–114.</ref> 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]]'s epic ''Dionysiaca'', which discusses three incarnations of Dionysus similar to Diodorus's 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]] (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]], while Diodorus says he is also considered identical with [[Sabazius]].<ref name=diodiii/> 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.<ref name=diodiii/>
[[File:Mascherone di dioniso in bronzo, già attacco di un manico in una situla o simile, 200-100 ac. ca.JPG|thumb|left|200px|Bronze mask depicting Dionysus bearded and horned, c. 2nd century BC, height 21.4 cm.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1989-0130-1|title=situla-fitting &#124; British Museum|website=The British Museum}}</ref>]]

The Greek poet [[Nonnus]] 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)<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 4. 268 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref> 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)<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 562 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref> 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's 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)<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 6. 155 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref>

====Interpretation====
[[File:Dionysos Indians Massimo.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Mosaic of Dionysus fighting the Indians, [[Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne|Palazzo Massimo]] Rome, 4th century AD]]
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 earliest attestation of this myth of the dismemberment and rebirth of Dionysus comes from the 1st century BC, in the works of [[Philodemus]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]].<ref>Henrichs, p. 61.</ref> Later, Neoplatonists such as [[Damascius]] and [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodorus]] added a number of further elements to the myth, including the punishment of the Titans by Zeus for their act, their destruction by a thunderbolt from his hand, and the subsequent birth of humankind from their ashes; however, whether any of these elements were part of the original myth is the subject of debate among scholars.<ref>Meisner, pp. 249&ndash;50; Graf and Johnston, pp. 195&ndash;6 n. 7 to p. 65.</ref> The dismemberment of Dionysus (the ''[[sparagmos]]'') has often been considered the most important myth of Orphism.<ref>According to Meisner, p. 238, "[o]ver the last two centuries, many scholars have considered this narrative of Dionysus and the Titans to have been the central, defining myth of Orphism". See, for example, Nilsson, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1508326?seq=1 p. 202], who calls it "the cardinal myth of Orphism", and Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA107 p. 107], who describes the myth as "the central point of Orphic story". According to Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333 p. 307], it is "commonly regarded as essentially and peculiarly Orphic and the very core of the Orphic religion", while Parker 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dsOEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA495 p. 495], writes that "it has been seen as the Orphic 'arch-myth'.</ref>

Many modern sources identify this "Orphic Dionysus" with the god [[Zagreus]], though this name does not seem to have been used by any of the ancient Orphics, who simply called him Dionysus.<ref>According to Gantz, p. 118, 'Orphic sources preserved seem not to use the name "Zagreus", and according to West 1983, p. 153, the 'name was probably not used in the Orphic narrative'. Edmonds 1999, p. 37 n. 6 says: 'Lobeck 1892 seems to be responsible for the use of the name Zagreus for the Orphic Dionysos. As Linforth noticed, "It is a curious thing that the name Zagreus does not appear in any Orphic poem or fragment, nor is it used by any author who refers to Orpheus" (Linforth 1941:[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=337 311]). In his reconstruction of the story, however, Lobeck made extensive use of the fifth-century epic of Nonnos, who does use the name Zagreus, and later scholars followed his cue. The association of Dionysos with Zagreus appears first explicitly in a fragment of Callimachus preserved in the Etymologicum Magnum (fr. 43.117 P), with a possible earlier precedent in the fragment from Euripides ''Cretans'' (fr. 472 Nauck). Earlier evidence, however, (e.g., ''Alkmaionis'' fr. 3 PEG; Aeschylus frr. 5, 228) suggests that Zagreus was often identified with other deities.'</ref> As pieced together from various ancient sources, the reconstructed story, usually given by modern scholars, goes as follows.<ref>West 1983, pp. 73–74, provides a detailed reconstruction with numerous cites to ancient sources, with a summary on p. 140. For other summaries see Morford, p. 311; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]; March, [https://archive.org/stream/March.Jenny_Cassells.Dictionary.of.Classical.Mythology#page/n787/mode/2up s.v. Zagreus, p. 788]; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456; Burkert, pp. 297–298; Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA82 p. 82]; also see Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA80 p. 80]. For a detailed examination of many of the ancient sources pertaining to this myth see Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333 pp. 307–364]. The most extensive account in ancient sources is found in [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/206/mode/2up 5.562–70], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/224/mode/2up 6.155 ff.], other principal sources include [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62.6–8] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 301 Kern]), [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1–2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.1–2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#75 5.75.4] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 303 Kern]); [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:6.87-6.145 6.110–114]; [[Athenagoras of Athens]], ''Legatio'' 20 [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_II/A_Plea_for_the_Christians#cite_ref-66 Pratten] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/138/mode/2up fr. 58 Kern]); [[Clement of Alexandria]], '' [[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/clementofalexand00clem#page/36/mode/2up 2.15 pp. 36–39 Butterworth] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up frs. 34, 35 Kern]); [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 155, 167; ''[[Suda]]'' s.v. [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&searchstr=zeta,4&field=adlerhw_gr&num_per_page=1 Ζαγρεύς]. See also [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:7.18.4 7.18.4], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.37.5 8.37.5].</ref> 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.<ref>Damascius, Commentary on the Phaedo, I, 170, see in translation Westerink, ''The Greek Commentaries on [[Plato]]'s Phaedo'', vol. II (The Prometheus Trust, Westbury) 2009</ref>

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.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1]; also noted by Kerény (110 note 214).</ref> 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", symbolising 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.<ref name=diodiii>[[Diodorus Siculus]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62–74].</ref>

===Second birth===
[[File:Jupiter and Semele by Gustave Moreau.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Jupiter and Semele|Jupiter et Sémélé]]''. Oil on canvas by [[Gustave Moreau]], 1895.]]
The birth narrative given by [[Gaius Julius Hyginus]] ({{Circa|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]], 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'').<ref>Hyginus, ''Fabulae'' CLXVII</ref>

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).<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 7. 14 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref>

[[File:Sebastiano_Ricci_-_Dionysus_(1695).jpg|thumb|left|''Jove and Semele'' (c. 1695) by [[Sebastiano Ricci]]]]
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 realisation that she herself had been the tree. Her father Cadmus, fearful of the prophetic dream, instructed Semele to make sacrifices to Zeus.<ref name=":8" /> Semele became a priestess of the god and, on one occasion, she was observed by Zeus as she slaughtered a bull at his altar and afterwards swam in the river [[Asopus]] to cleanse herself of the blood. Flying over the scene in the guise of an eagle, Zeus fell in love with Semele and repeatedly visited her secretly.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' 7.110-8.177 {{Harv|Dalby|2005|pp=19–27, 150}}</ref> The first time he came to Semele in her bed, he was 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).<ref name=":8">Nonnus, Dionysiaca 7. 139 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref>

[[File:Dyonisus Archmus Heraklion.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Bust of Dionysus, Archaeological Museum of Heraklion.]]
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's 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 that 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).<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 8. (trans. Rouse)</ref> 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.<ref name=dion.9/>

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 (mythology)|Nysa]] (Dionysus's traditional childhood home). Ammon brought Dionysus into a cave where he was to be cared for by Nysa, a daughter of the hero [[Aristaeus]].<ref name=diodiii/> 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]].<ref name=diodiii/>

====Interpretation====
[[File:Delos Museum Mosaik Dionysos 05.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Hellenistic art|Hellenistic Greek]] [[mosaic]] depicting the god [[Dionysos]] as a winged [[daimon]] riding on a tiger, from [[Mosaics of Delos|the House of Dionysos]] at [[Delos]] (which [[History of Delos|was once controlled]] by [[History of Athens|Athens]]) in the [[South Aegean]] [[Administrative regions of Greece|region]] of [[Greece]], late second century BC, [[Archaeological Museum of Delos]]]]
Even in antiquity, the account of Dionysus's 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 4th-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]].<ref name=julian>Julian, trans. by Emily Wilmer Cave Wright. To the Cynic Heracleios. ''The Works of the Emperor Julian'', volume II (1913) Loeb Classical Library.</ref>

===Infancy===
[[File:Hermes di Prassitele, at Olimpia, front.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Hermes and the Infant Dionysus]]'' by [[Praxiteles]] ([[Archaeological Museum of Olympia]])]]
According to Nonnus, Zeus gave the infant Dionysus to the care of [[Hermes]]. 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's account, Hermes instructed Ino to raise Dionysus as a girl, to hide him from Hera's wrath.<ref>Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes. {{ISBN|0-674-99135-4|0-674-99136-2}}</ref> 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.<ref name=dion.9>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 9. (trans. Rouse)</ref>

Another version is that Dionysus was taken to the rain-[[nymph]]s of [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]], 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]].<ref>Conner, Nancy. "The Everything Book of Classical Mythology" 2ed</ref>

[[File:Giovanni_bellini,_Young_Bacchus.jpg|thumb|left|''The Infant Bacchus'', painting (c. 1505–1510) by [[Giovanni Bellini]]]]
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]]".<ref>''Homeric Hymn 1 to Dionysus'' : ‘There is a certain Nysa, mountain high, with forests thick, in Phoinike afar, close to Aigyptos' (Egypt's) streams.’</ref> 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).<ref>''Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 2. 3'' (trans. Oldfather) : "Zeus taking up the child [i.e. Dionysos from the dead body of his mother Semele], handed it over to Hermes, and ordered him to take it to the cave in Nysa, which lay between Phoinikia (Phoenicia) and the Neilos (the River Nile), where he should deliver it to the Nymphai (Nymphs) that they should rear it and with great solicitude bestow upon it the best of care.</ref>
According to [[Herodotus]]:

{{blockquote|As it is, the Greek story has it that no sooner was Dionysus born than Zeus sewed him up in his thigh and carried him away to [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]] in Ethiopia beyond [[Egypt]]; and as for [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]], the Greeks do not know what became of him after his birth. It is therefore plain to me that the Greeks learned the names of these two gods later than the names of all the others, and trace the birth of both to the time when they gained the knowledge.|Herodotus, ''Histories'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.146.2 2.146.2]}}

The ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|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."<ref>Photius, ''Library;'' "Ptolemy Chennus, New History" [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/photius_copyright/photius_05bibliotheca.htm#190 Book 4]</ref>

===Travels and invention of wine===
[[File:Bacchus en Ampelos, Francesco Righetti, 1782.jpg|thumb|left|200px|''Bacchus and Ampelos'' by [[Francesco Righetti]] (1782)]]
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;<ref>Bull, 255</ref> 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.<ref>[[Arrian]], ''[[Anabasis of Alexander]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/arrian-anabasis_alexander/1976/pb_LCL269.3.xml 5.1.1–2.2]</ref> These travels took something of the form of military conquests; according to [[Diodorus Siculus]] he conquered the whole world except for Britain and [[Ethiopia]].<ref>Bull, 253</ref>

[[File:Alinari - Bacco e Ampelo.jpg|180px|thumb|right|''Bacchus and Ampelus''. Pre-1865 image of a Renaissance (partly Roman) statue in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.]]
Another myth according to [[Nonnus]] involves [[Ampelos|Ampelus]], a [[satyr]], who was loved by Dionysus. As related by [[Ovid]], Ampelus became the constellation ''Vindemitor'', or the "grape-gatherer":<ref>Ovid, ''Fasti'', iii. 407 ff. (James G. Frazer, translator).</ref> <blockquote><small>... 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."</small></blockquote> Another story of Ampelus was related by [[Nonnus]]: 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.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/340/mode/2up 10.175–430], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/358/mode/2up/search/Ampelos 11], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/396/mode/2up/search/Ampelos 12.1–117] {{Harv|Dalby|2005|pp=55–62}}.</ref>

===Return to Greece===
[[File:Badakshan patera Triumph of Bacchus.jpg|thumb|left|[[Badakshan]] [[patera]], "Triumph of Bacchus" (first–fourth century).<ref>The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity, John Boardman, Princeton University Press 1993, p.96</ref> [[British Museum]].]]
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]]'s play ''[[The Bacchae]]'', 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's 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.
[[File:Death Pentheus Louvre G445.jpg|thumb|right|Pentheus torn apart by Agave and Ino. Attic red-figure ''[[lekanis]]'' (cosmetics bowl) lid, c. 450–425 BC (Louvre)]]

Dionysus uses his divine powers to drive Pentheus insane, then invites him to spy on the ecstatic rituals of the [[Maenad]]s, 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's 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's description of this sparagmos was as follows:

{{quote|"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 thyrsus, like a lions's, to wave in joyful triumph at her hunt."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eripides |title=Bacchae |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |year=2014 |pages=lines 112-1141 |translator-last=Robertson |translator-first=Robin}}</ref>}}

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.<ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Bacchae]]''.</ref>

[[File:Lycurgus Cup red BM MME1958.12-2.1.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Lycurgus of Thrace|Lycurgus]] trapped by the vine, on the [[Lycurgus Cup]]]]
In the Iliad, when King [[Lycurgus of Thrace]] heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned Dionysus's followers, the [[Maenad]]s. 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.<ref>{{Citation|author=Homer.|title=The Iliad|isbn=978-2-291-06449-7|oclc=1130228845}}</ref><ref>Homer, Iliad 6. 129 ff (trans. Lattimore):

"I will not fight against any god of the heaven, since even the son of Dryas, Lykourgos the powerful, did not live long; he who tried to fight with the gods of the bright sky, who once drove the fosterers of Mainomenos (rapturous) Dionysos headlong down the sacred Nyseian hill, and all of them shed and scattered their wands on the ground, stricken with an ox-goad by murderous Lykourgos, while Dionysos in terror dived into the salt surf, and Thetis took him to her bosom, frightened, with the strong shivers upon him at the man's blustering. But the gods who live at their ease were angered with Lykourgos and the son of Cronus [Zeus] struck him to blindness, nor did he live long afterwards, since he was hated by all the immortals."

[N.B. The reference to the Nyseian hill and the nurses of Dionysus suggests that Homer placed the story in Boeotia while the god was still a child—contrary to subsequent accounts of the myth in which Dionysus is a youth visiting Thrace.]</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/t/the_lycurgus_cup.aspx|title=British Museum – The Lycurgus Cup|website=Britishmuseum.org}}</ref>

===Captivity and escape===
[[File:Neptune et les pirates.jpg|thumb|right|North African Roman mosaic: Panther-Dionysus scatters the pirates, who are changed to dolphins, except for [[Acoetes (Bacchic myth)|Acoetes]], the helmsman; second century AD ([[Bardo National Museum (Tunis)|Bardo National Museum]])]]
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 (Bacchic myth)|Acoetes]], who recognised the god and tried to stop his sailors from the start.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/DionysosWrath.html#Tyrrhenian |title=Theoi.com" Homeric Hymn to Dionysus |publisher=Theoi.com |access-date=29 June 2014}}</ref>

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".<ref>Bull, 245–247, 247 quoted</ref> Paola Corrente notes that in many sources, the incident with the pirates happens towards the end of Dionysus's 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.<ref name="corrente2012" />

===Descent to the underworld===
[[File:Nagarjunakonda Dionysus Palace site.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Relief of Dionysus, [[Nagarjunakonda]], Southern [[India]], third century. He has a light beard, is semi-nude and carries a drinking horn. There is a barrel of wine next to him.<ref name=MLV>{{cite book |last1=Varadpande |first1=M. L. |title=Ancient Indian And Indo-Greek Theatre |date=1981 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=9788170171478 |pages=91–93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JYuJWxLv-U0C&pg=PA91 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carter |first1=Martha L. |title=Dionysiac Aspects of Kushān Art |journal=Ars Orientalis |date=1968 |volume=7 |pages=121–146, Fig. 15 |issn=0571-1371|jstor=4629244 }}</ref>]]
[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], in book II of his ''Description of Greece'', describes two variant traditions regarding Dionysus's [[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]], according to the local tradition.<ref name=PausaniasII>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' book 2</ref> 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.<ref name="corrente2012" /><ref name="corrente2019">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/</ref> A variant of this myth forms the basis of [[Aristophanes]]'s comedy ''The Frogs''.<ref name="corrente2012" />

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's lover. Prosymnus died before Dionysus could honor his pledge, so to satisfy Prosymnus's shade, Dionysus fashioned a [[phallus]] from a fig branch and penetrated himself with it at Prosymnus's tomb.<ref>Clement of Alexandria, ''Protreptikos,'' II-30 3–5</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Larson |first=Jennifer |date=6 September 2012 |title=Greek and Roman Sexualities: A Sourcebook |publisher=Bloombsbury Publishing |isbn=9781441153371 |page=44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lhybtEbfwscC&pg=PA44 |language=en}}</ref> 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]].<ref>[[Arnobius]], ''Adversus Gentes'' [https://archive.org/stream/thesevenbooksofa00arnouoft#page/n279/mode/2up 5.28 (pp. 252–253)] {{Harv|Dalby|2005|pp=108–117}}</ref>

This same myth of Dionysus's descent to the underworld is related by both [[Diodorus Siculus]] in his first century BC work ''Bibliotheca historica'', and Pseudo-[[Apollodorus of Athens|Apollodorus]] in the third book of his first century AD work ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|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.<ref>Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheca'' book 3</ref> In this variant of the myth, it is implied that Dionysus must prove his godhood to mortals and then also legitimised his place on Olympus by proving his lineage and elevating his mother to divine status, before taking his place among the Olympic gods.<ref name=corrente2012/>

===Secondary myths===

====Midas's golden touch====
[[File:Titian Bacchus and Ariadne.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Bacchus and Ariadne]]'' by [[Titian]], at the [[National Gallery (London)|National Gallery]] in London]]
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's rose garden). The king recognised 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.
{{clear}}

====Love affairs====
[[File:Antoine-Jean Gros - Bacchus and Ariadne.jpg|thumb|''[[Bacchus and Ariadne (Gros)|Bacchus and Ariadne]]'' (1820) by [[Antoine-Jean Gros]]]]
When [[Theseus]] abandoned [[Ariadne]] sleeping on Naxos, Dionysus found and married her. They had 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.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} [[Psalacantha]], a nymph, promised to help 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.<ref>[[Ptolemy Hephaestion]], ''New History'' 5, epitomised in Patriarch [[Photius I of Constantinople|Photius]]'s ''[[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Myriobiblon]]'' [https://topostext.org/work.php?work_id=237#190.35 190.35]</ref>

{{Multiple image
|total_width=300
|image1=Dioniso scopre arianna, da casa dei capitelli colorati a pompei, 9278.JPG
|image2=Affresco con l'epifania di Dioniso a Nasso, da Pompei, I 4, 5 Casa del Citarista . Napoli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. 9286.png
|footer=Dionysos surrounded by his [[thiasus]] discovers Ariadne asleep at [[Hypnos]]'s side. Frescoes in [[Pompeii]]}}

Dionysus fell in love with a nymph named [[Nicaea (mythology)|Nicaea]], in some versions by [[Eros]]'s 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 from which she used to drink with wine. Intoxicated, Nicaea passed out, and Dionysus raped her in her sleep. When she woke up and realised what had happened, she sought him out to harm him, but she never found him. She gave birth to his sons [[Telete]], [[Satyr]]us, and others. Dionysus named the ancient city of [[Nicaea]] after her.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca02nonnuoft/page/20/mode/2up?view=theater 16.244–280]; [[Memnon of Heraclea]], ''History of Heraclea'' book 15, as epitomised by [[Photius I of Constantinople|Photius of Constantinople]] in his ''[[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Myriobiblon]]'' [https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/photius_copyright/photius_06bibliotheca.htm 223.28]</ref>

In [[Nonnus]]'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 twin sons by Dionysus, [[Iacchus]] and another boy, she ate one twin before drowning herself in the [[Sakarya River|Sangarius]] river.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/459/mode/2up 48.470–634 (III pp. 458]–[https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/491/mode/2up 48.928–936 (III pp. 490, 491)].</ref>

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 grapevine.<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' 11. 185 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref> Elsewhere in the same epic, Dionysus arrives in Thrace to punish the impious king [[Sithon (mythology)|Sithon]] who slays all of his daughter [[Pallene (daughter of Sithon)|Pallene]]'s suitors; after a brief wrestling match with the princess herself, he defeats her, kills Sithon and beds the maiden.<ref>{{cite book | title = The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony | first = Roberto | last = Calasso | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JWl-DwAAQBAJ | publisher = Penguin | location = UK | date = July 25, 2019 | isbn = 978-0-141-99075-0 | page = 22}}</ref>

====Other myths====
[[File:MET DP123380.jpg|thumb|Terracotta head, 4–5th century, [[Gandhara]] (modern Pakistan)]]Another account about Dionysus's parentage indicates that he is the son of Zeus and Gê (Gaia), also named ''Themelê'' (foundation), corrupted into ''Semele''.<ref>Humphreys, S. C. ''The Strangeness of Gods: Historical perspectives on the interpretation of Athenian religion''. Oxford University Press. 2004. pp. 264–265. {{ISBN|978-0199269235}}</ref><ref>Beecroft, Alexander J. "Nine Fragments in Search of an Author: Poetic Lines Attributed to Terpander." ''The Classical Journal'' 103, no. 3 (2008): 225–41. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30037959.</ref>

When [[Hephaestus]] bound [[Hera]] to a magical chair, Dionysus got him drunk and brought him back to Olympus after he passed out.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

During the [[Gigantomachy]], Dionysus killed the giant [[Eurytus]] with his [[thyrsus]].

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]] is chosen in preference to [[Euripides]].

[[Callirhoë (Calydon)|Callirhoë]] was a lovely [[Calydon]]ian woman who scorned [[Coresus]], a priest of Dionysus, so he begged the god to avenge him, and Dionysus sent a plague that drove people insane before killing them. The oracle of [[Dodona]] decreed that Dionysus would only be appeased if Callirhoë, or anyone willing to substitute her, was sacrificed to him. As Callirhoë could not persuade anyone to take her place, she was led to the altar like a victim. Coresus was the one with the duty to sacrifice Callirhoë, but he could not bring himself to do it and so he killed himself instead, becoming the substitute victim. In pity, Callirhoë killed herself by a spring which was later named after her.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] 7.21.1–5</ref>

Dionysus also sent a fox that was fated never to be caught in 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.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

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]].<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Astronomica'' [https://topostext.org/work/207#2.23.3 2.23.3]</ref><ref>{{cite book | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=YKOODwAAQBAJ&pg=PA203 203] | title = Studies in Hellenistic Judaism | first1 = Louis H. | last1 = Feldman | date = 1996 | publisher = Brill | isbn = 90-04-10418-6}}</ref>

===Children===
The following is a list of Dionysus's offspring, by various mothers. Beside each offspring, the earliest source to record the parentage is given, along with the century to which the source (in some cases approximately) dates.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
! scope="col" style="width: 100pt;" | Offspring
! scope="col" style="width: 95pt;" | Mother
! scope="col" style="width: 55pt;" | Source
! scope="col" style="width: 70pt;" | Date
! class="unsortable" scope="col" style="width: 10pt;" |
|-
| rowspan="2" | The [[Charites]]
| [[Aphrodite]]
| [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]]
| data-sort-value=24 | 4th/5th cent. AD
| <ref>''[[Pauly-Wissowa|RE]]'', [https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/RE:Charites s.v. Charites]; [[Servius the Grammarian|Servius]], Commentary on [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+A.+1.720&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0053 1.720].</ref>
|-
| [[Coronis (mythology)|Coronis]]
| [[Nonnus]]
| data-sort-value=21 | 5th cent. AD
| <ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/529#48.548 48.548 ff.]</ref>
|-
| Ceramus
| rowspan="7" | [[Ariadne]]
| [[Pausanias (geographer)|Paus.]]
| data-sort-value=19 | 2nd cent. AD
| <ref>Grimal, s.v. Ceramus, p. 96; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.3.1 1.3.1].</ref>
|-
| [[Enyeus]]
|
|
| <ref>''[[Pauly-Wissowa|RE]]'', [https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/RE:Enyeus_1 s.v. Enyeus (1)].</ref>
|-
| [[Oenopion]], [[Staphylus (son of Dionysus)|Staphylus]], [[Thoas (king of Lemnos)|Thoas]]
| [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollod.]]
| data-sort-value=18 | 1st/2nd cent. AD
| <ref>Hard, p. 625 n. 188 to p. 179; [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.1.9 E.1.9]; Scholia on [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], 3.997.</ref>
|-
| [[Euanthes]], Tauropolis, Latramys
| Schol. [[Apollonius of Rhodes|Ap. Rh.]]
| data-sort-value=50 |
| <ref>Hard, p. 625 n. 188 to p. 179; Scholia on [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], 3.997.</ref>
|-
| Peparethus
| [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollod.]]
| data-sort-value=18 | 1st/2nd cent. AD
| <ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg002.perseus-eng1:e.1.9 E.1.9].</ref>
|-
| [[Maron (mythology)|Maron]]
| [[Euripides]]
| data-sort-value=7 | 5th cent. BC
| <ref>[[Euripides]], ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-cyclops/1994/pb_LCL012.77.xml 141&ndash;145 (pp. 76, 77)].</ref>
|-
| [[Phlias]]
| [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyg.]] ''[[Fabulae|Fab.]]''
| data-sort-value=17 | 1st cent. AD
| <ref>Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=phlias-bio-1&highlight=phlias s.v. Phlias]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#14 14].</ref>
|-
| Carmanor
| [[Alexirrhoe]]
| [[Pseudo-Plutarch|Ps.-Plut.]] ''[[De fluviis|Fluv.]]''
| data-sort-value=19 | 2nd cent. AD
| <ref>[[Pseudo-Plutarch]], ''[[De fluviis]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0094.tlg001.perseus-eng1:7 7].</ref>
|-
| [[Iacchus]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Aura (mythology)|Aura]]
| [[Nonnus]]
| data-sort-value=21 | 5th cent. AD
| <ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/n61/mode/2up 1.26–28 (I pp. 4, 5)], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/442/mode/2up 48.245–247 (III pp. 440–443)], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/484/mode/2up 48.848–968 (III pp. 484–493)].</ref>
|-
| Unnamed twin brother
| [[Nonnus]]
| data-sort-value=21 | 5th cent. AD
| <ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/480/mode/2up 48.786&ndash;855 (III pp. 481&ndash;485)].</ref>
|-
| Medus
| [[Alphesiboea]]
| [[Pseudo-Plutarch|Ps.-Plut.]] ''[[De fluviis|Fluv.]]''
| data-sort-value=19 | 2nd cent. AD
| <ref>[[Pseudo-Plutarch]], ''[[De fluviis]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0094.tlg001.perseus-eng1:24 24].</ref>
|-
| rowspan="2" | [[Phlias]]
| [[Araethyrea]]
| [[Pausanias (geographer)|Paus.]]
| data-sort-value=19 | 2nd cent. AD
| <ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.12.6 2.12.6].</ref>
|-
| [[Chthonophyle]]
|
|
| <ref>Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=phlias-bio-1&highlight=phlias s.v Phlias]; ''[[Pauly-Wissowa|RE]]'', [https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/RE:Chthonophyle s.v. Chthonophyle].</ref>
|-
| rowspan="3" | [[Priapus]]
| [[Aphrodite]]
| [[Pausanias (geographer)|Paus.]]
| data-sort-value=19 | 2nd cent. AD
| <ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+9.31.2 9.31.2]</ref>
|-
| [[Chione (Greek myth)|Chione]]
| Schol. [[Theocritus|Theoc.]]
| data-sort-value=50 |
| <ref>''[[Pauly-Wissowa|RE]]'', [https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/RE:Chione_7 s.v. Chione (7)]; [[Scholia]] on [[Theocritus]]' ''Idylls'' 1.21.</ref>
|-
| Percote
|
|
| <ref>[[Hesychius of Alexandria]] s.v. ''Priēpidos''.{{psi|date=October 2024}}</ref>
|-
| [[Telete]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Nicaea (mythology)|Nicaea]]
| [[Nonnus]]
| data-sort-value=25 | 5th cent. AD
| <ref>''Brill's New Pauly'', s.v. Telete.</ref>
|-
| [[Satyr]]us, Other unnamed sons
| [[Memnon of Heraclea]]
| data-sort-value=17 | 1st cent. AD
| <ref>[[Memnon of Heraclea]], ''apud.'' [[Photius]], ''[[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Bibliotheca]]'' [https://www.attalus.org/translate/memnon2.html#28 223.28] [= ''[[Brill's New Jacoby|BNJ]]'' 434 F1].</ref>
|-
| Narcaeus
| [[Physcoa]]
| [[Pausanias (geographer)|Paus.]]
| data-sort-value=19 | 2nd cent. AD
| <ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:5.16.7 5.16.7].</ref>
|-
| [[Methe]]
| rowspan="5" | ''No mother mentioned''
| [[Anacreon]]
| data-sort-value=27 | 6th cent. AD
| <ref>[[Anacreon]], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/anacreontea/1988/pb_LCL143.211.xml fr. 38 Campbell, pp. 210, 211].</ref>
|-
| [[Sabazius]]
|
|
| <ref>Smith, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=sabazius-bio-1&highlight=sabazius s.v. Sabazius].</ref>
|-
| Thysa
| [[Strabo]]
| data-sort-value=17 | 1st cent. AD
| <ref>[[Strabo]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-eng1:10.3.13 10.3.13], quotes the non-extant play ''Palamedes'' which seems to refer to Thysa, a daughter of Dionysus, and her (?) mother as participants of the Bacchic rites on Mount Ida, but the quoted passage is corrupt.</ref>
|-
| [[Pasithea]]
| [[Nonnus]]
| data-sort-value=25 | 5th cent. AD
| <ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/529#15.86 15.86 ff.]</ref>
|-
| Phanus
| [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollod.]]
| data-sort-value=18 | 1st/2nd cent. AD
| <ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.9.16 1.9.16].</ref>
|}

==Iconography and depictions==
===Symbols===
[[File:Dioniso seduto, officina neoattica, I sec dc, 6728.JPG|thumb|right|Ancient Roman relief in the Museo Archeologico (Naples) depicting Dionysus holding a thyrsus and receiving a libation, wearing an ivy wreath, and attended by a panther]]
[[File:Dionysos panther Louvre K240.jpg|thumb|right|Dionysus on a [[Panther (legendary creature)|panther]]'s back; on the left, a [[papposilenus]] holding a tambourine. Side A from a red-figure bell-shaped crater, c. 370 BC.]]
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]]''. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature describes him as womanly or "man-womanish".<ref>{{cite book |last=Otto |first=Walter F. |title=Dionysus Myth and Cult |year=1995 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-253-20891-2 }}</ref> 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 civilised. 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 symbolises the chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.<ref>{{cite book|title=Gods of Love and Ecstasy|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=QDQK7l13WIIC&pg=PA15|first= Alain |last = Daniélou |page =15|publisher = Inner Traditions|location = Rochester, Vermont|date = 1992|isbn = 9780892813742}}</ref>

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]].<ref>Burkert, p. 64.</ref>

[[File:Temple Dionysus Delos Stoivadeion 130086.jpg|thumb|left|220px|A sculpted phallus at the entrance of the temple of Dionysus in [[Delos]], Greece]]
The snake and [[phallus]] were symbols of Dionysus in ancient Greece, and of Bacchus in Greece and Rome.<ref>{{cite book|first=James|last=Charlesworth|title=The Good And Evil Serpent: How a Universal Symbol Became Christianized|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJlmWuXCCecC&pg=PA222 |year=2010|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-14273-0|pages=222–223}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Walter Friedrich|last1=Otto|first2=Robert B.|last2=Palmer|title=Dionysus: Myth and Cult|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XCDvuoZ8IzsC&pg=PA164 |year=1965|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-20891-0|pages=164–166}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Leo|last=Steinberg|title=The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V5DeBQAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-22631-6|pages=47, 83 with footnotes}}</ref> There is a procession called the ''phallophoria'', in which villagers would parade through the streets carrying phallic images or pulling phallic representations on carts. He typically wears a panther or leopard skin and carries a thyrsus. His iconography sometimes includes [[maenad]]s, who wear wreaths of ivy and serpents around their hair or neck.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jennifer R.|last=March|title=Dictionary of Classical Mythology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5jwAwAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Oxbow|isbn=978-1-78297-635-6|pages=164, 296}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Csapo |first=Eric |title=Riding the Phallus for Dionysus: Iconology, Ritual, and Gender-Role De/Construction |journal=Phoenix |volume=51 |issue=3/4 |year=1997 |pages= 256–257, 253–295 |doi=10.2307/1192539 |jstor=1192539 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Dietrich |first=B. C. |title=Dionysus Liknites |journal=The Classical Quarterly |volume=8 |issue=3–4 |year=1958 |pages=244–248 |doi=10.1017/S000983880002190X |s2cid=246876495 }}</ref>

The cult of Dionysus was closely associated with trees, specifically the [[fig tree]], and some of his [[Epithet|bynames]] exhibit this, such as {{lang|grc-Latn|Endendros}} "he in the tree" or {{lang|grc-Latn|Dendritēs}}, "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]].<ref>see Janda (2010), 16–44 for a detailed account.</ref>

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's birth from Zeus's thigh calls him "the light of Zeus" (''Dios phos'') and associates him with the light of Sirius.<ref name=Kerenyi/>

===Classical art===
[[File:Table support with a Dionysiac group (AD 170-180) (3470740119).jpg|thumb|left|Marble table support adorned by a group including [[Dionysos]], [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]] and a [[Satyr]]; Dionysos holds a [[rhyton]] (drinking vessel) in the shape of a panther; traces of [[Red hair|red]] and [[Blond|yellow colour]] are preserved on [[Hair color|the hair]] of the figures and the branches; from an [[Asia Minor]] workshop, 170–180 AD, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]], Greece]]
[[File:Antakya Archaeology Museum Drunken Dionysus mosaic in 2008 0009.jpg|thumb|Mosaic of Dionysus, 4th century.]]
[[File:10 2023 - Terme (Baths of) Caracalla, Arte Romana, Viale Guido Baccelli, Rome, Roma, Lazio, 00154, Italy - Photo Paolo Villa - FO232114 correzioni gimp - Domus Arte Romana - pitture parietali.jpg|thumb|Fresco of Dionysus from triclinium ceiling of home incorporated into Baths of Caracalla (Rome)]]
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 [[relief]]s of [[maenad]]s, Dionysian subjects rarely appeared in large sculpture before the Hellenistic period, when they became common.<ref>Smith 1991, 127–129</ref> 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]].<ref>as in the [[:File:Dionysus and Eros.jpg|Dionysus and Eros]], [[Naples National Archaeological Museum|Naples Archeological Museum]]</ref> ''[[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 sculpture]]s 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.<ref>Smith 1991, 127–154</ref> 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 [[centaur]]s, [[nymph]]s, and the gods [[Pan (god)|Pan]] and [[Hermaphroditus|Hermaphrodite]].<ref>Smith 1991, 127, 131, 133</ref> "Nymph" by this stage "means simply an ideal female of the Dionysian outdoors, a non-wild bacchant".<ref>Smith 1991, 130</ref> 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."<ref>Smith 1991, 136</ref> 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.<ref>Smith 1991, 127</ref> 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.<ref>Smith 1991, 128</ref>

The fourth-century AD [[Lycurgus Cup]] in the [[British Museum]] 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 theorised that a mosaic appearing on the [[triclinium]] floor of the House of Aion in [[Nea Paphos]], Cyprus, details a monotheistic worship of Dionysus.<ref>Kessler, E., ''Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus,''</ref> 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===
[[File:Michelangelo Bacchus.jpg|220px|thumb|right|''[[Bacchus (Michelangelo)|Bacchus]]'' by [[Michelangelo]] (1497)]]
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".<ref>Bull, 227–228, both quoted</ref> 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.<ref>Bull, 228–232, 228 quoted</ref>

[[File:Hendrick Goltzius, Dutch (active Haarlem) - Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|[[Hendrik Goltzius]], ''[[Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus]]'' (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze)'', c. 1600–1603, the "Philadelphia pen painting''|alt=Hendrik Goltzius, 1600–03, ''Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus'' (Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus Would Freeze). c. 1600–1603, ink on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art]]
[[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,<ref>Bull, 235–238, 242, 247–250</ref> 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.<ref>Bull, 233–235</ref>

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.<ref>Bull (page needed)</ref>

===Modern literature and philosophy===
[[File:Los borrachos o el triunfo de Baco 1629 Velázquez.jpg|thumb|''[[The Triumph of Bacchus]]'', [[Diego Velázquez]], c. 1629]]
[[File:Cornelis de Vos - El triunfo de Baco.jpg|thumb|''The Triumph of Bacchus'' by [[Cornelis de Vos]]]]
<!--this section has been worked into connected encyclopedic text: please do not add bulletted items of trivia-->

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 characterised 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.<ref>Isler-Kerényi, C., & Watson, W. (2007). "Modern Mythologies: 'Dionysos' Versus 'Apollo'". In ''Dionysos in Archaic Greece: An Understanding through Images'' (pp. 235–254). Leiden; Boston: Brill. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76w9x.13</ref>

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]]. Towards the end of his life, Nietzsche famously went mad. He was known to sign letters as both Dionysus and "The Crucified" in this period of his life.  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's suffering "was the distinctive feature of the cult" just as Christ's suffering is significant for Christianity.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rosenthal|first=Bernice Glatzer|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IGpOo6IV74IC&pg=PA344|title=Sacred Stories: Religion and Spirituality in Modern Russia|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-253-21850-6|editor-last=Steinberg|editor-first=Mark D. and Heather J. Coleman|location=Bloomington and Indianapolis|page=344|language=en|chapter=Chapter 13. A New Spirituality: The Confluence of Nietzsche and Orthodoxy in Russian Religious Thought}}</ref> [[Karl Kerényi]] characterises Dionysus as representative of the psychological life force (Greek ''Zoê'').<ref>Kerenyi, K., ''Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life'' (Princeton/Bollingen, 1976).</ref> Other psychological interpretations place Dionysus's [[emotionality]] in the foreground, focusing on the [[joy]], [[Fear|terror]] or [[hysteria]] associated with the god.<ref>Jeanmaire, H. Dionysus: histoire du culte de Bacchus, (pp. 106ff) Payot, (1951)</ref><ref>Johnson, R. A. 'Ecstasy; Understanding the Psychology of Joy' HarperColling (1987)</ref><ref>Hillman, J. 'Dionysus Reimagined' in The Myth of Analysis (pp. 271–281) HarperCollins (1972); Hillman, J. 'Dionysus in Jung's Writings' in Facing The Gods, Spring Publications (1980)</ref><ref>Thompson, J. [http://www.mythopoetry.com/mythopoetics/scholar09_thompson.html 'Emotional Intelligence/Imaginal Intelligence'] in Mythopoetry Scholar Journal, Vol 1, 2010</ref><ref>Lopez-Pedraza, R. 'Dionysus in Exile: On the Repression of the Body and Emotion', Chiron Publications (2000)</ref> [[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===
[[File:Las Incantadas Louvre Ma1393 side B.jpg|thumb|right|[[Las Incantadas]] Dionysus, large relief from the agora of [[Thessalonica]], now in the [[Louvre]].]]

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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Greenspun|first1=Roger|title=Screen::De Palma's 'Dionysus in 69'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E01E2D81638EE34BC4B51DFB566838B669EDE|access-date=1 August 2017|newspaper=New York Times|date=23 March 1970}}</ref>

In 1974, Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove adapted Aristophanes's 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]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Murray|first1=Matthew|title=The Frogs|url=http://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/world/Frogs.html|website=Talkin' Broadway|access-date=2 August 2017}}</ref>

In 2019, the South Korean boy band [[BTS]] released a [[rap-rock]]-[[synth-pop]]-[[hip hop music|hip hop]] track.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1">{{cite magazine|last1=Lipshutz|first1=Jason|date=17 April 2019|title=How BTS' 'Dionysus' Demonstrates the Group's Musical Ambition|url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/bts-dionysus-musical-ambition-8507685/|access-date=22 April 2019|magazine=Billboard}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":3">{{cite web |last1=Daly |first1=Rhian |title=All the biggest talking points from BTS' global press conference: Jungkook's missing mixtape, Suga's next prophecy, and the meaning behind 'Map Of The Soul: Persona' |url=https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/bts-map-of-the-soul-persona-global-press-conference-2477824 |website=[[NME]] |access-date=17 April 2019 |date=22 April 2019}}</ref>

In 2024, French actor and singer [[Philippe Katerine|Phillippe Katerine]] portrayed a blue and near naked Dionysus at the [[2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony]] in France.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rose |first=Michel |date=27 July 2024 |title=Paris ceremony 'Last Supper' parody sparks controversy |url=https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/paris-ceremony-last-supper-parody-sparks-controversy-2024-07-27/ |website=[[Reuters]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=28 July 2024 |title=Paris Olympics organizers 'sorry' for any offense over opening ceremony |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2024/07/28/paris-olympics-organizers-sorry-for-any-offense-over-opening-ceremony_6702640_9.html |access-date=30 July 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kaloi |first=Stephanie |date=28 July 2024 |title=Paris Olympics Producers Say 'The Last Supper' Inspired That Opening Ceremony Scene: 'Many Have Done It Before' |url=https://www.thewrap.com/paris-olympics-producers-last-supper-inspired-opening-ceremony/ |access-date=31 July 2024 |website=TheWrap |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Parallels with Christianity==
{{Main|Dionysus in comparative mythology|Jesus Christ in comparative mythology}}
[[File:Hanging with Dionysian Figures MET DT11588.jpg|thumb|right|Hanging with Dionysian Figures from [[Antinopolis|Antinoöpolis]], fifth–seventh century ([[Metropolitan Museum of Art]])]]
[[File:Bacchus, Simeon Solomon.jpg|thumb|right|''Bacchus'' ([[Simeon Solomon]], 1867)]]
Some scholars of [[comparative mythology]] identify both Dionysus and Jesus with the [[Dying-and-rising deity|dying-and-rising god]] mythological [[archetype]].<ref name="moles">{{Cite journal |last=Moles |first=John |title=Jesus and Dionysus in "The Acts Of The Apostles" and early Christianity |journal=Hermathena |volume=180 |issue=180 |pages=65–104 |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |year=2006 |jstor=23041662 }}</ref> On the other hand, it has been noted that the details of Dionysus's 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)|Titan]]s, but "eventually restored to a new life" from the heart that was left over.<ref>Detienne, Marcel. Dionysus Slain. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1979.</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Evans, Arthur. The God of Ecstasy. New York: St. Martins' Press, 1989</ref>

Another parallel can be seen in ''[[The Bacchae]]'' 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.<ref name="Wick2004 179–198">{{cite journal |last=Wick |first=Peter |title=Jesus gegen Dionysos? Ein Beitrag zur Kontextualisierung des Johannesevangeliums |journal= [[Biblica (journal)|Biblica]] |volume=85 |issue=2 |pages=179–198 |publisher= [[Pontifical Biblical Institute]] |location= Rome |year=2004 |url= http://www.bsw.org/?l=71851&a=Comm06.html |access-date= 10 October 2007 }}</ref><ref name=Powell>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.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0fLPOx1B-AwC&pg=PA331 Studies in Early Christology], by [[Martin Hengel]], 2005, p. 331 ({{ISBN|0567042804}}).</ref> 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.<ref>Dalby, Andrew (2005). ''The Story of Bacchus''. London: British Museum Press.</ref>

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]].<ref>E. Kessler, ''Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus''. Symposium on ''Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire'', Exeter, 17–20 July 2006 [http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/classics/conferences/pagan_monotheism/abstracts.html Abstract] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421032154/http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/classics/conferences/pagan_monotheism/abstracts.html |date=21 April 2008 }})</ref> Scholars from the sixteenth century onwards, especially [[Gerard Vossius]], also discussed the parallels between the biographies of Dionysus/Bacchus and [[Moses]].<ref>Bull, 240–241</ref>

[[John Moles]] has argued that the Dionysian cult influenced early Christianity, and especially how Christians understood themselves as a new religion centered around a savior deity.<ref name="moles"/>

==Genealogy==
{{Family tree of the Olympians|title=Dionysus's family tree|collapsed=no|cap_dion=y}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Ancient Greece|Myths|Religion}}
* [[Methe]] (goddess of [[drunk]]edness)
* [[Alpos]] and [[Nonnus]]
* [[Anthesteria]], [[Ascolia]], [[Dionysia]] and [[Lenaia]]
* [[Dionysian Mysteries]] and [[Cult of Dionysus]]
* [[Pan (god)]], [[Ampelos]], [[Cybele]] and [[Silenus]]
* [[Theatre of Dionysus]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
{{refbegin|30em}}
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* [[Aristides]], ''Aristides ex recensione Guilielmi Dindorfii, Volume 3'', [[Wilhelm Dindorf]], Weidmann, G. Reimer, 1829. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001812297 Hathi Trust Digital Library].
* [[Aristophanes]], [[The Frogs|''Frogs'']], Matthew Dillon, Ed., Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, 1995. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristoph.+Frogs Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Arnobius|Arnobius of Sicca]], ''The Seven Books of Arnobius Adversus Gentes'', translated by Archibald Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell, Edinburg: T. & T. Clark. 1871. [https://archive.org/stream/thesevenbooksofa00arnouoft#page/n9/mode/2up Internet Archive].
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* Henrichs, Albert, "Dionysos Dismembered and Restored to Life: The Earliest Evidence (OF 59 I–II)", in ''Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic Fragments'', pp. 61–68, edited by Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui et al., [[De Gruyter]], 2011. {{ISBN|978-3-110-26053-3}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110260533 Online version at De Gruyter]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=D4tDMNaqKfIC Google Books].
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* {{cite journal |last1=Hornblower |first1=Simon |title=LYKOPHRON AND EPIGRAPHY: THE VALUE AND FUNCTION OF CULT EPITHETS IN THE ''ALEXANDRA'' |journal=The Classical Quarterly |date=2014 |volume=64 |issue=1 |pages=91–120 |doi=10.1017/S0009838813000578 |jstor=26546287 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26546287 |issn=0009-8388|url-access=subscription }}
* [[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. {{ISBN|978-0-87220-821-6}}.
* 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. {{ISBN|0-8014-8062-0}}. 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, {{ISBN|9789004234741}}.
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* [[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi, Karl]] 1967, ''Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter'', [[Princeton University Press]], 1991. {{ISBN|9780691019154}}.
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* Marcovich, Miroslav, ''Studies in Graeco-Roman Religions and Gnosticism'', Brill, 1988. {{ISBN|9789004086241}}.
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* {{citation|last=McDonough|first=Sean M.|date=1999|title=YHWH at Patmos: Rev. 1:4 in Its Hellenistic and Early Jewish Setting|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c0ZG4P8J1roC&q=Plutarch+Yahweh+Dionysus&pg=PA89|series=Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe|volume=107|location=Tübingen, Germany|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=978-3-16-147055-4|issn=0340-9570}}
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* [https://www.academia.edu/1503231/An_account_of_the_Dionysiac_presence_in_Indian_art_and_culture/ 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]], ''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. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99337-2}}. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL306/1936/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]], in [https://archive.org/details/b28747197/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater ''Select Works of Porphyry''], [[Thomas Taylor (neoplatonist)|Thomas Taylor]], trans., J. Moyes, London (1823), and [https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/porphyry_abstinence_02_book2.htm at Tertullian.org]. 
* 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. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0094.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Ridgeway, William, ''Origin of Tragedy'', 1910. Kessinger Publishing (June 2003). {{ISBN|0-7661-6221-4}}.
* 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, ''[http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2000/2000-06-13.html Dionysism and Comedy]'', Rowman and Littlefield Publishers (1999). {{ISBN|0-8476-9442-9}}.
* [[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. {{ISBN|0-19-869117-3}}.
* Rutherford, Ian, (2016) ''Greco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BC–AD 300'', Oxford University Press, 2016. {{ISBN|9780191630118}}.
* Rutherford, William G., (1896) ''Scholia Aristphanica'', London, Macmillan and Co. and New York, 1896. [https://archive.org/stream/scholiaaristopha01ruthuoft#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive]*Seaford, Richard. "Dionysos", Routledge (2006). {{ISBN|0-415-32488-2}}.
* [[Servius the Grammarian|Servius]], ''Servii grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii'', Volume I, edited by Georgius Thilo and Hermannus Hagen, [[Bibliotheca Teubneriana]], Leipzig, Teubner, 1881. [https://archive.org/details/invergiliicarmin01servuoft/page/n3/mode/2up?view=theater Internet Archive]. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Serv.+A.+1.pr Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Smith, R.R.R., ''Hellenistic Sculpture, a handbook'', Thames & Hudson, 1991, {{ISBN|0500202494}}
* [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]]; ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.04.0104 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
* [[Herbert Weir Smyth|Smyth, Herbert Weir]], ''Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth'', Volume II, London: Heinemann, 1926. [https://archive.org/stream/aeschyluswitheng02aescuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* Sommerstein, Alan H., ''Aeschylus: Fragments.'' Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 505. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]], 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99629-8}}. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL505/2009/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Sophocles]], ''The Antigone of Sophocles, Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb'', Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1891. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0186%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
* [[Strabo]], [[Geographica|''Geography'']], translated by Horace Leonard Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]]; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. (1924). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D1%3Asection%3D1 Books 6–14, at the Perseus Digital Library]
* Sutton, Dana F., ''Ancient Comedy'', Twayne Publishers (August 1993). {{ISBN|0-8057-0957-6}}.
* Tripp, Edward, ''Crowell's Handbook of Classical Mythology'', Thomas Y. Crowell Co; First edition (June 1970). {{ISBN|069022608X}}.
* Versnel, H. S., "ΙΑΚΧΟΣ. Some Remarks Suggested by an Unpublished Lekythos in the Villa Giulia", ''[[Talanta]]'' [http://www.talanta.nl/publications/previous-issues/1969-1973-●-volume-i-v/1972-volume-iv/ '''4'''], 1972, 23–38. [http://www.talanta.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Versnel-23-38.pdf PDF]
* Gianluca Viola (2022), "Il Dionisiaco nel pensiero contemporaneo. Da Nietzsche a Carmelo Bene, Mucchi Editore, ISBN 9788870009583.
* [[Martin Litchfield West|West, M. L.]] (1983), ''The Orphic Poems'', Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-814854-8}}.
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{EB1911 poster|Dionysus}}
* Doroszewski, F., Karłowicz D. (eds.). 2021. ''Dionysus and Politics. Constructing Authority in the Graeco-Roman World.'' Abingdon: Routledge. The volume contains contributions by C. Isler-Kerenyi, J.-M. Pailler, R. Seaford, R. Stoneman et al.
* [[Livy]], ''[http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy39.html 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. {{ISBN|0-674-20773-4}}. (Originally in French as ''Dionysos à ciel ouvert'', 1986)
* [http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucbclassics/ctm/festschrift18/ 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.]
* [https://www.academia.edu/1503231/An_account_of_the_Dionysiac_presence_in_Indian_art_and_culture/ Sara Peterson, ''An account of the Dionysiac presence in Indian art and culture''. Academia, 2016]
* Frazer, James "The Golden Bough"
* [https://sites.google.com/view/pwretranslations/all-articles/5-demogenes-ephoroi/dionysos Kern, O. ''Dionysos (2)'' in ''Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft'', tr. into English]
* Walter F. Otto "Dionysus: Myth and Cult"
* Redefining 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==
{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Dionysus |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
* {{Commons category-inline|Dionysos}}
* {{wiktionary-inline|Dionysus}}
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000104 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (ca 2000 images of Bacchus)]
{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515000246/http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/subcats.php?cat_1=5&cat_2=89 |date=15 May 2012 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110513104726/http://www.xs4all.nl/~schuffel/english/bacchus/ Iconographic Themes in Art: Bacchus {{!}}Dionysos] <!-- Just a hone page; even if found, not likely to be good -->
* [http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/html/7_-_oracles.html Treatise on the Bacchic Mysteries] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222225453/http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/html/7_-_oracles.html |date=22 February 2012 }}
* [http://tiresias.haifa.ac.il/?subj=dionysus Ancient texts on Dionysus], from Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

{{Greek myth (Olympian)}}
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[[Category:Dionysus| ]]
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