Dionysus

Dionysus, a god of Wine-making, Orchards, Fruit, Fertility, Festivity, Insanity, Ritual Madness, Religious Ecstasy, and Theatre, was also known as Bacchus. He was believed to induce a frenzy called baccheia, freeing his followers from self-conscious fear and care. Dionysus Eleutherius, also known as the liberator, used his wine, music, and ecstatic dance to free his followers from self-conscious fear and subvert oppressive restraints. His thyrsus, a fennel-stem sceptre, was both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who opposed his cult and the freedoms he represented. Those who partake in his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself.
His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms, some described by ancient sources as Thracian and others as Greek. 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. Most accounts say he was born in Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner.
Wine was a religious focus in Dionysus' cult, as it could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness. Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, driving the development of theatre in Western culture. He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god.
==Origins==
In the nineteenth century, academics often considered Dionysus a foreign deity who was only reluctantly accepted into the standard Greek pantheon. However, more recent evidence has shown that Dionysus was one of the earliest gods attested in mainland Greek culture. The earliest written records of Dionysus worship come from Mycenaean Greece, specifically in and around the Palace of Nestor in Pylos, dated to around 1300 BC. Most evidence comes in the form 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.
Other Mycenaean records from Pylos record the worship of a god named Eleuther, who was the son of Zeus, and to whom oxen were sacrificed. The link to both Zeus and oxen, as well as etymological links between the name Eleuther or Eleutheros with the Latin name Liber Pater, 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.
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. By the seventh century, iconography found on pottery shows that Dionysus was already worshiped as more than just a god associated with wine. A common theme in these early depictions was the metamorphosis of his followers into hybrid creatures, usually represented by both tame and wild satyrs, representing the transition from civilized life back to nature as a means of escape.
==Background ==
===Worshiping===
「 Dionysus worship became firmly established by the seventh century BC. He may have been worshiped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by Mycenaean Greeks; and traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete.」
====Dionysia ====
Dionysia was the subject of various festivals, including the Rural Dionysia, which celebrated vine cultivation in Attica, and the City Dionysia, which took place in urban centers like Athens and Eleusis. The Rural Dionysia was one of the oldest, centered on a procession with offerings and dramatic performances. The City Dionysia, a later development, took place in urban centers near the spring equinox, featuring a more elaborate procession with a wooden statue of Dionysus, sacrificial bulls, and ornately dressed choruses. The Greater Dionysia also featured notable poets and playwrights, and awards for dramatists and actors in multiple categories.
====Anthesteria ====
Anthesteria was an Athenian festival that celebrated the beginning of spring, spanning three days: Pithoigia, Choes, and Chythroi. It was believed that the dead arose from the underworld during the festival, and Keres wandered through the city and were banished. On the first day, wine vats were opened in honor of the god, and children over three were adorned with flowers.
On the second day, a solemn ritual for Dionysus took place, with the basilissa, wife of the basileus, undergoing a symbolic marriage. The last day was dedicated to the dead, with offerings to Hermes and a ritual cry to order the souls to return to the underworld. Keres were banished from the festival.
==== Bacchic Mysteries:====
The Bacchic or Dionysian Mysteries is the central religious cult of Dionysus, with its exact origin unknown. Many sources and rituals considered part of the Orphic Mysteries belong to the Dionysian mysteries. Some scholars suggest that Dionysus and Persephone both played important roles in the mystery religion.
The major urban center of Athens played a major role in the development and spread of the Bacchic mysteries. The religion created ritual traditions for transitions in people's lives, primarily for men and male sexuality, but later also celebrating women's changing roles and status changes.
Rituals involved the sacrifice of goats or bulls, with some participants and dancers wearing wooden masks associated with the god. The significance of masks and goats to Dionysus' worship dates back to the earliest days of his worship, as found together at a Minoan tomb near Phaistos in Crete.
====Eleusinian Mysteries====
As early as the fifth century BC, Dionysus was identified with Iacchus, a minor deity from the Eleusinian Mysteries. This association may have arisen due to the homophony of the names Iacchus and Bacchus. Evidence for this association can be found in works by Athenian tragedians Sophocles and Euripides.
In Sophocles' Antigone, an ode to Dionysus begins by addressing Dionysus as the "God of many names" who rules over the glens of Demeter's Eleusis and ends by identifying him with "Iacchus the Giver". In Euripides' Bacchae, a messenger associates Iacchus with Bromius, another name of Dionysus.
An inscription found on a stone stele at Delphi describes Dionysus' travels, from Thebes to Delphi, where he displayed his "starry body" and took his place on the folds of Parnassus. He is called "Iacchus" next to Eleusis, where the whole people of Hellas' land call upon him as Iacchus. Greeks gave the name 'Iacchus' not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries.
In the fourth or fifth-century poet Nonnus, the name Iacchus was associated with the "third" Dionysus. He described the Athenian celebrations given to the first Dionysus Zagreus, second Dionysus Bromios, and third Dionysus Iacchus. Some accounts suggest that Iacchus was the husband of Demeter, while others identify him as Demeter's son. By the first-century BC, Demeter suckling Iacchus had become a common motif, and a scholiast on the second-century AD Aristides explicitly names Demeter as Iacchus' mother.
====Orphism====
The Orphic tradition identifies Dionysus as the first son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans before being reborn. Dionysus was the patron god of the Orphics, associated with death and immortality, and he guided the process of reincarnation. He is sometimes referred to with the alternate name Zagreus, which is a Greek term for the highest god.
Aeschylus linked Zagreus with Hades, possibly as Hades' son or Hades himself. Timothy Gantz suggested that Zagreus, originally the son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus. However, no known Orphic sources use the name "Zagreus" to refer to the Orphic Dionysus. The association between the two may have been known by the third century BC, possibly through the writings of poet Callimachus.
== Identifications ==
Identifications	
Osiris 	「Dionysus and Osiris were often identified in Greek interpretations of the Egyptian pantheon, with stories of Osiris' dismemberment and resurrection by Isis closely paralleling those of Orphic Dionysus and Demeter. As early as the fifth century BC, the two gods were syncretized as a single deity known as Dionysus-Osiris. Other syncretic Greco-Egyptian deities arose out of this conflation, including Serapis and Hermanubis. Dionysus-Osiris was particularly popular in Ptolemaic Egypt, as the Ptolemies claimed descent from Dionysus and had claim to the lineage of Osiris.
This association was most notable during a deification ceremony where Mark Antony became Dionysus-Osiris, alongside Cleopatra as Isis-Aphrodite. Egyptian myths about Priapus tell that the Titans conspired against Osiris, killed him, divided his body into equal parts, and threw his penis into the river. Isis, Osiris' wife, hunted down and killed the Titans, reassembled Osiris' body parts into a human figure, and gave them to priests.」
Heraclitus 	「Heraclitus, a philosopher from the fifth to fourth century BC, believed that Hades and Dionysus were the same god. Evidence for this connection is extensive, particularly in southern Italy, where death symbolism was heavily involved in Dionysian worship. Statues of Dionysus found in the Ploutonion at Eleusis bear a striking resemblance to the youthful depiction of the Lord of the Underworld, Eubouleus. Ancient portrayals show Dionysus holding the kantharos, a wine-jar with large handles, and Xenocles portrayed Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades on one side of a vase. 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, who was occasionally believed to have an underworld form, closely identified with Hades. Marguerite Rigoglioso argues that Hades is Dionysus, and this dual god was believed by the Eleusinian tradition to have impregnated Persephone. Rigoglioso argues that these myths suggest a belief that Zeus/Hades/Dionysus created a second, a "subterranean Zeus" with Persephone. 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.」
Sabazios 	「The Phrygian god Sabazios was often associated with Zeus or Dionysus, with some claiming that he acquired the form of address from the bacchic cry "sabazein" and was thus referred to as Sabazios. Some also believe that Saboi refers to those dedicated to Sabazios, similar to those dedicated to Bakkhos. Strabo linked Sabazios with Zagreus among Phrygian ministers and attendants of sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos. Diodorus Siculus conflated Sabazios with the secret Dionysus, born of Zeus and Persephone, but this connection is not supported by any surviving inscriptions.
In ancient times, there was a widespread belief that the god worshiped by the Jewish people, Yahweh, was identifiable as Dionysus or Liber via his identification with Sabazios. This belief was supported by sources like Tacitus, Lydus, Cornelius Labeo, and Plutarch, who believed that Jews hailed their god with the words "Euoe" and "Sabi", a cry typically associated with Sabazius worship. Coins used by the Maccabees also supported this connection. However, the belief that the Jewish god was identical with Dionysus/Sabazius was widespread enough that a coin depicting a kneeling king was labeled "Bacchus Judaeus." 」
Category:God
Category:Greek Pantheon
Category:Religion