Dionysus
Sign in to saveIn ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards, fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia. 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. His thyrsus, a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wan
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Dionysus was an ancient Greek god associated with wine, theatre, fertility, and ecstatic religious experiences, whose wine, music, and dancing were believed to liberate his followers from fear and social constraints. He mattered to the Greeks because his cult offered a form of spiritual and social release through ritual madness and celebration, while his connection to theatre made him central to their dramatic traditions.
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Key facts
- Deity.type
- Greek
- Deity.name
- DionysusBacchus
- Deity.image
- Dionysos Louvre Ma87 n2.jpg
- Deity.caption
- Second-century Roman statue of Dionysus, after a Hellenistic model (ex-coll. Cardinal Richelieu, Louvre)
- Deity.god_of
- God of wine, vegetation, fertility, festivity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre
- Deity.member_of
- the Twelve Olympians
- Deity.abode
- Mount Olympus
- Deity.animals
- Bull, panther, tiger or lion, goat, snake, leopard, fox
- Deity.symbol
- Thyrsus, grapevine, ivy, theatrical masks, phallus, fox-fur robes
- Deity.festivals
- Bacchanalia (Roman), Dionysia
- Deity.parents
- Zeus and Semele
- Deity.Roman_equivalent
Article
49 sectionsContents
- Name
- Etymology
- Meaning and variants
- Origins
- Epithets
- Worship and festivals in Greece
- Dionysia
- Anthesteria
- Bacchic Mysteries
- Eleusinian Mysteries
- Orphism
- Worship and festivals in Rome
- Liber and importation to Rome
- Bacchanalia
- Post-classical worship
- Late Antiquity
- Worship from the Middle Ages to the Modern period
- Identification with other gods
- Osiris
- Hades
- Sabazios and Yahweh
- Mythology
- First birth
- Interpretation
- Second birth
- Interpretation
- Infancy
- Travels and invention of wine
- Return to Greece
- Captivity and escape
- Descent to the underworld
- Secondary myths
- Midas's golden touch
- Love affairs
- Other myths
- Children
- Iconography and depictions
- Symbols
- Classical art
- Early modern art
- Modern literature and philosophy
- Modern film and performance art
- Parallels with Christianity
- Genealogy
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards, fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia. 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. 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 and the freedoms he represents. Those who partook of his mysteries were believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself.
His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms. Traditionally the cult of Dionysus has been said to have originated from Asia Minor and introduced to the Greeks via Thracian. But, his name is mentioned in Linear B tablets from Pylos; so, he might be of Mycenaean origin. In 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 epiphany, sometimes called "the god who comes".