Difference between revisions of "Dionysus"

<p> <strong> DIONYSUS </strong> . One of the various names applied to the god who is most commonly called <strong> [[Bacchus]] </strong> . It is probable that, to begin with, he was a god of vegetation in general, but as time went on he became identified with the vine exclusively. It is supposed that this specialization originated in Thrace. [[Later]] still, the worship, under [[Assyrian]] and [[Babylonian]] influence, took the form of mysteries, like that of Demeter, the goddess of bread. [[Mythology]] speaks of a triumphal journey taken by the god in India. His worship was widely disseminated over [[Greek]] lands, and it was assumed that the [[Jews]] would have no objection to it ( 2Ma 6:7; 2Ma 14:33 ). [[Ptolemy]] Philopator also attempted to force the worship of Dionysus, the god of his family, upon the Jews ( 3Ma 2:29 ). </p> <p> A. Souter. </p>

<p> (Διόνυσος, 2 [[Maccabees]] 6:7; 2 Maccabees 14:33, "Bacchus;" in classical writers sometimes Διώνυσος, of uncertain derivation), also called BACCHUS (Βάκχος, ῎Ιακχος, the noisy god; after the time of Herodotus), was properly the god of wine. He is represented as being the son of [[Jupiter]] and Semele. In [[Homer]] he appears simply as the "frenzied" god (Il. 6:132), and yet "a joy to mortals" (Il. 14:325); but in later times the most varied attributes were centered in him as the source of the luxuriant fertility of nature, and the god of civilization, gladness, and inspiration. The [[Eastern]] wanderings of [[Dionysus]] are well known (Strabo, 15:7, page 687), but they do not seem to have left any special trace in [[Palestine]] (yet comp. Lucan, de [[Syria]] Dea, page 886, ed. Bened.). His worship, however, was greatly modified by the incorporation of Eastern elements, and assumed the twofold form of wild orgies and mystic rites. (See [[Dionysia]]). To the [[Jews]] Dionysus would necessarily appear as the embodiment of paganism in its most material shape, sanctioning the most tumultuous passions and the worst excesses. [[Thus]] Tacitus (Hist. 5:5) rejects the tradition that the Jews worshipped [[Bacchus]] (Liberum patrem; compare Plutarch, Quaest. Conv. 4:6), on the ground of the "entire diversity of their principles" (nequaquam congruentibus institutis), though he interprets the difference to their discredit. The consciousness of the fundamental opposition of the [[God]] of [[Israel]] and Dionysus explains the punishment which [[Ptolemaeus]] Philopator inflicted on the Jews (3 Maccabees 2:29), "branding them with the ivy-leaf of Dionysus" (this plant being sacred to him, Plutarch, Isid. et Osir. 37; Ovid, Fasti, 3:767), though Dionysus may have been the patron god of the [[Ptolemies]] (Grimm on the Macc.). It must have been from the same circumstance that [[Nicanor]] is said to have threatened to erect a temple of Dionysus upon the site of the [[Temple]] at [[Jerusalem]] (2 Maccabees 14:33). — Smith, s.v. See Nicolai, [[De]] ritu antiquo Bacchanali (in Gronovii Thesaur. 7); Moritz, [[Mythology]] of the Gr. and Romans Eng. tr. page 103; Smith, Diet. of Class. Mythol. s.v. Dionysus. Comp. (See [[Bacchus]]). </p>

<p> The god of the vine or wine; the son of [[Zeus]] and [[Semele]] ( <i> q. v </i> .), the "twice born," as plucked first from the womb of his dead mother and afterwards brought forth from the thigh of Zeus, which served to him as his "incubator." See [[Bacchus]] . </p>