Dionysus

Lore & Background

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. 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 Thebes or on Mount Nysa, 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'. Wine was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus and was his earthly incarnation. Wine could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness. Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, the initial driving force behind the development of theatre in Western culture. In certain Orphic or mystery traditions, the cult of Dionysus is also a 'cult of the souls'; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god. Scholars note parallels between Dionysus and Jesus as dying-and-rising gods, though key differences and contexts complicate direct comparisons.

In Their Own Story

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. 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. The oldest image that is certain to be of Dionysus (as it is accompanied by his name) is found on a dinos by the Attic potter Sophilos from around 570 BC, now in the British Museum. Cornelia Isler-Kerényi argues that he also appears on pottery from the seventh century, showing that he was already worshiped as more than just a god associated with wine, being associated with weddings, death, sacrifice, and sexuality, and that his retinue of satyrs and dancers was already established.

Reader's Guide

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. However, 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. The name Dionysus has been associated since antiquity with Zeus (genitive Dios), and the variants of the name seem to point to an original *Dios-nysos. The earliest attestation is the Mycenaean Greek dative form di-wo-nu-so, featured on two tablets that had been found at 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, 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.

Did You Know?

• Dionysus is mentioned in Linear B tablets from Pylos dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century BC, making him one of the earliest attested gods in mainland Greek culture.
• The oldest certain image of Dionysus, accompanied by his name, is on a dinos by the Attic potter Sophilos from around 570 BC, now in the British Museum.
• In Orphism, Dionysus was variously a son of Zeus and Persephone, a chthonic aspect of Zeus, or the twice-born son of Zeus and the mortal Semele.
• The Roman state made celebration of the Bacchanalia a capital offence, except in toned-down forms approved and supervised by the State.
• Nonnus, in his Dionysiaca, writes that the name Dionysus means 'Zeus-limp', though W. H. D. Rouse notes 'It need hardly be said that these etymologies are wrong'.