Dionysus

Dionysus
This article is about the Greco-Roman deity. For other uses of the names "Dionysus" and "Dionysos", see Dionysos (disambiguation). For other uses of the theophoric name "Dionysius", see Dionysius (disambiguation).

Dionysus /daɪ[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English#Key. ]əˈnaɪsəs/  dy-ə- ny -səs  (Ancient Greek: Διόνυσος, Dionysos) was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete.[2] His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek.[3] [4] [5] In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner; and in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, "the god that comes", and his "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, and is included in some lists of the twelve Olympians. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theater. He is an example of a dying god.[6] [7]

The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a fennel staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked youth: the literature describes him as womanly or "man-womanish".[8] 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 civilized. His procession (thiasus) is made up of wild female followers (maenads) and ithyphallic, bearded satyrs. 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 human followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. In his Thracian mysteries, he wears the bassaris or fox-skin, symbolizing a new life. Dionysus is represented by city religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.[9]

He was also known as Bacchus ( /ˈbækəs/ or /ˈbɑːkəs/; Greek: Βάκχος, Bakkhos), the name adopted by the Romans[10] and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey. It is a beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. He is also the Liberator (Eleutherios), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who partake in his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself.[11] His cult 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.[12]

In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, thus semi-divine or heroic: and as son of Zeus and Persephone or Demeter, thus both fully divine, part-chthonic and possibly identical with Iacchus of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity and a more powerful god from Thrace or Phrygia such as Sabazios[13] or Zalmoxis. Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian, at the National Gallery in London

Etymology
===The name Dionysos is of uncertain significance. The dio- element has been associated since antiquity with Zeus ( genitiveDios). The earliest attested form of the name isMycenaean Greekdi-wo-nu-so, written inLinear Bsyllabic script, presumably for /Diwo(h)nūsos/, found on two tablets atMycenaeanundefinedPylosand dated to the 12th or 13th century BC.[15][16]===

===Later variants include Dionūsos and Diōnūsos in Boeotia; Dien(n)ūsos in Thessaly; Deonūsos and Deunūsos in Ionia; and Dinnūsos in Aeolia, besides other variants. A Dio- prefix is found in other names, such as that of the Dioscures, and may derive from Dios, the genitive of the name ofZeus.[17]===

===Janda (2010, following Peters 1989) sees the verbal stem of diemai "to chase, hurry, impel". The second element -nūsos is associated with Mount Nysa, the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (theNysiads),[18]but according toPherecydes of Syros, nũsa was an archaic word for "tree".[19]===

===The cult of Dionysus was closely associated with trees, specifically the fig tree, and some of his bynames exhibit this, such as Endendros "he in the tree" or 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: theaxis mundiofIndo-European mythologyis represented both as aworld-treeand as aworld-mountain.[20]===

Dionysus was variably known with the following epithets:
===Acratophorus, ("giver of unmixed wine"), at PhigaleiainArcadia.[21]===

===Acroreites at Sicyon.[22]===

===Adoneus ("ruler") in his Latinised, Bacchic cult.[citation needed] [23]===

===Aegobolus ("goat killer") at Potniae, in Boeotia.[24]===

===Aesymnetes("ruler" or "lord") at Aroë andPatraeinAchaea.===

===Agrios ("wild"), in Macedonia.===

Dithyrambos, form of address used at his festivals, referring to his premature birth.
===Eleutherios ("the liberator"), an epithet for both Dionysus and Eros.===

===Endendros ("he in the tree"). [25]===

===Enorches("with balls",[26]with reference to his fertility, or "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the baby Dionysus into his thigh, i.e., his testicles).[27]used inSamosandLesbos.===

Erikryptos ("completely hidden"), in Macedonia.
===Evius, in Euripides' play, The Bacchae.===

===Iacchus, possibly an epithet of Dionysus and associated with theEleusinian Mysteries. InEleusis, he is known as a son ofZeusandDemeter. The name "Iacchus" may come from the Ιακχος (Iakchos), a hymn sung in honor of Dionysus.===

===Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan"), as a fertility god connected with the mystery religions. A winnowing fan was used to separate the chaff from the grain.===

Lyaeus ("he who unties") or releases from care and anxiety.
===Melanaigis ("of the black goatskin") at the Apaturiafestival.===

===Oeneus, as god of the wine press.===

Pseudanor("false man"), inMacedonia.
===In the Greek pantheon, Dionysus (along withZeus) absorbs the role ofSabazios, aThracian/Phrygiandeity. In theRoman pantheon, Sabazius became an alternate name for Bacchus.[28]=== "Bacchus" by Michelangelo (1497)==[edit]Mythology==

[edit]Birth
===The top course of this Roman sarcophagus shows Dionysus's birth. In the top center, the baby god comes out ofZeus's thigh.Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into theOlympian pantheon. His mother was a mortal woman,Semele, the daughter of kingCadmusofThebes, and his father wasZeus, the king of the gods. Zeus' wife,Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant. Appearing as an oldcrone(in other stories a nurse), Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood. Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he agreed. Therefore he came to her wreathed in bolts of lightning; mortals, however, could not look upon an undisguised god without dying, and she perished in the ensuing blaze. Zeus rescued the fetal Dionysus by sewing him into his thigh. A few months later, Dionysus was born on Mount Pramnos in the island ofIkaria, where Zeus went to release the now-fully-grown baby from his thigh. In this version, Dionysus is born by two "mothers" (Semele and Zeus) before his birth, hence the epithet dimētōr (of two mothers) associated with his being "twice-born".===

===In the Cretan version of the same story, which Diodorus Siculusfollows,[29]Dionysus was the son of Zeus andPersephone, the queen of theGreek underworld. Diodorus' sources equivocally identified the mother as Demeter.[30]A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sendingTitansto rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the baby with toys. It is said that he was mocked by the Titans who gave him a thyrsus (a fennel stalk) in place of his rightful sceptre.[31]Zeus turned the Titans into dust with his thunderbolts, but only after the Titans ate everything but the heart, which was saved, variously, byAthena,Rhea, orDemeter. Zeus used the heart to recreate him in histhigh, hence he was again "the twice-born". Other versions claim that Zeus recreated him in the womb of Semele, or gave Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her.===

===The rebirth in both versions of the story is the primary reason why Dionysus was worshipped in mystery religions, as his death and rebirth were events of mystical reverence. This narrative was apparently used in several Greek and Roman cults, and variants of it are found inCallimachusandNonnus, who refer to this Dionysus with the titleZagreus, and also in several fragmentary poems attributed toOrpheus.[citation needed]===

===The myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans, is alluded to by Plato in his Phaedo (69d) in which Socrates claims that the initiations of the Dionysian Mysteries are similar to those of the philosophic path. Late Neo-Platonists such as Damasciusexplore the implications of this at length.[32]===

[edit]Infancy at Mount Nysa
===Hermes and the Infant DionysusbyPraxiteles, (Archaeological Museum of Olympia)According to the myth Zeus gave the infant Dionysus into the charge ofHermes. One version of the story is that Hermes took the boy to KingAthamasand his wifeIno, Dionysus' aunt. Hermes bade the couple raise the boy as a girl, to hide him from Hera's wrath.[33]Another version is that Dionysus was taken to the rain-nymphsofNysa, who nourished his infancy and childhood, and for their care Zeus rewarded them by placing them as theHyadesamong the stars (seeHyades star cluster). Other versions have Zeus giving him to Rhea, or to Persephone to raise in the Underworld, away from Hera. Alternatively, he was raised byMaro.===

===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 hymnto Dionysus places it "far from Phoenicia, near to the Egyptian stream". Others placed it in Anatolia, or inLibya('away in the west beside a great ocean'), in Ethiopia (Herodotus), orArabia(Diodorus Siculus).===

===According to Herodotus: 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 Nysain Ethiopia beyondEgypt; and as forPan, 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 2.146Apollodorusseems to be following Pherecydes, who relates how the infant Dionysus, god of the grapevine, was nursed by the rain-nymphs, theHyadesat Nysa.===

[edit]Childhood
===Kylix(6th century BC) depicting Dionysus among the sailors transformed to dolphins after attempting to kidnap himWhen Dionysus grew up, he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice; but Hera struck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the earth. InPhrygiathe goddessCybele, 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 toIndia, which is said to have lasted several years. Returning in triumph he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed by some princes who dreaded its introduction on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it (e.g.PentheusorLycurgus). North African Roman mosaic: Panther-Dionysus scatters the pirates, who are changed to dolphins, except forAcoetes, the helmsman. (Bardo National Museum)Dionysus was exceptionally attractive. One of theHomeric hymnsrecounts how, while disguised as a mortal sitting beside the seashore, a few sailors spotted him, believing he was a prince. They attempted to kidnap him and sail him far away to sell for ransom or into slavery. They tried to bind him with ropes, but no type of rope could hold him. Dionysus turned into a fierce lion and unleashed a bear onboard, killing those he came into contact with. Those who jumped off the ship were mercifully turned into dolphins. The only survivor was the helmsman,Acoetes, who recognized the god and tried to stop his sailors from the start.[34]In a similar story, Dionysus desired to sail fromIcariatoNaxos. He then hired aTyrrhenianpirate ship. However, when the god was on board, they sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending to sell him as a slave. So Dionysus 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.===

[edit]Midas
===Once, Dionysus found his old school master and foster father, Silenus, missing. The old man had been drinking, and had wandered away drunk, and was found by some peasants, who carried him to their king (alternatively, he passed out in Midas' rose garden).Midasrecognized him, and treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with politeness, while Silenus entertained Midas and his friends with stories and songs. On the eleventh day, he brought Silenus back to Dionysus. Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wanted. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into 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. Overjoyed, as soon as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a feast on the table. Then he found that his bread, meat, daughter and wine turned to gold.===

===Upset, Midas strove to divest himself of his power (the Midas Touch); he hated the gift he had coveted. He prayed to Dionysus, begging to be delivered from starvation. Dionysus heard and consented; he told Midas to wash in the riverPactolus. He did so, and when he touched the waters the power passed into them, and the river sands changed into gold. This was anetiological myththat explained why the sands of the Pactolus were rich in gold.===

[edit]Pentheus
===Pentheus torn apart by Agave and Ino. Attic red-figure lekanis (cosmetics bowl) lid, ca. 450-425 BCE (Louvre)Euripidescomposed a tragedy about the destructive nature of Dionysus in The Bacchae. Since Euripides wrote this play while in the court of KingArchelausofMacedon, some scholars believe that the cult of Dionysus was malicious in Macedon but benign inAthens.===

===In the play, Dionysus returns to his birthplace, Thebes, which is ruled by his cousinPentheus. Dionysus wants to exact revenge on Pentheus and the women of Thebes (his auntsAgave,InoandAutonoe) for not believing his mother Semele's claims of being impregnated by Zeus, and for denying Dionysus's divinity (and therefore not worshiping him).===

===Dionysus slowly drives Pentheus mad, lures him to the woods of Mount Cithaeron, and then convinces him to spy/peek on theMaenads(female worshippers of Dionysus, who often experienced divine ecstasy). The Maenads are in an insane frenzy when Pentheus sees them (earlier in the play they had ripped apart a herd of cattle), and they catch him but mistake him for a wild animal. Pentheus is torn to shreds, and his mother (Agave, one of the Maenads), not recognizing her own son because of her madness, brutally tears his limbs off as he begs for his life.===

[edit]Lycurgus
===When King LycurgusofThraceheard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned all the followers of Dionysus; the god fled, taking refuge withThetis, and sent a drought which stirred the people into revolt. Dionysus then made King Lycurgus insane, having him slice his own son into pieces with an axe, thinking he was a patch of ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus. Anoraclethen claimed that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus was alive, so his people had himdrawn and quartered; with Lycurgus dead, Dionysus lifted the curse. This story was told in Homer's epic, Iliad 6.136-7. In an alternative version, sometimes shown in art, Lycurgus tried to kill Ambrosia, a follower of Dionysus, who was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and restrained him, eventually killing him.[35]===

[edit]Prosymnus
===A better-known story is that of his descent to Hades to rescue his mother Semele, whom he placed among the stars. [36]He made the descent from a reputedly bottomless pool on the coast of theArgolidnear the prehistoric site ofLerna. He was guided byProsymnusor Polymnus, who requested, as his reward, to be Dionysus' lover. Prosymnus died before Dionysus could honor his pledge, so in order to satisfy Prosymnus' shade, Dionysus fashioned aphallusfrom an olive branch and sat on it at Prosymnus' tomb.[37]This story survives in full only in Christian sources whose aim was to discredit pagan mythology. It appears to have served as an explanation of the secret objects that were revealed in theDionysian Mysteries.[38]===

[edit]Ampelos
===Another myth according to NonnusinvolvesAmpelos, asatyr. Foreseen by Dionysus, the youth was killed in an accident riding a bull maddened by the sting of anAte's gadfly. TheFatesgranted Ampelos a second life as a vine, from which Dionysus squeezed the first wine.[39]===

[edit]Chiron
===Young Dionysus was also said to have been one of the many famous pupils of the centaurundefinedChiron. According to Ptolemy Chennus in the Library of Photius, "Dionysius was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations."[40]===

[edit]Secondary myths
===Bacchus and AriadnebyTitian, at theNational Galleryin LondonWhenHephaestusboundHerato a magical chair, Dionysus got him drunk and brought her back to Olympus after he passed out.===

===A third descent by Dionysus to Hades is invented by Aristophanesin 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 competitionAeschylusis chosen in preference toEuripides.===

===When TheseusabandonedAriadnesleeping on Naxos, Dionysus found and married her. She bore him a son named Oenopion, but he committed suicide or was killed byPerseus. In some variants, he had her crown put into the heavens as the constellation Corona; in others, he descended intoHadesto restore her to the gods on Olympus. Another different account claims Dionysus ordered Theseus to abandon Ariadne on the island of Naxos for he had seen her as Theseus carried her onto the ship and had decided to marry her.===

===Callirrhoewas aCalydonianwoman who scorned a priest of Dionysus who threatened to afflict all the women of Calydon with insanity (seeMaenad). The priest was ordered to sacrifice Callirhoe but he killed himself instead. Callirhoe threw herself into a well which was later named after her.===

Acis, aSicilianyouth, was sometimes said to be Dionysus' son.
=== ===

[edit]Consorts and children
{| class="toccolours" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 1em; float: right; clear: right" ! style="text-align: center; background-color: darkseagreen"|

Gods

 * ===Primordial godsandTitans===
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Heroes

 * ===Heraclesand hisLabors===
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Related

 * ===Satyrs,centaursanddragons===
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Greek mythology portal

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 * 1) ===Charites(Graces)===


 * 1) ===Pasithea===
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 * 1) ===Oenopion===
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 * 1) ===Iacchus===
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 * 1) ===Medus===

[edit]Parallels with Christianity
===Main article: Jesus Christ in comparative mythologyThe earliest discussions of mythological parallels between Dionysus and the figure ofthe ChristinChristian theologycan be traced toFriedrich Hölderlin, whose identification of Dionysus with Christ is most explicit in Brod und Wein (1800–1801) and Der Einzige (1801–1803).[41]===

===Modern scholars such as Martin Hengel,Barry Powell, and Peter Wick, among others, argue that Dionysian religion and Christianity have notable parallels. They point to the symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the mythology surrounding both Dionysus and Jesus Christ;[42][43]though, Wick argues that the use of wine symbolism in theGospel of John, including the story of theMarriage at Canaat which Jesus turnswaterinto wine, was intended to show Jesus as superior to Dionysus.[44]===

===Scholars of comparative mythologyidentify both Dionysus and Jesus with thedying-and-returning godmythologicalarchetype.[7]Other elements, such as the celebration by a ritual meal of bread and wine, also have parallels.[45]Powell, in particular, argues precursors to the Christian notion oftransubstantiationcan be found in Dionysian religion.[45]===

===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. [44][45][46]===

===E. Kessler in a symposium Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire, Exeter, 17–20 July 2006, states that Dionysian cult had developed into strict monotheismby the 4th century CE; together withMithraismand other sects the cult formed an instance of "pagan monotheism" in direct competition withEarly ChristianityduringLate Antiquity.[47]===

[edit]Symbolism
===Satyrgiving agrapevineto Bacchus as a child;cameo glass, first half of the 1st century AD; from ItalyThebull, theserpent, theivyand the wine are the signs of the characteristic Dionysian atmosphere, and Dionysus is strongly associated withsatyrs,centaurs, andsileni. He is often shown riding aleopard, wearing a leopard skin, or in a chariot drawn bypanthers, and may also be recognized by thethyrsushe carries. Besides thegrapevineand its wild barren alter-ego, the toxic ivy plant, both sacred to him, thefigwas also his symbol. Thepineconethat tipped his thyrsus linked him toCybele. TheDionysiaandLenaiafestivals inAthenswere dedicated to Dionysus. Initiates worshipped him in theDionysian Mysteries, which were comparable to and linked with theOrphic Mysteries, and may have influencedGnosticism[citation needed]. Orpheus was said to have invented the Mysteries of Dionysus.[48]===

===Dionysus was another god of resurrection who was strongly linked to the bull. In a cult hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is invited to come as a bull; "with bull-foot raging."Walter Burkertrelates, "Quite frequently [Dionysus] is portrayed with bull horns, and inKyzikoshe has a tauromorphic image," and refers also to an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by theTitans.[7]In the Classical period of Greece, the bull and other animals identified with deities were separated from them as their agalma, a kind of heraldic show-piece that concretely signified their numinous presence.[7]===

[edit]Bacchanalia
===BacchusbyCaravaggioMain article:BacchanaliaIntroduced intoRome(c. 200 BC) from theGreek culture of southern Italyor by way of Greek-influencedEtruria, the bacchanalia were held in secret and attended by women only, in the grove of Simila, near theAventine Hill, on March 16 and 17. Subsequently, admission to the rites was extended to men and celebrations took place five times a month. The mystery-cult may have been seen as a threat to the political status quo. The notoriety of these festivals, where many kinds of crimes and political conspiracies were supposed to be planned, led to a decree by theSenatein 186 BC — the so-called Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, inscribed on a bronze tablet discovered inCalabria(1640), now inVienna— by which the Bacchanalia were prohibited throughout all Italy except in special cases that required specific approval by the Senate. In spite of the severe punishment inflicted on those found in violation of this decree, the Bacchanalia were not stamped out, at any rate in the south of Italy, for a very long time.===

===Dionysus is equated with both Bacchus and Liber(also Liber Pater). Liber ("the free one") was a god of male fertility, wine, and growth, whose female counterpart wasLibera. His festival was theLiberalia, celebrated on March 17, but in some myths the festival was also held on March 5.===

[edit]In art
===Main article: Bacchic artundefined"Bacchus" byMichelangelo(1497)===[edit]Classical=== The god appeared on many kratersand other wine vessels fromclassical Greece. His iconography became more complex in the Hellenistic period, between severe archaising orNeo Attictypes such as the Dionysus Sardanapalus and types showing him as an indolent and androgynous young man and often shownnude(see the,Naples Archeological Museum). The 4th centuryLycurgus Cupin theBritish Museumis a spectacularcage cupwhich changes colour when light comes through the glass; it shows the bound KingLycurgus (Thrace)being taunted by the god and attacked by a satyr.===

===Elizabeth Kessler has theorized that a mosaic appearing on the tricliniumfloor of the House of Aion inNea Paphos, Cyprus, details a monotheistic worship of Dionysus.[49]In the mosaic, other gods appear but may only be lesser representations of the centrally imposed Dionysus.===

[edit]Modern views
===Dionysus has remained an inspiration to artists, philosophers and writers into the modern era. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872), the German philosopherFriedrich NietzschecontrastedDionysus with the god Apolloas a symbol of the fundamental, unrestrainedaestheticprinciple of force, music, and intoxication versus the principle of sight, form, and beauty represented by the latter. Nietzsche also claimed that the oldest forms of Greek Tragedy were entirely based on suffering of Dionysus. Nietzsche continued to contemplate the character of Dionysus, which he revisited in the final pages of his 1886 work Beyond Good and Evil. This reconceivedNietzscheanDionysus was invoked as an embodiment of the centralwill to powerconcept in Nietzsche's later works The Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist and Ecce Homo.===

===Károly Kerényi, a scholar inclassical philologyand one of the founders of modern studies inGreek mythologycharacterized Dionysus as representative of the psychological life force (Zoê).[50]Other scholars proposing psychological interpretations have placed Dionysus'emotionalityin the foreground by focusing on thejoy,terrororhysteriaassociated with the god.[51][52][53][54][55]===

===The RussianundefinedpoetandphilosopherundefinedVyacheslav Ivanovelaborated the theory ofDionysianism, which traces the roots of literary art in general and the art of tragedy in particular to ancient Dionysian mysteries. His views were expressed in the treatises The Hellenic Religion of the Suffering God (1904), and Dionysus and Early Dionysianism (1921).===

===Inspired by James Frazer, some have labeled Dionysus alife-death-rebirth deity. The mythographerKarl Kerenyidevoted much energy to Dionysus over his long career; he summed up his thoughts in Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (Bollingen, Princeton, 1976).===

===Dionysus is the main character of Aristophanes' play The Frogs, later updated to a modern versionbyBurt Shevelove(libretto) andStephen Sondheim(music and lyrics) ("The time is the present. The place is ancient Greece. ... "). In the play, Dionysus and his slave Xanthius venture to Hades to bring a famed writer back from the dead, with the hopes that the writer's presence in the world will fix all nature of earthly problems. In Aristophanes' play,Euripidescompetes against Aeschylus to be recovered from the underworld; In Sondheim and Shevelove's,George Bernard ShawfacesWilliam Shakespeare.===

===The Romanised equivalent of Dionysus was referenced in the 1852undefinedplantation literaturenovel Aunt Phillis's Cabin, which featured a character named Uncle Bacchus, who was so-named due to his excessivealcoholism.===

===Both Eddie CampbellandGrant Morrisonhave utilised the character. Morrison claims that the myth of Dionysus provides the inspiration for his violent and explicit graphic novel Kill Your Boyfriend, whilst Campbell used the character in his Deadface series to explore both the conventions ofsuper-heroundefinedcomic booksand artistic endeavour.===

===Dionysus is one of the central myths explored in the 2011 WeaponizedanthologyThe Immanence of Myth.[56]===

===Walt Disneyhas depicted the character on a number of occasions. The first such portrayal of Dionysus, as the Roman Bacchus, was in the "Pastoral" segment of Walt Disney's third classic Fantasia. In keeping with the more fun-loving Roman god, he is portrayed as an overweight, happily drunk man wearing atunicand cloak,grape leaveson his head, carrying agobletof wine, and riding a drunken donkey named Jacchus ("jackass"). He is friends with thefaunsandcentaurs, and is shown celebrating a harvest festival. Other portrayals have appeared in both the Disneymovieandspin-off TV seriesof Hercules. He was depicted as an overweight drunkard as opposed to his youthful descriptions in myths. He has bright pink skin and rosy red cheeks hinting at his drunkenness. He always carries either a bottle or glass of wine in his hand, and like in the myths, wears a wreath of grape leaves upon his head. In the series he is known by his Roman name "Bacchus", and in one episode headlines his own festival known as the "Bacchanal".===

===In music Dionysius (together with Demeter) was used as an archetype for the character Tori by contemporary artistTori Amosin her 2007 album American Doll Posse, and the Canadian rock bandRushrefer to a confrontation and hatred between Dionysus andApolloin theCygnus X-1 duology.===

===Dionysus along with Lilithare central characters inJames Curcio's 2011 novel Fallen Nation: Party At The World's End.===

===In literature, Dionysius has proven equally inspiring. Rick Riordan's series of books Percy Jackson & The Olympians presents Dionysus as an uncaring, childish and spoilt god who as a punishment has to work in Camp Half-Blood. InFred Saberhagen's 2001 novel, God of the Golden Fleece, a young man in a post-apocalyptic world picks up an ancient piece of technology shaped in the likeness of the Dionysus. Here, Dionysus is depicted as a relatively weak god, albeit a subversive one whose powers are able to undermine the authority of tyrants.===

===A version of Bacchus also appears in C. S. Lewis'Prince Caspian, part of The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis depicts him as dangerous-looking, androgynous young boy who helps Aslan awaken the spirits of the Narnian trees and rivers. He does not appear in the 2008 film version.===

===In 2009 the poet Stephen Howarthand veteran theatre producer Andrew Hobbs collaborated on a play entitled Bacchus in Rehab with Dionysus as the central character. The authors describe the piece as "combining highbrow concept and lowbrow humour".[57]===

===The second season of True Bloodinvolves a plot line wherein amaenad, Maryann, causes mayhem in the Louisiana town of Bon Temps in attempt to summon Dionysus.===