Into serpents, and himself into a lion ; lie filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes, so that the sailors, who were seized with madness, leaped into the sea, where they were metamorphosed into dolphins. (Apollod. iii. 5. § 3; Hom. Hymn. vi. 44; Ov. Met. iii. 582, &c.) In all his wanderings and travels the god had rewarded those who had received him kindly and adopted his worship: he gave them vines and wine.
After he had thus gradually established his divine nature throughout the world, he led his mother out of Hades, called her Thyone, and rose with her into Olympus. (Apollod. l. c.) The place, where he had come forth with Semele from Hades, Avas shewn by the Troezenians in the temple of Artemis Soteira (Paus. ii. 31. § 2) ; the Argives, on the other hand, said, that he had emerged with his mother from the Alcyonian lake. (Paus. il 37. § 5; Clem. Alex. Adm.ad Gr. p. 22.) There is also a mystical story, that the body of Dionysus was cut up and thrown into a cauldron by the Titans, and that he was restored and cured by Rhea or Demeter. (Paus. viiL 37. § 3 ; Diod. iii 62 ; Phurnut. N. D. 28.)
Various mythological beings are described as
the offspring of Dionysus ; but among the women,
both mortal and immortal, who won his love, none
is more famous in ancient history than Ariadne.
[Ariadne.] The extraordinary mixture of traditions which
we have here had occasion to notice,
and which might still be considerably increased,
seems evidently to be made up out of the traditions of different times and countries, referring
to analogous divinities, and transferred to the
Greek Dionysus. We may, however, remark
at once, that all traditions which have reference to a mystic worship of Dionysus, are of a
comparatively late origin, that is, they belong to
the period subsequent to that in which the Homeric poems were composed ; for in those poems
Dionysus does not appear as one of the great divinities, and the story of his birth by Zeus and the
Bacchic orgies are not alluded to in any way :
Dionysus is there simply described as the god
who teaches man the preparation of wine, whence
he is called the " drunken god " ((
Greek characters)), and
the sober king Lycurgus will not, for this reason,
tolerate him in his kingdom. (Hom. Il. vi. 132,
&c., Od. xviii. 406, comp. xi. 325.) As the cultivation of the vine spread in Greece, the worship
of Dionysus likewise spread further ; the mystic
worship was developed by the Orphici, though it
probably originated in the transfer of Phrygian
and Lydian modes of worship to that of Dionysus.
After the time of Alexander's expedition to India,
the celebration of the Bacchic festivals assumed
more and more their wild and dissolute character.
As far as the nature and origin of the god Dionysus is concerned, he appears in all traditions as the
representative of some power of nature, whereas
Apollo is mainly an ethical deity. Dionysus is
the productive, overflowing and intoxicating power
of nature, which carries man away from his usual
quiet and sober mode of living. Wine is the most
natural and appropriate symbol of that power, and
it is therefore called "the fruit of Dionysus."
((Greek characters); Pind. Fragm. 89, ed. Böckh.)
Dionysus is, therefore, the god of wine, the in-
ventor and teacher of its cultivation, the giver of
joy, and the disperser of grief and sorrow. (Bac-
chyl. ap. Athen. ii. p. 40 ; Pind. Fragm. 5 ; Eurip. Bacch. 772.) As the god of wine, he is also
both an inspired and an inspiring god, that is, a
god who has the power of revealing the future to
man by oracles. Thus, it is said, that he had as
great a share in the Delphic oracle as Apollo
(Eurip. Bacch. 300), and he himself had an oracle
in Thrace. (Paus. ix. 30. § 5.) Now, as pro-
phetic power is always combined with the healing
art, Dionysus is, like Apollo, called (Greek characters), or (Greek characters) (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1624), and at his
oracle of Amphicleia, in Phocis, he cured diseases
by revealing the remedies to the sufferers in their
dreams. (Paus. x. 33. §5.) Hence he is invoked
as a (Greek characters) against raging diseases. (Soph.
Oed. Tyr. 210 ; Lycoph. 206.) The notion of his
being the cultivator and protector of the vine was
easily extended to that of his being the protector
of trees in general, which is alluded to in various
epithets and surnames given him by the poets of
antiquity (Paus. i. 31. §2, vii. 21. § 2), and he thus
comes into close connexion with Demeter. (Paus.
vii. 20. § 1 ; Pind. Isthm. vii. 3 ; Theocrit. xx.
33 ; Diod. iii. 64 ; Ov. Fast. iii. 736 ; Plut. Quaest. Gr. 36.) This character is still further developed
in the notion of his being the promoter of civilization, a law-giver, and a lover of peace. (Eurip. Bacch. 420 ; Strab. x. p. 468 ; Diod. iv. 4.) As
the Greek drama had grown out of the dithyrambic
choruses at the festivals of Dionysus, he was also
regarded as the god of tragic art, and as the protector of theatres. In later times, he was worshipped
also as a (Greek characters) which may have arisen
from his resemblance to Demeter, or have been the
result of an amalgamation of Phrygian and Lydian
forms of worship with those of the ancient Greeks.
(Paus. viii. 37. § 3 ; Arnob. adv. Gent. v. 19.)
The orgiastic woi-ship of Dionysus seems to have
been first established in Thrace, and to have
thence spread southward to mounts Helicon and
Parnassus, to Thebes, Naxos, and throughout
Greece, Sicily, and Italy, though some writers
derived it from Egypt. (Paus. i. 2. § 4 ; Diod.
i. 97.) Respecting his festivals and the mode of
their celebration, and especially the introduction
and suppression of his worship at Rome, see Dict, of Ant. s. vv. (Greek characters), (Greek characters), (Greek characters),
(Greek characters), and Dionysia.
In the earliest times the Graces, or Charites, were the companions of Dionysus (Pind. Oi. xiii. 20 ; Plut. Quaest. Gr. 36; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 424), and at Olympia he and the Charites had an altar in common. (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. v. 10 ; Paus. V. 14 in fin.) This circumstance is of great interest, and points out the great change which took place in the course of time in the mode of his worship, for afterwards we find him accompanied in his expeditions and travels by Bacchantic women, called Lenae, Maenades, Thyiades, Mimal- lones, Clodones, Bassarae or Bassarides, all of whom are represented in works of art as raging with madness or enthusiasm, in vehement motions, their heads thrown backwards, with dishevelled hair, and carrying in their hands thyrsus-staffs (entwined with ivy, and headed with pine-cones), cymbals, swords, or serpents. Sileni, Pans, sa- tyrs, centaurs, and other beings of a like kind, are dso the constant companions of the god. (Strab. x. p. 468 ; Diod. iv. 4. &c. ; Catull. 64. 258 ; Athen i. p. 33 ; Paus. i. 2. § 7.)
The temples and statues of Dionysus were very numerous in the ancient world. Among the sa-
