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PHILOXENIA: DIONYSUS ZEUS SON
11/6/2007 6:24:30 PM
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DIONYSUS, SON OF ZEUS
GREEK MYTHOLOGY
(This is a
compressed version)Dionysos
(Latin Dionysus) the last of the gods to become an Olympian was the son of Zeus and Semele,
the daughter of Cadmos and Harmonia.
This was another of the affairs of Zeus
that infuriated his wife Hera whom tricked Semele into demanding to see her
divine lover in his full splendour. Zeus reluctantly agreed, and when he fully
displayed his power his thunderbolt incinerated Semele to ashes. | 
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When sensing what would happen, Zeus
immediately seized the child from its mother's body and stitched it into his
thigh and at the appropriate time the child emerged perfectly formed. This is
the reason the Dionysus became known as twice born. Zeus entrusted him to the
care of nurses. Ino, the second wife of King Athamas of Orchomenos, was the
first to take care of him.
BIRTHDAY - DECEMBER 25th
Hoping to divert Hera's jealousy
Zeus suggested dressing Dionysus in girl's clothing; but Hera was not fooled
and caused both Athamas and Ino to go mad. Athamas killed his younger son,
Learchos, by throwing him into a cauldron of boiling hot water, and Ino
committed suicide with the elder boy, Melicertes. She threw herself into the
sea with him, and later was transformed into the sea-goddess, Leucothea (white
goddess), and the child became the little god Palaemon. After this tragedy Zeus
placed the child in the care of the nymphs of Mount
Nysa, which was often claimed to be
upper Armenia,
who disguised him as a kid, which may account for the epithet of
"kid" later being applied to Dionysus in ritual.
According to another tradition,
associated with the Greek Orphic mystery cult, Dionysus was born of an
incestuous union between the serpentine Zeus and his daughter Persephone.
Persephone also was born from such a union between Zeus and Rhea. This
serpentine birth of Dionysus has been recognized as important in that the
serpent is an arcane symbol of earth and water, both vital to life, and the
serpent can penetrate the tomb, and in sloughing its own skin represent the
resurrection of the dead. Dionysus' birth has been likened to that of Christ.
Dionysus discovered the grapevine
and its uses while growing up in the countryside around Mount Nysa.
But Hera was not through for him, for she caused him to go mad, and afterwards
he wandered about the entire East, which began for Dionysus a series of
triumphs. He was purified in Phyrgia by the goddess Cybele, the great goddess
of the land, whom the Greeks often identified with Rhea and called the mother
of the gods. Her cult was orgiastic, finding expression in violence, and was
therefore vaguely connected to the cult of Dionysus.
When regaining his sanity Dionysus
went to Thrace,
but the ruler, Lycurgus, gave him a poor welcome. When the king about
imprisoned him, Dionysus fled to Thetis, the Nereid. However, Lycurgus was able
to capture the Bacchantes, women who followed the god and celebrated his rites.
In return Dionysus made the king go mad, and while thinking he was cutting down
a grapevine, Lycurgus severed his own leg with an axe. Further, his kingdom was
beset by sterility. And, when an oracle was consulted, it declared that the
king should be put to death; so his subjects tore his body to pieces.
From Thrace Dionysus went to India,
in which he conquered armies that he mustered on his way by the aid of his own
spells. With these troops he returned to Greece accompanied by a triumphal
procession in a chariot decorated in vine-leaves and drawn by panthers; his
escorts were the Seilenoi, Bacchantes, satyrs and other fertility demons, such
as the god Priapos.
Eventually Dionysus reached Boeotia
in Greece,
which was his mother's region. It was his wish to introduce Bacchanalia into Thebes, where Pentheus
reigned as king. During these revels, the populace, especially the women, went
into a sort of a mystic delirium, and ran about the mountainsides shouting and
oblivious to all decorum. Pentheus forbade such rites, but he received
punishment from his own mother, Agave, in a state of religious fervour, tore
him apart with her own hands when mistaking him for a fawn.
Dionysus demonstrated his powers in
Agros in a similar way. There he drove the two daughters of King Proetos [Προίτος] into
madness, and they wandered about he countryside thinking they were cows. The
seer Melampus [Μελάμπους]] cured them, and for this act obtained for himself and his brother
Bias two-thirds of the kingdom
of Argos. Another
tradition attributes the delirium of Proetus' daughters to the wrath of Hera.
When Dionysus sought to gain access
to Naxos he hired the services of pirates who
tried selling him as a slave. The god changed their oars into serpents and
filled their vessel with clinging ivy. Becoming afraid the pirates threw
themselves into the sea and were transformed into dolphins.
As the final episode of his travels,
Dionysus descended into the underworld in search of his mother, Semele. Hades
agreed to give Semele back to Dionysus, and following this she took to the sky
assuming the name of Thyone. Before his return to Olympus, the god abducted the
young Ariadne [Αριάδνη], who was abandoned by Theseus [Θησεύς]] on the island of Naxos,
and made her his wife.
To be continued
1. His Birth from the thigh of Zeus and
his fostering by Ino, Seilenos and the Nysiades;
2. His flight from Lykourgos who drove
the young god and his followers into the sea;
3. The dismemberment of Pentheus who
denied the god's divinity and attempted to drive him from Thebes;
4. The instruction of Ikarios in
winemaking;
5. The metamorphosis of the Tyrrhenian pirates
into dolphins when they attempted to kidnap him;
6. His love to Ariadne who he found
abandoned by Theseus on the island
of Naxos and wed;
7. His journey to the underworld to
recover his mother or wife;
8. His campaign against the Indians
Warm Regards
Georgios
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