Dionysus

So, then, the barbarian and the Greek philosophy have made a kind of rending of the eternal truth — not the rending of the mythology of Dionysus, but of the theology of the ever-existing Word.

but it would be a long matter to set them out with exactness, since Dionysus himself, on account of whom the Dionysiac spectacles are held, is shown presently to be later than Moses.

and the Cadmean Semele bore him a shining son, having joined in love, Dionysus the bringer of much joy.

Be a good counselor to Cleobulus, O Dionysus, and grant that he accept my love.

"Nor, by Zeus, with the prayers of the Attic drinking-songs and convivial verses, which befit not kings but cheerful and utterly unbuttoned commoners and clansmen:

And suppose now we wish to found an altar or a temple to someone — for even if you have altars of all the gods, it is not impossible, I think, both to build one finer than before and to resolve to honour the same god with more — is it not ready at hand to dislodge one of the other gods, or to transfer something of what has already been consecrated?

The people of the place worship no other gods but Zeus and Dionysus;

For no gods are worshipped by all Egyptians in common except Isis and Osiris, who they say is Dionysus;

But this is how they sacrifice swine to the Moon:

For which reason not without ground do some wish Dionysus to be called Attis, since he was deprived of his members.

Are not these sesame-cakes and cones and lumps and round cakes with many bosses, and lumps of salt, and a serpent, the orgy of Dionysus Bassareus?

Others, gathering the cultivated fruits of the things that grow from the earth, called the grain Deo, as the Athenians, and the vine Dionysus, as the Thebans.

Chorus:

Chorus:

Chorus:

still is my song of the triumphs of Heracles, whether Bromius the giver of wine is near, or the strains of the seven-stringed lyre and the Libyan pipe are rising;

Toward bloodshed, and not to pour libations of Dionysus’ grape.

The dance begins without the cymbals’ crash, with no glad waving of the wine-god’s staff—

Dionysus, and Zethus and Amphion, and Heracles, and Apollo and Artemis, and Perseus, Castor and Helen and Polydeuces, and Minos, and Rhadamanthus,

And they introduce Dionysus as a god, holding nocturnal feasts and a teacher of drunkenness, and carrying off the wives of his neighbours, and raving and fleeing;

Another, for the sake of his love of wine, fashioned an idol which he called Dionysus.

Long-haired Semele, who died in the roar of the thunderbolt, lives among the Olympians;

Whence did the graces of Dionysus first come to light, with the ox-driving dithyramb?

But if, saying nothing about these bestial fellows, Cedonides, Autocleides, and Thersandrus, and simply telling the names of those in whose houses he has been an inmate, I refresh your memories and show that he is guilty of selling his person not only in Misgolas’ house, but in the house of another man also, and again of another, and that from this last he went to still another, surely you will no …

As he was passing the gateway of the theatre of Dionysus, he noticed a large body of men coming down into the orchestra from the Odeum.

even now the union and marriage of the king's wife with Dionysus takes place there);

To Dionysus pay public sacrifices and mix a bowl of wine and set up dances;

The Prytanes shall call a meeting of the Assembly in the temple of Dionysus on the day next after the Pandia.

See you forget not Bacchus, and joining all in the dances Down your broad-spaced streets, in thanks for the gifts of the season, Crown each head with a wreath, while incense reeks on the altars.

For if it had been a tragedy in the theater of Dionysus that you were watching and not a debate on the very existence of your state, you could not have shown more partiality to him and more ill-will against me.

and she administered the oath to the venerable priestesses who preside over the sacrifices, and was given as bride to Dionysus;

For this reason they set it up in the most ancient and most sacred sanctuary of Dionysus in Limnae, in order that few only might have knowledge of the inscription;

I live a holy life and am pure and unstained by all else that pollutes and by commerce with man, and I will celebrate the feast of the wine god and the Iobacchic feast in honor of Dionysus in accordance with custom and at the appointed times.

Oh, daughter—for I see you now before the house—I have come, bringing you from my own sheep this newborn nursling of the flock, having drawn it away from its mother, and garlands, and cheeses I have taken from the press, and this old treasure of Dionysus, furnished with fragrance, small, but sweet to pour a cup of it into a weaker drink.

Hecuba:

Polymestor:

Dionysus, our Thracian prophet, told me so.

Great is the power of dappled fawn-skin robes, and green ivy that crowns a sacred thyrsos, the whirling beat of the tambourine circling in the air, hair streaming wildly for the revelry of Bromios, and the night-long festivals of the goddess.

all, all, ere this, is brought to light owing to that fatal draught of the wine-god’s juice mixed for death with drops of viper’s gore, quick to slay;

Soon as Xuthus, husband of Creusa, had left the god’s prophetic shrine, taking with him his new-found son, to hold the feast and sacrifice that he designed to offer to the gods, himself departed to the place where leaps the Bacchic flame, with blood of sacrifice to dew the double peaks of Dionysus for the son now offered to his gaze, and thus he spake, My son, abide thou here, and raise a spacious …

For the mother, leaving the famous birth-place, brought him from the ridges of the sea to the heights of Parnassus, with its gushing waters, which celebrate the revels for Dionysus.

This private worship, like the public worship of the greater Gods, had its ritual, its liturgy, and its priesthood within the circle of the family;

And when the dark-winged whirring grasshopper, perched on a green shoot, begins to sing of summer to men— his food and drink is the dainty dew—and all day long from dawn pours forth his voice in the deadliest heat, when Sirius scorches the flesh (then the beard grows upon the millet which men sow in summer), when the crude grapes which Dionysus gave to men— a joy and a sorrow both—begin to color, …

And golden-haired Dionysus made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife:

And Semele, daughter of Cadmus was joined with him in love and bore him a splendid son, joyous Dionysus,—a mortal woman an immortal son.

then cover them over for five, and on the sixth day draw off into vessels the gifts of joyful Dionysus.

and some, in Naxos, O Heaven-born, Insewn;

And others yet, lord, say you were born in Thebes;

Be favorable, O Insewn, Inspirer of frenzied women!