Dionysus
Dionysos
Dionysos is the god of wine not just as entertainment but as a way to achieve ecstasy. He is also a god of divine madness and of the breaking of boundaries.
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Blessings
The blessings of Dionysos are joy and passion, madness and prophecy, ecstacy and freedom. Dionysian freedom is beyond good and evil: it takes precedence over law, custom, inhibition or morality. In the worship of Dionysos, we discover who we really are beneath all the masks and lies and compromises that society demands of us. Dionysos dissolves all boundaries and destroys every falsehood. In the ecstatic state, we feel ourselves to be whole, to be one with all of the other worshippers, with the earth and the Gods. We utter prophecy, since we are no longer constrained by our small minds. We perform miracles, since the laws of nature no longer apply. We touch the face of God, and he touches us.
God Of
- Wine
Primary Cult Centers
- Delphi
- Italy
- Keos
- Lesbos
- Thebes
- Thrace
Epithets
- Agreus – Lord Hunter
- Agrios – The Wild One
- Aigobolos – The Goatslayer
- Aktaios – He of the Seacoast
- Antheus – The Blossoming
- Anthroporraistes – The Render of Humans
- Areion – War-like
- Arretos – The Ineffable
- Arsenothelys – the Man-Womanly
- Auxites – The Grower
- Bakcheios – The Bacchic One
- Bakcheios – Bacchic Lord
- Bakchos – Raving
- Bassareus – The Fox-God
- Botryophoros – Bearer of Clusters of Grapes
- Boukeros – The Bull-horned One
- Bromios – He Who Roars
- Bythios – The Deep
- Charidotes – The Giver of Grace
- Choreutes – The Dancer
- Choroplekes – The Danceweaving One
- Chthonios – He of the Underworld
- Dendrites – The Tree God
- Dikerotes – The Two-horned One
- Dimeter – He of Two Mothers
- Dimorphos – The Two-Formed One
- Dissotokos – Doubly Born
- Dithyrambos – Hymned by the Dithyramb
- Eiraphiotes – The In-Sewn One
- Ekstatophoros – The Bringer of Ecstasy
- Eleuthereus – The Emancipator
- Enorches – the Betesticled
- Eribromios – The Loud Roarer
- Eriphos – Young Kid
- Euanthes – The Fair Blossoming One
- Euaster – He Who Shouts Eua
- Eubouleus – The Good Counselor
- Euios – The Reveler
- Gethosynos – The Joyful
- Gigantophonos – Giant-Slayer
- Gynnis – Womanish
- Hagnos – The Pure, Holy One
- Iakchos – The Cryer at Eleusis
- Iatros – The Healer
- Kissobryos – The Ivy-Wrapped One
- Kissokomes – The Ivy-Crowned One
- Kissos – Ivy
- Korymbophoros – The Cluster-laden
- Kryphios – The Hidden One
- Lampter – Light-bringer
- Lenaios – He of the Wine-press
- Liknites – He of the Winnowing Fan Cradle
- Limnaios – He of the Marsh
- Lyaios – Bringer of Freedom
- Lyseus – Liberator
- Mainomenos – The Maddened One
- Makar – Blessed One
- Manikos – The Manic One
- Mantis – The Diviner
- Meilichios – The Gentle One
- Melanaigis – He of the Black Goatskin
- Morychos – The Dark One
- Nebrodes – The Fawn-form One
- Nyktelios – He of the Night
- Nyktipolos – The Night-Stalker
- Nysios – He of Nysa
- Oiketor – The Indweller
- Omadios – He of the Raw Feast
- Palaios – The Ancient One
- Perikionios – He Who is Entwined Around the Pillars
- Phanes – The Illuminator
- Polygethes – Bringer of Many Joys
- Polymorphos – He of the Many Forms
- Polyonomos – The Many-Named One
- Protogonos – The Firstborn
- Skeptouchos – Sceptre-Bearer
- Soter – Saviour
- Sykites – He of the Fig-Tree
- Taurophagos – Devourer of the Bull
- Tauropon – The Bull-faced One
- Tauros – The Worthy Bull
- Teletarches – Lord of Initiation
- Theos – Bull-horned God
- Thyonidas – Son of Thyone
- Thyrsophoros – The Thyrsos-Bearer
- Trieterikos – The Biennial One
- Trigonos – The Thriceborn
- Zagreus – Great Hunter
- Zatheos – The Very Holy
- Zoophoros – Life Bringer
Symbols
Thyrsos, Mask, Nebrix, Kantharos, Phallos
Animals
Panther, Goats, Snake, Bull, Fox
Sacrifices
Musk, Civet, Frankincense, Storax, Ivy, Grapes, Pine, Fig, Wine, Honey, Indian hemp, Orchis root, Thistle, All wild and domestic trees, Black diamond
Festivals
- Anthesteria (11-13 Anthesterion (February)) .
- Apaturia (3 days in Puanepsion (October-November)) .
- Bacchanalia (different dates) .
- Greater (or City) Dionysia (10-17 Elaphebolion (March-April)) .
- Halao (26 Poseidon (December-January)) –
- Lenaia (12-15 Gamelion (January)) .
- Liberalia (Modern observance – 17th March) .
- Oskhophoria (7 Puanepsion (October-November)) .
- Rural Dionysia (Last half of Poseidon (December-January)) .
Ways to honor
Drink wine. Attend theater. Dance. Sing. Learn a form of divination. Explore madness. Be passionate. Be creative. Enjoy every moment of living – even the harsh and unpleasant ones.
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Articles
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Ancient Hymns and Texts
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Modern Hymns and Devotions
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Primary Sources
- Achilles Tatius’ Adventures of Leucippe and Clitophon 2.2-3
- Aeschylos’ Edonoi, Bassarides, Neoniskoi, Lykourgos, Backhai, Pentheus, Xantriai
- Aeschylos’ Eumenides 23
- Apollodorus’ Library 1.3.2; 1.6.2; 1.9.12; 1.9.16; 2.2.2; and the whole of book 3
- Apollodorus’ Epitome 1.9; 3.10
- Archilochus’ Fragments
- Aristophanes’ Acharnenses 263-279
- Aristophanes’ The Frogs
- 2 Maccabbees 6.7; 14.33
- 3 Maccabbees 2:29
- Diodorus Siculus’ Library of History 3.66.1-2, 5.79.1
- Euphorion Fragments 118
- Euripides’ Antiope 203
- Euripides’ The Bacchae
- Euripides’ Cretans, The Cyclops
- Euripides’ Hippolytus 339, 555
- Heraklitos’ Logos 124; 127
- Hesiod’s Catalogues of Women 18; 86
- Hesiod’s Theogony 940-942; 945; 947-949
- Herodotus’ The Histories 1.151; 2.29; 2.42; 2.47-50; 2.123; 3.8; 4.72; 4.78-80; 8.65
- Homer’s Iliad 6.119-143; 14.323-325
- Homer’s Odyssey 11.324-325
- Homeric Hymn to Dionysos 1, 7, 26
- Horace’s Carmina 2.19; 3.25
- Hyginus’ Fabulae 1-4; 7; 43; 129-134; 166-167; 169; 184; 191-92
- Hyginus’ Poetica Astronomica 2.4-7; 2.21; 2.23
- Livy’s History of Rome 39.8-19
- Lucian’s De Dea Syria 16
- Moiro’s Fragments 2
- Nonnos’ Dionysiaca
- Orphic Hymn 1, 13, 18, 27, 29, 30, 37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 56, 87
- Ovid’s Fasti 3.727
- Ovid’s Metamorphoses 3.259-315; 3.513-4.41; 4.389-419; 5.329; 7.294-296; 8.176-182; 11.67-84; 11.89-145; 13.650-674
- Pausanias’s Description of Greece
- Pindar’s Olympian Odes 2.25-27
- Pindar’s Pythian Odes 11.1
- Plato’s Laws 672b
- Plato’s The Republic 2.6-7
- Plautus’ Aulularia 408
- Plautus’ Casina 979-980
- Pliny the Elder’s Natural History 2.106: 31.13
- Plutarch’s Greek Questions 299
- Plutarch’s In Consolation to his Wife
- Plutarch’s Life of Alexander 2, 9
- Plutarch’s Table Talk 4.6.8; 7.17
- Polyaenus’ Strategika 1.1
- Properce 3.7
- Propertius 3.17
- Sappho’s Fragments 3.10
- Sophocles’ Antigone 955-65
- Sophocles’ Erigone
- Sophocles’ Thyestes 234
- Sophocles’ Oedipus in Colonnus 670
- Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos 209
Links
Modern Books
- Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life by Carl Kerenyi and Ralph Manheim