Zeus' youngest immortal son, who together with Hermes, Apollo and Artemis belongs to the second generation of the Olympian gods. The legend mentions two Dionysus: the older one - Zagreus, the son of Zeus and Persephone, and the younger one - the son of Zeus and the Theban princess Semele. That is why his divine origin was doubted; Dionysus had to prove by miracles that he was a god, and he, as well as his followers, were constantly threatened with persecution and death. Thrace and Phrygia competed for the honor of being considered the homeland of Dionysus, although he may have originated from the island of Crete.
According to Orphic tradition, Zeus gave birth to a daughter, Persephone, by Ray or Demeter. After giving birth to a girl, Demeter left Crete and went to Sicily. There, in a cave, she left Persephone and two snakes to guard her. While Persephone was weaving a woolen cloth, she was fertilized by Zeus, transformed into a snake. Thus was born the new ruler of the world, the horned boy Dionysus Zagreus. He was immediately placed on the throne; he was given dice, a ball, a tern, golden apples, a woolen tassel, and a rattle to play with, and was guarded by curettes, who played around the throne, to the sound of their weapons. Jealous Hera wanted to destroy Zeus' successor and sent titans to kill the little one. Dionysus Zagreus tried to save himself by transforming himself into a goat, a lion, a snake and a bull. While he was in the form of a bull, the titans tore him apart, and then they prepared a feast and brought his dismembered body to the table. The smell of roasted meat also attracted Zeus; when he discovered the crime, he killed the titans with lightning, and handed over Dionysus' limbs to Apollo to bury them next to his tripod in Delphi. Some say that Zeus' lightning and titans burned the whole feast and turned it to ashes. From that ash, which contains titanic and divine elements, the whole human race was created. The heart of Dionysus, which was the only one preserved, Athena hid in a basket and handed over to Zeus. From the heart of Dionysus Zagreus, the younger Dionysus was born.
According to the usual legend, Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Semele. The father of the gods fell in love with Semele, the beautiful daughter of Cadmus and Harmony, and united with her in the Theban Cadmeia, in the sanctuary of Demeter. When Semela conceived a divine child, Hera noticed her pregnancy. In order to take revenge on her rival and prevent the birth of a child, Zeus' wife advised Semele to ask her lover to appear to her in all his greatness and splendor, like a thunderbolt. The reckless daughter of Cadmus obeyed that advice and forced Zeus to approach her the way he approaches his divine wife (picture below). The flash of lightning fried the mortal, and the child that Semela was carrying under her breast was saved by Zeus from the fire and sewn into his thigh. After three months, Zeus gave birth to Dionysus in Nis and handed him over to the nymphs of that country.
Others say that Semela secretly gave birth to Dionysus in Thebes, and that Cadmus put his daughter and granddaughter in a coffin and threw them into the sea. The waves threw the coffin on the shores of Laconia. The people who opened it found Semela dead in it, and the child, who was still alive, was handed over for safekeeping to Atamant's wife Inona. Some say that Zeus entrusted his son Inona, demanding that she raise him as a girl. That precaution did not deceive the jealous Hera; she discovered the deception and punished Inona and Atamanta with madness. Zeus then turned Dionysus into a kid and handed him over to the Nyssa nymphs for safekeeping.
Dionysus grew up among the women, who stayed with him even when he set out into the world, adorned with wreaths of ivy and laurel. His companions - menades, tijads and bahant women - wander the mountains and forests, filled with divine inspiration. After finding a way to grow vines and make wine, Dionysus and his entourage, which included his educator Silenus, began a victorious campaign. On the way from Egypt to Thrace and from Spain to India, he spread new customs and taught people how to grow vines. Along the way, he encountered numerous supporters, but he also gained many enemies. When he arrived in Thrace, King Lycurgus opposed him. Dionysus had to save himself by jumping into the sea, where Tethys accepted him and gave him refuge under water. Lycurgus is punished with madness; convinced that he was cutting the vine, he cut his son with an ax. In Orchomenus, Mini's daughters refused to take part in the mysteries of Dionysus, which is why they were punished with madness: the eldest of them dismembered her child, and then ate it, together with her sisters. When the king of Argives, Pret, did not believe in the divine origin of Dionysus, the god confused the minds of all Argives, and they tore and ate their children. Dionysus came to Thebes to punish his aunts, who did not believe that their sister Semele was kissed by Zeus. King Pentheus, Cadmus 'heir, ordered the imprisonment of the newcomer, but Dionysus encouraged Agave, Pentheus' mother, and the other Thebans to tear apart the godless king. Then the young god wanted to cross to the Aegean islands. While standing on the seashore, dressed in beautiful purple clothes, Tyrrhenian pirates came across a fast boat. Thinking that the king's son was in front of them when he would receive a large ransom, they captured Dionysus and dragged him to their ship. The thick ropes, with which they wanted to tie it, tore themselves. Realizing that the young man was one of the gods, the helmsman advised his friends to leave him on the shore. The commander ordered the sailors to row, but then a miracle happened: wine flowed through the boat, ivy wrapped around the boat, a vine with ripe grapes descended over the sails, and the oars turned into snakes. The frightened sailors tried to steer the ship towards the mainland, but Dionysus turned into a lion and with a terrible roar made them jump into the sea, where they transformed into dolphins (picture below).
On the island of Dia, Dionysus found Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, whom Theseus had abandoned. To comfort the unfortunate girl, he gave her the crown of Hephaestus, and then married her and took her to Argolid. In the conflict that broke out between him and Perseus in Argos, Ariadne lost her life. In order to punish the Argives, Dionysus confused their wives and they killed and tore their children in madness. In Attica, Dionysus was warmly received by Icarus, and in Aetolia - by King Aeneas. It is said that Dionysus came to India in a carriage in which panthers were harnessed and that he conquered that country with the power of his weapons. Since his cult was accepted all over the world, Dionysus decided to leave the country and settle on Olympus. The Olympian gods accepted him warmly; he received a place of honor, next to the right knee of Zeus. After some time, he decided to go down to Hades, in order to take Semele out of there and join the gods. Near a spring near Lerne, he met a peasant named Prosimno or Polimno, who, for a fee, showed him the way to the underworld. Hades and Persephone allowed Dionysus to bring Semele out of the realm of the dead, and he in turn gave them his favorite myrtle plant. He took his mother to Olympus and, under the name of Tiona, included her among the gods.
With the other Olympians, Dionysus took part in the fight against the giants, because it was prophesied that the gods would defeat the giants only with the help of a god whose mother is mortal. In the great battle of the Phlegrian plain, Dionysus killed the giant Eurytus with a saw.
Dionysus is one of the most enigmatic deities of the Greek religion. His name is interpreted as "son of Zeus", "god of Nisa" or is associated with the word woinos, which means "wine". In continental Greece, it was certainly respected as early as the second half of the second millennium AD, which is confirmed by tablets written in the Mycenaean script. The character of Dionysus was probably created by merging the divine child, which has long been revered in the Aegean world (Dionysus Zagreus), and the Thracian-Frisian deity of vegetation, whose cult spread throughout Greece from two directions: from the north - through Boeotia, and from the east - through Aegean islands.
Dionysus is the god of vegetation, a great deity who, like all plants in nature, is constantly renewed. In the cult and myth of Dionysus, ecstasy, killing and chopping a child (sparagmos) and eating raw meat (omophagia) are common. The parts of the torn divine child are miraculously reassembled and Dionysus is born again. His killing and resurrection ensures fertility and constant renewal of nature, and eating a dismembered god or his holy animal guarantees believers union with God and salvation after death. From year to year, the thiades celebrated the birth of Dionysus on the peaks of Parnassus, and at the same time a secret ceremony was performed at his tomb in Delphi.
As the god of vegetation, Dionysus is primarily the protector of trees (Dendrites, Endendros). His favorite plant is ivy. Dionysus is also the protector of flowers (Anthios), and a large number of his nicknames are associated with various trees and other plants, especially figs and vines. The phallus plays a significant role in his cult; Dionysus was never presented as itifalic, but that is why his companions - silens and satyrs - are presented in this way. On his holidays, the phallus (faloforija) was solemnly worn.
The myth of Dionysus' descent into the underworld, as well as the feast of Antesteria, shows that this god, like other deities of vegetation, was considered the lord of the dead. Dionysus was also the god of divination in Thrace, but he had only one prophecy in Greece, and that was in Amfiklea, in Phocis. During the winter months in Delphi, he replaced Apollo and gave prophecies. With his arrival in Delphi, divination by lot was replaced by divine inspiration.
The main feature of the cult of Dionysus is orgy, falling into ecstasy. The participants in Dionysus' ritual were mostly women, who, after long wanderings and great efforts, under the influence of games and music, fell into ecstasy (picture above). The cult of Dionysus was widespread throughout Greece; his most important holidays are Antesteria, Agrionia and Leneia. Like Demeter, Dionysus is the deity of the peasants and the broad masses. The centers of his cult are not magnificent temples, but mountains and modest village sanctuaries. In the classical period, he is not only the god of vegetation, but also a great deity, to whom the whole of nature is subordinated, above all man. Only that god fills people's souls, so that they identify with him in ecstasy. Dionysus' myths resolve the conflict between what is rational and what is irrational in human life.
Dionysus' sacred animals are the panther and the lion; goats and goats are sacrificed to him. Of the plants, ivy is dedicated to him, which crowns his head and wraps the sawdust - a stick crowned with a cone.
In fine arts, Dionysus is represented as a child, a young man or a mature man. The oldest cult statues of Dionysus were a stake or a wooden pillar, on which a mask and a suit were placed. This archaic way of depicting Dionysus has long persisted in Greece because of the character of his cult. On archaic vases of black-figure style, Dionysus is always depicted as a mature, bearded man, dressed in a long Ionic chiton, with ivy in his curly hair and a goblet or vine in his hands. Next to him are represented his sacred animals the goat and the bull, and he himself often rides on mules. The most famous of these vases are the Hezekiah Cup (around 540 AD) and the amphora of Amazis' painter (around 530 AD). Only from the 5th century AD, Dionysus was portrayed as a handsome and gentle young man. Beginning in the 4th century AD, his performances became more and more feminine. Dionysus with Tyrrhenian pirates is depicted on the monument of Lysicratus (334 AD).
Dionysus is the main character of Euripides' tragedy Bach (406 AD), as well as Nono's epic Dionysius (5th century).
Literature:
• Dragoslav Srejović - Aleksandrina Cermanović-Kuzmanović, Recnik grčke i rimske mitologije, drugo izdanje, Beograd: Srpska književna zadruga, 1987
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