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Regular Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Canada
Posts: 363
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Originally Posted by jgibson000
Please note that DS does not say that Dionysus was born to Semele.
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[4.4.1] Some writers of myths, however, relate that there was a second Dionysus who was much earlier in time than the one we have just mentioned. For according to them there was born of Zeus and Persephonê a Dionysus who is called by some Sabazius and whose birth and sacrifices and honours are celebrated at night and in secret, because of the disgrace resulting from the intercourse of the sexes. They state also that he excelled in sagacity and was the fist to attempt the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed, this being the reason why they also represent him as wearing a horn.
[4.4.2] But the Dionysus who was born of Semelê in more recent times, they say, was a man who was effeminate in body and altogether delicate; in beauty, however, he far excelled all other men and was addicted to indulgence in the delights of love, and on his campaigns he led about with himself a multitude of women who were armed with lances which were shaped like thyrsi.14
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He also had the nickname "twice-born", some say due to two mother births, some say due to a mother then a Zues birth.
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[4.4.5] He was also called Dimetor,16 they relate, because the two Dionysi were born of one father, but of two mothers. The younger one also inherited the deeds of the older, and so the men of later times, being unaware of the truth and being deceived because of the identity of their names, thought there had been but one Dionysus.
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"Hear me, Zeus’ son, blest Bakkhos, God of wine, born of two mothers, honoured and divine; Lysios Euios Bakkhos, various-named, of Gods the offspring, secret, holy, famed. Fertile and nourishing, whose liberal care augments the fruit that banishes despair. Sounding, magnanimous, Lenaios power, of various-formed, medicinal, holy flower: mortals in thee repose from labour find, delightful charm, desired by all mankind. Fair-haired Euion, Bromios, joyful God, Lysios, insanely raging with the leafy rod. To these our rites, benignant power, incline, when favouring men, or when on Gods you shine; be present to thy mystics’ suppliant prayer, rejoicing come, and fruits abundant bear." - Orphic Hymn 50 to Lysius Lenaeus
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"[The Boiotian Bakkhantes] called on Bacchus [Dionysos] by his many noble names: Lyaeus, Bromius; child of flaming fire; alone twice mothered and alone twice born; great lord and planter of the genial grape; Nyseus too, and Lenaeus and Thyoneus, whose locks are never shorn; Nyctelius, Iacchus, Euhan, father Eleleus; and all the countless titles that are yours, Liber [Dionysos], throughout the lands of Greece." - Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.14
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"Jove [Zeus] desired to lie with Semele, and when Juno [Hera] found out, she changed her form to that of the nurse Beroe, came to Semele, and suggested that she ask Jove to come to her as he came to Juno [Hera], ‘that you may know’, she said, ‘what pleasure it is to lie with a god’. And so Semele asked Jove [Zeus] to come to her in this way. Her request was granted, and Jove [Zeus], coming with lightning and thunder, burned Semele to death. From her womb Liber [Dionysos] was born. Mercurius [Hermes] snatched him from the fire and gave him to Nysus [Seilenos] to be reared. In Greek he is called Dionysus." - Hyginus Fabulae 179
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Down on earth as destiny ordained these things took place, and Bacchus [Dionysos], baby twice born, was cradled safe and sound." - Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.304
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And where in any version of the Dionysus story is Dionysus presented as a "saviour" god?
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Well, for one, Osiris was a savior god, and Dionysus was associated with him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris-Dionysus
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[4.1.6] We have stated in the previous Books that certain barbarian peoples claim for themselves the birthplace of this god. The Egyptians, for example, say that the god who among them bears he name Osiris is the one whom the Greeks call Dionysus.2 And this god, as their myths relate, visited all the inhabited world, was the discoverer of wine, taught mankind how to cultivate the vine, and because of this benefaction of his received the gift of immortality with the approval of all. But the Indians likewise declare that this god was born among them, and that after he had ingeniously discovered how to cultivate the vine he shared the benefit which wine imparts with human beings throughout the inhabited world.3 But for our part, since we have spoken of these matters in detail, we shall at this point recount what the Greeks have to say about this god.
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Dionysos Saotes (Savior)
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Sacratus Libero (et Eleusinis), sacrata apud Laernam Deo Libero et Cereri et Corae – the mysteries of Lerna. Sacratus Libero in CIL VI 1779 shows that Praetextatus was initiated into the cult of Liber Pater, and sacrata apud Laernam deo Libero, Cereri et Corae (CIL VI 1780) that Paulina was initiated into the mysteries of Liber Pater, Demeter and Kore in Lerna. Mysteries of Dionysus were celebrated at Lerna (Lérne in Argolis) where Dionysus was believed to have descended through the Alcyonian lake to bring his mother Semele back from the underworld. In Lerna, Demeter Prosymne and Dionysos Saotes had a common cult celebrated until the late Empire.[75]
Dionysus was worshipped everywhere in the Mediterranean world; there were many separate Bacchic mysteries that varied in different places and countries. Many Bacchic mysteries were strongly influenced by Orphism, which emphasized Dionysus’ connection with the nether world, and therefore the initiates looked forward to a blessed afterlife. Both men and women were admitted to the new Bacchic mysteries of the Imperial Period that originated from the Greek mysteries and had developed in the Hellenistic age.[76]
Dionysus appears with other divinities in the syncretistic aristocratic inscriptions in fourth- century Rome. E.g. Caelius Hilarianus (in CIL VI 500 from 377) was pater sacrorum et hieroceryx invicti Mithrae, sacerdos deae Hecatae and sacerdos dei Liberi; Ulpius Egnatius Faventius (in CIL VI 504 from 376) was augur, pater et hieroceryx Mithrae, archibucolus dei Liberi, hierofanta Hecatae, sacerdos Isidis and tauroboliatus. The cult of Dionysus is known to have been practised in Greece, Syria and Africa as late as the fourth and fifth centuries. Dionysus is depicted as a saviour figure in late antique mosaics found in Nea Paphos (in Cyprus).[77] Augustine discusses the Bacchic cult in Madaura, in Africa: Liberum illum, quem paucorum sacratorum oculis committendum putatis. Even the leaders and decuriones of the town had participated in the great Bacchic procession as furious bacchants: decuriones et primates civitatis per plateas vestrae urbis bacchantes et furentes.[78]
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Description of Greece
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"As you go from here [leaving the city of Argos] along a road called Hollow there is on the right a temple of Dionysos; the image, they say, is from Euboia. For when the Greeks, as they were returning from Troy, met with the shipwreck at Kaphereus, those of the Argives who were able to escape to land suffered from cold and hunger. Having prayed that someone of the gods should prove himself a saviour in their present distress, straightway as they advanced they came upon a cave of Dionysos; in the cave was an image of the god, and on this occasion wild she-goats had gathered there to escape from the storm. These the Argives killed, using the flesh as food and the skins as raiment. When the storm was over and the Argives, having refitted their ships, were returning home, they took with them the wooden image from the cave, and continue to honor it to the present day." - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 2.23.1
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"Not far from [the temple of] Artemis Lykeia [in Troizenos, Argolis] are altars close to one another. The first of them is to Dionysos, surnamed, in accordance with an oracle, Saotes (Saviour)" - Pausanias, Guide to Greece 2.31.5
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http://www.theoi.com/Cult/DionysosTitles.html
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SOTER (Sôtêr), i. e. "the Saviour" (Lat. Servator or Sospes), occurs as the surname of several divinities :-- 1. of Zeus . . . 2. Of Helios (Paus. viii. 31. § 4), and 3. of Bacchus. (Lycoph. 206.)
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Peace
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04-25-2007, 09:20 PM
