Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1065

Rh DIONYSUS. threw It into the sen. The che«t wm cnrried by the wind and waves to the coast of nrasiae. Seinelc ■was found d(Md, and was soleinnly buried, but Dio- nysus was brought up by I no, who happened at the time to be at Brasiae. Tlie plain of Hrasiae was, for this reason, afterwards called the garden of Dio- nysus. The traditions about the education of Dionysus, as well as about the personages who undertook it, differ as much as those about his parentage and birthplace. Besides the nymphs of mount Nysa in Thrace, the muses, Lydae, Rissarae, Macetae, Mimallones (Eustath. ad Horn. pp. 982, 1816), the njTnph Nysa (Diod.iii. 69), and the nymphs Phi- lia, Coronis, and Cleis, in Naxos, whither the child Dionysus was said to have been carried by Zeus (Diod. iv.52), are named as the beings to whom the care of his infancy was entrusted. Mj'stis, more- over, is said to have instructed him in the mysteries (Nonn. Dionys. xiii. 140), and Hippa, on mount Tmolus, nursed him (Orph.//^/n«.xlvii,4) ; Macris, the daughter of Aristaeus, received him from the hands of Hennes,and fed him with honey. (ApoUon. Rhod. iv. 1131.) On mount Nysa, IJromie and Bacche too are called his nurses. (Serv. ao? Virg. Eclog. vi. 15.) Mount Nysa, from which the god was believed to liave derived his name, was not only in Thrace and Libya, but mountains of the same name are found in different parts of the ancient world where he was worshipped, and where he was believed to have introduced the cultivation of the vine. Hermes, however, is mixed up with most of the stories about the infancy of Dionysus, and he was often represented in works of art, in connexion with the infant god. (Comp, Paus. iii. 18. § 7.) When Dionysus had grown up, Hera threw him also into a state of madness, in which he wandered about through many countries of the earth. A tra- dition in Hyginus {Poet Aslr. ii. 23) makes him go first to the oracle of Dodona,but on his way thither he came to a lake, which prevented his proceeding any further. One of two asses he met there carried him across the water, and the grateful god placed both animals among the stars, and asses henceforth remained sacred to Dionysus. According to the com- mon tradition, Dionysus first wandered through Eg}'pt, where he was hospitably received by king Proteus. He thence proceeded through SjTia, where he flayed Damascus alive, for opposing the introduction of the vine, which Dionysus was believed to have discovered (cuperT^s a^Trkhov). He now traversed all Asia. (Strab. xv. p. 687 ; Eurip. Bacch. 13.) When he arrived at the Euphrates, he built a bridge to cross the river, but a tiger sent to him by Zeus carried him across the river Tigris. (Paus. X. 29 ; Plut. de Flum. 24.) The most famous part of his wanderings in Asia is his expedition to India, which is said to have lasted three, or, ac- cording to some, even 52 years. (Diod. iii. 63, iv, 3.) He did not in those distant regions meet with a kindly reception everywhere, for Myrrhanus and Deriades, with his three chiefs Blemys, Orontes, and Oruandes, fought against him. (Steph. Byz. *. v)v. BAeVues, Ta§os, VT^pcia^ Aa/>5aj, "Eapts, Za)3(0j, MoAoi, riocSaj, 2i3a'0 But Dionysus and the host of Pans, Satyrs, and Bacchic women, by whom he was accompanied, conquered his enemies, taught the Indians the cultivation of the vine and of va- rious fruits, and the worship of the gods ; he also founded towns among them, gave them laws, and left behind him pillars and monuments in the happy DIONYSUS. 1047 land which he had thus conquered and civilized, and the inhabitants worshipped him as a god. (Comp. Strab. xi. p. 505 ; Arrian, Ind. 5 ; Diod.ii. 3» ; Philostr. TiV, Apollnn.u.O ; Virg. Aen. vi,80.5.) Dionysus also visited Phrj'gia and the goddess Cybele or Rhea, who purified him and taught him the mysteries, which according to ApoUodorusriii. 5. § 1.) took place before he went to India. With the assisUmce of his companions, he drove the Amazons from Ephesus to Samos, and there killed a great number of them on a spot which was, from that occurrence, called Panaema. (Plut. Quaest. (Jr. 56.) According to another legend, he united with the Amazons to fight against Cronus and the Titans, who had expelled Ammon from his dominions. (Diod. iii. 70, &c.) He is even said to have gone to Iberia, which, on leaving, he entrusted to the government of Pan. (Plut. t/eF/am. 16.) On his passage through Thrace he was ill received by Lycurgus, king of the Edones, and leaped into the sea to seek refuge with Thetis, whom he af- terwards rewarded for her kind reception with a golden urn, a present of Hephaestus. (Hom. //. vi. 135, &c., Od. xxiv. 74 ; Schol. ad Hom. II. xiii. 91. Comp. Diod. iii. 65.) All the host of Bacchantic women and Satyrs, who had accompanied him, were taken prisoners by Lycurgus, but the women were soon set free again. The country of the Edones thereupon ceased to bear fruit, and Lycurgus became mad and killed his own son, whom he mistook for a vine, or, according to others (Serv. ad Aen, iii. 14) he cut off his own legs in the belief that he was cutting down some vines. When this was done, his madness ceased, but the country still remained barren, and Dionysus declared that it would re- main so till Lycurgus died. The Edones, in despair, took their king and put him in chains, and Dionysus had him torn to pieces by horses. After then pro- ceeding through Thrace without meeting with any further resistance, he returned to Thebes, where he compelled the women to quit their houses, and to celebrate Bacchic festivals on mount Cithaeron, or Parnassus. Pentheus, who then ruled at Thebes, endeavoured to check the riotous proceedings, and went out to the mountains to seek the Bacchic women ; but his own mother. Agave, in her Bacchic fury, mistook him for an animal, and tore him to pieces. (Theocrit. Id. xxvi. ; Eurip. Bacch. 1142; Oy.Met.m. 714, &c.) After Dionysus had thus proved to the Thebans that he was a god, he went to Argos. As the people there also refused to acknowledge him, he made the women mad to such a degree, that they killed their own babes and devoured their flesh. (Apollod. iii. 5. § 2.) According to another state- ment, Dionysus with a host of women came from the islands of the Aegean to Argos, but was con- quered by Perseus, who slew many of the women. (Paus. ii. 20. $ 3, 22. $ 1.) Afterwards, how- ever, Dionysus and Perseus became reconciled, and the Argives adopted the worship of the god, and built temples to him. One of these was called the temple of Dionysus Cresius, because the god was believed to have buried on that spot Ariadne, his beloved, who was a Cretan. (Paus. ii. 23. $ 7.) The last feat of Dionysus was performed on a voyage from Icaria to Naxos. He hired a ship which belonged to Tyrrhenian pirates ; but the men, in- stead of landing at Naxos, passed by and steered towards Asia to sell him there. The god, how- ever, on perceiving this, changed the mast and oars