Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/83

 THE GREEK GODS 69 drinker '), Staphylus (' grape-cluster '), and Euanthes (' the richly blooming '). He is, however, associated with Aphrodite as the father of Priapus, god of gardens and flocks, who was worshiped at Lampsacus on the Hellespont and was essentially like his father. 93. The oldest symbol of the worship of Dionysus is a consecrated post or pillar (the idea of which prob- ably arose from a sacred tree) ; and from this, by the addition of a mask and clothing, the oldest regular images naturally developed. The type of the god in which he is bearded and fully clothed was the prevalent one till sometime during the fourth century B.C. ; later he appeared as a child on the arm of Hermes or of a bearded Satyr. After Praxiteles represented him as a youth nearly nude, clothed only with a skin of a fawn, the nude and youthful form came to be universally accepted. 94. Among the goddesses of the receptive fruitfulness of the earth, a prominent place was occupied by Demeter (cf. fj<r)Tr]p, Lat. Ceres), the protectress of grain, which is the chief means of subsistence. Her parents were sup- posed to be Cronus, the sun god, who ripens the produce of the fields, and Ehea, whose nature is closely related to her own. Her epithets, Chloe (' green-yellow '), Kar- pophoros, Slto, and lulo (' dispenser of fruit, grain, sheaves'), signify that she is the protectress of the ger- minating seed; and this idea is confirmed by the fact that the first fruits of the harvest were offered to her. 95. Her principal residence was in Eleusis near Athens, where, with Core (' girl '), her daughter by Zeus, and with the youthful lacchus, i.e. Dionysus-Bacchus-Sabazius (whose worship was probably introduced into this cult