Page:The Tragic Drama of the Greeks (1896).djvu/17

.] The whole of its early history is so intimately associated with Dionysus, that a brief account of the god and of his cultus will be necessary for the due understanding of that which follows.

Dionysus, though he eventually became one of the most important of Greek divinities, appears to have been introduced to the knowledge of the Greeks at a comparatively late period. He is mentioned only four times in Homer, where he occupies an insignificant position, having no place among the aristocratic circle of Olympian gods. Herodotus also states that his name was learnt by the Greeks 'much later' than the names of the other deities. Various traits in his cultus would seem to show that it came originally from the semi-Greek tribes of Asia Minor, such as the Phrygians and Lydians. And the legends about the opposition which it encountered in Thrace and Thebes, on the occasion of its first introduction, point to the conclusion that it was brought from Asia Minor along the northern shores of the Aegean, and so passed southwards into Greece.

As to the attributes of Dionysus, he was essentially, in the original conception, a rural god—the god of trees, and plants, and fruits, and vegetable produce of various kinds. The vine, with which his name is chiefly associated, was not his only gift to mankind. All fruits of a soft and mellow nature, such as are fostered by moisture and damp, were supposed to be under his care. For this reason he was called the Fruitful, the Leafy, and the Flowering; and also the Benefactor and the