Page:The Tragic Drama of the Greeks (1896).djvu/18

6 Counsellor, who taught mankind the cultivation of vineyards and orchards. The spring was of all seasons of the year the one most sacred to his divinity. It was he who in the spring-time aroused the earth from its long winter torpor, inspired it with warmth, and life, and vigour, and clothed it with vegetation. Hence he figured in the imagination of the Greeks as the representative of the productive forces of nature; and the phallus, the symbol of generative power, was always a conspicuous element in his worship.

But it was chiefly as the god of the vineyard, and the inventor of wine, that he was held in honour by mankind, and ranked among the greatest benefactors of the human race. By his priceless gift he dispelled pain and sorrow, and inspired mirth and cheerfulness, and was therefore saluted with the title of Deliverer and Liberator. Under his genial influence it was supposed that savage natures were tamed, and violence and hostility replaced by gentleness and harmony; and this effect of his power gave rise to various legends. His car was said to be drawn by panthers and lions; the wild natives of the forest followed in his train; the barbarous Indians were pacified by his presence, and submitted to the dominion of law.

Wine being also an incentive to dance and song, Dionysus, like Apollo, was a patron of poetry and music. But the poetry and the music inspired by these two deities differed widely in character. In the hymns and paeans of Apollo, which were set to the stately melody of the harp, the prevailing feature was symmetry of form and grave earnestness of tone. The Bacchic poetry, on the other hand, preferred the more lively accompaniment of the flute, and admitted the utmost freedom and irregularity in rhythm, language, and sentiments. Every diversity