The New Student's Reference Work/Bacchus

Bacchus (băk′kŭs), one of the names among the Greeks, and the usual name among the Romans, for Dionysus, the god of wine. In Italy, he was connected with the god Liber. He was the son of Jupiter, and was brought up by the nymphs at Nysa in India. Many stories are told of his adventures. He flayed Damascus alive, who opposed him in Syria; made Lycurgus, king of the Edones, mad, so that he killed his own son, and when he became sane, caused him to be torn in pieces by horses; he also overcame the Amazons. Bacchus taught men to cultivate the vine and to make wine. He collected bands of worshipers, mainly women, and, surrounded by them, seated in a chariot drawn by panthers or leopards, passed through many countries. He was represented in some works of art as an infant, but generally by the Greeks as a beautiful boy, while in the east he was pictured as a man of middle age, clothed in long robes. Festivals in his honor were first held in Thrace, but the most famous were at Athens and were four in number; the country festival in December, when the vintage was just over; the wine-press festival in January, when the wine was just made and the presses cleaned; the flower festival in February, lasting three days; and the great festival in March, when the city was filled with strangers from all Greece. In these festivals, banquets, processions and plays composed the program, and there were scenes of riotous merriment and drunkenness. In Rome the Bacchanalia, as it was called, was celebrated every third year; but it became so immoral and dangerous that the consuls in 186 B. C. forbade its observance. After this, the Liberalia were celebrated yearly on the 16th of March, on which day the young men began to wear the toga virilis, the badge of manhood.