Table of Contents
Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, fertility and ecstasy, runs through my research on sacred mountains, oracles and Plato. These are the pages where I wrote about him.
The god of the mountains
On Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus I list Dionysus as the son of Zeus and Semele. On Mount Pangaion I note that, according to Greek myth, he was raised on the slopes of Pangaion, that the Thracians there worshipped him with ecstatic rites, and that one of the most intriguing legends of the mountain is an oracle dedicated to him. On Mount Cithaeron the Maenads held their frenzied rites for him, and King Pentheus of Thebes, who opposed his worship, was torn apart by them when he spied on the rituals in disguise. On Mount Tmolus, King Midas bathes in the Pactolus River to rid himself of the golden touch he had received from Dionysus.
Dionysus at Delphi
On Oracle of Delphi known for its prophetic insights and deep spiritual authority I note that Apollo was said to leave the temple in winter and Dionysus took his place, with ecstatic celebrations, so the oracle worked during the nine warmest months.
Plato on the gift of Dionysus
In Laws by Plato, in Benjamin Jowett’s translation, Plato’s Athenian stranger names Apollo, the Muses and Dionysus as the gods to thank for the human sense of harmony and rhythm, and he defends wine:
Let us not then simply censure the gift of Dionysus as bad and unfit to be received into the State. For wine has many excellences, and one pre-eminent one, about which there is a difficulty in speaking to the many, from a fear of their misconceiving and misunderstanding what is said.
Plato, Laws, translated by Benjamin Jowett
On Ancient Greek Sources and Ancient sources on Atlantis I include Proclus’ report that Porphyry read the Atlantis war as a struggle between souls and material daimones, so that the myths of Osiris and Seth, or of Dionysus and the Titans, were handed down symbolically by Plato.
Dionysus beyond Greece
Ignatius Donnelly, on The Indentity of the Civilizations of the Old World and the New, draws on Bancroft to set Dionysus, or Bacchus, beside the Mexican wine god Texcatzoncatl, and the North American dog and bear dances beside the Greek dances of the Dionysia. On Miracles of Elijah, Moses, and Jesus I compare Dionysus, who could turn water into wine, with the miracle at Cana, and on Wine in Ancient Texts: Noah’s Vineyard, Melchizedek and Atlantis I follow him into the mountain cults.
Related pages
- Mount Pangaion
- Mount Cithaeron
- Mount Tmolus
- Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus
- Oracle of Delphi known for its prophetic insights and deep spiritual authority
- Laws by Plato
- The Indentity of the Civilizations of the Old World and the New
- Miracles of Elijah, Moses, and Jesus
- Wine in Ancient Texts: Noah’s Vineyard, Melchizedek and Atlantis
For every page I tagged with Dionysus, see the Dionysus tag archive.
