For the inhabitants of Ancient Greece, grapes were a symbol of the abundance of plant power. The God of Wine of the Greeks and Romans has the same characteristics and stories. Even in ancient times, people noticed that fermented grape juice has the ability to make a person happy. It was the grapes that were the main symbol of these gods.
Greek god of wine Dionysus
In myths, Dionysus is described not only as the god of winemaking, but also of joy and the fraternal rapprochement of people. He had the power to pacify the wild spirits of the forest and animals, and he also helps people overcome their own suffering and gives inspiration. It is important to consider that ecstasy can lead to clouding of reason. The god of wine Dionysius was the youngest of the Olympians, and he differed from the others in that his mother was a mortal woman. His symbolic plants were the vine, spruce, ivy and fig. Animals include bull, goat, deer, panther, lion, leopard, tiger, dolphin and snake. Dionysus was depicted in the form of a child or youth, wrapped in animal skin. On his head is a wreath of ivy or grapes. In the hands of the thyrsus is a rod, the tip of which is represented by a fir cone, and along its entire length it is decorated with an ivy or grape vine.
The companions of the ancient Greek god of wine were priestesses called maenads. In total there were approximately 300 of them, and they formed a certain army of Dionysus. Their spears were disguised as thyrsus. They are famous for tearing Orpheus to pieces. There is another name for maenads - fiads, and they are known for participating in orgies dedicated to Dionysus.
God of wine Bacchus
In the mythology of Ancient Rome, this god is the patron of vineyards, wine and winemaking. Bacchus was originally the god of fertility. His wife is Libera, 
providing assistance to winegrowers and winemakers. These gods have their own holiday called liberalia. It was celebrated on March 17th. The Romans brought alms to Bacchus, and also organized theatrical performances, processions and large feasts. worship was often accompanied by insane orgies. People first tore pieces of raw meat and then ate it, which symbolized Bacchus.
The appearance of the Roman deity is almost identical to Dionysus. Bacchus was also represented as a young man with a wreath on his head and a staff. There are also images of him in a chariot drawn by panthers and leopards. Since childhood, Bacchus was the pupil of Silenus, a half-man who educated the god and also accompanied him on his travels.
The Roman god of wine Bacchus (in another pronunciation - Bacchus, among the Greeks - Dionysus) personified winemaking and grapes. His cult came to Hellas and Rome from Asia and spread much later than the cult of the other gods. It gained importance as grapevine culture spread. It was very often connected with Ceres or Cybele and organized common holidays for these two representatives of agriculture.
Myths ancient Greece. Dionysus (Bacchus). A stranger in his hometown
In Ancient Greece, primitive art was limited to only the depiction of the head of Bacchus or his mask. But these images were soon replaced by the beautiful and majestic image of old Bacchus in a luxurious, almost women's dress, with an open and intelligent face, holding a horn and a grape branch in his hands. Only since the times Praxiteles, who was the first to depict Bacchus as a young man, is in art a type of youth with soft, almost muscleless forms, something between a man’s and female figure. His facial expression is some kind of mixture of bacchanalian ecstasy and tender reverie, his long, thick hair is flowing over his shoulders in fancy curls, his body is devoid of any clothing, only a goatskin is carelessly thrown over him, his feet are shod in luxurious buskins (ancient shoes), in his hands a light stick entwined with grape branches, resembling a scepter.
In later times, Bacchus quite often appears at monuments of art dressed in luxurious women's clothing. On groups and on individual statues, this god is usually depicted in a comfortable pose - reclining or sitting on a throne, and only on cameos and engraved stones is he depicted walking with the unsteady gait of a drunken person or riding some favorite animal. The most beautiful image of Bacchus with a beard is a statue that for a long time was known under the name "Sardanapalus", thanks to a later inscription, but which all experts in the history of art recognized as a statue of a god. This statue is a true type of Eastern Bacchus.
In art, the most common image of this god is known as the Theban Bacchus, a beardless and slender youth. The Greek painter Aristides painted a beautiful Bacchus, this painting was taken to Rome after the conquest of Corinth. Pliny says that the consul Mummius was the first to introduce the Romans to Hellenic works of art. During the division of military spoils, Attalus, king Pergamum, offered to pay six hundred thousand denarii for Bacchus, painted by Aristides. Amazed by this figure, the consul, suspecting that the painting had some miraculous power unknown to him, withdrew the painting from sale, despite the king’s requests and complaints, and placed it in the temple of Ceres. It was the first foreign painting to be publicly exhibited in Rome.
On all statues of the Theban type, Bacchus is depicted as a beardless youth in all the splendor of youth and beauty. The expression of his face is dreamy and languid, his body is covered with the skin of a young deer; he is also very often depicted riding on a panther or on a chariot drawn by two tigers. Vine, ivy, thyrsus (staff), cups and Bacchic masks are his usual attributes. All these are emblems of wine production and the effect it produces. In ancient times, it was assumed that ivy had the property of preventing intoxication. That is why feasters often decorated their heads with ivy. Just like a grapevine, on many statues of Bacchus it entwines a thyrsus, at the end of which there was a pine cone. In many areas of Greece, pine cones were used in the preparation of wine, which must have been very different from the present one. Judging by how easily Odysseus managed to put the Cyclops to sleep by giving him some wine, we can probably say that the wine in those days was much stronger than today. The ancient Greeks mixed honey or water into it, and only as a very rare exception did they drink pure wine.
Bacchus and Ariadne. Painting by Titian, 1520-1522
Many coins and medals stamped in honor of Bacchus show a sista, or mythical basket, in which objects used in ceremonial services were stored, and also depict a snake dedicated to Aesculapius, as if hinting at healing properties, which the Greeks attributed to wine.
The tiger, panther and lynx are the usual companions of Bacchus in all the monuments of art depicting his triumph, and indicate the Eastern origin of the whole myth of this god. The presence of the donkey Silenus is explained by the fact that the demon Silenus was the foster father or tutor of Bacchus; This donkey became famous, in addition, for its participation in the battle of the gods with the giants: at the sight of the giants lined up in battle formation, the donkey began to bray so much that those, frightened by this cry, fled. The appearance of the hare in some Bacchic groups is explained by the fact that this animal was considered by the ancients to be a symbol of fertility. In addition, on cameos, engraved stones and bas-reliefs depicting solemn processions in honor of Bacchus, the following animals are found: a ram, a goat and a bull - a symbol of agriculture. Therefore, Bacchus is sometimes depicted as a bull, then personifying the fertility of the earth.
Light intoxication, having a stimulating effect on the human mind, causes inspiration, and therefore Bacchus is credited with some of the qualities of Apollo, this god of inspiration par excellence. Sometimes Bacchus is depicted accompanied by Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, because he was considered the inventor of the theater, that is, theatrical spectacle. At festivals in honor of Bacchus, plays began to be performed for the first time; These holidays were held during the grape harvest: grape pickers, sitting on carts and staining their faces with grape juice, uttered cheerful and witty monologues or dialogues. Little by little, the carts were replaced by a theater building, and the grape pickers by actors. Numerous masks, which the ancients often decorated tombstones, were necessary accessories for the mysteries in honor of Bacchus as the inventor of ancient tragedy and comedy. On the sarcophagi, they indicated that human life, like theatrical plays, is a mixture of pleasures and sorrows, and that every mortal is only a performer of some role.
Thus, the deity, which at first personified only wine, became a symbol of human life. The cup, one of the attributes of Bacchus, had a mystical meaning: “The soul,” explains the scientist and myth researcher Keyser, “drinking this cup, gets drunk, it forgets its high, divine origin, it only wants to incarnate into a body through birth and follow that path, which will lead her to an earthly dwelling, but there, fortunately, she finds the second cup, the cup of reason; Having drunk it, the soul can be cured or sobered up from the first intoxication, and then the memory of its divine origin returns to it, and with it the desire to return to the heavenly abode.”
Many bas-reliefs have been preserved, as well as picturesque images of holidays in honor of Bacchus. The rituals performed at these holidays were very diverse. So, for example, in some areas, children, crowned with ivy and vine branches, surrounded in a noisy crowd the chariot of the god, decorated with thyrsus and comic masks, bowls, wreaths, drums, tambourines and tambourines. Following the chariot were writers, poets, singers, musicians, dancers - in a word, representatives of those professions that required inspiration, since the ancients believed that wine was the source of all inspiration. As soon as the solemn procession ended, theatrical performances and musical and literary competitions began, which lasted for several days in a row. In Rome, these holidays gave rise to such scenes of debauchery and immorality, even reaching the point of crime, that the Senate was forced to ban them. In Greece, at the beginning of the establishment of the cult of Bacchus, his holiday had the character of a modest, purely rural holiday, and only later did it turn into a luxurious orgy, with the excesses of maenads.
Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne. Painter Carracci, 1597-1602
The Bacchus processions in Alexandria were especially luxurious and magnificent. To give at least a faint idea of this procession, it is enough to mention that in addition to richly dressed representatives of all nationalities of Greece and the Roman Empire, representatives of foreign countries took part in it, and, in addition to a whole crowd of disguised satyrs and silenei riding donkeys, hundreds of elephants took part in the procession , bulls, rams, many bears, leopards, giraffes, lynxes and even hippos. Several hundred people carried cages filled with all sorts of birds. Richly decorated chariots with all the attributes of Bacchus alternated with chariots depicting the entire culture of grapes and wine production - up to and including a huge press filled with wine.
Dionysus Dionysus , Bacchus or Bacchus (Dionysus, Bacchus, Διόνυσος, Βάκχος). God of wine and winemaking, son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus. Shortly before his birth, the jealous Hera advised Semele to beg Zeus to appear to her in all his greatness; Zeus really came to her with lightning and thunder, but she, like a mere mortal, could not bear to see him and died, giving birth to a baby prematurely. Zeus sewed the child into his thigh, where he carried him to term. Accompanied by a crowd of his attendants, maenads and bacchantes, as well as sileni and satyrs with staffs (thyrses) entwined with grapes, Dionysus walked through Hellas, Syria and Asia as far as India and returned to Europe through Thrace. On his way, he taught people everywhere about winemaking and the first beginnings of civilization. Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos, was considered the wife of Dionysus. The cult of Dionysus, which at first had a cheerful character, little by little became more and more intemperate and turned into frantic orgies, or bacchanalia. Hence the name of Dionysus - Bacchus, i.e. noisy. A special role in these celebrations was played by the priestesses of Dionysus - ecstatic women known as maenads, bacchantes, etc. Grapes, ivy, panther, lynx, tiger, donkey, dolphin and goat were dedicated to Dionysus. The Greek Dionysus corresponded to the Roman god Bacchus. (Source: " Brief dictionary mythology and antiquities." M. Korsh. St. Petersburg, edition by A. S. Suvorin, 1894.)
(Διόνυσος), Bacchus, Bacchus, in Greek mythology, the god of the fruitful forces of the earth, vegetation, viticulture, winemaking. A deity of eastern (Thracian and Lydian-Phrygian) origin, which spread to Greece relatively late and established itself there with great difficulty. Although the name D. is found on the tablets of the Cretan linear letter “B” back in the 14th century. BC e., the spread and establishment of the cult of D. in Greece dates back to the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. and is associated with the growth of city-states (polises) and the development of polis democracy. During this period, the cult of D. began to supplant the cults of local gods and heroes. D., as a deity of the agricultural circle, associated with the elemental forces of the earth, was constantly opposed Apollo - as primarily the deity of the tribal aristocracy. The folk basis of the cult of D. was reflected in the myths about the illegal birth of the god, his struggle for the right to become one of the Olympian gods and for the widespread establishment of his cult. Many monuments of ancient art have been preserved, embodying the image of D. and the plots of myths about him (D.’s love for Ariadne, etc.) in plastic (statues and reliefs) and vase painting. Scenes of the procession of D. and his companions and bacchanalia were widespread (especially in vase paintings); These stories are reflected in the reliefs of sarcophagi. D. was depicted among the Olympians (reliefs of the eastern frieze of the Parthenon) and in scenes of gigantomachy, as well as sailing on the sea (Kylix Exekias “D. in a boat”, etc.) and fighting with the Tyrrhenians (relief of the monument to Lysicrates in Athens, c. 335 BC . e.). In medieval book illustrations, D. was usually depicted as the personification of autumn - the time of harvest (sometimes only in October). During the Renaissance, the theme of life in art was associated with the affirmation of the joy of being; became widespread from the 15th century. scenes of bacchanalia (the beginning of their depiction was laid by A. Mantegna; the plot was addressed by A. Dürer, A. Altdorfer, H. Baldung Green, Titian, Giulio Romano, Pietro da Cortona, Annibale Carracci, P. P. Rubens, J. Jordaens, N . Poussin). The same symbolism permeates the plots of “Bacchus, Venus and Ceres” and “Bacchus and Ceres” (see article Demeter), especially popular in Baroque painting. In the 15th-18th centuries. Scenes depicting the meeting of D. and Ariadne, their wedding and triumphal procession were popular in painting. Among the works of plastic art are the reliefs “Bacchus turns the Tyrrhenians into dolphins” by A. Filarete (on the bronze doors of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome), “The Meeting of Bacchus and Ariadne” by Donatello, the statues “Bacchus” by Michelangelo, J. Sansovino, etc. D. occupies a special place place among other ancient characters in Baroque garden sculpture. The most significant works of the 18th - early. 19th centuries - statues of “Bacchus” by I. G. Danneker and B. Thorwaldsen. Among musical works of the 19th and 20th centuries. on the plots of the myth: the opera-ballet by A. S. Dargomyzhsky “The Triumph of Bacchus”, the divertimento by C. Debussy “The Triumph of Bacchus” and his opera “D.”, the opera by J. Massenet “Bacchus”, etc.
There are myths about various ancient incarnations of D., as if preparing for his arrival. Archaic hypostases of D. are known: Zagreus, son of Zeus of Crete and Persephone; Iacchus, associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries; D. - son of Zeus and Demeter (Diod. Ill 62, 2-28). According to the main myth, D. is the son of Zeus and the daughter of the Theban king Cadmus Semely. At the instigation of the jealous Hera, Semele asked Zeus to appear to her in all his greatness, and he, appearing in a flash of lightning, incinerated the mortal Semele and her tower with fire. Zeus snatched D., who was born prematurely, from the flames and sewed him into his thigh. In due time, Zeus gave birth to D., unraveling the sutures on the thigh (Hes. Theog. 940-942; Eur. Bacch. 1-9, 88-98, 286-297), and then gave D. through Hermes to be raised by the Nisean nymphs ( Eur. Bacch. 556-559) or the sister of Semele Ino (Apollod. III 4, 3). D. found a grapevine. Hera instilled madness in him, and he, wandering around Egypt and Syria, came to Phrygia, where the goddess Cybele-Rhea healed him and introduced him to her orgiastic mysteries. After this, D. went to India through Thrace (Apollod. III 5, 1). From the eastern lands (from India or from Lydia and Phrygia) he returns to Greece, to Thebes. While sailing from the island of Ikaria to the island of Naxos, D. is kidnapped by Tyrrhenian sea robbers (Apollod. III 5, 3). The robbers are horrified at the sight of D.'s amazing transformations. They chained D. in chains to sell him into slavery, but the chains themselves fell from D.'s hands; entwining the mast and sails of the ship with vines and ivy, D. appeared in the form of a bear and a lion. The pirates themselves, who threw themselves into the sea out of fear, turned into dolphins (Hymn. Hom. VII). This myth reflected the archaic plant-zoomorphic origin of D. The plant past of this god is confirmed by his epithets: Evius (“ivy”, “ivy”), “bunch of grapes”, etc. (Eur. Bacch. 105, 534, 566, 608). D.'s zoomorphic past is reflected in his werewolf and ideas about D. the bull (618, 920-923) and D. the goat. The symbol of D. as the god of the fruit-bearing forces of the earth was the phallus.
On the island of Naxos D. met his beloved Ariadna, abandoned by Theseus, kidnapped her and married her on the island of Lemnos; from him she gave birth to Oenopion, Foant and others (Apollod. epit. I 9). Wherever D. appears, he establishes his cult; everywhere along his path he teaches people viticulture and winemaking. D.'s procession, which was of an ecstatic nature, was attended by bacchantes, satyrs, maenads or bassarides (one of D.'s nicknames - Bassarei) with thyrsus (staffs) entwined with ivy. Girdled with snakes, they crushed everything in their path, seized by sacred madness. With cries of “Bacchus, Evoe,” they glorified D.-Bromius (“stormy”, “noisy”), beat the tympanums, reveling in the blood of torn wild animals, carving honey and milk from the ground with their thyrsi, uprooting trees and dragging them along with them. crowds of women and men (Eur. Bacch. 135-167, 680-770). D. is famous as Liey (“liberator”), he frees people from worldly worries, removes the shackles of a measured life from them, breaks the shackles with which his enemies are trying to entangle him, and crushes walls (616-626). He sends madness to his enemies and punishes them terribly; This is what he did with his cousin, the Theban king Pentheus, who wanted to ban Bacchic rampages. Pentheus was torn to pieces by the Bacchae led by his mother. Agaves, who, in a state of ecstasy, mistook her son for an animal (Apollod. III 5, 2; Eur. Bacch. 1061-1152). God sent madness to Lycurgus, the son of the king of the Aedons, who opposed the cult of D., and then Lycurgus was torn to pieces by his own horses (Apollod. III 5, 1).
D. entered the number of the 12 Olympian gods late. In Delphi he began to be revered along with Apollo. On Parnassus, every two years orgies were held in honor of D., in which the fiads - bacchantes from Attica (Paus. X 4, 3) participated. In Athens, solemn processions were organized in honor of D. and the sacred marriage of the god with the wife of the archon basileus was played out (Aristot. Rep. Athen. III 3). An ancient Greek tragedy arose from the religious and cult rites dedicated to D. (Greek tragodia, lit. “song of the goat” or “song of the goats,” that is, the goat-footed satyrs - companions of D.). In Attica, D., the Great, or Urban, Dionysius was dedicated, which included solemn processions in honor of God, competitions of tragic and comic poets, as well as choirs singing dithyrambs (held in March - April); Leneys, which included the performance of new comedies (in January - February); Small, or Rural, Dionysia, which preserved the remnants of agrarian magic (in December - January), when dramas already played in the city were repeated.
In Hellenistic times, the cult of D. merges with the cult of the Phrygian god Sabazia(Sabaziy became D.'s permanent nickname). In Rome, D. was revered under the name Bacchus (hence the bacchantes, bacchanalia) or Bacchus. Identified with Osiris, Serapis, Mithras, Adonis, Amon, Liber.
Lit.: Losev A.F., Ancient mythology in its historical development, M., 1957, p. 142-82; Nietzsche F., The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music, Complete. collection soch., vol. 1, [M.], 1912; Otto W. P., Dionysos. Mythos und Kultus, 2 Aufl.. Fr./M.. 1939; Jünger F. G., Griechische Götter. Apollon, Pan, Dionysos. Fr./M., 1943; Meautis G., Dionysos ou Ie pouvoir de fascination, in his book: Mythes inconnus de la Greece antique. P., , p.33-63; Jeanmaire N., Dionysos. Histoire du culte de Bacchus, P., 1951.
A. F. Losev.
(Source: “Myths of the Peoples of the World.”)
Dionysus(Bacchus, Bacchus) - the god of viticulture and winemaking, the son of Zeus and Hera (according to other sources, Zeus and the Theban princess and goddess Semele, according to other sources, Zeus and Persephone). In honor of Dionysus, festivals were celebrated - Dionysia and Bacchanalia.
// Adolphe-William BOOGREAU: The Childhood of Bacchus // Nicolas POUSSIN: Midas and Bacchus // Franz von STUCK: Boy Bacchus riding a panther // TITIAN: Bacchus and Ariadne // Apollo Nikolaevich MAYKOV: Bacchus // Konstantinos CAVAFY: Retinue of Dionysus / / Dmitry OLERON: Heraion. Hermes and Bacchus of Praxiteles. Bacchus // A.S. PUSHKIN: The Triumph of Bacchus // N.A. Kuhn: DIONYSUS // N.A. Kuhn: THE BIRTH AND UPBRINGING OF DIONYSUS // N.A. Kuhn: DIONYSUS AND HIS PEACE // N.A. Kuhn: LYCURG // N.A. Kuhn: DAUGHTERS OF MINIUS // N.A. Kuhn: TYRRENIAN SEA ROBBEERS // N.A. Kuhn: ICARIUS // N.A. Kuhn: MIDAS
(Source: “Myths of Ancient Greece. Dictionary-reference book.” EdwART, 2009.)
DIONYSUSin Greek mythology of Zeus and Themele, the god of the fruitful forces of the earth, vegetation, viticulture and winemaking.
(Source: “Dictionary of spirits and gods of German-Scandinavian, Egyptian, Greek, Irish, Japanese, Mayan and Aztec mythologies.”)
See what “Dionysus” is in other dictionaries:
- (ancient Greek Διόνυσος) ... Wikipedia
- (Bacchus) Greek deity, the embodiment of life force. The most ancient forms of the cult of D. were preserved in Thrace, where they had an “orgiastic” character: cult participants, dressed in animal skins, worked themselves into a frenzy (ecstasy) in mass celebrations... Literary encyclopedia
Ah, husband. Borrowing Report: Dionisovich, Dionisovna; decomposition Dionysich.Origin: (In ancient mythology: Dionysus is the god of the vital forces of nature, the god of wine.) Name day: (see Denis) Dictionary of personal names. Dionysus See Denis... Dictionary of personal names
- (Greek Dionisos). Greek name for the god Bacchus or Bacchus. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. DIONYSUS in the ancients. Greeks the same as Bacchus, another name for the god of wine and fun; the Romans have Bacchus. Complete dictionary... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
What do you know about alcohol and its gods? People have been preparing alcoholic beverages since Neolithic times: people made barley beer 8,000 years ago, and drank grape wine 7,000 years ago. What gods of alcohol and drunkenness existed in history?
Late last year, archaeologists discovered artifacts in central Mexico indicating the existence of the cult of the god of drunkenness, Ometochtli, among the Acolua Indians, related to the Aztecs. In connection with this remarkable discovery, we decided to talk about the most interesting deities, in our opinion, who were responsible for the preparation of alcoholic beverages and intoxication among other peoples.
It is worth noting that people have been preparing alcoholic drinks since Neolithic times. The oldest vessels with traces of grape wine were found in the territory of modern Iran; their age is approximately 7000 years. The oldest winery with a grape press, fermentation vats and wine vessels was found in Armenia and dates back to approximately 4100 BC. The history of brewing goes back even further, as far back as 8,000 years ago people were making barley beer. The oldest image of a man drinking beer was found on a Sumerian clay tablet that is about 6,000 years old.
Mesopotamia
Beer was a staple diet in Mesopotamia. The expression "bread and beer" was a metaphor for the expression "food and drink." Beer was used not only as a drink, but also in medicine and cosmetology. It served as a substitute for money: beer was used to pay for work and was used as a bride price. The price and strength of beer were established by law in the laws of Hammurabi. Its popularity was partly due to the fact that the grains from which beer was made were easier to grow in hot, arid climates than grapes, and beer was therefore cheaper.
Beer is mentioned quite often in myths. For example, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the wild man Enkidu, who lived on the steppe, turns into a civilized man after eating bread and drinking beer. In the myth about the ruler of the Universe and the god of wisdom Enki and the goddess of sky and love Innana, the patroness of the city of Uruk, the goddess, after getting Enki drunk with beer, begs him for a hundred “divine laws” and passes them on to people.
The goddess of beer and brewing among the Sumerians was Ninkasi. Little is known about her; no reliable images of this goddess have survived. Therefore, researchers can only speculate that the popularity and importance of beer was determined by the popularity of the goddess associated with it. Interestingly, most of the Sumerian gods of crafts were men, but the goddess of beer was a woman. Scientists attribute this to the fact that in ancient times women were home brewers. Brewing became widespread and became an industry only during the Babylonian period, and then brewing became the prerogative of men.
A poem has been preserved, “The Hymn of Ninkasi” - actually a recipe for making beer written down in poetic form. The clay tablet on which it is written dates back to 1800 BC, meaning the “Hymn” itself is apparently even older.
Ancient Egypt
IN ancient Egypt beer was known 5000 years ago and was the most popular alcoholic drink among both ordinary people and the nobility. Along with bread and onions, it was included in the daily diet of the Egyptians.
According to one of the ancient Egyptian legends, beer was discovered by the supreme sun god Ra, who first created people and then taught them how to make beer. Moreover, according to one of the myths, beer saved humanity from death.
The Supreme Sun God Ra, the progenitor of the gods and the creator of people, reigned over the world for a very long time and grew old. People learned about his weakness and decided to rebel against God and seize power. Then Ra called his daughter, the goddess Hathor, to him and ordered her to punish the disobedient. Hathor cast a spell and turned into a fierce lioness. She left the palace and ran into the desert to look for people. Having found the rebels, the goddess pounced on them and began to kill one by one, drinking their blood and scattering pieces of meat across the desert. After some time, the sun god decided that people had been punished enough and tried to stop his daughter. But the lioness goddess replied that she would not stop until she destroyed all people and drank their blood. Then Ra extinguished the sun's rays and night fell on the earth. God ordered the maids to grind barley and brew beer from it (7,000 vessels turned out) and sent messengers to the island of Elephantine for the red mineral didi (possibly meaning granite). The Supreme God ordered the miller to grind the red mineral into powder and add it to beer. The resulting drink looked very similar to blood. The servants of Ra went to the desert, to where the goddess Hathor killed people, and spilled beer on the ground. In the morning, the lioness goddess woke up, saw puddles of “blood” around her and was very happy. She liked the red beer and drank it until she became so drunk that she could no longer distinguish people. Then the sun god approached his daughter and said: “Go in peace, my beloved daughter. From now on, the people of Egypt will bring you vessels of beer every year on the day of Hathor. And may you be called “Mistress of Intoxication.”
The cult of the goddess Hathor existed in Egypt for a very long time. In the most ancient beliefs, Hathor was the goddess of the sky and was depicted as the Heavenly Cow, who gave birth to the Sun and all the other gods. After the rise of the cult of Ra towards the end of the Old Kingdom, she began to be considered his daughter and the Eye of Ra, which by force subjugated the enemies of God, and began to be identified with all lioness goddesses acting as the Eye. Even later, Hathor becomes the deity of love, fun and music. It is known that during the New Kingdom in Egypt, drunken festivals were held dedicated to Hathor and associated with the myth of the death of people.
Ancient Greece
Viticulture began to spread in Greece as early as the Neolithic period and became widespread at the beginning Bronze Age. The inhabitants of Crete traded with Egypt and borrowed Egyptian winemaking techniques. According to some sources, the wine festival was held in Greece back in the Mycenaean era, and at that time there was already a cult of the god of the vine, winemaking and fertility of Dionysus. It is not known for certain where the cult of Dionysus appeared; according to one version, it came from Asia Minor, according to another, from Thrace (a region in the Balkans).
Dionysus's father was Zeus, the head of the Olympian gods, and his mother, according to different versions, was either one of the goddesses or a mortal woman. Zeus was a loving character and had many illegitimate children. Therefore, Zeus's wife, the goddess Hera, hated Dionysus and persuaded the Titans to kill him, but the gods resurrected the baby. Thus Dionysus became “twice-born.” Then Zeus gave his son to be raised by the nymphs who lived on the mythological Mount Nysa. It was here that Dionysus invented wine.
What locality was identified with Mount Nisa is unknown; ancient authors placed it in different places - in Ethiopia, Libya, Egypt, Anatolia (the territory of modern Turkey) or Arabia. Hera did not leave the attention of the already matured Dionysus: she instilled madness in him. In this state, the god went to travel around the world, accompanied by a crowd of satyrs and maenads armed with swords, snakes and thyrsus (ivy-covered pine branches with a pine cone on the top). First, Dionysus went to Egypt, and then to the east, to India. Through Phrygia (the territory of modern Turkey) he returned from India to Europe and began to establish his cult in the states of Greece. Not all local residents greeted Dionysus with delight and recognized his divine origin, but the god did not stand on ceremony with anyone and either killed the disobedient or sent madness upon them.
Returning from India, the god of wine established his cult in the states of Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea. After the Greeks recognized the divine status of Dionysus, he ascended to heaven to take his place next to Zeus as one of the 12 great gods.
In honor of the god of wine, festivals and mysteries were held in different parts of Greece. During the festivities, solemn processions were organized, competitions of tragic and comic poets and choirs singing dithyrambs. Ancient Greek comedy and tragedy grew out of religious rites dedicated to Dionysus (interestingly, tragodia is translated from Greek as “song of the goats,” that is, a chorus of goat-legged satyrs who accompanied Dionysus). Only initiates could participate in the Dionysian Mysteries. The purpose of the mysteries was to free oneself for a short time from social restrictions and prohibitions and release the “animal essence” of man. Participants gathered in secluded places, forests or mountains, with the help of alcohol and ritual dances they entered a state of trance and in this state they danced, participated in orgies and even committed ritual killings of animals. Eventually people reached a state in which they identified themselves with God and believed that they had acquired divine power. Later, in ancient Rome, the Dionysian Mysteries began to be called Bacchanalia.
Researchers believe that in some areas of Greece, the death and resurrection of Dionysus symbolized the annual natural cycle. Scientists also believe that Dionysus was the “double” of the more ancient Phrygian god Sabazius, originally the god of beer. It is possible that spruce beer, flavored with ivy and sweetened with honey, was originally used as an intoxicating drink instead of wine. Hera's hatred of Dionysus and the hostility of the inhabitants of the countries through which the god of wine passed symbolize the rejection of wine as a ritual drink and dissatisfaction with the unbridled behavior of the maenads. But at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 6th centuries BC, the rulers of Corinth, Sicyon and Athens recognized the cult of Dionysus and established official festivals in his honor. After this, the god of wine was accepted into the Olympic pantheon.
Scandinavia
The main alcoholic drinks of the Scandinavians were beer and mead, a drink made from fermented honey and water, sometimes with the addition of fruit, spices and hops. Just like beer and wine, mead is a very ancient drink. Vessels containing traces of a fermented mixture of honey, fruit and rice were found in Northern China and date back to 7000 - 6500 BC. Honey appeared in Europe later, 3800 - 2800 years ago. Therefore, mythological characters, following people, brew and drink these very alcoholic beverages. For example, the sea giant Aegir from Scandinavian mythology He organized feasts for the gods in his palace at the bottom of the sea. Together with his daughters, he brewed ale for the feast in a cauldron a mile in diameter.
The Scandinavian epic tells about the “honey of poetry”, which was kept by the god of poets Bragi. After drinking one sip of this drink, a person acquires poetic abilities.
One day, the Scandinavian gods, the Aesir, quarreled with other gods, the Vanir. After some time, they made peace, and when peace was concluded, both the Aesir and the Vanir spat into the bowl and made the dwarf Kvasir from the shared saliva. The dwarf was very wise; there was no question that he could not answer. He traveled around the world and taught people wisdom. One day Kvasir came to visit two dwarfs, who killed him, and poured his blood into vessels and mixed them with honey. The result was a drink that, after drinking, anyone became either a poet or a scientist. After some twists and turns, the giant Suttung took possession of the honey of poetry. The Supreme God of the Scandinavians, Odin, learned about the wonderful drink and decided to take possession of it. With the help of his younger brother Suttung, he made his way into the cave where the honey was kept, seduced the giant's daughter, who was guarding the vessels with the drink, and stole it. Having turned into an eagle, Odin flew to Asgard, the abode of the aesir gods, and Suttung, who discovered the loss of honey, went in pursuit. Odin flew to Asgard before Suttung caught up with him and spat out honey into the vessel, but since the giant was already overtaking him, Odin released some of the honey through the anus. This honey can be taken by anyone and is called the "rhymer's share." Odin gave the real honey, collected in a vessel, to his son, the god of poets.
Scandinavian myths existed for centuries only in oral tradition and were written down as early as the Middle Ages, almost all of them in the 13th century. Therefore, it is very difficult for modern researchers to draw conclusions about the origin and changes of myths over time. The main sources for the study of Scandinavian mythology are the prose "Younger Edda", written by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson, and a collection of poems about gods and heroes, called the "Elder Edda". The myth of the “honey of poetry” is recorded in the Prose Edda.
Snorri Sturluson not only mentions the god Braga in the book, but also attributes a number of poems to the skald of Braga, Bogdasson the Old, a real person who is considered the first skald whose name has been preserved in history. And although in the book there are two different people, there is a version that Bragi the skald served as the prototype for Bragi the god. Researchers have discussed this topic, but have not come to a consensus, and today the question remains open.
The Younger Edda tells about King Odin; he came from the Country of the Turks and was a descendant of the Trojan king Priam. Modern researchers believe that there is a rational grain in this version. According to the trifunctional theory, Odin embodied one of the three key social functions in the Indo-European pantheon, cult. The symbols of the other two - military and economic - were the gods Thor and Van (Frey and Njord).
Central America
In conclusion, I would like to talk in more detail about the Aztec gods of drunkenness, one of whom, Ometochtli, was mentioned at the beginning of the article. In Aztec mythology, there was a whole group of gods of fertility, drunkenness and debauchery, who were called Senzon Totchtin, “400 rabbits”. 400 meant uncertain large number, and the rabbit was associated with drunkenness, perhaps because each next jump of this animal is unpredictable.
The 400 Rabbits were originally rural gods who protected crops and food supplies, and some of these gods took their names from the area where they were worshiped. So, Tepoztecatl was the god of Tepoztlan, and Yautecatl was the god from the city of Yautepec. These rural gods became gods of drunkenness, so to speak, in their free time “from their main work,” during periods of festivities dedicated to the harvest.
According to Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish monk and major explorer of pre-Columbian Mexico, there were as many rabbit gods as there were types of intoxication and their consequences. Drunken aggression, lies, drunken jokes and even murders had their own drunken patron god, and Ometochtli (“two rabbits”) was the main one in this company. All "400 rabbits" were children of the god Patecatl and the goddess Mayahuel. Patecatl is the god of fertility and medicine, who discovered the peyote cactus, which contains hallucinogenic alkaloids, and taught people how to make pulque, a mash made from agave. Mayahuel is the goddess of agave and the intoxicating drink octli made from it. She was depicted as a woman with 400 breasts, from which agave juice constantly flowed and with which she fed her children-gods.
"Twice Born" Dionysus appeared on Olympus later than other gods. He was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman - the beautiful Theban princess Semele. Zeus swore to her to fulfill any request - and so, at the instigation of Hera, Semele asked that Zeus appear before her in all the majesty of the thunder god. This request was thoughtless: when Zeus appeared in the roar of thunder and the flash of lightning, fire engulfed the palace and Semele, who lived in it. A curious woman died, but she was soon to have a child, but could Zeus allow the death of his unborn son? He snatched the child from the fire, and since the baby was too small and weak to live on his own, Zeus sewed it into his thigh. Dionysus grew stronger in the body of his father and was then born a second time from the thigh of the thunderer Zeus. Therefore, Dionysus was called “twice-born.”
Dionysus brings his mother to Olympus. As for Semele, Dionysus, of course, could not come to terms with the fact that his mother was in the kingdom of Hades. When he received a place on Olympus, he made his descent into the world of the dead. There he found Semele and brought her to Olympus, where she became a goddess and was worshiped under the name Tiona. Therefore, Dionysus himself was sometimes called Tionian - son of Tione.
Dionysus is hidden from Hera. After his new birth, Dionysus was handed over to be raised by King Athamas and his wife Ino, Semele’s sister, with whom he lived for some time, disguised as a girl. However, even changing clothes could not hide him from Hera, who was not satisfied with the death of Semele and transferred her hatred to her child. Hoping that Athamas would kill Dionysus, she sent him mad. However, he only killed his son, mistaking him for a deer, and Hermes carried Dionysus away from danger.
Wanting to better shelter Dionysus from persecution by Hera, Hermes took him to the nymphs on Mount Nysa (at the same time, so that Hera would not notice him, Dionysus was turned into a kid by Zeus). The Nisean nymphs settled Dionysus in a cool mountain grotto, looked after him, and fed him honey. For this concern for his son, Zeus later placed the Nisean nymphs in the sky among the stars, where they can be seen to this day in the form of the Hyades star cluster in the constellation Taurus. And the child of Zeus, in memory of his stay on Nisa, received a name that consists of the name of his father (Diy, that is, Zeus) and the name of the place where he was raised; This is how his name came about.
Dionysus makes drinks. It was on Nisa that Dionysus made his most important discovery - he learned to make a soul-merrying drink from grape juice. That is why, when he grew up, he became the cheerful, powerful god of wine, giving people strength and joy. Wanting to bestow his discovery on people, Dionysus walked around almost the entire inhabited earth, teaching everywhere to grow grapes and make wine from them; and in those countries where grapes do not grow, Dionysus taught people to make another, no less fragrant, drink from barley - beer. [For this, in many countries where God made life more pleasant, he was awarded the highest honors.]
The first tragedy because of wines. The first person whom Dionysus treated to wine and taught how to make it was a farmer from Attica named Icarius. He liked the drink and decided to introduce it to other people. That's when the first tragedy happened. The shepherds to whom Icarius brought the wine were delighted - they had never drunk anything like this, and therefore drank too much of the unusual drink.
After getting drunk, they felt bad and thought that Icarius had poisoned them. They attacked him furiously and killed him. Icarius had a daughter named Erigone. When her father did not return home, the girl went to look for him and, with the help of a faithful dog, found him - but dead. Erigone's grief was so great that she hanged herself from a tree above her father's body.
But Dionysus, who treated Icarius well, did not leave his death without revenge. He sent madness to the Athenian girls, and they began to commit suicide, as Erigone did. The inhabitants of Athens asked Apollo why the gods were angry with them, and received the answer that the reason for this was the murder of Icarius. Then the Athenians punished the murderous shepherds, and in memory of Erigone, at the festival in honor of Dionysus, Athenian girls began to arrange swings in the trees and swing on them. And the gods placed the dead Icarius and Erigone in the sky, and he became the constellation Arcturus, and she became the constellation Virgo. There was also a place in the sky for the faithful dog who helped Erigone in search of her father - this is now the star Sirius.
Bacchae. On his travels, Dionysus was accompanied by a crowd of admirers, not only men, but also women. Wearing a crown of grapes, he walked or rode on a panther, and behind him and around him in a riotous dance rushed maenads (they are also called bacchantes, because one of the names of Dionysus was the name Bacchus) - women who devoted themselves to serving Dionysus. In their hands were thyrsi - wands entwined with ivy, the same as those of Dionysus himself; they were dressed in deer skins and girded with strangled snakes. In a holy frenzy they crushed everything that came their way. With exclamations of “Bacchus, Evoe!” they beat the tympanums, tore into pieces the wild animals they came across with their hands, carved milk and honey out of the ground and rocks with their thyrsi, and uprooted the trees they encountered. Their violent procession carried away all the people they met and was dedicated to Dionysus Bromius, that is, the “Noisy One.”
Satires. In addition to the maenads, Dionysus was accompanied everywhere by satyrs - creatures similar to humans, but with bodies covered with wool, goat legs, horns and horse tails. They were mischievous, crafty, always cheerful, often drunk; in life, except for wine and beautiful nymphs, they were not interested in anything. Accompanying Dionysus, they performed simple melodies on pipes and flutes, and the piercing sounds of this music echoed throughout the surrounding area, announcing the approach of the cheerful god.
Old Man Silenus. In this noisy procession, which was called fias, the old man Silenus, the teacher of Dionysus, also rides on a donkey. He is quite funny to look at - bald, pot-bellied, snub-nosed, and always sits on a donkey. Silenus likes the drink invented by his pupil so much that no one has seen Silenus sober for a long time. However, he did not drink away his mind, and sometimes, in a completely sober voice, he utters words full of wisdom. Dionysus loves his teacher very much; at his command, he is constantly watched and looked after by satyrs.
Midas. Despite these precautions, one day Silenus disappeared. When a forest hummock fell under the donkey’s feet and he stumbled, Silenus fell from him and remained lying in the roadside bushes. No one noticed this, and Silenus himself slept peacefully in the place where he fell off the donkey.
In the morning he was found by the servants of King Midas and taken to the palace. The king immediately realized who was in front of him, and therefore surrounded him with all honor, let him sleep it off, and then helped him return to Dionysus. For this, God suggested that Midas ask for any reward. He, not distinguished by any particular intelligence or imagination, asked to make everything he touched turn into gold. “I’m sorry, Midas, that you didn’t come up with anything better, but have it your way!” - With these words, Dionysus sent Midas home.
The king was beside himself with happiness. Of course! He will now become the richest man on earth! He broke a branch from a tree - and the branch in his hands became golden. He picked up a stone from the ground - and the stone turned into gold. But now it’s time for the king to have dinner. He took bread from the table - and it also became golden. Only now did Midas understand how terrible the gift of Dionysus was: all food turned into gold in his hands, and he was now in danger of starvation. Then Midas prayed to Dionysus, asking him to take his gift back, and Dionysus, without bearing any grudge against him, agreed. He ordered him to go to the Tmol River and swim in it, wash off the magical power. Midas did just that, and after bathing he could safely touch anything - he no longer turned it into gold. And since then, people began to find golden sand in the Tmol River.
The incident in Thebes. Dionysus is beautiful and eternally young; long, wavy blue-black hair falls onto his shoulders, his dark blue eyes shine. To the sound of flutes and pipes, his fias procession moves from one country to another, and everywhere Dionysus teaches people to grow grapes and make wine from their heavy, ripe bunches. Not everyone and not everywhere liked it; sometimes they did not want to consider Dionysus a god, and then he brought down terrible punishments on the wicked. This is what happened, for example, in Thebes, the homeland of Semele, the mother of Dionysus.
Semele had a sister, Agave. When she died, incinerated by the lightning of Zeus, Agave began to say that Semele died deservedly: she spread rumors that Zeus himself had honored her with marital intercourse, and as punishment he destroyed her. The son of Agave, Pentheus, who became the Theban king, said the same thing: there is no god Dionysus, all these are inventions of idle people. Then Dionysus himself decided to stand up for the honor of his mother. Taking the form of a beautiful youth, he appeared in Thebes and there infected Agave and other Theban women with a bacchanalian frenzy. With wild cries of “Bacchus, Evoe!” They rushed to the mountains and there began to lead the life of frantic maenads.
Dionysus before Pentheus. The angry Pentheus ordered that the stranger who caused this disaster be brought to him. And now Dionysus, chained in chains, stands before the king. He smiles, watching how Pentheus rages, how, wanting to bind his captive even more tightly, he binds with strong bonds a bull, which seems to him to be Dionysus. Suddenly the entire palace shook, the columns began to shake, and in the place where Semele had once died, a pillar of fire appeared, illuminating the entire palace with its radiance. Pentheus, overcome by madness, thought that the palace was on fire and ordered water to be carried to extinguish the fire, and rushed at Dionysus, so that he would not escape his vengeance, with a drawn sword. It seemed to him that he had dealt a mortal blow to the stranger, but when he ran out of the palace, he again saw him, surrounded by a crowd of bacchantes.
God Dionysus
Pentheus falls victim to madness. Pentheus becomes increasingly mad. When a shepherd came from the mountains and told about the way of life that the bacchantes lead there, the king ordered the army to prepare for a campaign - all the bacchantes would be captured by force and killed! The king himself decided, disguised as a woman, to personally look at them in the forest. However, when he came to the forest, the women noticed him.
Dionysus made it so that they did not understand that there was a man in front of them, deciding that they were seeing a wild beast. The whole crowd attacked the unfortunate man and tore him to pieces. Agave, having planted the head of Pentheus on her staff, entered the city with this booty, calling everyone to look at the head of the fierce lion that she had killed. When the madness passed and she realized what crime she had committed, Agave left her hometown and died in a foreign land, and all the Thebans from now on had no doubt that Dionysus was a real god, and Semele was the wife of Zeus.
Dionysia.
Since Dionysus was associated with the cultivation of grapes, it is natural that the holidays in his honor were largely associated with work in the vineyards. This work was completed in December; At this time the holiday of the Lesser Dionysia fell. It was a joyful holiday in honor of the god of wine and fun, full of fun and jokes. On this day, noisy processions walked through the Greek villages, in which everyone participated - both men and women, both free and slaves. Those participating in these processions carried sacred objects and symbols of Dionysus - grape branches and vessels of wine. At the temple of Dionysus, sacrifices were made, and then feasts and entertainment began. It was on this day that Icarius and Erigone were honored, on this day the youth indulged in a fun and noisy game: they had to hold on to an inflated leather bag, lubricated with oil, on one leg. The winner received the same bag as a reward, but already filled with wine.
In February, another holiday was celebrated - Lenaia, and soon after them - Anthesteria. According to tradition, it was customary to taste young wine on the days of this holiday. At this time, vessels with wine were decorated with garlands of the first spring flowers; Children were also decorated with flowers, to whom it was customary to buy and give various toys on this day. During this holiday, adults held wine drinking competitions. The winner was the one who drank his cup faster.
But the main holiday in honor of Dionysus was the Great Dionysia, which was celebrated in late March - early April. It lasted a whole week and was celebrated with great pomp. But, perhaps, what is more important for us is not this pomp, but the fact that the birth of the theater is connected with this holiday. Tragedy and comedy later arose from the skits performed by the costumed participants in the Dionysian processions. On the Great Dionysia, tragedies were played in theaters for four days, and on Lenaia, comedies were staged in theaters of ancient Greece.
