"with wine, temporarily releasing them from their problems. In Baroque literature, Bacchus was considered an allegory of the liberation of man from the slavery of daily life. The scene can be divided in two halves. On the left, there is the very luminous Bacchus figure, his dominant but relaxed pose somewhat reminiscent of that of Christ in many ""Last Judgement"" scenes, who is often shown seated and naked to the waist. Bacchus and the character behind him are represented in the traditional loose robes used for depictions of classical myth. The idealization of the god's face is highlighted by the"
"that feed on grapevines"". The grapevine (typically ""Vitis vinifera"") has been used as a symbol since ancient times. In Greek mythology, Dionysus (called Bacchus by the Romans) was god of the vintage and, therefore, a grapevine with bunches of the fruit are among his attributes. His attendants at the Bacchanalian festivals hence had the vine as an attribute, together with the thyrsus, the latter often entwined with vine branches. For the same reason, the Greek wine cup (cantharos) is commonly decorated with the vine and grapes, wine being drunk as a libation to the god. In Christian iconography, the vine"
"Dionysus Dionysus (; ""Dionysos"") is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the main religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. His worship became firmly established in the seventh century BC. He may have been worshipped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by Mycenaean Greeks; traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient"
"god of wine, Dionysus (or Bacchus in Roman mythology), were allegedly characterized by maniacal dancing to the sound of loud music and crashing cymbals, in which the revelers, called Bacchantes, whirled, screamed, became drunk and incited one another to greater and greater ecstasy. The goal was to achieve a state of enthusiasm in which the celebrants’ souls were temporarily freed from their earthly bodies and were able to commune with Bacchus/Dionysus and gain a glimpse of and a preparation for what they would someday experience in eternity. The rite climaxed in a performance of frenzied feats of strength and madness,"
"Dionysus in comparative mythology Dionysus, the god of wine, theatre, and ecstasy in ancient Greek religion, has been compared to many other deities, both by his classical worshippers and later scholars. These deities include figures outside of ancient Greek religion, such as Jesus, Osiris, Shiva, and Tammuz, as well as figures inside of ancient Greek religion, such as Hades. In Plutarch's symposiacs, it is stated that there are those who believe Adonis to be the same as Dionysus, however, Plutarch acknowledges that there are others who hold them to be lovers. Comparisons have been made between Jesus Christ and Dionysus"
"Greco-Roman god of wine, freedom, intoxication and ecstasy. They were based on the Greek Dionysia and the Dionysian mysteries, and probably arrived in Rome c. 200 BC from Greek colonies in southern Italy, and Etruria, Rome's northern neighbour. They were originally occasional, women-only affairs, but became increasingly popular and frequent, and were opened up to priests and initiates of both genders and all classes; they may have briefly supplanted an existing, public cult to Liber. Cult initiates employed music, dance and copious amounts of wine to achieve ecstatic religious possession. The Roman Senate perceived the cult as a threat to"
"as Zagreus) and Bendis. Zagreus was worshipped by followers of Orphism (the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus), whose late Orphic hymns invoke his name. Actually Zagreus was a Thracian god prototype later known as Dionysus – the god of joy, wine and ecstasy in the Greek and Bacchus in the Roman mythology. Holidays (mysteries) dedicated to Dionysus in Greece were called Dionysii; in Rome they were known as Bacchanalia and in Thrace as Rozalii. Orphic mysteries held in honor of Dionysus-Zagreus were performed only by devoted"
"name on the Aventine in Rome, which was restored by Augustus and dedicated on September 1. Here, the god was sometimes named ""Liber"" and sometimes ""Libertas"". Wissowa opines that the relationship existed in the concept of creative abundance through which the supposedly-separate Liber might have been connected to the Greek god Dionysos, although both deities might not have been originally related to viticulture. Other scholars assert that there was no Liber (other than a god of wine) within historical memory. O. de Cazanove argues that the domain of the sovereign god Jupiter was that of sacred, sacrificial wine (""vinum inferium""),"
"since ancient times. Justin the Martyr, in his ""First Apology"", states that the cult of Dionysus was mimicking the cult of Christ, through its use of wine, donkeys, death and resurrection In his Histories, Herodotus says that many believe that Osiris is the Egyptian form of Dionysus. Dionysus in comparative mythology Dionysus, the god of wine, theatre, and ecstasy in ancient Greek religion, has been compared to many other deities, both by his classical worshippers and later scholars. These deities include figures outside of ancient Greek religion, such as Jesus, Osiris, Shiva, and Tammuz, as well as figures inside of"
"studies as well as cross cultural and meta-analysis research. Alcohol has sometimes been invested with religious significance. In ancient Celtic religion, Sucellus or Sucellos was the god of agriculture, forests and alcoholic drinks of the Gauls. Ninkasi is the ancient Sumerian tutelary goddess of beer. In the ancient Greco-Roman religion, Dionysos (or Bacchus) was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy, of merry making and theatre. The original rite of Dionysus is associated with a wine cult and he may have been worshipped as early as c. 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks. The"
"water into wine. In addition, the sacrament of the Eucharist prominently involved wine. The Romans drew some parallels between Bacchus and Christ. Both figures possessed narratives strongly featuring the symbolism of life after death: Bacchus in the yearly harvest and dormancy of the grape; and Christ in the death and resurrection story. Eucharist's act of drinking wine as a stand-in for consuming Christ, either metaphysically or metaphorically, echoes the rites performed in festivals dedicated to Bacchus. The influence and importance of wine in Christianity was undeniable, and soon the Church itself would take the mantle from ancient Rome as the"
"of Dionysus as representing the production of wine. Diodorus knew of a tradition whereby this Orphic Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Demeter, rather than Zeus and Persephone. This parentage was explained allegorically by identifying Dionysus with the grape vine, Demeter with the earth, and Zeus with the rain, saying that ""the vine gets its growth both from the earth and from rains and so bears as its fruit the wine which is pressed out from the clusters of grapes"". According to Diodorus, Dionysus' dismemberment by the Titans represented the harvesting of the grapes, and the subsequent ""boiling"" of"
"often carved from it. In his poem ""L'Amethyste, ou les Amours de Bacchus et d'Amethyste"" (Amethyst or the loves of Bacchus and Amethyste), the French poet Remy Belleau (1528–1577) invented a myth in which Bacchus, the god of intoxication, of wine, and grapes was pursuing a maiden named Amethyste, who refused his affections. Amethyste prayed to the gods to remain chaste, a prayer which the chaste goddess Diana answered, transforming her into a white stone. Humbled by Amethyste's desire to remain chaste, Bacchus poured wine over the stone as an offering, dyeing the crystals purple. Variations of the story include"
"part of the cult, eventually seen as manifestations of Dionysus. Some of these associations had been linked with fertility deities (like Dionysus) and became part of his new role. An understanding of vinicultural lore and its symbolism is key to understanding the cult which emerged from it, assuming a significance other than winemaking that would encompass life, death and rebirth and providing insight into human psychology. Assuming the Dionysus cult arrived in Greece with the importation of wine, it probably first emerged about 6000 BC in one of two places—the Zagros Mountains and borderlands of Mesopotamia and Persia (with a"
"which was discovered by Robert Luther in 1853. Proserpina Proserpina (; ) or Proserpine () is an ancient Roman goddess whose cult, myths and mysteries were combined from those of Libera, an early Roman goddess of wine, and the Greek Persephone and Demeter, goddesses of grain and agriculture. The originally Roman goddess Libera was daughter of the agricultural goddess Ceres and wife to Liber, god of wine and freedom. In 204 BC, a new ""greek-style"" cult to Ceres and Proserpina as ""Mother and Maiden"" was imported from southern Italy, along with Greek priestesses to serve it, and was installed in"
"the container before the onlookers' eyes, but the ghost-satyr himself remained invisible. Once all the wine had vanished, the ghost-satyr fell asleep and never bothered the villagers again. Amira El-Zein notes similarities between this story and later Arabic accounts of jinn. The treatise ""Saturnalia"" by the fifth-century AD Roman poet Macrobius connects both the word ""satyr"" and the name ""Saturn"" to the Greek word for ""penis"". Macrobius explains that this is on account of satyrs' sexual lewdness. Macrobius also equates Dionysus and Apollo as the same deity and states that a festival in honor of Bacchus is held every year"
"Ambrosia In the ancient Greek myths, ambrosia (, ) is sometimes the food or drink of the Greek gods, often depicted as conferring longevity or immortality upon whoever consumed it. It was brought to the gods in Olympus by doves. ""Ambrosia"" is sometimes depicted in ancient art as distributed by a nymph labeled with that name. In the myth of Lycurgus, an opponent to the wine god Dionysus, violence committed against Ambrosia turns her into a grapevine. Ambrosia is very closely related to the gods' other form of sustenance, ""nectar"". The two terms may not have originally been distinguished; though"
"importance. Records inscribed on tablets in Linear B include details of wine, vineyards and wine merchants, as well as an early allusion to Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. Greeks embedded the arrival of winemaking culture in the mythologies of Dionysus and the cultural hero Aristaeus. Early remnants of amphoras show that the Mycenaeans actively traded wine throughout the ancient world in places such as Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine, Sicily and southern Italy. As the Greek city-states established colonies throughout the Mediterranean, the settlers brought grapevines with them and were active in cultivating the wild vines they encountered. Sicily and southern"
"grape vine. Mark S. W. Stibbe has argued that the Gospel of John also contains parallels with ""The Bacchae"", a tragedy written by the Athenian playwright Euripides that was first performed in 405 BC and involves Dionysus as a central character. In both works, the central figure is portrayed as an incarnate deity who arrives in a country where he should be known and worshipped, but, because he is disguised as a mortal, the deity is not recognized and is instead persecuted by the ruling party. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is portrayed as elusive, intentionally making ambiguous statements"
"Ampelos Ampelos () is the Ancient Greek for ""vine"". In an etiology told by Nonnus, the vine is personified as a beautiful satyr youth, who was loved by Dionysus, and whose death was foreseen by the god. There are two versions of his death and Dionysus's reaction to it. According to Nonnus, Ampelos was gored to death by a wild bull after he mocked the goddess Selene, a scene described as follows: Upset by his death, Dionysus transformed Ampelos's body into the first grape vine and created wine from his blood. The second version involves grape vines in a different"
"and other Luminous Encounters among Greeks and Indian Buddhists in the Hellenistic world.” Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Vol. VIII, 2015: 163-186. Greek conquests in India In ancient times, trade between the Indian subcontinent and Greece flourished with silk, spices and gold being traded. The Greeks invaded South Asia several times, starting with the conquest of Alexander the Great. A legendary account states that when the Greek God Bacchus/Dionysus grew up, he discovered the culture of the wine and the mode of extracting its precious juice, being the first to do so; but Hera struck him with"
"agriculture and viticulture. Later on between 1 800 and 500 B.C. the Greeks occupied Sicily. They contributed a lot to the viticulture and the techniques of vinification. Apart from their expertise they introduced new grapes, among which ""Grechetto"". Its contemporary name is Grecanico and today it can be found in some areas of the Etna region. Mythology is closely tied to the island as well. The early settlers – the Sicels, who inhabited the island before the Greeks worshipped the God of wine Adranus. The Greeks prayed at Dionysus and the Romans revered the wine God Bacco. Etna volcano and"
"the Indo-Europeans encountered wine, the entheogen of Dionysus, who brought it with him from his birthplace in the mythical Nysa, when he returned to claim his Olympian birthright. The Indo-European proto-Greeks ""recognized it as the entheogen of Zeus, and their own traditions of shamanism, the Amanita and the 'pressed juice' of Soma — but better, since no longer unpredictable and wild, the way it was found among the Hyperboreans: as befit their own assimilation of agrarian modes of life, the entheogen was now cultivable."" Robert Graves, in his foreword to ""The Greek Myths,"" hypothesises that the ambrosia of various pre-Hellenic"
"Riesling is the famous example for higher quality of wine. In 1435 Count John IV. of Katzenelnbogen started this successful tradition. In Burgundy, the Cistercian monks developed the concept of ""cru"" vineyards as homogeneous pieces of land that consistently produce wines each vintage that are similar. In areas like the Côte-d'Or, the monks divided the land into separate vineyards, many of which are still in existence today- like Montrachet and La Romanée. In Greek mythology, the demigod Dionysus (Roman name: Bacchus) – son of Zeus – invented the grapevine and the winepress. When his closest satyr friend died trying to"
"Demeter. The name ""Iacchus"" may come from ""iacchus"", a hymn sung in honor of him. With the epithet Liknites (""he of the winnowing fan"") he is a fertility god connected with the mystery religions. A winnowing fan was similar to a shovel and was used to separate the chaff from the grain. In addition, Dionysus is known as Lyaeus (""he who unties"") as a god of relaxation and freedom from worry, and as Oeneus he is the god of the wine press. In the Greek pantheon, Dionysus (along with Zeus) absorbs the role of Sabazios, a Phrygian deity. In the"
"Silenus In Greek mythology, Silenus (; Ancient Greek: Σειληνός ""Seilēnos"") was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue ""(thiasos)"", and sometimes considerably older, in which case he may be referred to as a Papposilenus. The plural ""sileni"" refers to the mythological figure as a type that is sometimes thought to be differentiated from a satyr by having the attributes of a horse rather than a goat, though usage of the two words is not consistent enough to permit a sharp distinction. The original Silenus resembled a folkloric"
"the day is ending. Elizabeth is compared to Phoebe, she is coming down the aisle like the moon rises. She is white, like the moon, emphasizing her virginity and beauty. Bacchus is the Roman version of the Greek's Dionysus. They are the gods of wine, agriculture and fertility. ""Crowne ye God Bacchus with a coronall, And Hymen also crowne with wreathes of vine, And let the Graces daunce unto the rest; For they can doo it best:"" Spenser is asking for help from Bacchus in fertility with Elizabeth. They wish to have a child. Spenser is envisioning the rest of"
"here exclusively connected with Israel, God's chosen people, and with his sanctuary."" Scholars have long suspected that the Gospel of John may have also been influenced by symbolism associated with the cult of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. The issue of whether the Gospel of John was truly influenced by the cult of Dionysus is hotly disputed, with reputable scholars passionately defending both sides of the argument. Dionysus was one of the best-known Greek deities; he was worshipped throughout most of the Greco-Roman world and his cult is attested in Palestine, Asia Minor, and Italy. At the same time,"
"significance as a trade commodity, wine also served important religious, social and medical purposes in Greek society. The ""feast of the wine"" (""me-tu-wo ne-wo"") was a festival in Mycenaean Greece celebrating the ""month of the new wine."" The cult of Dionysus was very active, if not mysterious, and was immortalized in Euripides's play ""The Bacchae"". Several festivals were held throughout the year in honor of the God of wine. February's Anthesteria marked the opening of the wine jars from the previous autumn harvest, featuring wine-drinking contests and a procession through Athens carrying wine jars. The Dionysia included theatrical performances of"
"a heroic death. In some of these secret religions ""celebrants shared a communal meal in which they symbolically ate the flesh and drank the blood of their god."" Early Christianity spread through a Hellenized populace. Jewish feast practices had taken on Hellenic forms as noted above. Dionysus was ""god of 'the vine' - representing wine, the most universally popular beverage in the ancient world."" Barry Powell suggests that Christian notions of eating and drinking the ""flesh"" and ""blood"" of Jesus were influenced by the cult of Dionysus. In contrast, the ancient Greek tragedy, The Bacchae, a ritual involving the wine"
"Proserpina Proserpina (; ) or Proserpine () is an ancient Roman goddess whose cult, myths and mysteries were combined from those of Libera, an early Roman goddess of wine, and the Greek Persephone and Demeter, goddesses of grain and agriculture. The originally Roman goddess Libera was daughter of the agricultural goddess Ceres and wife to Liber, god of wine and freedom. In 204 BC, a new ""greek-style"" cult to Ceres and Proserpina as ""Mother and Maiden"" was imported from southern Italy, along with Greek priestesses to serve it, and was installed in Libera and Ceres' temple on Rome's Aventine Hill."
"consider the two gods to be opposites or rivals, although often the two deities were entwined by nature. Although the use of the concepts of the Apollonian and Dionysian is linked to Nietzsche's ""The Birth of Tragedy"", the terms were used before him in German culture. The poet Hölderlin spoke of them, while Winckelmann talked of Bacchus, the god of wine. After Nietzsche, others have continued to make use of the distinction. For example, Rudolf Steiner treated in depth the Apollonian and Dionysian and placed them in the general history and spiritual evolution of mankind. Nietzsche's aesthetic usage of the"
"god of wine - returns to Thebes, land of his birth as well as his mortal mother Semele's horrible and shameful death. Angered over his homeland's refusal to acknowledge his divine nature, the son of Zeus intends to establish the worship which he insists is now his due. Having put a spell on all the local women, a great celebration of dance and wine takes place in the nearby Glens of Cithaeron, attended even by the former king Cadmus and blind prophet Teiresias. When word of this outlandishness reaches Pentheus, the young and rational King of Thebes, he orders the"