Dionysus or Dionysos (Ancient Greek: Διώνυσος or Διόνυσος; also known as Bacchus in both Greek and Roman mythology and associated with the Italic Liber), the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficent influences. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace — as well as the patron deity of both agriculture and the theater. Greeks borrowed Dionysus' figure and within the Olympian tradition he i ...

Including:

• Dionysus - Worship
• Dionysus - Bacchanalia
• Dionysus - Appellations
• Dionysus - Birth
• Dionysus - Childhood
• Dionysus - Midas
• Dionysus - Other stories
• Dionysus - Consorts/Children
• Dionysus - Parallels with Christianity
• Dionysus - Modern interpretations
• Dionysus - Dionysus in Neopaganism
• Dionysus - names with the origin Dionysus
• Dionysus - Bibliography

Read more here: » Dionysus: Encyclopedia - Dionysus

See also:

Dionysus, Dionysus - Worship, Dionysus - Bacchanalia, Dionysus - Appellations, Dionysus - Birth, Dionysus - Childhood, Dionysus - Midas, Dionysus - Other stories, Dionysus - Consorts/Children, Dionysus - Parallels with Christianity, Dionysus - Modern interpretations, Dionysus - Dionysus in Neopaganism, Dionysus - names with the origin Dionysus, Dionysus - Bibliography

Read more here: » Dionysus: Encyclopedia II - Dionysus - Worship

Modern Neopagans view Dionysus in different lights, depending largely on the individual sects and the other gods worshipped by a sect. Dionysus is often seen as the god of Earthly Delights and is thought to play a role in euphoria. In the United States, some Hellenistic Neopagan sects forbid the worship of Dionysus, because Dionysus worship is associated with hedonism. Sects which worship Hera and Themis in particular may forbid Dionysus worship. However, there are sects that make Dionysus a central figure of their faith ...

See also:

Dionysus, Dionysus - Worship, Dionysus - Bacchanalia, Dionysus - Appellations, Dionysus - Birth, Dionysus - Childhood, Dionysus - Midas, Dionysus - Other stories, Dionysus - Consorts/Children, Dionysus - Parallels with Christianity, Dionysus - Modern interpretations, Dionysus - Dionysus in Neopaganism, Dionysus - names with the origin Dionysus, Dionysus - Bibliography

Read more here: » Dionysus: Encyclopedia II - Dionysus - Dionysus in Neopaganism

In Greek mythology, the name Butes referred to four different people. Aphrodite's lover and a Sicilian king. He was the father of Eryx by Aphrodite. Boreas' son. He offended Dionysus and was made insane. Son of Pandion and Zeuxippe. He was a priest of Poseidon and Athena and was worshipped as a hero by the Athenians. An Argonaut, son of Teleon. Categories: Greek mythological people | Sicilian characters in Greek mythology

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Agave ("illustrious") was the queen of Thebes in Greek mythology, mother of Pentheus and daughter of Harmonia and Cadmus. She was a Maenad, a follower of Dionysus (also known as Bacchus in Roman mythology). She was married to Echion. In Euripides' play, "The Bacchae", Theban Maenads murdered King Pentheus after he banned the worship of Dionysos because he denied Dionysos' divinity. Dionysos, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods, where the Maenads tore him apart and his corpse was m ...

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In Greek mythology, Zagreus was identified with the god Dionysus and was worshipped by followers of Orphism. According to the followers of Orphism, Zeus had laid with either Demeter or Persephone in the form of a snake. The result of their union was Zagreus. Zeus had intended Zagreus to be his heir, but a jealous Hera persuaded the Titans to kill the child. The Titans distracted Zagreus with toys, then carried him away and tore Zagreus to pieces. When the Titans were finished, nothing was left but Zagreus' heart, which A ...

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In Greek mythology, Priapus was a minor rustic fertility god of purely phallic character, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. (Roman equivalent: Mutinus Mutunus.) He was a son of Aphrodite, with Dionysus, or with Adonis (according to a scholiast on Lycophron, noted by Kerenyi 1951). At Helicon in Boeotia, the travel-writer Pausanias pointed out a statue of Priapus that was "worth seeing": "This god is worshipped where goats and sheep pasture or there are swarms of bees; but by the people o ...

Including:

• Priapus - Reference

Read more here: » Priapus: Encyclopedia - Priapus

In Greek mythology, Maenads [MEE-nads] were female worshippers of Dionysus, the Greek god of mystery, wine and intoxication, and the Roman god Bacchus. The word literally translates as "raving ones". They were known as wild, insane women who could not be reasoned with. The mysteries of Dionysus inspired the women to ecstatic frenzy; they indulged in copious amounts of violence, bloodletting, sex and self-intoxication and mutilation. They were usually pictured as crowned with vine leaves, clothed in fawnskins and carrying the thyrsus, and dancing with the wild abando ...

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In Greek mythology, Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mother of Dionysus (the god and his votaries were both identified as "Bacchus") by Zeus, in one of the two parallel origin-myths of Dionysus. The name Semele, like other elements of Dionysiac cult (thyrsus, dithyramb) are manifestly not Greek (Burkert 1985), apparently Thraco-Phrygian (Kerenyi 1976 p 107; Seltman 1956); the myth of Semele's ...

Including:

• Semele - Reference

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Ariadne (from a Cretan-Greek form for arihagne, "utterly pure" ) was a fertility goddess of Crete, "the first divine personage of Greek mythology to be immediately recognized in Crete" (Kerenyi 1993, p 89), once archaeology had begun. Her name is merely an epithet, for she was originally the "Mistress of the Labyrinth", both a prison with the dreaded Minotaur at its centre and a winding dance-ground. She was especially worshipped on Naxos, Delos, Cyprus, and in Athens. (The Romans called their comparable goddess Libera, and their po ...

Including:

• Ariadne - In later culture

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The Korybantes, called the Kurbantes in Phrygia, were the crested dancers who worshipped the Phrygian goddess Cybele with drumming and dancing. The Kuretes were the nine dancers who venerate Rhea, the Cretan counterpart of Cybele. These male dancers in armor, kept time to a drum and the rhythmic stamping of their feet. Dance, according to Greek thought, was one of the civilizing activities, like wine-making or music. The dance in armor (the "pyrrhic dance" or pyrriche) was a male coming-of-age initiation ri ...

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The worship of the Sacred Bull throughout the ancient world is most familiar in the episode of the idol of the Golden Calf made by Aaron and worshipped by the Hebrews in the wilderness of Sinai (Exodus). But far to the east, Shiva's holy steed (called vahana in Sanskrit) is Nandi, the Bull. A wild Aurochs bull was a terrifying creature. Killing it or taming it was a heroic feat. Aurochs are depicted in many Paleolithic European cave paintings such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France. Their life force ...

Including:

• Bull mythology - External link

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Cabeiri in Greek mythology, were a group of minor deities, of whose character and worship nothing certain is known. Their chief seats of worship were the islands of Lemnos, Imbros and Samothrace, the coast of Troas, Thessalia and Boeotia. The name appears to be of Phoenician origin, signifying the "great" gods, and the Cabeiri seem to have been deities of the sea who protected sailors and navigation, as such often identified with the Dioscuri, the ...

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Bel, signifying "lord" or "master", is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in Babylonian religion. The feminine form is Belit 'Lady, Mistress'. Bel is represented in Greek and Latin by Belos and Belus respectively. Linguistically Bel is an east Semitic form cognate with northwest Semitic Ba‘al which has the same meaning. Early translators of Akkadian believed that the ideogram for the god called in Sumerian Enlil was to be read as Bel in Akkadian. This i ...

Including:

• Bel god - External link

Read more here: » Bel god: Encyclopedia - Bel god

Animal worship is an ill-defined term, covering facts ranging from the worship of the real divine animal, commonly conceived as a "god-body," at one end of the scale, to respect for the bones of a slain animal or even the use of a respectful name for the living animal at the other end. Added to this, in many works on the subject we find reliance placed, especially for the African facts, on reports of travellers who were merely visitors to the regions on which they wrote. Animal cults may be classified in two ways: ...

Including:

• Animal worship - Classification by outward form
• Animal worship - Classification by inward meaning
• Animal worship - Pastoral cults
• Animal worship - Hunting cults
• Animal worship - Dangerous or noxious animals
• Animal worship - Animals regarded as human souls or their embodiment
• Animal worship - Totemistic cults
• Animal worship - Cults of secret societies and individual cults of tutelary animals
• Animal worship - Cults of tree and vegetation spirits
• Animal worship - Cults of ominous animals
• Animal worship - Cults probably derivative of animals associated with certain deities
• Animal worship - Cults of animals used in magic
• Animal worship - Animal Cults
• Animal worship - Bear
• Animal worship - Bison and Cattle
• Animal worship - Crow/Raven
• Animal worship - Dog
• Animal worship - Elephant
• Animal worship - Fish
• Animal worship - Goat
• Animal worship - Hawk
• Animal worship - Horse
• Animal worship - Leopard
• Animal worship - Lion
• Animal worship - Lizard
• Animal worship - Mantis
• Animal worship - Monkey
• Animal worship - Rabbit
• Animal worship - Serpent
• Animal worship - Sheep
• Animal worship - Tiger
• Animal worship - Wolf

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In earlier Greek mythology, the sun was personified as a deity called Hêlios (Greek for "the sun"), whom Homer equates with the sun titan Hyperion. Other sources say Helios is Hyperion's son by his sister Theia. Helios was seen driving a fiery chariot across the sky. He has two sisters, the moon goddess Selene and the dawn goddess Eos. Many think that Apollo becomes the Olympian "sun god", but this idea is mostly based on speculation and assumption. The equivalent of Helios in Roman mythology is Sol. Helios - Gre ...

Including:

• Helios - Greek mythology
• Helios - Roman mythology
• Helios - Helios and Apollo
• Helios - Consorts/Children
• Helios - Epitheta

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In Greek mythology, the Horae (Latin) or Horai (Greek; both words mean the "hours") were the three goddesses controlling orderly life. They were daughters of Zeus and Themis. There were two generations of Horae: (note: this does not refer to generation in the traditional sense of the second group being offspring of the first; earlier writers recognized the first generation and later authors subscribed to the second.) Horae - First generation. The first generation consisted of Thallo, Au ...

Including:

• Horae - First generation
• Horae - Second generation
• Horae - Third generation?
• Horae - The Hours

Read more here: » Horae: Encyclopedia - Horae

The king of Orchomenus in Greek mythology, Athamas ("rich harvest") was married first to the goddess Nephele with whom he had the twins Phrixus and Helle. He later divorced Nephele and married Ino, daughter of Cadmus. With Ino, he had two children: Learches and Melicertes. Athamas also had a brother, Salmoneus, who was the father of Tyro. Phrixus and Helle, were hated by their stepmother, Ino. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all the towns crop seeds so they would not grow. The local farmers, frighte ...

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In Greek mythology, Antiope was the name of the daughter of the Boeotian river-god Asopus, according to Homer (Od. xi. 260); in later poems she is called the daughter of King Nycteus of Thebes or Lycurgus. Her beauty attracted Zeus, who, assuming the form of a satyr, took her by force (Apollodorus iii. 5). After this she was carried off by Epopeus, king of Sicyon, who would not give her up till compelled by her uncle Lycus. On the way home she gave birth, in the neighbourhood of Eleutherae on Mount Cithaeron, to the twins Amphi ...

Read more here: » Antiope mother of Amphion: Encyclopedia - Antiope mother of Amphion

Sabazios is the nomadic horseman sky and father god of the Phrygians. In Indo-European languages, such as Phrygian, the '-zios' element in his name goes back to Dyeus, the common precursor of 'deus' (god) and Zeus. Though the Greeks associated Phrygian Sabazios with Zeus, representations of him, even into Roman times, show him always on horseback, as a nomadic horseman god, wielding his characteristic staff of power. Sabazios - Thracian/Phrygian Sabazios. It seems likely that the migrating Phr ...

Including:

• Sabazios - Thracian/Phrygian Sabazios
• Sabazios - The god on horseback
• Sabazios - Transformation to Sabazius
• Sabazios - The Jewish connection

Read more here: » Sabazios: Encyclopedia - Sabazios