Dionysus

, Dionysos

the Greek god of wine, fruitfulness, and vegetation, worshipped in orgiastic rites. He was also known as the bestower of ecstasy and god of the drama, and identified with Bacchus

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Dionysus

unborn god is saved from his dead mother and sewn into Zeus’s thigh, from which he is later born. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 273]

See: Childbirth

Dionysus

god of fertility; sometimes associated with fertility of crops. [Gk. Myth.: NCE, 575]

See: Farming

Dionysus

inspired men through wine; considered a patron of the arts. [Gk. Myth.: NCE, 767]

See: Patronage

Dionysus

(Rom. Bacchus) god of wine and revelry. [Gk. Myth.: Parrinder, 39]

See: Revelry

Dionysus

god of the vine and its enlightening powers. [Gk. Myth.: Avery, 404–408; Parrinder, 80]

See: Wine

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Dionysus

in ancient Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and the Theban princess Semele.

The cult of Dionysus—a vegetation or zoomorphic deity— which had existed in Greece as far back as the Minoan-Mycenean epoch, became widespread from the eighth through the sixth centuries B.C. among the rural people (demos}, who revered Dionysus primarily as the protector of viticulture and wine-making. During the classical period the cult of Dionysus enjoyed particular popularity in Delphi (along with the cult of Apollo) and Athens. The other name for Dionysus is Bacchus, from which the name of the festivals in honor of this god—the bacchanalia—is derived.

REFERENCES

Jeanmaire, H. Dionysos. Histoire du culte de Bacchus. Paris, 1951.
Otto, W. F. Dionysos. Mythos und Kultus, 3rd ed. Frankfurt am Main, 1960.