Today I wanted to start talking about Greek pantheon, and the obvious choice to start such an adventure would be no other than the Zeus himself. At least that was what I planned. However while doing research I accidentally entered the rabbit hole of completely other figure, which I found so much more fascinating. Without further ado, hero of today's story is Dionysus, god of wine, theater, dance and so much more.

God with many faces

If there is a simple way to describe Dionysus it is that he was full of contrasting dualities. His dual nature starts from the way he was depicted and ends with his very nature. He was old and young, he was man's benefactor and man's destroyer, he caused extreme joy, but also drunken confusion¹. He was a god, and yet was not born of the gods and an Olympian, yet not settled on Olympus and as some suggest not event part of Pantheon, but still a worshipped god[^olympian]. A god known to everyone and who literary provided food and drink to the tables, yet whose followers where marginalized and kept outside. He most likely was clouded in an aura of mystery even back there and to this day still puzzles a lot of people dealing with such subjects.

While the chaos² regarding Dionysus birthday may look like a normal mess that we find in the Greek mythology, in reality it is much worse than that. It is so bad that Diodorus Siculus, an ancient Greek historian, reported that

Some writers of myths, however, relate that there was a second Dionysus who was much earlier in time than the one we have just mentioned. […] The younger one also inherited the deeds of the older, and so the men of later times, being unaware of the truth and being deceived because of the identity of their names thought there had been but one Dionysus.

Basically even in ancient times they where not exactly sure if Dionysus was the same god that was worshipped in different areas. He did looked very different though and this catches the point of Dionysus very well - he was the trickster, the one changing faces all the time, mad and unpredictable like life itself.

God of two faces

However, there is also a different side of the Dionysus that was illustrated here - most times he was depicted in one of two ways, either as an old, bearded man or young and dashing. But this dichotomy goes further - the myths state that he was born twice, first time as a child of Zeus and Persephone and second from mortal woman, Semele, when she drunk his heart after he was dismembered by Titans. He was also the only Greek god that had to prove his godhood³, because he was apparently hidden from Hera during his childhood.

This point out that when talking about Dionysus it's possible we are in reality talking about two separate cults that worshipped same god at very different stages of mythical life. However, there is a much more popular theory, that at least in later centuries this cult of Dionysus transformed it's worship around transcendent and everchanging nature of his. Yet the interesting part here is from what exactly it has transformed.

We believed that the cult has come to Ancient Greece from Thrace or further, from Asia Minor rather late compared to the rest of Pantheon. This theory was disproved when archeologists found references to him on tablets dated to the mycean times. It suggested his cult was on this area much longer, it predated Greek civilization and even could possibly native to the area, but the place of origin of Dionysus remains shrouded in mystery to this day. Those two case do imply quite a different origin of the Dionysus though. If he was imported deity he would most likely be the equivalent of Phrygian god Sabazios.

The Sabazios was an nomad, god of the horsemanship and sky father in phrygian and thracian tribes. His domain was also plant fertility, which was symbolized by his attribute, pine cone⁴. It is rather loose connection, as Thracians in Greece prayed to both Dionysus and Helios as to Sabazios, and Greeks used Sabazios as term for both Dionysus and Zeus. However, when we look into the alternative that Dionysus is native to Crete⁵. That would make Dionysus the evolution of Zagreus and that would make things a lot more complicated, if not just crazy. Because Zagreus is has one specific reference, an epic by the name of Alcmeonis. This epic places him as equal to Gaia and apparently highest ranking of the gods, simultaneously being, most likely, the son of Hades. And, of course, it's easy to spot that all this does directly contradict everything I previously stated.

There is a lot that we don't know about Ancient Greece and some of what we don't know we may never know. But is it really bad? That how all the myths are created after all. We take some things we know and fill in things we don't know with our best guesses and beliefs. Then if we can validate those blanks in any systematic way, we call it science, otherwise we are left with myths. We do need both of them to function as a society, just in right areas of our lives. It has always been like that and it will always be this way, because deep down we are all driven by the stories we tell to each other and to ourselves.

Feature image is a part of painting titled Bacchus by Caravaggio.

You may also be interested in taking look at any of those:

• Miscellaneous Myths: Dionysus by (as always wonderful) Overly Sarcastic Productions
• Reproduction of The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus
• A bulla in the British Museum

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