Dionysos
Dionysos is the central saving deity of the Bacchic-Orphic mysteries and the reborn form of the child dismembered by the Titans. After Athena preserves the heart of the murdered Zagreus, the god comes to life again - variously by Zeus swallowing the heart and refathering him, or by his birth from Semele - and is worshipped as Bakchios, Lysios ('the Releaser') and Eubouleus. In the gold-tablet liturgy the initiate declares to Persephone that 'Bakchios himself has released you', invoking the god's power to loosen the burden of the ancestral Titanic guilt and secure a blessed afterlife among the heroes. The many Orphic Hymns addressed to Dionysos under his several aspects - Bassareus, Lenaios, Perikionios, Trietericos, Liknites, Amphietes - reflect the density of his cult within the tradition. He is simultaneously the god whose suffering explains the mixed nature of humankind and the god whose mysteries offer humankind its redemption.
Parentage
- paternal: Zeus
- maternal: Persephone
Children
Variant accounts
- parentageHymn 43 invokes Semele as the mother of Dionysos, whereas hymn 29 gives Persephone; the hymns address multiple birth accounts.Orphic Hymns 43 (Taylor; modern 44) (primary); Orphic Hymns 29 (Taylor; modern 30) (primary)
Domains
- ecstatic release
- wine and mystery
Powers
- releases the initiate soul from the cycle of punishment
Epithets
- Λύσιος — the Releaser / LoosenerOrphic Hymn 50 (Lysios Lenaios) (primary)
- Εὐβουλεύς — of good counsel / EubouleusOrphic Hymn 30.6; Bacchic-Orphic gold tablets (primary)
- Βάκχιος — Bacchios, the Bacchic onePelinna gold tablet (primary)
Relations
- sibling: MelinoeBoth are children of Zeus and Persephone in the Orphic theogony.F. Graf & S. I. Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife (2007), 195-197 (secondary)
Sources
- The reborn Dionysos, saving god of the Bacchic-Orphic mysteries, is the divine son of Zeus and Persephone raised again from the heart rescued after his dismemberment; as Bakchios and Lysios he releases initiates from the debt of the Titanic crime.: Bacchic-Orphic gold tablets (Pelinna, Thurii, Hipponion); Orphic Hymns 30, 45-53; Orphic frr. 210-214 Kern (primary); F. Graf & S. I. Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife (2007), 121-166 (secondary)