#Lord Dionysus

[dionysianivy]

really enjoyed reading this!!!

Dionysus' lesser-known myths [or perhaps you do know them, but i will tell you about them anyway]

Some of these myths have already been shown in my blog, but i decided to bring some of them up again in a more elaborated way, plus some new too. Perhaps you've heard of them, perhaps you haven't, but i can tell you i haven't seen them much around here.

And my job isn't reading your minds, it's about writting essays, so here we go.

1. Ampelos (Αμπελος):

According to Nonnus of Panopolis, Ampelos was a satyr (tho not many art represents him as such) who loved Dionysus, and was loved by him as well. Not much of a surprise, since we do know many gods had male lovers.

The problem is that, we're still talking about a satyr, we know how those guys are and act. According to Nonnus, Ampelos was riding a bull while mocking Selene, angrily, she sent a gadfly to sting the bull. The bull ran and threw Ampelos all over the place. Nonnus describes it as a very gore-like death.

Dionysus, upset, ended up turning Ampelos' corpse into a grape vine, and from there, he created wine with his blood... THANKFULY, it was the blood.

Roman mosaic with Ampelos and Bacchus.

2. Midas (Μίδας):

"But Nysus, everybody knows Midas" yes yes, but do you KNOW the actual Greek myths? Or do you know the later, VERY later-on version that appears in Wikipedia? Midas never turned his daughter into gold in the folklore, for example.

Midas was a foreign king who married a greek woman, he was the king of Phrygia, and according to Pausanias, he had a daughter named Zoe. I have absolutely nothing about her except this.

Anyways, going to the important part: Silenus, a companion of Dionysus who used to be one of his foster fathers, got lost while he was... Kind of drunk ( come on, Dionysus can't keep an eye on everyone 24/7 ). Some peasants found him and took him to King Midas, who, as a very loyal follower of Dionysus, recognized Silenus and took care of him. When Dionysus arrived in order to take him back, he thanked Midas and said he would give him in return anything that he wished for... And here it comes: Midas wished to be able to turn everything that he touched to gold, and Dionysus agreed, even though he felt sorry he hadn't thought of it twice.

Midas was happy turning stuff into gold, obviously. But when he touched food and it turned into gold as well and he was unable to eat, he returned to Dionysus asking him to turn it back to normal.

Surprisingly, Dionysus didn't say "no" or "live with the consequences"; he told him to wash himself in the river Pactolus, and, good enough, the gold thingy dissappeared.

I don't have this myth fully narrated by a Greek, instead, from a latin author. The good thing tho, thanks to Herodotus and Pausanias, i know it's realiable.

Monument dedicated to Midas, in the old Prhygia ( now part of Turkey )

3. The Minyades (Μινυάδες):

According to Plutarch, king Minyas had three daughters ( whose names i honestly don't know, they appear in Ovid's Metamorphosis ). He tells that Dionysus appeared in the form of a maiden to invite them to the Dionysian Mysteries, since the rest of the women had already gone there. And they declined, politely, but still declined. This is one of those moments in which we see Dionysus' weak points, no justified anger. They neglected the cult, but had nothing against it anyways.

Still, for him, that wasn't enough.

He drove them mad, like very. Something that for Plutarch was even worse than death, apparently. They even killed their own children and ate them (yikes) dismembering them like Dionysus was once dismembered. The sisters were wandering around the mountains, without Dionysus caring at all.

Until finally, Hermes took pity on them, and turned them into bats, freeing them from the madness.

One of the Minyades showing the dismembered body of her son - Étienne-Barthélémy Garnier

4. Zeus' lighting bolts

This one is short, so i'll get to the point.

We all know what Nonnus' was up to when writing about Dionysus. He said in his work that Zeus recognized him (when being Zagreus) as his heir. Since when he was still a little kid, he was able to climb to his throne and to hold Zeus' lightning bolts. Of course, then the very well-known myth of Hera calling the titants to dismember Dionysus arrives here, since she wanted no heir to the throne.

Things happen, you know.

5. Lykurgos (Λυκοῦργος):

Remember when i talked about this guy in the anger essay? Wellp, here he is again, it's the same, but i'll elaborate on him a bit more.

He was a thracian king, and when he heard that Dionysus was going to Thracia, he ordered to trap all of his female followers in a prison.

Yes, only the women. I guess no men followed Dionysus in Thracia during his reign, not like i can ask him about it.

OF COURSE Pentheus 2.0 would imprison the FOLLOWERS of the god of MADNESS. Of course...

Dionysus got angry ( what a surprise ) and sent a drought towards Thracia + making Lykurgos go mad. It's not Dionysus if he doesn't punish you by making you go mad.

He then proceed to tell the people that the only way to stop that punishment was by killing Lykurgos, and, well, they did. They all killed him, and were freed from the punishment.

Dionysus then stopped the drought, he kept his word, indeed.

Lykurgos attacking his own wife after being induced into madness

6. The punishment of the titans

You think they got away? No, the fuck, of course they didn't.

After Zeus' found out what had happened to Dionysus (Zagreus), he imprisoned them in Tartatus, which caused Gaia to be all sad again, since many of her children had already been imprisoned there. What she did was, as scary as Gaia has always been, burning down everything she could.

The only way Zeus could take pity on her in order to stop that, was by sending a flood.

7. Coresus (Κόρησος):

Callirhoe was a Calydonian woman who scorned Coresus, a priest of Dionysus, who threatened to afflict all the women of Calydon with insanity as the good Dionysus priest he was.

The way to stop this was with a sacrifice, to kill the woman who scorned him. Coresus was ordered to sacrifice her, but he killed himself instead since apparently, he was in love with her and couldn't do it.

Callirhoe was overcome with remorse, and cut her throat at a spring that later received her name.

As always.

Coresus sacrificing himself to save Callirhoe - Jean-Honoré Fragonard

8. The Frogs (Βάτραχοι):

At this point, this isn't lesser-known anymore, and i'm not the biggest fan of Aristophanes' work (i love Euripides way too much, oops) but i'll still summarize what Dionysus has to do with this play.

Dionysus, as the god of theatre he is, wanted to bring back to life one of the great tragedy authors. And he descends to Hades for that, it's a way to mock his connection with it, this is still a comedy.

And after a poetry slam, Aeschylus is chosen in preference to Euripides. Smh, fucking Aristophanes, way to put your preferences.

9. Orpheus' death:

I'm not gonna elaborate on this one THAT much, since i wanna save it for the Apollo & Dionysus essay i have unfinished, which was the second most voted one and it might take more time to finish it.

In any case, do you know all these modern retellings in which they paint Dionysus as the "chill, calm, who only wants to party" dude? And Apollo as the "feral, envious, angry" dude? Well, ya'll are wrong...

Dionysus killed Orpheus due to his jealousy of Apollo's worship. I'm leaving you with this sentence, wait for the other essay to know why Dionysus and Apollo are so complex in terms of feelings. Or, at least, i will try to elaborate on it.

Apollo welcoming Dionysus to the sanctuary of Delphi, which they shared.

10. Dionysus IS physically incapable of getting drunk, live with it:

SHOCK i know. So if i see any of ya'll saying he's drunk 24/7, you better have your testament written.

NONNUS OF PANOPOLIS. DIONYSIACA. LITERAL TEXT: "Only to Dionysus gave Rhea the amethyst that saves the drinker from the chains of madness."

Yes, obviously going for scientifict facts, this doesn't work. It was believed in this world that the amethyst would prevent people from getting drunk. But this is mythology, Dionysus is a god, he can't get drunk even if he wanted to. And it's not like he should, he needs to keep an eye on his followers 24/7. Or do we want to remember what happened to Silenus?

Dude, how the hell do i have to tell you all, that in all text in which people were drinking for honoring Dionysus, they always stopped saying "he wouldn't like to see us this way" HE DOESN'T WANT YA'LL DO GET DRUNK. THAT'S NOT HOW HIS MADNESS WORKED

No. The women in the Bacchae are not ✨girlboss slaaaaay✨ they were feral women. The madness Dionysus used to punish Pentheus and the Theban women is NOT something you should idealize. Euripides didn't want ya'll to call him an icon because "omg the Bacchae is so progresive" GUYS... NO. IT'S NOT ABOUT THAT. It's about showing Dionysus' wrath. Of showing why like with any other god, he's feared.

The Greek gods are not your free playground OC's. You can't invent their sexualities or gender identities just for yourself. They're important figures of a culture and country that still lives. If you want an icon to feel identify with, create one. But don't go around there saying Dionysus is genderfluid JUST because you like seeing him young. No.

I know, personally, genderfluid people, and all of them agree THIS is wrong. I already had the whole pronouns drama with Dionysus, don't start over again with this. Please.

* AHEM * In any case... Hope you enjoyed !

I needed to work A LOT for this essay, since most of these myths weren't listed with sources. Whenever you wanna write a guide about folkore or anything similar, please, list your sources ! i don't want anyone else to go through the pain of needing to research though the catacombs of information JUST to confirm one sentence. Because i went trhough that, there's a reason why i've been researching about Dionysus for more than three years already and i still don't have everything. Thanks for your support and essay requests as always, it makes me INCREDIBLY happy to see so many of you willing to learn about a figure that has been so underappreciated and reduced into nothing like Dionysus, and who is still being misinterpreted to this day.

As always, reblogs would be very appreciated, it's the way people can find my blog for something else than copypaste incorrect quotes, and i always appreciate that kind of support. Of course i do this "por amor al arte" as i would say in Spanish, but still takes time and effort and i'm just a university student. I still will need A LOT of time to be able to work into something more accesible to everyone for the Greek folklore.

For now, this small Tumblr pieces is what i can give. But as always, thank you and χαίρε Διόνυσον 🍇

[dionysianivy]

𝐃𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐲𝐬𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐬𝐦, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡.

[blackbacchus999]

[applefoam]

praise be lord dionysus androgynos, god of homosexuality and effeminacy, may he protect his queer children and adults alike! I am forever grateful, raise a glass to him and his wonder!

[dantealighierienjoyer]

Digital offering for Lord Apollon and Lord Dionysos, my beloved patrons<3

[mythicalmuseomine]

Lord Dionysus

God of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre

i take requests

[dionysusfanatic]

dionysus god of silliness and dismemberment

[apollophanes]

O Dionysos, O Bacchus!

My Lord, may I be free from all stress and worry

O Eleutheros, O Liber!

May I rise up like the mighty grapevine

And may I create a path for myself wherever I see a dead end

Hail, O Bull-Horned God!

Hail, O Thrice-Born Lord!

[flynnflwrs]

im worried i dont have enough time to make a one for Lord Hermes tonight BUT im so happy!!;!;!! i've been wanting to learn how to make bracelets (especially to give them to Lord Apollo, Lord Dionysus and Lord Hermes!;!) for a while so im so happy haha. these arent the best because im still learning but but i hope the gods like them haha.

I MADE LORD HERMES'S !(!;!;!;!!!!(!(!

[just-helpol-things]

Little thing I made for Lairde Dionysus 💜

(I use Lairde because it’s gender neutral for lord/lady and They have told me She uses any pronouns)

[assistedbytherats]

Idk, I think revelry can include play, which means having spontaneous fun can be a devotional act to Dionysus. Go ahead, jump in that pile of leaves. Throw that Thing into the body of water to make a Splash. Jump up on curbs and tables and benches and pretend the floor is lava.

Give in to the silliness. You know you want to, and He can’t wait to see the joy it brings you.

[soncooker55]

hi chat these are my (beginner) Lady Aphrodite and Lord Dionysos altars

[dionysianivy]

found my Lord Dionysus while cleaning my bookshelves ♡🐆🍇

[lovelysakuryay]

my favourite artwork?

The Women of Amphissa

12 Dionysus Priestesses confused and exhausted from performing a devotional ritual for Lord Dionysus wandered the streets of Amphissa (Amphissa was at war at the time, so extremely unsafe) before they passed out on the square. When the Priestesses came to, they had been surrounded by the Women of Amphissa who had been standing over them protectively and caring for them while the Priestesses slept.

one thing about me, i love it when women support women.

What is your favourite artwork?

[applefoam]

ive found a lot of comfort in worshipping lord dionysus. a lot of the times when im sitting somewhere and stressed out, i can feel his presence next to me and I immediately feel a little lighter

[delacrvix]

˚ ༘♕ ⋆｡˚ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐎𝐃 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐄

He is who creates the wine Brings the pleasure and desire to men The son of the Great God Zeus The youthful God of Madness

Men forget their agony in his presence Pleasure would fill their hearts Through wine, music, and dance Until they no longer knew who they were

The forest became one with him The great graceful panther is his Grapevine is his sacred plant Pleasure is what he brings to men

Shall the women dance until they fall Sing until their voice is hoarse Be free from worries This is to honor the Great God Dionysus

Should you look down on him He shall turn you mad and lost For he is the God of Insanity Join him to feel the pleasure he will offer you

Dionysus; the God who brings Pleasure