#anyways there's something inherently sexy about ancient undeciphered languages like Linear B and all the things they're hiding <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[beatingdrumspouringwine]

every now and then i think about this article that i read which traced the origins of Dionysos back through the ages. and apparently, He's one of the oldest deities known from the Greeks, and His name was seen on Linear B tablets dating back to the Minoans.

this is interesting for two reasons:

Dionysos is so often seen as a "foreign God", who came roaring out of some mysterious mountain in the East. but He's also there with the Minoans, receiving pretty large sacrifices, almost 3500 years ago.

the Minoans were the civilization that Ariadne came from - they were named after King Minos, they were actively on Crete. i can only wonder how old the story of Ariadne and Dionysos is, then. Ariadne wasn't mentioned in the article, but some research shows that it's a not unheard of opinion that Her name is old, and there's a good chance it came from the Minoans.

these two things put together just kind of show how interesting Dionysos is when it comes to being a God of opposites. He's been worshiped in Greece for almost 3500 years, and yet He's a young foreign God. He's married to a mortal woman and yet Her name echoes back to the very birth of Her own mythic kingdom, with an origin that may mean "most holy". together, Dionysos and Ariadne are both eternally young and eternally old, and there's just something that sticks in my head about that, you feel?

anyways, here are the two articles that i used for this:

Ariadne - Wikipedia

The Shocking True Origins of Dionysos - by Spencer McDaniel