ample confirmation as we proceed, and which is set forth with unanswerable force by this the earliest of HellenikoDionysiak legends, altered and trimmed as it may have been from time to time by rhapsodist or grammarian, that Dionysos in origin is a non-Hellenik divinity, whose whole cult breathes of that Semitic East where first it originated. Subsection 11.-Dionysos, son of Semele. In Ilias, xiv. 317-27, a passage which, although probably of genuine antiquity, is yet not quite beyond the reach of suspicion, having been doubted, amongst others, by some of the Alexandrine critics; Zeus gives a list of some of his most illustrious children and their mothers. Amongst these occur, side by side, the two Theban divinities Herakles and Dionysos, the former son of Alkmene, the latter of Semele. Both gods are stated to have been born in Thebai, and Semele is mentioned in a Homerik Hymn' as one of the family of Kadmos, who himself is only directly alluded to in the Poems on the occasion where Odysseus is assisted by his daughter, the once mortal but afterwards deified Ino Leukotheë.2 The inhabitants of the Thebais, however, are called Kadmeioi and Kadmeiones,3 after Kadmos, their reputed ancestor. 'I loved Semele in Thebai,' says Zeus, and she bore Dionysos, a-source-of-joy to mortals.' The Episode of Lykourgos had left us in ignorance of the race of Dionysos, but this important passage links him with the house of the Phoenician Kadmos, and the mystic City of the Seven Gates; in other words, with the Semitic East. As to the legend of Kadmos, which Bunsen truly calls a wonderful myth,' suffice it to say here that the unanimous 1 Eis Dionyson, v. 57. 2 Od. v. 333. As to Ino, vide inf. VI. i. 2. 3 Il. iv. 385 et seq.; v. 804 et seq. voice of antiquity describes him as an Oriental stranger, Phoenician or Egyptian, the founder of the legendary Thebai; nor does the Homerik version differ from others, for Zethos and Amphion founded the Lower City, Hypothebai,' described as Eurychoros, Spacious,2 like Sparte; while Kadmos founded the Upper City, or comparatively small Kadmeia. Homeros distinguishes, as Pausanias observes, between the Lower City and the Kadmeia.1 That this tradition contains very important historic truth, sound modern opinion, in harmony with the universal belief of antiquity, admits.5 Dionysos, therefore, in Homerik mythic genealogy, is a Phoenician by the mother's side, and adopted by the Aryan Zeus, into whose realm he has penetrated. But he is also said to be 'a-source-of-joy to mortals,' and the wonderful propriety of this description will only become apparent when we fully realise his various phases. Once for all, let me caution the reader against simply regarding Dionysos as Theoinos the Wine-god, and supposing that he is merely a source of joy as making glad the heart of man with the juice of the grape. This would, indeed, be a sadly incomplete concept of the son of Semele. As well might we suppose that Zeus was naught but Ombrios, the Raingod, or Poseidon only Kyanochaites, the Lord-of-thedark-blue-sea. Moreover, all the aspects of Dionysos Theoinos are by no means joyful, since wine has a double influence, producing, on the one hand, happiness and exhilaration, and, on the other, misery and madness. The Wine-god might thus have been properly represented as 1 Il. ii. 505. 2 Od. xi. 263. 3 Paus. ii. 6. 4 Vide inf. X. ii. 5 Cf. Niebuhr, Ancient Ethnography, i. 114; Kenrick, Phoenicia, 97 et seq.; Donaldson, Theatre of the Greeks, 14 et seq.; Thirlwall, Hist. Greece, i. 68, 69; Bähr in Herod. v. 57; Creuzer, Symbolik, iv. 236; Mure, Crit. Hist. iii. 499; Rawlinson, Herod. ii. 78; Lenormant, La légende de Cadmus, and Ancient Hist. of the East, ii. 169, 204; Gladstone, Juv. Mun. 122; Grote, Hist. Greece, ii. 357; and Rev. G. W. Cox, Mythology of the Aryan Nations, i1. 86. 3 Janus-faced, and so at times we see him as Psychodaiktes, the Destroyer-of-the-soul,1 or Hypnophobes, the Terrifierduring-sleep, i.e. by sending dreadful dreams. Thus Dionysos as Theoinos would be by no means a source of unmixed joy to mortals.2 But Homeros calls him Charma, a mystic charm, soothing as the Nepenthe of Polydamna; (1) as aye fresh and young, the EverYouth, a new-fledged Eros in perennial vigour; (2) as Hymeneïos, god of marriage and rejoicing; (3) as Karpios and kindred epithets, which connect him with the beautiful green earth in its might of strength and growth; (4) as Melpomenos, the Singer and leader of the cheerful song-and-dance; (5) as Hygiates, the Healer, and restorer to sound health and vigour; and (6) as Theoinos, the Exhilirater-by-wine. Let the reader consider the combined force of epithets such as these, and he will see how truly Dionysos was regarded as a source of joy, and how rightly Hesiodos calls him Polygethes the Much-cheering, and Ploutarchos, Charidotes the Joy-giver. SOS.'4 Subsection III.-Dionysos and Naxos. Odysseus, when recounting his adventures in the Under-world, states that he saw beautiful Ariadne, daughter of Minos, whom once Theseus was conducting to the cultivated soil of sacred Athenai; but Artemis slew her in sea-girt Dia, through the testimony of Dionysos.'4 The common tradition about Ariadne, daughter of the Phoenician Minos, represents her as having been abandoned by Theseus in Naxos, and found there by Dionysos, who makes her his wife. But in this Homerik legend the chaste Artemis avenges the profanation of a sanctuary by the flying lovers, as Kybele had done in the 1 Cf. Hos. iv. 11. 2 Cf. Hesiod. Aspis Herak, 400. 3 Od. iv. 220 4 Od. xi. 321. 5 Cf. I. xiv. 321; Juv. Mun. chap. v. case of Hippomenes and the Boiotik Atalante; and she does so on behalf and at the instigation of Dionysos, who was, therefore, the god of the place. The sea-girt Dia, otherwise called Dionysias, or the Isle-of-the-Zeus-ofNysa, is Naxos, also known as Strongyle the Circular,1 and noted for its devotion to the cult of the god, whose sacred Kanthar, or two-handled Drinking-Cup,2 appears on its coins; and which, like all Bakchik localities in Hellas, contained a Nysa. Thus the Theban Chorus⭑ allude to the Naxian maids : Who all night long with phrensied spirit sing And dance in honour of their Bakchik King. As the cult of the Semitic Kypris slips along from isle to isle of the Aigaion, until, as Aphrodite Anadyomene or Rising-from-the-sea, she passes over from Kythera to Lakonike on the mainland, where the hardy Spartans, while receiving her, put her in chains; so the Semitic Dionysos advances by degrees, subduing Ikaros, Naxos, Thasos, and Euboia, where was also a Nysa,8 and landing at length on the shores of Thrake and Boiotia. Planxerunt te Nysa ferax Theseaque Naxos.'10 As the poet suggests no direct connection between Dionysos and Ariadne, it is unnecessary for me here to notice the position of the latter in the Natural Phenomena Theory as the deserted bride of the solar hero Theseus; but it may be observed that if Ariadne, the Very-holy-one,11 was represented as deserted in Naxos, and as being subsequently found there by Dionysos,12 there must have been some special connection between the god and the island.13 Subsection IV.-Dionysos and the Tyrsenoi. In the first of the Homerik Hymns to Dionysos, we read how the god appeared as a youth on the sea-shore, and was seized by Tyrsenian pirates, who in vain attempt to bind him. The fetters fall from his hands and feet 2 and he continued sitting smiling with dark blue eyes.' The wise pilot, Medeides, warns the infatuated crew that the beautiful stranger must be a god, Zeus, Apollon, or Poseidon; but they, like Lykourgos and other contemnors of Dionysos, are stricken with blindness, and bring him on board their ship. Then wonders appear. Wine trickles down the deck, ivy twines round mast and oars, and the vine covers the sails. The god changing into a lion, and further alarming the pirates by the apparition of a phantom bear, seizes on the captain while the terrified crew leap overboard and are changed into dolphins ; and the wise pilot is crowned with good fortune and encouraged by the god who reveals himself as 'Dionysos Eribromos, the Loud-shouting," whom a Kadmeian mother Semele bore, being embraced by Zeus.' And thus, all excellence of grace to thee, This story is exactly parallel to that of Lykourgos, and occurs somewhat later in the history of Dionysos, who no longer appears as a child taking refuge with the friendly Thetis, but as a youth confident in his own power to resist and avenge. As usual, however, he seems to be weak, and is insulted accordingly; but this time by strangers of the West, wandering Tyrsenoi or Etruscans, who live far 1 These compositions may contain some few passages later than B.C. 600. 2 Cf. Eur. Bak. 445. 3 Vide inf. VIII. ii. Lion. |