#bacchos

[piristephes]

My sister did the drawing and I coloured it. 💛 Adding it to my shrine on this Anthesteria. I hope y'all had merry times.

[ancientgreeksuggestions]

if your friend died and you know it smash your grapes

SMASH!SMASH!

if your friend died and you know it smash your grapes

SMASH!SMASH!

if you asked Ampelos to climb in a grape vine and then he died

if your friend died and you know it smash your grapes

[piristephes]

Bacchos tell me, where can I find thee? Is it in the bottom of a wine glass, the sweet nectar from immortals? Or maybe in jubilous laughter after we share the utmost joy, the utmost despair? Are we to reunite again, feast anew the year ahead? O great Bacchos is it time? Please, tell me. So I may find you and other Immortals alike.

[satyrmagos]

When the Fates ordained it Zeus gave birth to a bull-horned god and crowned him with crowns of snakes. This is why the maenads fling round their hair beast eating snakes, the spoil of their hunting.

Euripides' Bacchae 99-103, trans. Stephen Esposito 2004

[loluuig-may-blog]

Syncretism Week 2: Monday - Dionysos and the Great Mother

DIONYSOS AND SABAZIOS

Orphic Hymn no. 30 - Apostolos N. Athanakassis translation

To Dionysos

Incense: Storax

I call upon loud-roaring and reveling Dionysos, primeval, two-natured, Thrice-born, Bacchic lord, savage, ineffable, two-horned and two-shaped. Ivy-cover, bull-faced, warlike, howling, pure, you take raw flesh, You have triennial feasts, wrapt in foliage, decked with grape clusters. Resourceful Eubouleus, immortal god sired by Zeus, When he mated with Persephonē in unspeakable union. Hearken to my voice, O blessed one, and with your fair-girdled nurses, Breathe on me in spirit of perfect kindness.

Orphic Hymn no. 45

To Dionysos, Bassareus and Triennial

Come, blessed Dionysos, bull-faced god conceived in fire, Bassareus and Bakchos, many-named master of all. You delight in bloody swords and in the holy maenads, As you howl throughout Olympos, O roaring and frenzied Bacchos. Armed with the thyrsus and wrathful in extreme, you are honored By all the gods and by all the men who dwell on earth. Come, blessed and leaping god, and bring much joy to all.

Orphic Hymn no. 48

To Sabazios

Incense: Aromatic Herbs

Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 21- 23. Rackham translation

We have a number of Dionysi. The first is the son of Jupiter and Proserpina; the second of Nile--he is the fabled slayer of Nysa. The father of the third is Cabirus; it is stated that he was king over Asia, and the Sabazia were instituted in his honour. The fourth is the son of Jupiter and Luna; the Orphic rites are believed to be celebrated in his honour. The fifth is the son of Nisus and Thyone, and is believed to have established the Trieterid festival.

Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 38 - Aldrich translation

[Dionysos] retrieved his mother from Haidēs' realm, gave her the name Thyonē, and escorted her up to the sky.

Athenaeus, I.27d - Gulick translation

Among the Indians a divinity is worshipped — so Chares of Mitylene says — whose name is Soroadeios; it is interpreted in Greek to means wine-maker.

Orphic Hymn no. 49

To Hipta

Incense: Aromatic Herbs

I call upon Hipta, nurse of Bakchos, maiden possessed. In mystic rites she takes part, and she exults in pure Sabos' worship, And in the night dances of roaring Iacchos. O queen and chthonic mother, hear my prayer, whether you are on Idē [Ida], Phrygia's sacred mountain, or you take pleasure on Tholos, fair seat of the Lydians. Come to these rites, with joy on you holy face.

Orphic Hymn no. 52

To the God of the Triennial Feast

Incense: Aromatic Herbs

I call upon you, blessed, many-named and frenzied Bakchos, Bull-horned Nysian redeemer, god of the wine-press, conceived in fire. Nourished in the thigh, O Lord of the Cradle, You marshal torch-lit processions in the night, O filleted and thyrsus-shaking Eubouleus. Threefold is your nature and ineffable your rites, O secret offspring of Zeus. Primeval, Erikēpaios, father and son of gods, You take raw flesh, and, sceptered, you lead into the madness of revel and dance In the frenzy of triennial feasts that bestow calm on us. You burst forth from the earth in a blaze... O son of two mothers, And, horned and clad in fawnskin, you roam the mountains, O lord worshiped in annual feasts. Paian of the golden spear, nursling, decked with grapes, Bassaros, exulting in ivy, followed by many maidens... Joyous and all-abounding, come, O blessed one to the initiates.

Orphic Hymn no. 53

To the God of the Annual Feast

Incense: all other things save frankincense- a libation of milk too.

I call upon the Bakchos we worship annually, chthonic Dionysos, Who, together with the fair-tressed nymphs, is roused. In the sacred halls of Persephonē he slumbers, And puts to sleep pure, Bacchic time every third year. When he himself stirs up the triennial revel again he sings a hymn, Accompanied by his fair-girdled nurses, And, as the seasons revolve he puts to sleep and wakes up the years. But, O blessed and fruit-giving Bakchos, O horned spirit of the unripe fruit, Come to this most sacred rite with the glow of joy on your face, Come all-abounding in fruit that is holy and perfect.

Clement, Protrepticus. Already quoted before:

And some will have it, not improbably, that for this reason Dionysos was called Attis, because he was mutilated.

Greek inscriptions - My translations

I. Aeg. Thrace 191 (Maroneia in Thrace, C2nd AD)

Priest of Zeus and Rhōmē [Rome], Dionysos and Marōn, Apollodōros [son] of Apollodōros

Delta I 925,1 (Egypt, C3rd BC)

To Sarapis-Dionysos, Isis-Aphroditē, the delivering and much-bearing gods. Nikagoras [son] of Aristonikos the Alexandrian

IGBulg IV 1927 (Bulgaria)

] to the lord Sabazios [

TAM V,1 459 (Lydia)

the temple-slave Trophimos of Mother Hipta and Zeus Sabazios [...]

TAM V,1 264 (Lydia)

to Zeus Sabazios and Mother Heipta. Diokles son of Trophimos [...]

TAM V,1 592 (Lydia)

] of Zeus Sabazios and Artemis Anaetis [

IGUR I 158 (Rome)

If I'm interpreting this one right (which I might not be) it says "to the great god Dionysus Pan"

Hesychius, s.v. Bakchebakchos. My translations. Greek text at Wikisource.

Bacchebacchus: Dionysos is summoned in this way in the sacrifices.

s.v. Bakcheia

Baccheia: festival of Dionysos.

s.v. Bakcheion

Baccheum: a place for initiation; thyrsus.

s.v. Bakchē

Bacche: a species of pear. Or a woman in Bacchic frenzy, or of Dionysos.

s.v. Bakchia

Bacchia: madness.

s.v. Bakchou Diones

of Bakchos [son?] of Diōnē: on the one hand, they [call by this name] the bacchic festival of Semelē; on the other hand, 'of Bakchos Dionysos' and 'of Aphroditē Diōnē'. Inasmuch as a pair of names [exists] in regard to the goddess. Praxilla the Sicyonian relates that the god is Aphroditē's child.

Bacchic Tablet 27 (all discovered in a grave)

Passwords: Man-and-child-thyrsus (Andrikepaidothyrson), man-and-child thyrsus. Brimō, Brimō. Enter the holy meadow, for the initiate is redeemed. GAPEDON (written upside down)

From Bacchic Tablets

7. Eukles and Eubouleus and gods and other daimones!

9. Euklees Euboleus, child of Zeus!

THE GREAT MOTHER

Bacchic Tablet 28 (discovered in a grave)

Send me to the feasts of the initiates; I possess the rituals of Bakchos and the rites of Dēmētēr Chthonia and the Mountain Mother.

Orphic Hymn no. 42

To Misē

Incense: Storax

I call upon law-giving Dionysos who carries the fennel stalk, Unforgettable and many-named seed of Eubouleus, And upon holy, sacred and ineffable queen Misē, whose two-fold nature is male and female. As redeeming Iakchos, I summon you lord, whether you delight in your fragrant temple At Eleusis, or with the Mother you partake of mystic rites in Phrygia, Or you rejoice in Cyprus with fair-wreathed Kythereia, Or yet you exult in hallowed wheat-bearing fields along Egypt's river, With your divine mother, the august black-robed Isis, and your triad of nurses. Lady, kindheartedly come to those contesting for noble prizes.

Hesychius, s.v. Misatis. My translation

One of those with the Mother, by whom [i.e. the Mother] they also take oaths

Arrian, Periplus of the Euxine Sea

The Statue of the Goddess Phasiana is placed to the left of the entrance into the Phasis; which Deity we may reasonably conjecture, from her figure and appearance, to be the same with Rhea, as she holds in her hands a cymbal, has lions under her throne, and is seated in the same manner as the Statue by Phidias in the temple of Cybele at Athens.

Pausanias 7.17.10-12

Zeus, it is said, let fall in his sleep seed upon the ground, which in course of time sent up a demon, with two sexual organs, male and female. They call the demon Agdistis. But the gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ.

There grew up from it an almond-tree with its fruit ripe, and a daughter of the river Sangarius, they say, took of the fruit and laid it in her bosom, when it at once disappeared, but she was with child. A boy was born, and exposed, but was tended by a he-goat. As he grew up his beauty was more than human, and Agdistis fell in love with him. When he had grown up, Attis was sent by his relatives to Pessinus, that he might wed the king's daughter.

The marriage-song was being sung, when Agdistis appeared, and Attis went mad and cut off his genitals, as also did he who was giving him his daughter in marriage. But Agdistis repented of what he had done to Attis, and persuaded Zeus to grant that the body of Attis should neither rot at all nor decay.

[soulbiteshellenics]

Works and Days Devotion, Day 9, Holy: Dionysos, Mise, Semele

Orphic Hymns translated by Apostolos N. Athanassakis (30, 42, 44)

To Dionysos

I call upon loud-roaring and reveling Dionysos, primeval, two-natured, Thrice-born, Bacchic lord, savage, ineffable, two-horned and two-shaped. Ivy-covered, bull-faced, warlike, howling, pure, you take raw flesh, You have triennial feasts, wrapt in foliage, decked with grape clusters. Resourceful Eubouleus, immortal god sired by Zeus, When he mated with Persephone in unspeakable union. Hearken to my voice, O blessed one, and with your fair-girdled nurses, Breathe on me in spirit of perfect kindness. 

To Mise

I call upon law-giving Dionysos who carries the fennel stalk, Unforgettable and many-named seed of Eubouleus, And upon holy, sacred and ineffable queen Mise, whose two-fold nature is male and female. As redeeming Iacchos, I summon you lord, whether you delight in your fragrant temple At Eleusis, or with the Mother you partake of mystic rites in Phrygia, Or you rejoice in Cyprus with fair-wreathed Kythereia, Or yet you exult in hallowed wheat-bearing fields along Egypt's river, With your divine mother, the august black-robed Isis, and your triad of nurses. Lady, kindheartedly come to those contesting for noble prizes.

  To Semele

I call upon the daughter of Kadmos, queen of all, Fair Semele of the lovely tresses and the full bosom, Mother of thyrsus-bearing and joyous Dionysos. She was driven to great pain by the blazing thunderbolt, Which, through the counsels of immortal Kronian Zeus, burned her, And by noble Persephone she was granted honors among mortal men, Honors given every third year. Then they reenact the travail for your son Bacchos, The sacred ritual of the table, and the holy mysteries. Now you, goddess, do I beseech, daughter of Kadmos, queen, Always to be gentle-minded towards the initiates. 

[westernmystery]

Dionysus or Dionysos the Greek god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. He was also known as Bacchus to the Romans. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace - as well as the patron deity of agriculture and the theatre. He was also known as the Liberator (Eleutherios), freeing one from one's normal self, by madness, ecstasy, or wine. The divine mission of Dionysus was to mingle the music of the flute and to bring an end to care and worry. There is also an aspect of Dionysus on his relationship to the "cult of the souls", and the scholar Xavier Riu writes that Dionysus presided over communication between the living and the dead.

[westernmystery]

Dionysos Enorches

This God has balls!

(Enorches = Testicles)