A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

DIONYSUS.
threw it into the sea. The chest was carried by the
wind and waves to the coast of Brasiae. Semele
was found dead, and was solemnly buried, but Dionysus was brought up by Ino, who happened at the
time to be at Brasiae. The plain of Brasiae was,
for this reason, afterwards called the garden of Dionysus.
The traditions about the education of Dionysus,
as well as about the personages who undertook it,
differ as much as those about his parentage and
birthplace. Besides the nymphs of mount Nysa
in Thrace, the muses, Lydae, Bassarae, Macetae,
Mimallones (Eustath. ad Horn. pp. 982, 1816), the
nymph Nysa (Diod. iii.69), and the nymphs Philia, Coronis, and Cleis, in Naxos, whither the child
Dionysus was said to have been carried by Zeus
(Diod. iv. 52), are named as the beings to whom the
care of his infancy was entrusted. Mystis, moreover, is said to have instructed him'in the mysteries
(Nonn. Dionys. xiii. 140), and Hippa, on mount
Tmolus, nursed him (Orph. /ymn. xlvii. 4); Macris,
the daughter of Aristaeus, received him from the
hands of Hermes, and fed him with honey. (Apollon.
Rhod. iv. 1131.) On mount Nysa, Bromie and
Bacche too are called his nurses. (Serv. ad Virg.
Eclog. vi. 15.) Mount Nysa, from which the god
was believed to have derived his name, was not only
in Thrace and Libya, but mountains of the same
name are found in different parts of the ancient
world where he was worshipped, and where he was
believed to have introduced the cultivation of the
vine. Hermes, however, is mixed up with most of
the stories about the infancy of Dionysus, and he
was often represented in works of art, in connexion
with the infant god. (Comp. Paus. iii. 18. ~ 7.)
When Dionysus had grown up, Hera threw him
also into a state of madness, in which he wandered
about through many countries of the earth. A tradition in Hyginus (Poet. Astr. ii. 23) makes him go
first to the oracle of Dodona, but on his way thither
he came to a lake, which prevented his proceeding
any further. One of two asses he met there carried
him across the water, and the grateful god placed
both animals among the stars, and asses henceforth
remained sacred to Dionysus. According to the common tradition, Dionysus first wandered through
Egypt, where he was hospitably received by king
Proteus. He thence proceeded through Syria,
where he flayed Damascus alive, for opposing the
introduction of the vine, which Dionysus was
believed to have discovered (EVpers, auTreiov). He
now traversed all Asia. (Strab. xv. p. 687; Eurip.
Bacch. 13.) When he arrived at the Euphrates, he
built a bridge to cross the river, but a tiger sent to
him by Zeus carried him across the river Tigris.
(Paus. x. 29; Plut. de Flum. 24.) The most famous
part of his wanderings in Asia is his expedition to
India, which is said to have lasted three, or, according to some, even 52 years. (Diod. iii. 63, iv. 3.)
He did not in those distant regions meet with a
kindly reception everywhere, for Myrrhanus and
Deriades, with his three chiefs Blemys, Orontes,
and Oruandes, fought against him. (Steph. Byz. s. vv.
BAXUUVE, rcIdos, rjipra, Adpia, "Eapes, Zapto0,
MdaAho, rIdViat, aiiat.) But Dionysus and the
host of Pans, Satyrs, and Bacchic women, by whom
he was accompanied, conquered his enemies, taught
the Indians the cultivation of the vine and of various fruits, and the worship of the gods; he also
founded towns among them, gave them laws, and left
behind him pillars and monuments in the happy

DIONYSUS. 1047
land which he had thus conquered and civilized,
and the inhabitants worshipped him as a god.
(Comp. Strab. xi. p. 505; Arrian, Ind. 5; Diod, ii.
38; Philostr. Vit. Apollon. ii. 9; Virg. Aen. vi. 805.)
Dionysus also visited Phrygia and the goddess
Cybele or Rhea, who purified him and taught him
the mysteries, which according to Apollodorus (iii. 5.
S1.) took place before he went to India. With the
assistance of his companions, he drove the Amazons
from Ephesus to Samos, and there killed a great
number of them on a spot which was, from that
occurrence, called Panaema. (Plut. Quaest. Gr. 56.)
According to another legend, he united with the
Amazons to fight against Cronus and the Titans,
who had expelled Ammon from his dominions.
(Diod. iii. 70, &c.) HIe is even said to have gone
to Iberia, which, on leaving, he entrusted to the
government of Pan. (Plut. de Flum. 16.) On his
passage through Thrace he was ill received by
Lycurgus, king of the Edones, and leaped into
the sea to seek refuge with Thetis, whom he afterwards rewarded for her kind reception with a
golden urn, a present of Hephaestus. (Hom. II. vi.
135, &c., Od. xxiv. 74; Schol. ad Homn. II. xiii. 91.
Comp. Diod. iii. 65.) All the host of Bacchantic
women and Satyrs, who had accompanied him, were
taken prisoners by Lycurgus, but the women were
soon set free again. The country of the Edones
thereupon ceased to bear fruit, and Lycurgus became
mad and killed his own son, whom he mistook for
a vine, or, according to others (Serv. adAen. iii. 14)
he cut off his own legs in the belief that he was
cutting down some vines. When this was done,
his madness ceased, but the country still remained
barren, and Dionysus declared that it would remain so till Lycurgus died. The Edones, in despair,
took their king and put him in chains, and Dionysus
had him torn to pieces by horses. After then proceeding through Thrace without meeting with any
further resistance, he returned to Thebes, where he
compelled the women to quit their houses, and to
celebrate Bacchic festivals on mount Cithaeron, or
Parnassus. Pentheus, who then ruled at Thebes,
endeavoured to check the riotous proceedings, and
went out to the mountains to seek the Bacchic
women; but his own mother, Agave, in her Bacchic
fury, mistook him for an animal, and tore him to
pieces. (Theocrit. Id. xxvi.; Eurip. Bacch. 1142;
Ov. AMet. iii. 714, &c.)
After Dionysus had thus proved to the Thebans
that he was a god, he went to Argos. As the
people there also refused to acknowledge him, he
made the women mad to such a degree, that they
killed their own babes and devoured their flesh.
(Apollod. iii. 5. ~ 2.) According to another statement, Dionysus with a host of women came from
the islands of the Aegean to Argos, but was conquered by Perseus, who slew many of the women.
(Paus. ii. 20. ~ 3, 22. ~ 1.) Afterwards, however, Dionysus and Perseus became reconciled, and
the Argives adopted the worship of the god, and
built temples to him. One of these was called the
temple of Dionysus Cresius, because the god was
believed to have buried on that spot Ariadne, his
beloved, who was a Cretan. (Paus. ii. 23. ~ 7.)
The last feat of Dionysus was performed on a
voyage from Icaria to Naxos. He hired a ship which
belonged to Tyrrhenian pirates; but the men, instead of landing at Naxos, passed by and steered
towards Asia to sell him there. The god, however, on perceiving this, changed the mast and oars