Dionysiaca
Encyclopedia
The Dionysiaca is an ancient epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus
. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest surviving poem from antiquity at 20,426 lines, composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hexameter
s, the main subject of which is the life of Dionysus
, his expedition to India, and his triumphant return to the west.
and the Cyclic poets
; Homeric language, metrics, episodes, and descriptive canons are central to the Dionysiaca. The influence of Euripides
' Bacchae is also significant, as is probably the influence of the other tragedians whose Dionysiac plays do not survive. His debt to fragmentary poets is far harder to gauge, but it is likely that he alludes to earlier poets' treatments of the life of Dionysus, such as the lost poems by Euphorion
, Peisander of Laranda's elaborate encyclopedic mythological poem, Dionysius, and Soteirichus. Hesiod
's poetry, especially the Catalogue of Women
, Pindar
, and Callimachus
can all be seen in the work of Nonnus. Theocritus
' influence can be detected in Nonnus' focus on pastoral themes. Finally, Virgil
and especially Ovid
seem to have influenced Nonnus' organization of the poem.
, Colluthus, Christodorus
, and Dracontius. Although it is difficult to determine whether Claudian influenced Nonnus or Nonnus influenced Claudian, the two poets have some striking similarities in their treatments of Persephone. Nonnus remained continuously important in the Byzantine world, and his influence can be found in Genesius
and Planudes. In the Renaissance, Poliziano
popularized him to the West, and Goethe admired him in the 18th century. He was also admired by Thomas Love Peacock
in 19th century England.
e, and follows a variety of euphonic and syllabic rules regarding word placement. It is especially remarkable that Nonnus was so exacting with meter because the quantitative meter of classical poetry was giving way in Nonnus' time to stressed meter. These metrical restraints encouraged the creation of new compounds, adjectives, and coined words, and Nonnus' work has some of the greatest variety of coinages in any Greek poem.
The poem is notably varied in its organization. Nonnus does not seem to arrange his poem in a linear chronology; rather, episodes are arranged by a loose chronological order and by topic, much as Ovid's Metamorphoses. The poem states as its guiding principle poikilia (Lat. variatio), diversity in narrative, form, and organization. The appearance of Proteus, a shapeshifting god, in the proem serves as a metaphor for Nonnus' varied style. Nonnus employs the style of the epyllion for many of his narrative sections, such as his treatment of Ampelus in 10-11, Nicaea in 15-16, and Beroe in 41-43. These epyllia are inserted into the general narrative framework and are some of the highlights of the poem. Nonnus also employs synkrisis, comparison, throughout his poem, most notably in the comparison of Dionysus and other heroes in Book 25. The complexity of organization and the richness of the language have caused the style of the poem to be termed Nonnian "Baroque."
literature have caused the Dionysiaca to receive relatively little attention from scholars. The contributor to the Encyclopædia Britannica (8th edition, 1888) noting the poem's "vast and formless luxuriance, its beautiful but artificial versification, its delineation of action and passion to the entire neglect of character," remarked, "His chief merit consists in the systematic perfection to which he brought the Homeric hexameter. But the very correctness of the versification renders it monotonous. His influence on the vocabulary of his successors was likewise very considerable," expressing the 19th century attitude to this poem as a pretty, artificial, and disorganized collection of stories. As with many other late classical poets, newer scholarship has avoided the value-laden judgments of 19th century scholars and attempted to reassess and rehabilitate Nonnus' works. There are two main focuses of Nonnian scholarship today: mythology and structure.
Nonnus' compendious accounts of Dionysiac legend and his use of variant traditions and lost sources have encouraged scholars to use him as a channel to recover lost Hellenistic poetry and mythic traditions. The edition of Nonnus in the Loeb Classical Library
includes a "mythological introduction" which charts the "decline" of Dionysiac mythology in the poem and implies that the work's only value is as a repository of lost mythology. Nonnus remains an important source of mythology and information to those researching classical religion, Hellenistic poetry, and Late Antiquity. Recently, however, scholars have focused more positively on Nonnus' use of mythology within the poem as a way of talking about contemporary events, as a way of playing with generic conventions, and as a way of engaging with predecessors intertextually, leading to an encouraging reassessment of his poetic and narrative style.
The unconventional structure of the Dionysiaca encouraged harsh criticism of the poem in scholarship. Robert Shorrock and Francois Vian have been at the forefront of reexamining the structure of the poem. Earlier scholars have looked to elaborate ring composition
, a prophetic astrological program in the tablets of Harmonia, rhetorical encomium
, or epyllion as structural concepts behind the poem to make sense of the unconventional narrative. Others have felt that the style of the poem relies on dissonant juxtaposition for effect, using the so-called "jeweled style" of detailed narrative cameoes within a loose structure akin to Late Antique mosaics. Vian has proposed looking at the poem's encyclopedic content as paralleling the full range of the Homeric cycle poetry. Shorrock's contention is that the Dionysiaca employs a variety of narrative organizational principles and viewpoints, attempts to narrate all of classical mythology through the myths of Dionysus, and uses allegory and allusion to challenge his readers to draw meaning from his unconventional epic.
Book 1
- The poem opens with the poet's invocation of the muses, his address to Proteus
, and his commitment to sing the various episodes of Dionysus' life. First book is about Zeus and Europa. This is a start of Cadmeia.
Book 2
- Zeus steals the lightning from Typhoeus and the Battle of the Gods and the Giants is described along with the havoc it wreaks in the natural world. The two gods engage in single combat and Zeus defeats Typhon burying him in the earth. While the earth repairs itself, Zeus bids Cadmus to found Thebes
.
Book 3
- Cadmus' ship wanders the sea and stops at Samothrace
where he is met by the procession of Corybantes. He arrives at the marvelous palace of Electra
and Emathion
where he tells his lineage at a banquet. Hermes bids Electra give her daughter Harmonia
to be Cadmus' bride.
Book 4
- A reluctant and plaintive Harmonia is given to Cadmus who sails with her to Greece. Cadmus' knowledge of Egyptian lore is described and he finds the cow-omen which leads him to the site of Thebes. There he slays the dragon, sows its teeth, and reaps the crop of sown-men.
Book 5
- The founding of the city of Thebes is described with its magical symbolism, as is the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia and the necklace given to her by Aphrodite. Cadmus' son Aristaeus
is described, followed by his son Actaeon
and his death. The ghost of Actaeon appears to his father and asks for burial. Zeus falls in love with Persephone
.
Book 6
- Demeter, upset by Zeus' attention goes to Astraeus
, god of prophecy, who casts Persephone's horoscope which tells of her imminent rape by Zeus. Demeter hides Persephone in a cave, but Zeus sleeps with her in the form of a snake and she bears Zagreus
. At Hera's bidding the Titans
kill Zagreus and eat him. In anger, Zeus floods the world, causing havoc to the pastoral deities and the rivers.
Book 7
- Aion
, god of time, begs Zeus to ease mortal life by giving birth to Dionysus. Eros
' quiver is described and he makes Zeus fall in love with Semele
. Zeus stalks the girl in the form of an eagle and sleeps with Semele in the form of a bull, then a lion.
Book 8
Semele becomes pregnant with Dionysus. Envy tells Hera
of the deed and she disguises herself and tricks Semele into asking to see Zeus lightning. She is burned alive, but Zeus saves baby Dionysus and immortalizes Semele.
Book 9
Dionysus is born and given to Hermes who gives him to Ino
to nurse. As Dionysus matures, Semele taunts Hera who drives Ino mad.
Book 10
Hera drives Athamas
mad and he slaughters his children, except Melicertes
whom Ino saves by jumping into the sea, becoming divinized. Dionysus falls in love with the boy Ampelus
(Vine).
Book 11
After a race, Ampelus and Dionysus go hunting, during which Hera causes a bull to kill Ampelus when he tries to ride it; Dionysus makes a long lament.
Book 12
Description of the tablets of Phanes
which prophesy the future. Ampelus is transformed into the vine and Dionysus makes it his plant and discovers wine; the Satyr
s get drunk.
Book 13
Zeus orders Dionysus to conquer India, and there is a catalogue of his forces gathered by Rhea
.
Book 14
Rhea adds supernatural creatures to the allies while Hera arms Deriades for the Indians. The army takes its weapons and sets forth. The first battle occurs in which Dionysus makes the Indians drunk.
Book 15
The drunken Indians are routed. The story of the virgin nymph Nicaea
and the boy Hymnus' pursuit of her is told in which Hymnus is slain by the nymph and lamented.
Book 16
Dionysus falls in love with Nicaea and woos her, doggedly pursuing her on her hunts. He has sex with her while she is asleep and she gives birth to his daughter Telete
. Dionysus founds the city of Nicaea.
Book 17
Dionysus travels through the east and is entertained by a shepherd, Brongus.. The Indian Orontes, son of Deriades, leads his army into battle and kills himself when he is defeated.
Book 18
The Assyrian Staphylus
, his wife Methe, and his son Botrys invite Dionysus to a feast where they all get drunk. Dionysus has prophetic dreams. The next morning, Staphylus talks about the gods and giants and the origin of the Indians, and then dies.
Book 19
Dionysus names grapes "Botrys", drunkenness "Methe", and grape-bunches "Staphylus", and the poet Oeagrus
sings about Triptolemus
. There is a dancing contest over a wine bowl which Maron
wins.
Book 20
In a dream, Eris
drives Dionysus to war. He arrives in Arabia, where king Lycurgus has been stirred to fight by Hera. Lycurgus drives Dionysus and the Bacchantes into the sea with a massive pole-axe.
Book 21
The speaking Ambrosia
plant attacks Lycurgus with Poseidon
who causes an earthquake, but Hera saves him. Deriades spurns an embassy from Dionysus and sets an ambush for the god's army.
Book 22
Dionysus performs miracles at the Hydaspes but the Indians, stirred by Hera, attack. In the battle Oeagrus, Aeacus
, and Erectheus all distinguish themselves.
Book 23
Dionysus and Aeacus fight the Indians in the river and the army crosses the Hydaspes. The river attacks Dionysus and his army.
Book 24
Deriades attacks the army as it crosses but is badly defeated. Leucus tells the story of Aphrodite's weaving contest with Athena and her defeat.
Book 25
The poet invokes the Muse in his second prologue, saying that in emulation of Homer he will skip over the first six years of the war, and compares at length Dionysus' Indian War with the deeds of Perseus
, Minos
, and Heracles, concluding that Dionysus is better than the heroes. Dionysus makes the city of the Indians drunk and sacks it. His shield is described covered with constellations and depicts Ganymede
and Zeus, the walls of Thebes, the feast of the Gods, the nurses of Dionysus, Cybele
, and the Lydian myth of Tylos
' slaying of the giant.
Book 26
Athena drives Deriades to gather his allies who are catalogued including Morrheus, Tectaphus, and Aretus
.
Book 27
Deriades exhorts his troops and they attack Dionysus at the Indus. Zeus arrays the gods on the side of the Indians or Dionysus.
Book 28
The battle rages, and the Cyclopes
have their aristeia
.
Book 29
Dionysus and his wounded lover Hymenaeus
battle the Indians, while Ares sleeps.
Book 30
Tectaphus is slain by Eurymedon
. Deriades also has his aristeia, driving Dionysus to fight and rout the Indians.
Book 31
Hera goes to Persephone and tricks her into giving her a Fury
, Megaira, while Iris
persuades Hypnus to cause Zeus to sleep. Hera gets Aphrodite's girdle., the cestus
Book 32
Hera charms Zeus with the girdle and puts him to sleep. Megaira drives Dionysus mad. Deriades and Morrheus rout the Bacchantes.
Book 33
A Grace
tells Aphrodite about Dionysus' madness; she goes to Eros, who is playing kottabos
and sends him to cause Morrheus to fall in love with Chalcomedia. Morrheus spends the night with her.
Book 34
Morrheus and Deriades attack the Bacchantes and Morrheus takes some captive as a gift for Deriades, whom Deriades tourtures and kills in various ways. They drive the Bacchantes inside the city walls.
Book 35
The Indians slay the Bacchantes in the city while Morrheus remembers Chalcomedia and loses his will to fight. Orontes' wife slays Bacchantes. Morrheus gives up battle and tries to rape Chalcomedia, and Hermes lets the Bacchantes out of the city. Zeus awakens and forces Hera to cure Dionysus' madness.
Book 36
There is a battle between the gods in favor of the Indians and those in favor of Dionysus. Deriades makes his attack with elephants and fights one-on-one with Dionysus who changes into a pine tree, a fireball, and a lion and attacks him with a vine. Deriades escapes and calls a council which decides to fight Dionysus, who has ships built by Rhadamanes, at sea.
Book 37
Dionysus and Phaunus build the tomb of Opheltes
and celebrate funeral games.
Book 38
After Idmon
interprets a good omen as the seventh year of warfare begins, Hermes tells at length the story of Phaethon from his childhood to his death and translation into a constellation.
Book 39
There is a sea-battle in which the cyclopes and marine gods participate, and the Indians are routed by a burning ship sent into their line.
Book 40
Deriades returns to battle and is killed by Dionysus, ending the war. Orsiboe mourns her dead husband, and Dionysus buries the dead, appoints Modaeus as governor of India, and distributes spoils. Dionysus travels to Tyre, admires the city, and hears the story of its founding from Heracles
.
Book 41
This book describes the mythical history of the city of Beroe (Beirut
). The poet tells the story of the nymph Beroe, daughter of Aphrodite. He describes her birth and her maturation. Aphrodite goes to Harmonia to find out the destiny of Beirut, and she prophesies its future prosperity in the Roman Empire under Augustus
.
Book 42
Dionysus and Poseidon both fall in love with Beroe. Dionysus pursues her through the forests in love, meeting with Pan, and wooing the nymph with demonstrations of his abilities. Dionysus and Poseidon decide to fight over the girl.
Book 43
The army of Poseidon's sea gods and the army of Dionysus battle each other. Zeus gives Beroe's hand to Poseidon who consoles Dionysus.
Book 44
Dionysus arrives at Thebes and Pentheus
refuses his rites and arrests Dionysus. The Furies attack Pentheus' palace and Agave
and her sisters are driven mad.
Book 45
Teiresias and Cadmus try to propitiate Dionysus but Pentheus attacks the god who tells him the story of the Tyrsenian pirates. Pentheus imprisons Dionysus, but the god destroys the palace and escapes.
Book 46
Dionysus tricks Pentheus into spying on his mother and her sisters in their frenzy and is killed by them.
Book 47
The thiasus
arrives at Athens
and the city rejoices. Dionysus teaches Icarius
viticulture, and the farmer gives his neighbors wine. When they are drunk they kill Icarius. His daughter Erigone
informed by a dream finds her dead father and hangs herself, but is then made into a constellation by Zeus. Ariadne
bewails her abandonment by Theseus
and Dionysus weds her. Dionysus drives the women of Argos
to kill their children for refusing his rites. Perseus is incited by Hera to attack the Bacchantes and turns Ariadne into stone after which the Argives accept the rites of Dionysus at Hermes' demand.
Book 48
Hera stirs the giants to fight Dionysus and they are slain. Dionysus wrestles with the daughter of King Sithon
to win her hand and then slays the king when he wins. Dionysus goes to Asia Minor where he meets the nymph Aura
. Aura vies with Artemis in a beauty contest, and Artemis, in spite, has Nemesis make Dionysus fall in love with Aura and pursue her. Ariadne appears to Dionysus in a dream and complains that he has forgotten her. Dionysus rapes Aura as she sleeps; when she awakes she goes mad and slaughters shepherds and destroys a shrine of Aphrodite. Artemis mocks the pregnant Aura as Nicaea helps her give birth to twins after which Mt. Dindymon
is named. Aura tries to get a lion to eat the children, but they are saved and she is transformed into a spring. One of the children, Iacchus
is given to Athena, Ariadne's crown is made a constellation, and Dionysus is enthroned on Olympus.
Nonnus
Nonnus of Panopolis , was a Greek epic poet. He was a native of Panopolis in the Egyptian Thebaid, and probably lived at the end of the 4th or early 5th century....
. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest surviving poem from antiquity at 20,426 lines, composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter
Dactylic hexameter is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. It is traditionally associated with the quantitative meter of classical epic poetry in both Greek and Latin, and was consequently considered to be the Grand Style of classical poetry...
s, the main subject of which is the life of Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
, his expedition to India, and his triumphant return to the west.
Composition
The poem is thought to have been written in the late 4th and/or early 5th century CE. The Dionysiaca appears to be incomplete, and some scholars believe that a 49th book was being planned when Nonnus stopped work on the poem, although others point out that the number of books in the Dionysiaca is the same as the 48 books of the Iliad and Odyssey combined. It has been conjectured that a possible conversion to Christianity or death caused Nonnus to abandon the poem after some revisions. Editors have pointed out various inconsistencies and the difficulties of Book 39 which appears to be a disjointed series of descriptions, as evidence of the poem's lack of revision. Others have attributed these problems to copyists or later editors, but most scholars agree on the poem's incompleteness.Poetic models
The primary models for Nonnus are HomerHomer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
and the Cyclic poets
Cyclic Poets
Cyclic Poets is a shorthand term for the early Greek epic poets, approximate contemporaries of Homer. We know no more about these poets than we know about Homer, but modern scholars regard them as having composed orally, as did Homer. In the classical period, surviving early epic poems were...
; Homeric language, metrics, episodes, and descriptive canons are central to the Dionysiaca. The influence of Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
' Bacchae is also significant, as is probably the influence of the other tragedians whose Dionysiac plays do not survive. His debt to fragmentary poets is far harder to gauge, but it is likely that he alludes to earlier poets' treatments of the life of Dionysus, such as the lost poems by Euphorion
Euphorion of Chalcis
Euphorion, Greek poet and grammarian, born at Chalcis in Euboea about 275 BC.Euphorion spent much of his life in Athens, where he amassed great wealth. After studying philosophy with Lacydes and Prytanis, he became the student and eromenos of the poet Archeboulus. About 221 he was invited by...
, Peisander of Laranda's elaborate encyclopedic mythological poem, Dionysius, and Soteirichus. Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
's poetry, especially the Catalogue of Women
Catalogue of Women
thumb|275px|[[Guido Reni]]'s first Atalanta e Ippomene , depicting the race of [[Atalanta]], a myth which was known to Reni from [[Ovid]]'s [[Metamorphoses]], but is now also represented by several fragments of the Catalogue of Women.The Catalogue of Women —also known as...
, Pindar
Pindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
, and Callimachus
Callimachus
Callimachus was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes...
can all be seen in the work of Nonnus. Theocritus
Theocritus
Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC.-Life:Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from his writings. We must, however, handle these with some caution, since some of the poems commonly attributed to him have little claim to...
' influence can be detected in Nonnus' focus on pastoral themes. Finally, Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
and especially Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
seem to have influenced Nonnus' organization of the poem.
Influence
Nonnus seems to have been an important influence for the poets of Late Antiquity, especially MusaeusMusaeus
Musaeus or Musaios was the name of three Greek poets.-Musaeus of Athens:Musaeus was a legendary polymath, philosopher, historian, prophet, seer, priest, poet, and musician, said to have been the founder of priestly poetry in Attica...
, Colluthus, Christodorus
Christodorus
Christodorus , a Greek epic poet from Coptos in Egypt, flourished during the reign of Anastasius I .According to Suidas, he was the author of Patria , accounts of the foundation, history and antiquities of various cities; Lydiaka , the mythical history of Lydia; Isaurica Christodorus , a Greek epic...
, and Dracontius. Although it is difficult to determine whether Claudian influenced Nonnus or Nonnus influenced Claudian, the two poets have some striking similarities in their treatments of Persephone. Nonnus remained continuously important in the Byzantine world, and his influence can be found in Genesius
Joseph Genesius
Genesius is the conventional name given to the anonymous Greek author of the tenth century chronicle, On the reign of the emperors. His first name is sometimes given as Joseph, combining him with a "Joseph Genesius" quoted in the preamble to John Skylitzes.Composed at the court of Constantine...
and Planudes. In the Renaissance, Poliziano
Poliziano
Angelo Ambrogini, commonly known by his nickname, anglicized as Politian, Italian Poliziano, Latin Politianus was an Italian Renaissance classical scholar and poet, one of the revivers of Humanist Latin...
popularized him to the West, and Goethe admired him in the 18th century. He was also admired by Thomas Love Peacock
Thomas Love Peacock
Thomas Love Peacock was an English satirist and author.Peacock was a close friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley and they influenced each other's work...
in 19th century England.
Metrics and style
The metrics of Nonnus have been widely admired by scholars for the poet's careful handling of dactylic hexameter and innovation. While Homer has 32 varieties of hexameter lines, Nonnus only employs 9 variations, avoids elision, employs mostly weak caesuraCaesura
thumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, a caesura is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. The plural form of caesura is caesuras or caesurae...
e, and follows a variety of euphonic and syllabic rules regarding word placement. It is especially remarkable that Nonnus was so exacting with meter because the quantitative meter of classical poetry was giving way in Nonnus' time to stressed meter. These metrical restraints encouraged the creation of new compounds, adjectives, and coined words, and Nonnus' work has some of the greatest variety of coinages in any Greek poem.
The poem is notably varied in its organization. Nonnus does not seem to arrange his poem in a linear chronology; rather, episodes are arranged by a loose chronological order and by topic, much as Ovid's Metamorphoses. The poem states as its guiding principle poikilia (Lat. variatio), diversity in narrative, form, and organization. The appearance of Proteus, a shapeshifting god, in the proem serves as a metaphor for Nonnus' varied style. Nonnus employs the style of the epyllion for many of his narrative sections, such as his treatment of Ampelus in 10-11, Nicaea in 15-16, and Beroe in 41-43. These epyllia are inserted into the general narrative framework and are some of the highlights of the poem. Nonnus also employs synkrisis, comparison, throughout his poem, most notably in the comparison of Dionysus and other heroes in Book 25. The complexity of organization and the richness of the language have caused the style of the poem to be termed Nonnian "Baroque."
Critical responses to the Dionysiaca
The size of Nonnus' poem and its late date between Imperial and ByzantineByzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
literature have caused the Dionysiaca to receive relatively little attention from scholars. The contributor to the Encyclopædia Britannica (8th edition, 1888) noting the poem's "vast and formless luxuriance, its beautiful but artificial versification, its delineation of action and passion to the entire neglect of character," remarked, "His chief merit consists in the systematic perfection to which he brought the Homeric hexameter. But the very correctness of the versification renders it monotonous. His influence on the vocabulary of his successors was likewise very considerable," expressing the 19th century attitude to this poem as a pretty, artificial, and disorganized collection of stories. As with many other late classical poets, newer scholarship has avoided the value-laden judgments of 19th century scholars and attempted to reassess and rehabilitate Nonnus' works. There are two main focuses of Nonnian scholarship today: mythology and structure.
Nonnus' compendious accounts of Dionysiac legend and his use of variant traditions and lost sources have encouraged scholars to use him as a channel to recover lost Hellenistic poetry and mythic traditions. The edition of Nonnus in the Loeb Classical Library
Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
includes a "mythological introduction" which charts the "decline" of Dionysiac mythology in the poem and implies that the work's only value is as a repository of lost mythology. Nonnus remains an important source of mythology and information to those researching classical religion, Hellenistic poetry, and Late Antiquity. Recently, however, scholars have focused more positively on Nonnus' use of mythology within the poem as a way of talking about contemporary events, as a way of playing with generic conventions, and as a way of engaging with predecessors intertextually, leading to an encouraging reassessment of his poetic and narrative style.
The unconventional structure of the Dionysiaca encouraged harsh criticism of the poem in scholarship. Robert Shorrock and Francois Vian have been at the forefront of reexamining the structure of the poem. Earlier scholars have looked to elaborate ring composition
Ring composition
Ring composition is a narrative technique said to be characteristic of preliterate peoples and oral modes of composition. It is also called chiasmus, chiastic structure, or simply ring structure...
, a prophetic astrological program in the tablets of Harmonia, rhetorical encomium
Encomium
Encomium is a Latin word deriving from the Classical Greek ἐγκώμιον meaning the praise of a person or thing. "Encomium" also refers to several distinct aspects of rhetoric:* A general category of oratory* A method within rhetorical pedagogy...
, or epyllion as structural concepts behind the poem to make sense of the unconventional narrative. Others have felt that the style of the poem relies on dissonant juxtaposition for effect, using the so-called "jeweled style" of detailed narrative cameoes within a loose structure akin to Late Antique mosaics. Vian has proposed looking at the poem's encyclopedic content as paralleling the full range of the Homeric cycle poetry. Shorrock's contention is that the Dionysiaca employs a variety of narrative organizational principles and viewpoints, attempts to narrate all of classical mythology through the myths of Dionysus, and uses allegory and allusion to challenge his readers to draw meaning from his unconventional epic.
Contents
- The poem opens with the poet's invocation of the muses, his address to Proteus
Proteus
In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea-god, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea", whose name suggests the "first" , as protogonos is the "primordial" or the "firstborn". He became the son of Poseidon in the Olympian theogony In Greek mythology, Proteus (Πρωτεύς)...
, and his commitment to sing the various episodes of Dionysus' life. First book is about Zeus and Europa. This is a start of Cadmeia.
Book 2
- Zeus steals the lightning from Typhoeus and the Battle of the Gods and the Giants is described along with the havoc it wreaks in the natural world. The two gods engage in single combat and Zeus defeats Typhon burying him in the earth. While the earth repairs itself, Zeus bids Cadmus to found Thebes
Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)
See Thebes, Greece for the modern city built on the ancient ruins.Ancient Thebes was a Boeotian city-state , situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain...
.
Book 3
- Cadmus' ship wanders the sea and stops at Samothrace
Samothrace
Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a self-governing municipality within the Evros peripheral unit of Thrace. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,723 . Its main industries are fishing and tourism. Resources on the island includes granite and...
where he is met by the procession of Corybantes. He arrives at the marvelous palace of Electra
Electra
In Greek mythology, Electra was an Argive princess and daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. She and her brother Orestes plotted revenge against their mother Clytemnestra and stepfather Aegisthus for the murder of their father Agamemnon...
and Emathion
Emathion
- Ethiopian king :Emathion was king of Aethiopia, the son of Tithonus and Eos, and brother of Memnon. Heracles killed him.- Samothracian :Emathion was king of Samothrace, was the son of Zeus and Electra , brother to Dardanus, Iasion, Eetion, and Harmonia...
where he tells his lineage at a banquet. Hermes bids Electra give her daughter Harmonia
Harmonia (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Harmonia is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia, and her Greek opposite is Eris, whose Roman counterpart is Discordia.-Origins:...
to be Cadmus' bride.
Book 4
- A reluctant and plaintive Harmonia is given to Cadmus who sails with her to Greece. Cadmus' knowledge of Egyptian lore is described and he finds the cow-omen which leads him to the site of Thebes. There he slays the dragon, sows its teeth, and reaps the crop of sown-men.
Book 5
- The founding of the city of Thebes is described with its magical symbolism, as is the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia and the necklace given to her by Aphrodite. Cadmus' son Aristaeus
Aristaeus
A minor god in Greek mythology, which we read largely through Athenian writers, Aristaeus or Aristaios , "ever close follower of the flocks", was the culture hero credited with the discovery of many useful arts, including bee-keeping; he was the son of Apollo and the huntress Cyrene...
is described, followed by his son Actaeon
Actaeon
Actaeon , in Greek mythology, son of the priestly herdsman Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero. Like Achilles in a later generation, he was trained by the centaur Chiron....
and his death. The ghost of Actaeon appears to his father and asks for burial. Zeus falls in love with Persephone
Persephone
In Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....
.
Book 6
- Demeter, upset by Zeus' attention goes to Astraeus
Astraeus
In Greek mythology, Astraeus or Astraeos was an astrological deity and the Titan-god of the dusk. In Hesiod's Theogony and in the Bibliotheca, Astraeus is a second-generation Titan, descended from Crius and Eurybia. However, Hyginus wrote that he was descended directly from Tartarus and Gaia, and...
, god of prophecy, who casts Persephone's horoscope which tells of her imminent rape by Zeus. Demeter hides Persephone in a cave, but Zeus sleeps with her in the form of a snake and she bears Zagreus
Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the obscure and ancient figure of Zagreus was identified with the god Dionysus and was worshipped by followers of Orphism, whose late Orphic hymns invoke his name....
. At Hera's bidding the Titans
Titan (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age....
kill Zagreus and eat him. In anger, Zeus floods the world, causing havoc to the pastoral deities and the rivers.
Book 7
- Aion
Aion (deity)
Aion was a Roman deity, the partner of Tellus. He represented eternity, but is also equated with Uranus, the sky, while his partner, Tellus, is equated with Gaia, the earth....
, god of time, begs Zeus to ease mortal life by giving birth to Dionysus. Eros
Eros
Eros , in Greek mythology, was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid . Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite....
' quiver is described and he makes Zeus fall in love with Semele
Semele
Semele , in Greek mythology, daughter of the Boeotian hero Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mortal mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths. In another version of his mythic origin, he is the son of Persephone...
. Zeus stalks the girl in the form of an eagle and sleeps with Semele in the form of a bull, then a lion.
Book 8
Semele becomes pregnant with Dionysus. Envy tells Hera
Hera
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...
of the deed and she disguises herself and tricks Semele into asking to see Zeus lightning. She is burned alive, but Zeus saves baby Dionysus and immortalizes Semele.
Dionysus is born and given to Hermes who gives him to Ino
Ino (Greek mythology)
In Greek mythology Ino was a mortal queen of Thebes, who after her death and transfiguration was worshiped as a goddess under her epithet Leucothea, the "white goddess." Alcman called her "Queen of the Sea" , which, if not hyperbole, would make her a doublet of Amphitrite.In her mortal self, Ino,...
to nurse. As Dionysus matures, Semele taunts Hera who drives Ino mad.
Book 10
Hera drives Athamas
Athamas
The king of Orchomenus in Greek mythology, Athamas , was married first to the goddess Nephele with whom he had the twins Phrixus or Frixos and Helle. He later divorced Nephele and married Ino, daughter of Cadmus. With Ino, he had two children: Learches and Melicertes...
mad and he slaughters his children, except Melicertes
Melicertes
In Greek mythology, Melicertes is the son of the Boeotian prince Athamas and Ino, daughter of Cadmus....
whom Ino saves by jumping into the sea, becoming divinized. Dionysus falls in love with the boy Ampelus
Ampelus
Saint Ampelus is a martyr venerated by the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. He was killed by Romans with his companion, Gaius, during the reign of Diocletian.-Notes:...
(Vine).
Book 11
After a race, Ampelus and Dionysus go hunting, during which Hera causes a bull to kill Ampelus when he tries to ride it; Dionysus makes a long lament.
Book 12
Description of the tablets of Phanes
Phanes (mythology)
Phanes , or Protogonos , was the mystic primeval deity of procreation and the generation of new life, who was introduced into Greek mythology by the Orphic tradition; other names for this Classical Greek Orphic concept included Ericapaeus and Metis...
which prophesy the future. Ampelus is transformed into the vine and Dionysus makes it his plant and discovers wine; the Satyr
Satyr
In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....
s get drunk.
Book 13
Zeus orders Dionysus to conquer India, and there is a catalogue of his forces gathered by Rhea
Rhea (mythology)
Rhea was the Titaness daughter of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth, in Greek mythology. She was known as "the mother of gods". In earlier traditions, she was strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele, the Great Goddess, and was later seen by the classical Greeks as the mother of the Olympian...
.
Book 14
Rhea adds supernatural creatures to the allies while Hera arms Deriades for the Indians. The army takes its weapons and sets forth. The first battle occurs in which Dionysus makes the Indians drunk.
Book 15
The drunken Indians are routed. The story of the virgin nymph Nicaea
Nicaea (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Nicaea was a nymph , the daughter of the river-god Sangarius and Cybele. She was beloved by a shepherd, Hymnus, and killed him, but Eros took vengeance upon her, and Dionysus, who first intoxicated her, made her mother of Telete, whereupon she attempted to hang herself; yet she...
and the boy Hymnus' pursuit of her is told in which Hymnus is slain by the nymph and lamented.
Book 16
Dionysus falls in love with Nicaea and woos her, doggedly pursuing her on her hunts. He has sex with her while she is asleep and she gives birth to his daughter Telete
Telete
In Greek mythology, Telete was the daughter of Dionysus and Nicaea.Concerning Telete's birth, it is related that Nicaea was ashamed of having been made pregnant by Dionysus, and even attempted to hang herself; nevertheless, in due time a daughter was born to her. The Horae were said to have served...
. Dionysus founds the city of Nicaea.
Book 17
Dionysus travels through the east and is entertained by a shepherd, Brongus.. The Indian Orontes, son of Deriades, leads his army into battle and kills himself when he is defeated.
Book 18
The Assyrian Staphylus
Staphylus
Staphylus is almost always associated with grapes or wine. In Greek mythology, he was:# The son of wine-god Dionysus and Ariadne. His brothers include Oenopion , Thoas, Peparethus, Phanus and Euanthes . Both Staphylus and Phanus are counted among the Argonauts...
, his wife Methe, and his son Botrys invite Dionysus to a feast where they all get drunk. Dionysus has prophetic dreams. The next morning, Staphylus talks about the gods and giants and the origin of the Indians, and then dies.
Book 19
Dionysus names grapes "Botrys", drunkenness "Methe", and grape-bunches "Staphylus", and the poet Oeagrus
Oeagrus
In Greek mythology, Oeagrus , son of Pierus or Tharops, was a king of Thrace. He and the muse Calliope were the parents of Orpheus and Linus. He was also sometimes called the father of Marsyas. There are various versions as to where Oeagrus's domain was actually situated. In one version, he ruled...
sings about Triptolemus
Triptolemus
Buzyges redirects here. For the genus of grass skipper butterflies, see Buzyges .Triptolemus , in Greek mythology always connected with Demeter of the Eleusinian Mysteries, might be accounted the son of King Celeus of Eleusis in Attica, or, according to the Pseudo-Apollodorus , the son of Gaia and...
. There is a dancing contest over a wine bowl which Maron
Maron
Saint Maroun was a 5th century Syriac Christian monk who after his death was followed by a religious movement that became known as the Maronites. The Church that grew from this movement is the Maronite Church. St. Maroun was known for his missionary work, healing and miracles, and teachings of a...
wins.
Book 20
In a dream, Eris
Eris (mythology)
Eris is the Greek goddess of strife and discord, her name being translated into Latin as Discordia. Her Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona...
drives Dionysus to war. He arrives in Arabia, where king Lycurgus has been stirred to fight by Hera. Lycurgus drives Dionysus and the Bacchantes into the sea with a massive pole-axe.
Book 21
The speaking Ambrosia
Ambrosia
In ancient Greek mythology, ambrosia is sometimes the food or drink of the Greek gods , often depicted as conferring ageless immortality upon whoever consumes it...
plant attacks Lycurgus with Poseidon
Poseidon
Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...
who causes an earthquake, but Hera saves him. Deriades spurns an embassy from Dionysus and sets an ambush for the god's army.
Book 22
Dionysus performs miracles at the Hydaspes but the Indians, stirred by Hera, attack. In the battle Oeagrus, Aeacus
Aeacus
Aeacus was a mythological king of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf.He was son of Zeus and Aegina, a daughter of the river-god Asopus. He was born on the island of Oenone or Oenopia, to which Aegina had been carried by Zeus to secure her from the anger of her parents, and whence this...
, and Erectheus all distinguish themselves.
Book 23
Dionysus and Aeacus fight the Indians in the river and the army crosses the Hydaspes. The river attacks Dionysus and his army.
Book 24
Deriades attacks the army as it crosses but is badly defeated. Leucus tells the story of Aphrodite's weaving contest with Athena and her defeat.
Book 25
The poet invokes the Muse in his second prologue, saying that in emulation of Homer he will skip over the first six years of the war, and compares at length Dionysus' Indian War with the deeds of Perseus
Perseus
Perseus ,Perseos and Perseas are not used in English. the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty of Danaans there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians...
, Minos
Minos
In Greek mythology, Minos was a king of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every year he made King Aegeus pick seven men and seven women to go to Daedalus' creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by The Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades. The Minoan civilization of Crete...
, and Heracles, concluding that Dionysus is better than the heroes. Dionysus makes the city of the Indians drunk and sacks it. His shield is described covered with constellations and depicts Ganymede
Ganymede (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Ganymede is a divine hero whose homeland was Troy. Homer describes Ganymede as the most beautiful of mortals. In the best-known myth, he is abducted by Zeus, in the form of an eagle, to serve as cup-bearer in Olympus. Some interpretations of the myth treat it as an allegory of...
and Zeus, the walls of Thebes, the feast of the Gods, the nurses of Dionysus, Cybele
Cybele
Cybele , was a Phrygian form of the Earth Mother or Great Mother. As with Greek Gaia , her Minoan equivalent Rhea and some aspects of Demeter, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth...
, and the Lydian myth of Tylos
Tylos
Bahrain was referred to by the Greeks as Tylos, the centre of pearl trading, when Nearchus came to discover it serving under Alexander the Great. From the 6th to 3rd century BC Bahrain was included in Persian Empire by Achaemenians, an Iranian dynasty...
' slaying of the giant.
Book 26
Athena drives Deriades to gather his allies who are catalogued including Morrheus, Tectaphus, and Aretus
Aretus
In Greek mythology, Aretus or Árêtos was one of several characters:#King Aretus of Pylos was a son of Nestor and Eurydice .#Aretus of Troy was one of fifty sons of Priam. He was killed by Automedon....
.
Book 27
Deriades exhorts his troops and they attack Dionysus at the Indus. Zeus arrays the gods on the side of the Indians or Dionysus.
Book 28
The battle rages, and the Cyclopes
Cyclops
A cyclops , in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead...
have their aristeia
Aristeia
An aristeia or aristia is a scene in the dramatic conventions of such works as the Iliad in which a hero in battle has his finest moments . It is usually associated with men but can be expanded also to encompass women . In the latter case the aristeia is of a different sort, grief...
.
Book 29
Dionysus and his wounded lover Hymenaeus
Hymenaios
In Greek mythology, Hymen was a god of marriage ceremonies, inspiring feasts and song. Related to the god's name, a hymenaios is a genre of Greek lyric poetry sung during the procession of the bride to the groom's house in which the god is addressed, in contrast to the Epithalamium, which was sung...
battle the Indians, while Ares sleeps.
Book 30
Tectaphus is slain by Eurymedon
Eurymedon
Eurymedon was one of the Athenian generals during the Peloponnesian War.In 428 BC he was sent by the Athenians to intercept the Peloponnesian fleet which was on its way to attack Corcyra...
. Deriades also has his aristeia, driving Dionysus to fight and rout the Indians.
Book 31
Hera goes to Persephone and tricks her into giving her a Fury
Erinyes
In Greek mythology the Erinyes from Greek ἐρίνειν " pursue, persecute"--sometimes referred to as "infernal goddesses" -- were female chthonic deities of vengeance. A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath"...
, Megaira, while Iris
Iris (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Iris is the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. As the sun unites Earth and heaven, Iris links the gods to humanity...
persuades Hypnus to cause Zeus to sleep. Hera gets Aphrodite's girdle., the cestus
Cestus
A cestus is an ancient battle glove, sometimes used in pankration. They were worn as are today's boxing gloves, but were made with leather strips and sometimes filled with iron plates or fitted with blades or spikes, and used as weapons.-Terminology:...
Book 32
Hera charms Zeus with the girdle and puts him to sleep. Megaira drives Dionysus mad. Deriades and Morrheus rout the Bacchantes.
Book 33
A Grace
Grâces
Grâces is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Bretagne in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Grâces are called gracieux.-External links:*...
tells Aphrodite about Dionysus' madness; she goes to Eros, who is playing kottabos
Kottabos
Kottabos was a game of skill popular for a long time at ancient Greek and Etruscan symposia , especially in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The game is played by flinging wine lees at targets...
and sends him to cause Morrheus to fall in love with Chalcomedia. Morrheus spends the night with her.
Book 34
Morrheus and Deriades attack the Bacchantes and Morrheus takes some captive as a gift for Deriades, whom Deriades tourtures and kills in various ways. They drive the Bacchantes inside the city walls.
Book 35
The Indians slay the Bacchantes in the city while Morrheus remembers Chalcomedia and loses his will to fight. Orontes' wife slays Bacchantes. Morrheus gives up battle and tries to rape Chalcomedia, and Hermes lets the Bacchantes out of the city. Zeus awakens and forces Hera to cure Dionysus' madness.
Book 36
There is a battle between the gods in favor of the Indians and those in favor of Dionysus. Deriades makes his attack with elephants and fights one-on-one with Dionysus who changes into a pine tree, a fireball, and a lion and attacks him with a vine. Deriades escapes and calls a council which decides to fight Dionysus, who has ships built by Rhadamanes, at sea.
Book 37
Dionysus and Phaunus build the tomb of Opheltes
Opheltes
Opheltes is a boy from Greek mythology, the son of the Nemean king Lycurgus and Queen Eurydice."When their son was born, Lykourgos consulted the oracle at Delphi in order to find out how he might insure the health and happiness of his child...
and celebrate funeral games.
Book 38
After Idmon
Idmon
In Greek mythology, Idmon was an Argonaut seer. His father is said to have been Apollo but his mortal father was Abas . His mother was Asteria, daughter of Coronus, or Cyrene, or else Antianeira, daughter of Pheres. By Laothoe he had a son Thestor...
interprets a good omen as the seventh year of warfare begins, Hermes tells at length the story of Phaethon from his childhood to his death and translation into a constellation.
Book 39
There is a sea-battle in which the cyclopes and marine gods participate, and the Indians are routed by a burning ship sent into their line.
Book 40
Deriades returns to battle and is killed by Dionysus, ending the war. Orsiboe mourns her dead husband, and Dionysus buries the dead, appoints Modaeus as governor of India, and distributes spoils. Dionysus travels to Tyre, admires the city, and hears the story of its founding from Heracles
Heracles
Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...
.
Book 41
This book describes the mythical history of the city of Beroe (Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
). The poet tells the story of the nymph Beroe, daughter of Aphrodite. He describes her birth and her maturation. Aphrodite goes to Harmonia to find out the destiny of Beirut, and she prophesies its future prosperity in the Roman Empire under Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
.
Book 42
Dionysus and Poseidon both fall in love with Beroe. Dionysus pursues her through the forests in love, meeting with Pan, and wooing the nymph with demonstrations of his abilities. Dionysus and Poseidon decide to fight over the girl.
Book 43
The army of Poseidon's sea gods and the army of Dionysus battle each other. Zeus gives Beroe's hand to Poseidon who consoles Dionysus.
Book 44
Dionysus arrives at Thebes and Pentheus
Pentheus
In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes, son of the strongest of the Spartes, Echion, and of Agave, daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia....
refuses his rites and arrests Dionysus. The Furies attack Pentheus' palace and Agave
Agave
Agave is a genus of monocots. The plants are perennial, but each rosette flowers once and then dies ; they are commonly known as the century plant....
and her sisters are driven mad.
Book 45
Teiresias and Cadmus try to propitiate Dionysus but Pentheus attacks the god who tells him the story of the Tyrsenian pirates. Pentheus imprisons Dionysus, but the god destroys the palace and escapes.
Book 46
Dionysus tricks Pentheus into spying on his mother and her sisters in their frenzy and is killed by them.
Book 47
The thiasus
Thiasus
In Greek mythology and religion, the thiasus , was the ecstatic retinue of Dionysus, often pictured as inebriated revelers. Many of the myths of Dionysus are connected with his arrival in the form of a procession...
arrives at Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
and the city rejoices. Dionysus teaches Icarius
Icarius
In Greek mythology, there were two people named Icarius or Ikários .-Icarius of Sparta:One Icarius was the son of either Perieres and Gorgophone or of Oebalus and Bateia, brother of Hippocoon and Tyndareus and, through Periboea, father of Penelope, Perileos, Thoas, Damasippus, Imeusimus, Aletes...
viticulture, and the farmer gives his neighbors wine. When they are drunk they kill Icarius. His daughter Erigone
Icarius
In Greek mythology, there were two people named Icarius or Ikários .-Icarius of Sparta:One Icarius was the son of either Perieres and Gorgophone or of Oebalus and Bateia, brother of Hippocoon and Tyndareus and, through Periboea, father of Penelope, Perileos, Thoas, Damasippus, Imeusimus, Aletes...
informed by a dream finds her dead father and hangs herself, but is then made into a constellation by Zeus. Ariadne
Ariadne
Ariadne , in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and his queen Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios, the Sun-titan. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur and was the bride of the god Dionysus.-Minos and Theseus:...
bewails her abandonment by Theseus
Theseus
For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the mythical founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra had slept with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were...
and Dionysus weds her. Dionysus drives the women of Argos
Argos
Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...
to kill their children for refusing his rites. Perseus is incited by Hera to attack the Bacchantes and turns Ariadne into stone after which the Argives accept the rites of Dionysus at Hermes' demand.
Book 48
Hera stirs the giants to fight Dionysus and they are slain. Dionysus wrestles with the daughter of King Sithon
Sithon
Sithon is a genus of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae....
to win her hand and then slays the king when he wins. Dionysus goes to Asia Minor where he meets the nymph Aura
Aura (mythology)
In Greek and Roman mythology, Aura is the divine personification of the breeze. The plural form, Aurae, "Breezes," is often found.The velificatio, a billowing garment that forms an arch overhead, is the primary attribute by which an Aura can be identified in art...
. Aura vies with Artemis in a beauty contest, and Artemis, in spite, has Nemesis make Dionysus fall in love with Aura and pursue her. Ariadne appears to Dionysus in a dream and complains that he has forgotten her. Dionysus rapes Aura as she sleeps; when she awakes she goes mad and slaughters shepherds and destroys a shrine of Aphrodite. Artemis mocks the pregnant Aura as Nicaea helps her give birth to twins after which Mt. Dindymon
Dindymon
In Greek mythology, Dindymon , was a mountain in eastern Phrygia , later part of Galatia, that was later called Agdistis, sacred to the "mountain mother", Cybele, whom the Hellenes knew as Rhea...
is named. Aura tries to get a lion to eat the children, but they are saved and she is transformed into a spring. One of the children, Iacchus
Iacchus
In Greek mythology, Iacchus is an epithet of Dionysus, particularly associated with the Mysteries at Eleusis, where he was considered to be the son of Zeus and Demeter...
is given to Athena, Ariadne's crown is made a constellation, and Dionysus is enthroned on Olympus.