Velázquez, The Triumph of Bacchus, 1628-9, Prado
Dionysus / Bacchus
Originally Dionysus was the Greek god of fertility. Later, he came to be known chiefly as the god of wine and pleasure. The Romans called him Bacchus. Dionysus was the son of the supreme god Zeus and Semele, the daughter of a king. He journeyed far and wide. Everywhere he went he planted vines and taught the people viniculture. On his travels Dionysus was accompanied by satyrs (demons) and ‘Maenads’ or ‘Bacchae’; ‘possessed women’ who gave themselves to ecstasy.
Excessive drinking and debauchery generally accompanied the cult of Dionysus, giving rise to the word ‘bacchanalia’ for a party featuring drunken revelry. Initially Dionysus was often portrayed as a dignified, elderly man with a beard, and later as a beautiful, nude youth or as a small, fat man. A barrel of wine, a bunch of grapes in his hand or a wreath of vines crowning his head are rarely missing in these depictions.
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio/subjects/dionysusbacchus
Descendant of:
MYTHOLOGY AND THE CLASSICAL WORLD
Texts with this theme:
- Dithyrambe, D 47, D 801 (Friedrich von Schiller)
- Am ersten Maimorgen, D 344 (Matthias Claudius)
- Die Liebesgötter, D 446 (Johann Peter Uz)
- Uraniens Flucht, D 554 (Johann Baptist Mayrhofer)
- Trinklied (Bachus, feister Fürst des Weins), D 888 (William Shakespeare, Ferdinand Mayerhofer von Grünbühl, and Eduard von Bauernfeld)
- Wein und Liebe, D 901 (Friedrich Haug)
