Editing Dionysus (section)

==Name==
===Etymology===
[[File:Dionysos kantharos BM B589.jpg|thumb|Dionysus extending a drinking cup ''([[kantharos]])'' (late sixth century BC)]]
The ''dio-'' prefix in [[Ancient Greek]] {{lang|grc|[[wikt:Διόνυσος|Διόνυσος]]}} ({{transliteration|grc|Diónūsos}}; {{IPA|grc|di.ó.nyː.sos|}}) has been associated since antiquity with ''Zeus'' ([[genitive]] ''Dios''), and the variants of the name seem to point to an original ''*Dios-nysos''.{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=337}} The earliest attestation is the [[Mycenaean Greek]] [[Dative case|dative]] form {{lang|gmy|{{script|Linb|𐀇𐀺𐀝𐀰}}}} ''(di-wo-nu-so)'',<ref name=":6">[https://sites.utexas.edu/scripts/files/2020/05/1998-TGP-LinearBandtheOriginsofGreekReligion.pdf Palaima, Thomas  G. University of Texas at Austin, 1998]</ref>{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=337}} featured on two tablets that had been found at [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] [[Pylos]] and dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. At that time, there could be no certainty on whether this was indeed a [[theonym]],<ref>John Chadwick, ''The Mycenaean World'', Cambridge University Press, 1976, pp. 99ff: "But Dionysos surprisingly appears twice at Pylos, in the form ''Diwonusos'', both times irritatingly enough on fragments, so that we have no means of verifying his divinity."</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/default.aspx?static=12&wid=346747 |publisher=Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of ancient languages |title=The Linear B word di-wo-nu-so}}</ref> but the 1989–90 Greek-Swedish Excavations at [[Kastelli Hill]], Chania, unearthed, ''inter alia'', four artefacts bearing Linear B inscriptions; among them, the inscription on item KH Gq 5 is thought to confirm Dionysus's early worship.<ref name="KHGq5">{{cite web |last=Raymoure |first=K. A. |url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/2012/11/02/khania-linear-b-transliterations/ |title=Khania Linear B Transliterations |work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B |publisher=Deaditerranean |date=2 November 2012 }}
{{cite web |title=Possible evidence of human sacrifice at Minoan Chania |url=http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.gr/2014/01/possible-evidence-of-human-sacrifice-at.html |website=Archaeology News Network |year=2014 |access-date=17 March 2014 |archive-date=17 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317045847/http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.gr/2014/01/possible-evidence-of-human-sacrifice-at.html |url-status=dead }} {{cite web |last=Raymoure |first=K. A. |url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/khania/kh-gq/ |title=Khania KH Gq Linear B Series |work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B |publisher=Deaditerranean }} {{cite web|title=KH 5 Gq (1)|website=Dāmos: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/5670|publisher=[[University of Oslo]]}}</ref>
In Mycenaean Greek the form of [[Zeus]] is ''di-wo''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/Word/Show/16635 |title=The Linear B word di-wo |website=Palaeolexicon}}</ref> The second element {{lang|grc-Latn|-nūsos}} is of unknown origin.{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=337}} It is perhaps associated with Mount [[Nysa (mythology)|Nysa]], the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the [[Nysiads]]),<ref>Fox, p. 217, "The word Dionysos is divisible into two parts, the first originally Διος (cf. Ζευς), while the second is of an unknown signification, although perhaps connected with the name of the Mount Nysa which figures in the story of Lykourgos:&nbsp;... when Dionysos had been reborn from the thigh of Zeus, Hermes entrusted him to the nymphs of Mount Nysa, who fed him on the food of the gods, and made him immortal."</ref> although [[Pherecydes of Syros]] had postulated {{lang|grc-Latn|nũsa}} as an archaic word for "tree" by the sixth century BC.<ref>Testimonia of Pherecydes in an early fifth-century BC fragment, FGrH 3, 178, in the context of a discussion on the name of Dionysus: "''Nũsas'' (acc. pl.), he [Pherecydes] said, was what they called the trees."</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=*nu/sios&la=greek&can=*nu/sios0&prior=*nu=sa#Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=*nu=sa-contents |title=Greek Word Study Tool |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> On a vase of [[Sophilos]] the Nysiads are named {{lang|grc|νύσαι}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nusae}}).<ref name="Martin Nilsson 1967 p.567">Martin Nilsson {{lang|de|Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion}} (1967). Vol.&nbsp;I, p.&nbsp;567.</ref> [[Paul Kretschmer|Kretschmer]] asserted that {{lang|grc|νύση}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nusē}}) is a [[Thracian language|Thracian]] word that has the same meaning as {{lang|grc|νύμφη}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nýmphē}}), a word similar with {{lang|grc|νυός}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nuos}}) (daughter in law, or bride, I-E *snusós, Sanskr. ''snusā'').<ref>{{LSJ|nuo/s|νυός|cite}}.</ref> He suggested that the male form is {{lang|grc|νῦσος}} ({{lang|grc-Latn|nūsos}}) and this would make Dionysus the "son of Zeus".<ref name="Martin Nilsson 1967 p.567"/> [[Jane Ellen Harrison]] believed that the name Dionysus means "young Zeus".<ref>[https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/mgr/mgr15.htm ''Myths of Greece and Rome'', by Jane Harrison (1928)].</ref> [[Robert S. P. Beekes]] has suggested a [[Pre-Greek]] origin of the name, since all attempts to find an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] etymology are doubtful.<ref name=":6" />{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=337}}

===Meaning and variants===

Later variants include {{lang|grc-Latn|Dionūsos}} and {{lang|grc-Latn|Diōnūsos}} in [[Boeotia]]; {{lang|grc-Latn|Dien(n)ūsos}} in [[Thessaly]]; {{lang|grc-Latn|Deonūsos}} and {{lang|grc-Latn|Deunūsos}} in [[Ionia]]; and {{lang|grc-Latn|Dinnūsos}} in [[Aeolis|Aeolia]], besides other variants. A {{lang|grc-Latn|Dio-}} prefix is found in other names, such as that of the [[Dioscures]], and may derive from ''Dios'', the genitive of the name of [[Zeus]].<ref>This is the view of Garcia Ramon (1987) and Peters (1989), summarised and endorsed in Janda (2010:20).</ref>

[[Nonnus]], in his ''[[Dionysiaca]]'', writes that the name Dionysus means "Zeus-limp" and that Hermes named the new born Dionysus this, "because Zeus while he carried his burden lifted one foot with a limp from the weight of his thigh, and ''nysos'' in Syracusan language means limping".<ref name="9.20–24">[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/304/mode/2up 9.20–24].</ref> In his note to these lines, [[W. H. D. Rouse]] writes "It need hardly be said that these etymologies are wrong".<ref name="9.20–24"/> The ''[[Suda]]'', a Byzantine encyclopedia based on classical sources, states that Dionysus was so named "from accomplishing [διανύειν] for each of those who live the wild life. Or from providing [διανοεῖν] everything for those who live the wild life."<ref>''[[Suda]]'' s.v. [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&searchstr=delta,1185&field=adlerhw_gr&num_per_page=1 Διόνυσος] .</ref>