Editing Dionysus (section)

===Late Antiquity===
[[File:Bacchus_-_Paris-2010-_Musée_du_Louvre.jpg|thumb|180px|left|Statue of Bacchus, Paris, [[Louvre Museum]] (second century AD)]]

In the [[Neoplatonist]] philosophy and religion of [[Late Antiquity]], the Olympian gods were sometimes considered to number 12 based on their spheres of influence. For example, according to [[Sallustius (Neoplatonist)|Sallustius]], "Jupiter, Neptune, and Vulcan fabricate the world; Ceres, Juno, and Diana animate it; Mercury, Venus, and Apollo harmonize it; and, lastly, Vesta, Minerva, and Mars preside over it with a guarding power."<ref name=sallustius>Sallustius, ''On Gods and the World'', ch. VI.</ref> The multitude of other gods, in this belief system, subsist within the primary gods, and Sallustius taught that Bacchus subsisted in Jupiter.<ref name=sallustius/>

In the [[Orphic]] tradition, a saying was supposedly given by an oracle of [[Apollo]] that stated "[[Zeus]], [[Hades]], [and] [[Helios]]-Dionysus" were "three gods in one godhead". This statement apparently conflated Dionysus not only with Hades, but also his father Zeus, and implied a particularly close identification with the sun-god Helios. When quoting this in his ''Hymn to King Helios'', [[Julian (emperor)|Emperor Julian]] substituted Dionysus' name with that of [[Serapis]], whose Egyptian counterpart [[Osiris]] was also identified with Dionysus.