Editing Dionysus (section)

===First birth===
Though Diodorus mentions some traditions which state an older, Indian or Egyptian Dionysus existed who invented wine, no narratives are given of his birth or life among mortals, and most traditions ascribe the invention of wine and travels through India to the last Dionysus. According to Diodorus, Dionysus was originally the son of Zeus and [[Persephone]] (or alternately, Zeus and [[Demeter]]). This is the same horned Dionysus described by Hyginus and Nonnus in later accounts, and the Dionysus worshiped by the Orphics, who was dismembered by the Titans and then reborn. Nonnus calls this Dionysus [[Zagreus]], while Diodorus says he is also considered identical with [[Sabazius]].<ref name=diodiii/> However, unlike Hyginus and Nonnus, Diodorus does not provide a birth narrative for this incarnation of the god. It was this Dionysus who was said to have taught mortals how to use oxen to plow the fields, rather than doing so by hand. His worshipers were said to have honored him for this by depicting him with horns.<ref name=diodiii/>
[[File:Mascherone di dioniso in bronzo, già attacco di un manico in una situla o simile, 200-100 ac. ca.JPG|thumb|left|200px|Bronze mask depicting Dionysus bearded and horned, c. 2nd century BC, height 21.4 cm.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1989-0130-1|title=situla-fitting &#124; British Museum|website=The British Museum}}</ref>]]

The Greek poet [[Nonnus]] gives a birth narrative for Dionysus in his late fourth or early fifth century AD epic ''[[Dionysiaca]]''. In it, he described how Zeus "intended to make a new Dionysos grow up, a bullshaped copy of the older Dionysos" who was the Egyptian god Osiris. (Dionysiaca 4)<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 4. 268 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref> Zeus took the shape of a serpent ("''drakon''"), and "ravished the maidenhood of unwedded Persephoneia." According to Nonnus, though Persephone was "the consort of the blackrobed king of the underworld", she remained a virgin, and had been hidden in a cave by her mother to avoid the many gods who were her suitors, because "all that dwelt in Olympos were bewitched by this one girl, rivals in love for the marriageable maid." (Dionysiaca 5)<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 562 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref> After her union with Zeus, Persephone's womb "swelled with living fruit", and she gave birth to a horned baby, named Zagreus. Zagreus, despite his infancy, was able to climb onto the throne of Zeus and brandish his lightning bolts, marking him as Zeus' heir. Hera saw this and alerted the Titans, who smeared their faces with chalk and ambushed the infant Zagreus "while he contemplated his changeling countenance reflected in a mirror." They attacked him. However, according to Nonnus, "where his limbs had been cut piecemeal by the Titan steel, the end of his life was the beginning of a new life as Dionysos." He began to change into many different forms in which he returned the attack, including Zeus, [[Cronus]], a baby, and "a mad youth with the flower of the first down marking his rounded chin with black." He then transformed into several animals to attack the assembled Titans, including a lion, a wild horse, a horned serpent, a tiger, and, finally, a bull. Hera intervened, killing the bull with a shout, and the Titans finally slaughtered him and cut him into pieces. Zeus attacked the Titans and had them imprisoned in [[Tartaros]]. This caused the mother of the Titans, [[Gaia]], to suffer, and her symptoms were seen across the whole world, resulting in fires and floods, and boiling seas. Zeus took pity on her, and in order to cool down the burning land, he caused great rains to [[Flood myth|flood the world]]. (Dionysiaca 6)<ref>Nonnus, Dionysiaca 6. 155 ff (trans. Rouse)</ref>

====Interpretation====
[[File:Dionysos Indians Massimo.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Mosaic of Dionysus fighting the Indians, [[Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne|Palazzo Massimo]] Rome, 4th century AD]]
In the Orphic tradition, Dionysus was, in part, a god associated with the underworld. As a result, the Orphics considered him the son of Persephone, and believed that he had been dismembered by the [[Titans (mythology)|Titans]] and then reborn. The earliest attestation of this myth of the dismemberment and rebirth of Dionysus comes from the 1st century BC, in the works of [[Philodemus]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]].<ref>Henrichs, p. 61.</ref> Later, Neoplatonists such as [[Damascius]] and [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodorus]] added a number of further elements to the myth, including the punishment of the Titans by Zeus for their act, their destruction by a thunderbolt from his hand, and the subsequent birth of humankind from their ashes; however, whether any of these elements were part of the original myth is the subject of debate among scholars.<ref>Meisner, pp. 249&ndash;50; Graf and Johnston, pp. 195&ndash;6 n. 7 to p. 65.</ref> The dismemberment of Dionysus (the ''[[sparagmos]]'') has often been considered the most important myth of Orphism.<ref>According to Meisner, p. 238, "[o]ver the last two centuries, many scholars have considered this narrative of Dionysus and the Titans to have been the central, defining myth of Orphism". See, for example, Nilsson, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1508326?seq=1 p. 202], who calls it "the cardinal myth of Orphism", and Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA107 p. 107], who describes the myth as "the central point of Orphic story". According to Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333 p. 307], it is "commonly regarded as essentially and peculiarly Orphic and the very core of the Orphic religion", while Parker 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dsOEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA495 p. 495], writes that "it has been seen as the Orphic 'arch-myth'.</ref>

Many modern sources identify this "Orphic Dionysus" with the god [[Zagreus]], though this name does not seem to have been used by any of the ancient Orphics, who simply called him Dionysus.<ref>According to Gantz, p. 118, 'Orphic sources preserved seem not to use the name "Zagreus", and according to West 1983, p. 153, the 'name was probably not used in the Orphic narrative'. Edmonds 1999, p. 37 n. 6 says: 'Lobeck 1892 seems to be responsible for the use of the name Zagreus for the Orphic Dionysos. As Linforth noticed, "It is a curious thing that the name Zagreus does not appear in any Orphic poem or fragment, nor is it used by any author who refers to Orpheus" (Linforth 1941:[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=337 311]). In his reconstruction of the story, however, Lobeck made extensive use of the fifth-century epic of Nonnos, who does use the name Zagreus, and later scholars followed his cue. The association of Dionysos with Zagreus appears first explicitly in a fragment of Callimachus preserved in the Etymologicum Magnum (fr. 43.117 P), with a possible earlier precedent in the fragment from Euripides ''Cretans'' (fr. 472 Nauck). Earlier evidence, however, (e.g., ''Alkmaionis'' fr. 3 PEG; Aeschylus frr. 5, 228) suggests that Zagreus was often identified with other deities.'</ref> As pieced together from various ancient sources, the reconstructed story, usually given by modern scholars, goes as follows.<ref>West 1983, pp. 73–74, provides a detailed reconstruction with numerous cites to ancient sources, with a summary on p. 140. For other summaries see Morford, p. 311; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]; March, [https://archive.org/stream/March.Jenny_Cassells.Dictionary.of.Classical.Mythology#page/n787/mode/2up s.v. Zagreus, p. 788]; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456; Burkert, pp. 297–298; Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA82 p. 82]; also see Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA80 p. 80]. For a detailed examination of many of the ancient sources pertaining to this myth see Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333 pp. 307–364]. The most extensive account in ancient sources is found in [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/206/mode/2up 5.562–70], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/224/mode/2up 6.155 ff.], other principal sources include [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62.6–8] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 301 Kern]), [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1–2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.1–2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#75 5.75.4] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 303 Kern]); [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:6.87-6.145 6.110–114]; [[Athenagoras of Athens]], ''Legatio'' 20 [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_II/A_Plea_for_the_Christians#cite_ref-66 Pratten] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/138/mode/2up fr. 58 Kern]); [[Clement of Alexandria]], '' [[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/clementofalexand00clem#page/36/mode/2up 2.15 pp. 36–39 Butterworth] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up frs. 34, 35 Kern]); [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 155, 167; ''[[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=zeta,4&field=adlerhw_gr&num_per_page=1 Ζαγρεύς]. See also [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:7.18.4 7.18.4], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.37.5 8.37.5].</ref> Zeus had intercourse with Persephone in the form of a serpent, producing Dionysus. The infant was taken to [[Mount Ida]], where, like the infant Zeus, he was guarded by the dancing [[Korybantes|Curetes]]. Zeus intended Dionysus to be his successor as ruler of the cosmos, but a jealous Hera incited the Titans to kill the child. Damascius claims that he was mocked by the Titans, who gave him a fennel stalk (''thyrsus'') in place of his rightful scepter.<ref>Damascius, Commentary on the Phaedo, I, 170, see in translation Westerink, ''The Greek Commentaries on [[Plato]]'s Phaedo'', vol. II (The Prometheus Trust, Westbury) 2009</ref>

Diodorus relates that Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and that his birth narrative is an allegory for the generative power of the gods at work in nature.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1]; also noted by Kerény (110 note 214).</ref> When the "Sons of Gaia" (i.e. the Titans) boiled Dionysus following his birth, Demeter gathered together his remains, allowing his rebirth. Diodorus noted the symbolism this myth held for its adherents: Dionysus, god of the vine, was born from the gods of the rain and the earth. He was torn apart and boiled by the sons of Gaia, or "earth born", symbolizing the harvesting and wine-making process. Just as the remains of the bare vines are returned to the earth to restore its fruitfulness, the remains of the young Dionysus were returned to Demeter allowing him to be born again.<ref name=diodiii>[[Diodorus Siculus]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62–74].</ref>