Editing Ampelos

{{Short description|Deity in Greek mythology}}
{{for|the town of ancient Crete|Ampelos (Crete)}}
[[File:Group with Bacchus leaning on Satyr-Uffizi Gallery.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Bacchus e Ampelus (Uffizi, Florence)]]
'''Ampelos''' ({{langx|grc|Ἂμπελος}}, <small>lit.</small>{{nbsp}}"[[Grapevine|Vine]]") or '''Ampelus''' ([[Latin]]) was a [[personification]] of the [[grapevine]] and lover of  [[Dionysus]] in [[Greek mythology|Greek]] and Bacchus in [[Roman mythology]]. He was a satyr that either turned into a constellation or the grape vine, due to [[Dionysus]].

== Mythology ==

===Nonnus===
In [[Nonnus]]'s [[etiology]], Ampelos is a beautiful [[satyr]] youth, who was loved by [[Dionysus]], and whose death was foreseen by the god. There are two versions of his death and Dionysus's reaction to it. According to Nonnus, Ampelos was gored to death by a wild bull after he mocked the goddess [[Selene]], a scene described as follows:

:"[Ampelos, love of Dionysos, rode upon the back of a wild bull:] He shouted boldly to the fullfaced Moon (Mene)—'Give me best, Selene, horned driver of cattle! Now I am both—I have horns and I ride a bull!'
:
:
:So he called out boasting to the round Moon. Selene looked with a jealous eye through the air, to see how Ampelos rode on the murderous marauding bull. She sent him a cattlechasing gadfly; and the bull, pricked continually all over by the sharp sting, galloped away like a horse through pathless tracts [it then threw and gored him to death]"<ref>[[Nonnus]], 11.185 ff.</ref>
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Upset by his death, Dionysus transformed Ampelos's body into the first grape vine and created wine from his blood.

===Ovid===
[[File:Alinari - Bacco e Ampelo.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Bacchus and Ampelos ". Pre-1865 image of a Roman statue in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.]]
The second version involves grape vines in a different manner. According to [[Ovid]]: 
:"the reckless youth fell picking gaudy grapes on a branch. Liber [Dionysos] lifted the lost boy to the stars," turning him into one of the stars of the constellation Vindemitor or Vindiatrix (better known as [[Boötes]]).<ref>[[Ovid]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' 3.407 ff.</ref>

==Dryad==
Various '''ampelose'''{{mdash}}also "Ampelos" in the singular{{mdash}}also appear in Greek mythology a variety of [[hamadryad]].<ref>[[Athenaeus]], 3.78B</ref>

== In the European tradition ==
During the Middle Ages and Renaissance Ampelos was not known. In the New Age and later, his image is found only occasionally. The myth about him was "rediscovered" in Europe in 17th century, when the first translations of "The Acts of Dionysus" were published. Such artists as Jacob Matham and Jan Mil took part in their design. An image of Ampelos can also be found, for example, in the books "Etruscan, Greek and Roman antiquities" (1766) by Pierre François Hugh d'Hankarville (English), "Stories of ancient and modern wines" (1824) by Dr. Alexander Henderson. The image of Ampelos appears in the works of Martin Opitz (1622), Heinrich Heine ("The Gods in Exile" (1853)) and Matthew Arnold ("The Lost Wanderer" (1898)), Roberto Calasso (1988). Some researchers also point out that the myth of Dionysus and Ampelos was one of the sources of inspiration for the French homosexual writer [[André Gide]].

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
* [[Athenaeus|Athenaeus of Naucratis]], ''[[Deipnosophistae|The Deipnosophists]] or Banquet of the Learned.'' London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2013.01.0003 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
*Athenaeus of Naucratis, ''Deipnosophistae''. Kaibel. In Aedibus B.G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1887. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2013.01.0001 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
*[[Nonnus|Nonnus of Panopolis]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' translated by William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950), from the Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1940.  [https://topostext.org/work/529 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* Nonnus of Panopolis, ''Dionysiaca. 3 Vols.'' W.H.D. Rouse. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1940-1942. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0485 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Ovid|Publius Ovidius Naso]], ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'' translated by James G. Frazer. [https://topostext.org/work/143 Online version at the Topos Text Project.]
* Publius Ovidius Naso, ''Fasti.'' Sir James George Frazer. London; Cambridge, MA. William Heinemann Ltd.; Harvard University Press. 1933. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2008.01.0547 Latin text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

{{Metamorphoses in Greco-Roman mythology}}

[[Category:Satyrs]]
[[Category:Mythological hybrids]]
[[Category:Metamorphoses into plants in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Consorts of Dionysus]]
[[Category:Selene]]
[[Category:LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology]]


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