Dionysus
狄俄倪索斯
Dionysus is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, orchards and fruit, vegetation, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth. He is also known as Bacchus to the Romans.
In his religion, identical with or closely related to Orphism, Dionysus was believed to have been born from the union of Zeus and Persephone, and to have himself represented a chthonic or underworld aspect of Zeus. Many believed that he had been born twice, having been killed and reborn as the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. In the Eleusinian Mysteries he was identified with Iacchus, the son (or, alternately, husband) of Demeter.
Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the main religious focus surrounding its consumption. Wine, as well as the vines and grapes that produce it, were seen as not only a gift of the god, but a symbolic incarnation of him on earth. However, rather than being a god of drunkenness, as he was often stereotyped in the post-Classical era, the religion of Dionysus centred on the correct consumption of wine, which could ease suffering and bring joy, as well as inspire divine madness distinct from drunkenness. Performance art and drama were also central to his religion, and its festivals were the initial driving force behind the development of theatre. The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god.
狄俄倪索斯,古希腊神话中的酒神,与古罗马人信奉的巴克科斯相对应。狄俄倪索斯是古希腊色雷斯人信奉的葡萄酒之神,不仅握有葡萄酒醉人的力量,还以布施欢乐与慈爱在当时成为极有感召力的神,他推动了古代社会的文明并确立了法则,维护着世界的和平。此外,他还护佑着希腊的农业与戏剧文化。
在奥林匹亚圣山的传说中他是宙斯与塞墨勒之子,又有说是宙斯与普西芬妮。古希腊人对酒神的祭祀是秘密宗教仪式之一,类似对于得墨忒耳与泊瑟芬的厄琉西斯秘仪。在色雷斯人的仪式中,帕身着狐狸皮,据说是象征新生。而专属酒神的狄俄倪索斯狂欢仪式是最秘密的宗教仪式。
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