He will recognize the son of Zeus, [860] Dionysus, who is in fact a god, the most terrible (deinos) and yet most gentle to men.

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He will recognize the son of Zeus, 860
Dionysus, who is in fact a god, the most terrible
(deinos) and yet most gentle to men.
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HH 1 For some say, at Dracanum and some, on
windy Icarus and some, in Naxos, O Heaven-born,
Insewn (Eiraphiotes) and others by the
deep-eddying river Alpheus that pregnant Semele
bore you to Zeus the thunder-lover. 5 And
others yet, lord, say you were born in Thebes
but all these lie. The Father of men and gods
gave you birth remote from men and secretly from
white-armed Hera. There is a certain Nysa, .
.See Bac. 286 enerraphe
11 As he cut you into three pieces, so also in
biennial festivals will men sacrifice complete
hecatombs to you. Dithyramb -os Bac. 526
Bac. Whom once, in the compulsion of birth
pains, 90 the thunder of Zeus flying upon
her, his mother cast from her womb, leaving life
by the stroke of a thunderbolt. Immediately Zeus,
Kronos' son, 95 received him in a chamber fit
for birth, and having covered him in his thigh
shut him up with golden clasps, hidden from Hera..
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That one claims that Dionysus is a god, claims
that he was once stitched into the thigh of Zeus
Dionysus, who was burnt up with his mother by
the flame of lightning, 245 because she had
falsely claimed a marriage with Zeus.He who
came afterwards, the offspring of Semele,
discovered a match to (grain), the liquid drink
of the grape, and introduced it 280 to
mortals. It releases wretched mortals from grief,
whenever they are filled with the stream of the
vine, and gives them sleep, a means of forgetting
their daily troubles, nor is there another cure
for hardships. He who is a god is poured out in
offerings to the gods, 285 so that by his
means men may have good things.When Zeus
snatched him out of the lighting-flame, and led
the child as a god to Olympus, 290 Hera
wished to banish him from the sky, but Zeus, as a
god, had a counter-contrivance. Having broken a
part of the air which surrounds the earth, he
gave this to Hera as a pledge, protecting the
real Dionysus from her hostility. But in time,
295 mortals say that he was nourished in the
thigh of Zeus, changing the word, because a god
he had served as a hostage for the goddess Hera.
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satyr, thyrsos (80)
130 nearby, raving Satyrs were fulfilling the
rites of the mother goddess, and they joined it
to the dances of the biennial festivals, in which
Dionysus rejoices. Blessed is he who, being
fortunate and knowing the rites of the gods,
keeps his life pure and 75 has his soul
initiated into the Bacchic revels, dancing in
inspired frenzy over the mountains with holy
purifications (katharmoi), and who, revering the
mysteries of great mother Kybele, 80
brandishing the thyrsos, garlanded with ivy,
serves Dionysus. katharsis
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thiasos, maenads bacchae (50)
At once all the earth will dance 115
whoever leads the sacred band is Bromius to the
mountain, to the mountain, where the crowd of
women waits, goaded away from their weaving by
Dionysus.
55 But, you women who have left Tmolus, the
bulwark of Lydia, my sacred band (thiasos), whom
I have brought from among the barbarians as
assistants and companions to me, take your drums,
native instruments of the city of the Phrygians,
the invention of mother Rhea and myself, 60
and going about this palace of Pentheus beat
them, so that Kadmos' city may see.
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135 He is sweet in the mountains, whenever
after the running dance he falls on the ground,
wearing the sacred garment of fawn skin, hunting
the blood of the slain goat, a raw-eaten delight,
rushing to the 140 Phrygian, the Lydian
mountains.omophagia
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HH 7 I will tell of Dionysus, the son of
glorious Semele, how he appeared on a jutting
headland by the shore of the fruitless sea,
seeming like a young man in the first flush of
manhood his rich, dark hair was waving about
him, 5 and on his strong shoulders he wore a
purple robe.
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Presently there came swiftly over the sparkling
sea Tyrsenian pirates on a well-decked ship a
miserable doom led them on. When they saw him
they made signs to one another and sprang out
quickly, and seizing him straightway 10 put him
on board their ship exultingly for they thought
him the son of heaven-nurtured kings. They
sought to bind him with rude bonds, but the bonds
would not hold him. Possessed men! what god is
this whom you have taken and bind, strong that he
is? Not even the well-built ship can carry him.
Surely this is either Zeus or Apollo who has the
silver bow, 20 or Poseidon, for he looks not
like mortal men but like the gods who dwell on
Olympus. Come, then, lets set him free on the
dark shore at once do not lay hands on him, lest
he grow angry and stir up dangerous winds and
heavy squalls. 35 First of all sweet,
fragrant wine ran streaming throughout all the
black ship and a heavenly smell arose, so that
all the seamen were seized with amazement when
they saw it. And all at once a vine spread out
both ways along the top of the sail with many
clusters hanging down from it.
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The god changed into a dreadful lion there on
the ship, 45 in the bows, and roared loudly
amidships also he showed his wonders and created
a shaggy bear which stood up ravening, while on
the bow was the lion glaring fiercely with
scowling brows. And so the sailors fled into the
stern and crowded bemused about the right-minded
helmsman, until suddenly the lion sprang upon the
master 50 and seized him and when the sailors
saw it they leapt overboard one and all into the
bright sea, escaping a miserable fate, and were
changed into dolphins.
Bac. 1118-19 Appear as a bull or many-headed
serpent or raging lion to see!
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