Myth Monday - Dionysus the Twice-Born

Silenus with the child Dionysos. Marble, Roman copy of the middle 2nd century A.D. after a Greek original by Lysippos (c. 300 B.C). Vatican Museum
PD courtesy Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons

In Greek mythology there are generally so many conflicting versions of events that it's hard to know what would have been accepted by the ancient public. Although the wine god Dionysus has plenty of areas of controversy, it is refreshing that two early, major sources, the Iliad and Theogony, attributed to Homer and Hesiod, agree on Dionysus' parents. They both say Zeus and Semele.

(ll. 938-942) "And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bare to Zeus glorious Hermes, the herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy bed.
And Semele, daughter of Cadmus was joined with him in love and bare him a splendid son, joyous Dionysus, -- a mortal woman an immortal son. And now they both are gods."
Hesiod Theogony

"Then there was the daughter of Phoenix, who bore me Minos and Rhadamanthus: there was Semele, and Alcmena in Thebes by whom I begot my lion-hearted son Hercules, while Semele became mother to Bacchus the comforter of mankind."
Iliad Book XIV

Rape of Europa Mosaic. Lullingstone Roman Villa
CC Flickr User Loz Flowers

Zeus is the king of the gods and the father of many, including the important Greek heroes Perseus and Hercules. Semele is the daughter of Cadmus and Ares' daughter Harmonia. Cadmus was sent off by his father, king in Phoenicia, to find his sister. This sister was Europa, whom Zeus, in white bull-form, had abducted. Cadmus never found his sister, but in consultation with the Delphic Oracle, he followed a cow to the place where it lay down. Then and there, in Boeotia (etymologically connected with the recurring cow-motif), Cadmus founded a city named Thebes. Cadmus may even have planned the 7-gates for which Thebes is known. [See Hawthorne's "Dragon's Teeth" for a lovely story based on this Greek founding myth.]

The conventional explanation for why Dionysus wound up being twice-born is that before Semele died -- thanks to the not-so gentle ministrations of the cow-eyed mistress of jealousy, Hera -- Zeus snatched the baby and sewed it in his thigh. Then, when Dionysus was born in the mountain of Nysa, it was actually his second appearance in this world.

[3.4.3] "But Zeus loved Semele and bedded with her unknown to Hera. Now Zeus had agreed to do for her whatever she asked, and deceived by Hera she asked that he would come to her as he came when he was wooing Hera. Unable to refuse, Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. But Semele expired of fright, and Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire, sewed it in his thigh. On the death of Semele the other daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had bedded with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder. But at the proper time Zeus undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus, and entrusted him to Hermes. And he conveyed him to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl."
- Apollodorus 3.4.3

Guess What for July 11, 2012

Notice (1) that the name Dionysus seems to contain the place name (Nysa) and a word for god; (2) that Dionysus has similar parentage to Perseus and Hercules, yet he is one of the 12 Olympian gods and not simply a demi-god; (3) that Zeus gave birth to Athena from his body, too, but in her case, he swallowed her.