# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/04/story-cities-14-london-great-stink-river-thames-joseph-bazalgette-sewage-system

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the steaming hot summer of 1858, the hideous stench of human excrement rising from the River Thames and seeping through the hallowed halls of the Houses of Parliament finally got too much for Britain's politicians - those who had not already fled in fear of their lives to the countryside.

Clutching hankies to their noses and ready to abandon their newly built House for fresher air upstream, the lawmakers agreed urgent action was needed to purify London of the "evil odour" that was commonly believed to be the cause of disease and death.

The outcome of the " Great Stink ", as that summer's crisis was coined, was one of history's most life-enhancing advancements in urban planning. It was a monumental construction project that, despite being driven by dodgy science and political self-interest, dramatically improved the public's health and laid the foundation for modern London.

You'll see no sign of it on most maps of the capital or from a tour of the streets, but hidden beneath the city's surface stretches a wonder of the industrial world: the vast Victorian sewerage system that still flows (and overflows) today.

London is, of course, an ancient metropolis, but according to the city's prolific biographer (and Londoner) Peter Ackroyd, the 19th century "was the true century of change". And by the mid-1800s, reform of the capital's sanitation, like much else in the nation's political and social life, was long overdue.

For centuries, the "royal river" of pomp and pageantry, the city's main thoroughfare, had doubled as a dumping ground for human, animal and industrial waste. As London's population grew - and it more than doubled between 1800 and 1850, making it by far the largest in the world - the build-up of waste itself became a spectacle no one wanted to see, or smell.

With a lack of planned housing and infrastructure to support the crowded citizenry, increasingly filthy streams, ditches and antiquated drainage pipes all bubbled into the Thames, where the detritus simply bobbed up and down with the tide. The apparent progress of flushing toilets (marketed to the masses at the Great Exhibition in 1851) only made things worse, overwhelming old cesspools and forcing ever more effluent into the river, which belched it back into the city at each high water.

The "silver Thames" eulogised by earlier poets had become, in the words of the Royal Institution scientist Michael Faraday in 1855, "an opaque pale brown fluid". Dropping pieces of white paper into the river, Faraday found that they disappeared from view before sinking an inch below the surface. All too clear was the main contaminant: "Near the bridges the feculence rolled up in clouds so dense that they were visible at the surface, even in water of this kind," he wrote.

Faraday's report of the dire straits of "Father Thames" was echoed in numerous editorial columns and cartoons that scorned the once-majestic river's demise into the most polluted metropolitan waterway in the world. The British empire was literally rotting at the core.

"Through the heart of the town a deadly sewer ebbed and flowed, in the place of a fine fresh river," Charles Dickens wrote in Little Dorrit (1855-57). The fetid fumes alone, it was thought, could strike a man dead. What made the water lethal, however, was that a great many Londoners were drinking it piped directly from the Thames. Even water pumped from outside the city risked contamination with sewage when it reached the squalid streets, and the wells still in use lay dangerously close to leaking cesspools.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Dr John Snow's cholera water pump replica in Broad Street, London. Photograph: Alicia Canter/Observer

In 1834, the humorist cleric Sydney Smith vividly described the unpalatable truth: "He who drinks a tumbler of London water has literally in his stomach more animated beings than there are men, women and children on the face of the globe."

The result was successive waves of waterborne diseases such as dysentery, typhoid and, most feared of all by mid-century, cholera. For this "Victorian plague", as the historian Amanda J Thomas characterises it, there was no known cure - whatever quacks claimed - and the wealthy were not immune. The first major cholera epidemic in Britain, in 1831-32, killed more than 6,000 Londoners. The second, in 1848-49, took more than 14,000. Another outbreak in 1853-54 claimed a further 10,000 lives.

With the bodies piling up, the people and the press pushed for change. The working class basket-maker and poet Thomas Miller wrote in the Illustrated London News: "Let us then agitate for pure air and pure water, and break through the monopolies of water and sewer companies, as we would break down the door of a house to rescue some fellow-creature from the flames that raged within. It rests with ourselves to get rid of these evils."

Investigating cholera's spread in Soho in 1854, the physician Dr John Snow deduced that the cause was contaminated water. His evidence included the 70 workers in the local brewery who only drank beer and all survived. Yet public health officials were slow to be convinced. The "miasma theory" that diseases were caused by noxious vapour in the air held stubborn sway, leading the well-meaning social reformer Edwin Chadwick - insisting that "all smell is disease" - to hasten the abandonment of stinking cesspools in favour of flushing the sewers into the Thames. The effect was more ill than good.

His arguments largely dismissed, Dr Snow died in 1858 at the height of the Great Stink, a "miasmatic" event that helped prove his point by failing to unleash a new outbreak of disease - if miasma were deadly, the Great Stink surely would have been.

By overpowering the politicians in the Houses of Parliament, though, the stench still proved a catalyst for change. The miasmatists were at least right about one thing: the reeking river correlated with the city's health, and needed to be cleaned.

As MPs shrouded themselves behind curtains soaked with chloride of lime to counter the fumes, they couldn't say they hadn't been warned. Just a few years earlier, Faraday had urged officials that they could not ignore the state of the Thames "with impunity; nor ought we to be surprised if, ere many years are over, a hot season give us sad proof of the folly of our carelessness". In the heatwave of 1858, the stagnating open sewer outside Westminster's windows fermented and boiled under the scorching sun.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Workmen building the northern outfall sewer and overflow into the River Lea in 1862. Photograph: Otto Herschan/Getty

Benjamin Disraeli, the Tory leader in the Commons and Chancellor of the Exchequer, lamented how "that noble river" had become "a Stygian pool reeking with ineffable and unbearable horror", and introduced legislation "for the purification of the Thames and the main drainage of the metropolis".

Up to this point, London had lacked a unified authority with the money required to address such an extensive problem of sanitation on an effective scale. Now the recently formed Metropolitan Board of Works was empowered to raise £3m and instructed to start work without further delay. The board's chief engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, who had already spent several exasperating years drawing up plans for an ambitious new sanitation system, only for each one to be swiftly shelved, at last got the go-ahead to begin construction.

Stephen Halliday, author of The Great Stink of London, explains: "Bazalgette's plan, which was modified in some details as construction progressed, proposed a network of main sewers, running parallel to the river, which would intercept both surface water and waste, conducting them to the outfalls at Barking on the northern side of the Thames and Crossness, near Plumstead, on the southern side." These combined sewers thus diverted rainwater and effluent downstream, well beyond the built-up city to the east, from where it would flow more easily out to sea.

The network included 82 miles of new sewers, great subterranean boulevards that in places were larger than the underground train tunnels then under construction. With a minimum fall of two feet per mile, the main drainage sewers employed gravity to conduct their contents downstream, while smaller sewers were egg-shaped (narrower at the bottom than the top) to encourage the flow.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Victorian overflow sewers are still in use today but with a growing population in London, the Thames is under severe strain. Photograph: Mark Lovatt/Getty Images/Flickr Open

Pumping stations were built at Chelsea, Deptford, Abbey Mills and Crossness to raise up sewage from low-lying areas and discharge it onwards to the outfalls. The latter two especially were architecturally magnificent, evocative of cathedrals in their design, dimensions and ornament. Symbolic of the grandeur of the entire project, they proudly announced their role in forging a more wholesome and, perhaps, holy London.

The scheme also involved the huge challenge of embanking the Thames, creating the Victoria, Albert and Chelsea embankments. Informed by Bazalgette's experience of land drainage and reclamation while working as a railway engineer, London's embankments were designed not only to carry tunnels (including the underground railway), but also to help cleanse the river by narrowing and strengthening its flow through the city's centre.

Halliday notes that while the embankments were Bazalgette's "most conspicuous works" for which he received the greatest credit - it is on Victoria Embankment that a monument to the engineer, who was knighted in 1875, may be found - he himself regarded the main drainage as his greatest achievement: "It was certainly a very troublesome job," Bazalgette reflected. "It was tremendously hard work."

The hard work of thousands of labourers overseen by Bazalgette inspired the artist Ford Madox Brown as he painted Work, a large canvas completed in 1865, the same year that the main drainage works were opened at Crossness by the Prince of Wales (though the construction in fact continued for another decade). Brown's image is bursting with activity and society - rich and poor, young and old, rural and urban - but all this revolves around and, we may infer, depends on the industrious workmen at the centre, building an enlightened tunnel below ground.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Ford Madox Brown's Work, 1852-1863, was inspired by the construction of the sewer system. Photograph: Dea Picture Library/De Agostini/Getty Images

Framed by forearms and tools, a hod carrier descends into the depths with more bricks: a building material that Bazalgette's project employed in such vast quantities - 318m - that prices escalated along with the wages of bricklayers, who down-tooled to secure a rise from 5 to 6 shillings a day.

According to the Observer newspaper, "every penny spent is sunk in a good cause" in the creation of this "most extensive and wonderful work of modern times". And the work almost immediately proved its worth: in 1866, most of London was spared from a cholera outbreak which hit part of the East End, the only section not yet connected to the new system.

"What was extraordinary about Bazalgette's scheme was both its simplicity and level of foresight," writes Paul Dobraszczyk in London's Sewers. A classic piece of Victorian over-engineering, the infrastructure was planned to accommodate a population growth of 50%, from 3 million to 4.5 million. Within 30 years of its completion, the city's population had in fact doubled again, reaching 6 million. It is testament to the quality of design and construction that, with improvements and additions, the 19th-century system remains the backbone of London's sewers in the 21st century.

But the backbone is now severely strained. With a still-expanding population, dramatic downpours associated with climate change and the loss of green spaces to soak up the excess, the Thames is once again at risk.

Bazalgette provided for extreme weather with overflows into the river, to prevent the flooding of homes and streets. And those overflows are now being used more than ever - around 50 times a year - dumping raw sewage under the noses of present-day MPs in Westminster.

Martin Baggs, the outgoing chief executive of Thames Water, has been upfront about the challenges. "They say that history repeats itself: 150 years ago the River Thames was polluted; that's where we are again today. Was it acceptable 150 years ago? No, it wasn't. Is it acceptable today? No, it's not. We've got to do something about it."

Construction of the company's solution, the Thames Tideway Tunnel - or "super sewer" - is due to begin this year, for completion in 2023. One of the largest civil engineering projects the country has ever seen, and not without controversy, the tunnel is a "visionary work of modern times", in Ackroyd's view, "in the spirit of Bazalgette".

Hopefully Ackroyd is right. That great engineer shared some wise words based on his own experiences of re-planning London: "Private individuals are apt to look after their own interests first, and to forget the general effect upon the public. It is necessary that there should be somebody to watch the public interests."
Does your city have a little-known story that made a major impact on its development? Please share it in the comments below or on Twitter using #storyofcities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Story of cities #14: London's Great Stink heralds a wonder of the industrial world

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the steaming hot summer of 1858, the hideous stench of human excrement rising from the River Thames and seeping through the hallowed halls of the Houses of Parliament finally got too much for Britain's politicians - those who had not already fled in fear of their lives to the countryside.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.terriwindling.com/blog/2021/08/the-pull-of-the-river.html

“No one is quite sure when Old Father Thames was first evoked, but there is plenty to suggest that those living by the river have been paying their dues for hundreds if not thousands of years. An Iron Age shield was dredged from the depths at Battersea in 1875 and ancient votive offerings are still constantly uncovered  along the river, picked from the strandline by mudlarks and archaeologists.

Perhaps its personification as a god, or the creation of myths around it, was a way of understanding the river and its changes; the act of worship an attempt to control or impose order on water that has the power to shape and fertilise land, to give life and to take it away. The divine river helped to make sense of the mystery, the beauty and the destruction of the natural world.

Some suggest that Old Father Thames has links to other gods. Peter Ackroyd says Father Thames 'bears a striking resemblance to the tutelary gods of the Niles and Tiber'. The Roman river god Tiberinus certainly shares key characteristics with him: the beard, the locks, the aversion to clothes. Ackroyd suggestions that Old Father Thames's hipsterish follicles could represent the braiding channels of the river's flow. But whatever his past, Old Father Thames has come to be a personification of the river in both good times and bad. He has been seen as a revered guardian while also caricatured as a rude and filthy tramp, during the pollution of the 19th century, surrounded by dead fish and rotting livestock, offering up his children Diphtheria, Choler and Scrofula to those who lived and worked on his waters.”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Continuing with recommendations of books on the theme of water:

The Pull of the River by Matt Gaw is an exploration of the UK's waterways "from the smallest tributaries to stent-straight canals and thick arteries that pump toward the sea. Over chalk, gravel, clay and mud. Through fields, woodlands, villages, towns and cities to experience places that might otherwise go unnoticed and perhaps unloved." Travelling in a homemade red canoe, Gaw makes his way down the Waveney, the Stour, the Lark, the Granta, the Colne, the Otter and other rivers -- sometimes alone, but most often with his friend and rowing partner James Treadaway. The text is an aquatic travelogue full of natural, social, and folkloric histories of each waterway; it's also a poignant portrait of a friendship bonded in adventure.

In the book's longest journey, Gaw and Treadaway follow the Thames from the Cotswold countryside to the middle of London, starting at the river's unprepossessing source at Thames Head near Kemble. Gaw writes:

"It is trying to rain as we turn off the main road and lope over a muddy track. A miserable, wind-blown drizzle. A mizzle. The path bends past a scrapyard filled with shipping containers and broken-down cars. To the right, the double lines of rail track race each other to the horizon. We cross and head over a stile and past an old wall, shoulder blades of dry stone jammed together and crusted with thick skins of bright white lichen. In front of us the field slopes up to a small copse with a straggling line of old thorns tracking through the centre. And then we see it. A stone, guarded by an old ash: a flecked marble plinth that marks the source of the Thames: 'The Conservation of the River Thames 1857-1974. This Stone Was Placed Here to Mark the Source of the River Thames.'

"Directly in front of it is a small pit lined with stone. There are records that a well stood in Trewsbury Mead as late as the 18th century, surrounded by a wall measuring some eight feet. The wall was demolished, eroded, or shouldered down by cattle, and the well filled in, leaving just this tiny Andy Goldsworthy circle of oolite stone; a font to hold and offer up clear water; a cairn signifying both beginning and end.

"River sources are places of intrigue, portals from the underworld to this world, where water pulses, pumps or just trickles from mysterious beds to glint and dance in the sun. They are places of transition from the dark to the light, the starting point of a symbolic circle that sees a river rise to journey to the sea and return with the rain. In Norse mythology 'Hvergelmir', which means something like 'bubbling boiling spring', is the origin -- the source -- of all living things and the place to which everything will eventually return. But behind all the power and personality there has also been wonder; a sense of human curiousity at how something so great and powerful could spring from something so small. After all, to journey to a source is to go backward -- against the flow."

As they follow the river north and east from Crickdale to Lechlade-on-Thames (not far from William Morris' Kelmscott Manor), Gaw reflects on the mythology and sacred history of Britain's inland waters:

"At Castle Eaton, the church of St Mary the Virgin is nearly dipping its toes in the water, its stone gold blushed with pink. A site of Christian worship since the 12th century, it is a place that was probably special for people long before that.

"Rivers have often been connected with the spiritual world, sources of life and death. It's one of the reasons there are so many gods, nymphs and myths associated with them. According to legend, for example, the Wye, the Severn and the River Ystwyth all share the same story: all three were nymphs conceived from must, rain, snowmelt, moss and marsh and born to the Lord of the Mountains, Plynlimon. When the day came for them to leave their home, to set out into the world, Ystwyth headed west, taking the shortest route to the coast, meeting the Irish sea by the town that would take her name. Hafren went next, winding through England and Wales, travelling for long miles before she reached the Bristol Channel; her shimmering route became known as the Severn. But the third daughter, Vaga (the Latin name of Wye and meaning wandering), wanted neither to rush nor spend time in the world of men. Instead she chose a quieter route, whispering through hills and crags, seeking out the wild places where beauty lived on. She sang through the valleys and forests: a song for the porpoising otter; for the salmon; for the curtseying bob of the dipper; for the kingfisher, whose jewelled back she softly kissed. She danced and darted, joyful, serene, all the way to Hafren, who rushed back upstream to meet her and guide her on, towards the sea.

"History overflows with rivers that are regarded either as divinities or possessing other-worldly powers. It should be no surprise that the Thames had the same treatment. No one is quite sure when Old Father Thames was first evoked, but there is plenty to suggest that those living by the river have been paying their dues for hundreds if not thousands of years. An Iron Age shield was dredged from the depths at Battersea in 1875 and ancient votive offerings are still constantly uncovered along the river, picked from the strandline by mudlarks and archaeologists.

"Perhaps its personification as a god, or the creation of myths around it, was a way of understanding the river and its changes; the act of worship an attempt to control or impose order on water that has the power to shape and fertilise land, to give life and to take it away. The divine river helped to make sense of the mystery, the beauty and the destruction of the natural world.

"Some suggest that Old Father Thames has links to other gods. Peter Ackroyd says Father Thames 'bears a striking resemblance to the tutelary gods of the Niles and Tiber'. The Roman river god Tiberinus certainly shares key characteristics with him: the beard, the locks, the aversion to clothes. Ackroyd suggestions that Old Father Thames's hipsterish follicles could represent the braiding channels of the river's flow. But whatever his past, Old Father Thames has come to be a personification of the river in both good times and bad. He has been seen as a revered guardian while also caricatured as a rude and filthy tramp, during the pollution of the 19th century, surrounded by dead fish and rotting livestock, offering up his children Diphtheria, Cholera and Scrofula to those who lived and worked on his waters.

"We continue slowly, taking a left bend, with the sun gilding water that is retreating from the fields. The current, no long funnelled by obstacles, slows to a glugging jog. At Kempsford there is another church named for St Mary, where Edward I, Edward II, Henry IV and Chaucer were all said to have worshipped.

"The arrival of Christianity may have meant the disavowal of the old gods, but the rivers continued to be sacred places, with plenty of churches built on their banks. The Thames is certainly a river of saints. A swelter of them. Birinus, apostle to the Saxons of the west, who baptised converts at Kemble and Somerford Keynes; St Alban, Britain's first Christian martyr, who parted the waters on the way to his execution; St Frithuswith, Frideswide, Frideswith, Fritheswithe, Frevisse, or just Fris, founder of Oxford Priory and patron saint of Oxford University, who summoned a holy spring from the earth. Relics too have found their way to the water's edge, from the spear tip that was said to have punctured Christ, to the skeletal hand of James the Apostle. But on this stretch, it seems that St Mary holds sway. The Mother of God on the mother of rivers."

The Pull of the River is a lovely book, from its start in Roger Deakin territory through beaver sightings in the West County to the final expedition through a Scottish canal. I particularly recommend it to readers unable to make such journeys themselves (for any number of reasons, from pandemic restrictions to disability) but who long to do so nonetheless. I count myself among those readers. There are days when memories of my own wilderness adventures seem like another life altogether, and I fear I'll never get there again. Books like Gaw's, and the other water-themed texts discussed last week, help bring the wild world back to me, and I am exceedingly grateful for it.

The art today is by Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959), who was born in Cookham, a small village by the River Thames in Berkshire. Spencer trained at the Slade School of Art in London, served with the Royal Army Medical Corps and the Infantry in World War I, and was an official War Artist in World War II -- but aside from these periods he spent most of life back home in Cookham, painting gardens, flowers, landscapes, boatyards, village life, and religious works in which villagers stood in for biblical subjects.

To see more of his art, please visit the Stanley Spencer Gallery site.

The passages above are from The Pull of the River: A Journey Into the Watery Heart of Britain by Matt Gaw (Elliott & Thompson, 2018). All rights to the text and art above reserved by the author and the artist's estate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Continuing with recommendations of books on the theme of water: The Pull of the River by Matt Gaw is an exploration of the UK's waterways "from the smallest tributaries to stent-straight canals and thick arteries that pump toward the sea....

# data[].attributes.body
https://magicklondon.wordpress.com/the-sacred-thames/

“The River Thames was used for ritual purposes, healing, shamanic purification rites and later for Christian baptisms as well as for hydromancy – the practice of divination through water. Some adepts would thrown pebbles into the water and count the number of circles that spread through the ripples. Some would throw loaves of bread for the water goddess or use bread in the water for scrying. Others would interpret the significance of the colours of the water of the river.”

# data[].attributes.body
https://londonist.com/2015/07/who-was-old-father-thames

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A naked demigod stands guard over the Nine Elms riverbank. The tangerine deity tussles with a frutti di mare of dolphins, fishes, giant anemones, a playful water baby and a skulking octopus. The polychrome relief, designed by Stephen Duncan in 1988, is a monument to Father Thames, London's very own river god. But who is this nudesome fellow? Where did he come from?

Ancient origins

Rivers, bringers of life, have long been associated with sprites, spirits, deities and other supernatural beings. No one knows quite how long ago the figure of Father Thames was first invoked. It's likely that people have always paid obeisance to the river in one form or another. Archaeologists have plenty of evidence for river worship in London. Treasures like the Iron Age Battersea Shield (shown below) might have been votive offerings, given in deference or placation to the river.

This beautiful object was dredged from the river in 1857, not far from where the Father Thames sculpture now resides. You can view it in the British Museum, near to a horned helmet of similar age, found below Waterloo Bridge in 1868.

Peter Ackroyd in his 2007 biography of the river reckons Father Thames "bears a striking resemblance to the tutelary gods of the Nile and the Tiber". Gods such as the Roman Tiberinus share the long hair and beard of Father Thames. Ackroyd sees their flowing follicles as simulacra of the river itself. Meanwhile, the Egyptian goddess Isis had strong connections to the River Nile, and also lends her name to parts of the Thames, especially in the sections through Oxford where the river is usually called The Isis. The connection is strengthened in a couplet by 18th century poet Matthew Prior:

Where beauteous Isis and her Husband Tame
With mingl'd Waves, for ever, flow the Same

Where to see Old Father Thames

London's most impressive representation of the river god can be found in Trinity Square, near The Tower. The divinity perches high on the former Port of London Authority building. He is again shown naked, save for a rather impractical cloak that must inhibit his swimming. He clutches a Poseidon-like trident in his right hand, while his left hand points east towards the sea.

Ackroyd provides a helpful list of other representations of the god. Find him at Ham House, Somerset House, Hammersmith Town Hall and Kew Bridge. And then, of course, there's that strange bas-relief on the Nine Elms river front, shown at the top. In fact, you can find the god's hirsute noggin at various places along the Embankment if you keep your eyes peeled. Beyond London, a statue of the deity can be found guarding Lechlade, site of the first lock on the river. Another sculpture guards Henley Bridge.

Father Thames in art and literature

The most evocative depiction of Papa Thames in the whole of art must be the frontispiece to Doré and Jerrold's 1868 book London: A Pilgrimage. Our favourite river deity skulks beneath a riverside arch, and for once without his balls on show. He peers over his shoulder at a Britannic lion. It may not be based on actual events.

One of the oldest literary references to Old Father Thames comes in Alexander Pope's 1713 expansion of his poem Windsor Forest:

Old Father Thames advanced his reverend head;
His tresses dropp'd with dews, and o'er the stream
His shining horns diffused a golden gleam:
Grav'd on his arm appear'd the moon that guides
His swelling waters and alternate tides:
The figur'd streams in waves of silver roll'd,
And on her banks Augusta rose in gold.

(Augusta is an ancient name for London.) Pope's example was followed by many others, the bearded man serving as a romantic personification of the Thames. The device perhaps reaches its apotheosis in the Rivers of London novels of Ben Aaronovitch. Father Thames features as a character, and he's joined by Mama Thames and a whole family of daughter rivers such as Lady Ty (Tyburn), Fleet, Lea and Beverley Brook.

Old Father Thames has also had his dark days. During the Great Stink of the 1850s, the River Thames honked with raw sewage to such an extent that the Houses of Parliament had to close down. Cartoonists of the day drew many images of a woebegone Father Thames, wallowing in his filthy abode.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A naked demigod stands guard over the Nine Elms riverbank. The tangerine deity tussles with a frutti di mare of dolphins, fishes, giant anemones, a playful water baby and a skulking octopus. The polychrome relief, designed by Stephen Duncan in 1988, is a monument to Father Thames, London's very own river god.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/18/travel-light-travel-dark-agard

Old Father Thames
of the flowing patriarchal locks
See how the Ganges still breathes

in your West India docks.
See how the Nile's distant kiss
still finds the cheeks of your metropolis

Old Father Thames
Empire's wrinkles etch your tide.
About time you reclaimed your feminine side.

Try laying down your trident, old chap.
Take the weight of anchors and maps
from off your monumental head.

Have a good squat, old Father Thames.
Squat on your dark silted bed
till birth screams of changing winds

turn you midwife to a new beginning.

From Travel Light Travel Dark published by Bloodaxe Books.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Old Father Thames
of the flowing patriarchal locks
See how the Ganges still breathes

in your West India docks.
See how the Nile's distant kiss
still finds the cheeks of your metropolis

Old Father Thames
Empire's wrinkles etch your tide.
About time you reclaimed your feminine side.

Try laying down your trident, old chap.
Take the weight of anchors and maps
from off your monumental head.

Have a good squat, old Father Thames.
Squat on your dark silted bed
till birth screams of changing winds

turn you midwife to a new beginning.

From Travel Light Travel Dark published by Bloodaxe Books. RRP £9.95

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Old Father Thamesof the flowing patriarchal locks See how the Ganges still breathes in your West India docks. See how the Nile's distant kissstill finds the cheeks of your metropolis Old Father Thames Empire's wrinkles etch your tide.About time you reclaimed your feminine side. Try laying down your trident, old chap.

# data[].attributes.body
https://artslondon.padlet.org/kjennings0920201/Reader

# data[].attributes.body
1. Who is Anubis? The origin of Anubis? Why anubis is a jackal (e.g. from the original death to the soul ferryman)

2. The role/work of Anubis? (Embalmers, etc. Timeline of Anubis changes)

3. Why did Egypt have half beast and half man? What does the body of an animal's head mean to them?

4. What was the attitude towards animals in early Egypt? Was there totem worship in Egypt? The relationship between totem worship and animals?

5. What parts of Anubis are valued ，when we retell the myth? What parts become nonexistent?

6. The connection between the existence of Anubis and political functions?

7. Does the myth of Anubis have contemporary significance in visual culture?

8. Is the modern development of Anubis, including in games, movies and comics, different from the past? What's the difference?

9. What causes anubis to appear in many entertaining perspectives in modern times?

10. Modern man's view of half beast and half man?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
奥克维克纪事与北方每日邮报 第11402期 1923 11 20 星期二 一便士 歌罗西号起航 追寻海兽真相之旅 爱丁堡，周一，11月19日--歌罗西号载着包括艾奇逊马戏团在内的两千多名乘客在利思港启航，将在圣菲坦斯揭示海兽首演的真相。 ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Selected works of designer & illustrator Ivy Chen. Based in New York City & Vancouver.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mar 18, 2022 - This Pin was discovered by Mariia Niskavaara. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest

# data[].attributes.body
Separate elements from context to accentuate what is highlighted and what becomes absent in the retelling of stories.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Feb 16, 2021 - This Pin was discovered by Cat. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest

# data[].attributes.body
Inspiration for website. Filing system

# data[].attributes.body
There's some folks who always worry
And some folks who never care
But in this world of rush and hurry
It matters neither here nor there

Be steady and realistic
Don't hanker for gold or gems
Be carefree and optimistic
Like Old Father Thames

High in the hills, down in the dales
Happy and fancy free
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along
Down to the mighty sea

What does he know, what does he care
Nothing for you or me
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along
Down to the mighty sea

He never seems to worry
Doesn't care for fortune's fame
He never seems to hurry
But he gets there just the same

Kingdoms my come, kingdoms may go
Whatever the end may be
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along
Down to the mighty sea

The best way, a heaven blessed way
Just try to be always kind
It doesn't matter what the rest say
You're bound to leave them far behind

It's your job to do your duty
Be faithful to all your friends
For England and home and beauty
Like Old Father Thames

High in the hills, down in the dales
Happy and fancy free
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along
Down to the mighty sea

What does he know, what does he care
Nothing for you or me
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along
Down to the mighty sea

He never seems to worry
Doesn't care for fortune's fame
He never seems to hurry
But he gets there just the same

Kingdoms my come, kingdoms may go
Whatever the end may be
Old Father Thames keeps rolling along
Down to the mighty sea

# data[].attributes.headline
Experimenting with fabric stencil and line drawing 

# data[].attributes.subject
Experimenting with fabric stencil and line drawing 

# data[].attributes.headline
Personification of Old Father Thames -  Reconsidering the Role of the Victorian Periodical Press in the "Verbal and Visual Campaign" for Public Health Reform

# data[].attributes.subject
Personification of Old Father Thames -  Reconsidering the Role of the Victorian Periodical Press in the "Verbal and Visual Campaign" for Public Health Reform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.

# data[].attributes.body
Formerly a U.S. soldier, Apollo was a member of a secret experimental academy team created by the insane former Stormwatch Weatherman, Henry Bendix. Bendix's extensive alterations made Apollo almost a Sun God, with flight, superhuman strength and invulnerability, and heat vision. However, he needs frequent exposure to full sunlight to recharge his powers and his health.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A solar-powered member of Stormwatch. He is one of the leading members and is extremely powerful. He is also known for his relationship with fellow Stormwatch member, The Midnighter.

# data[].attributes.headline
Alexander Consulting the Oracle of Apollo

# data[].attributes.subject
Alexander Consulting the Oracle of Apollo

# data[].attributes.body
The scene depicted by the artist delivered a rebellious message, since the main character Alexander is not passively waiting for an oracle, but rather is urging the prophetess quite aggressively. Noted the fact that the painting was made the year of the French Revolution also indicates a certain connotation behind this work.

https://thehistorianshut.com/2022/02/23/alexander-consulting-the-oracle-of-apollo-by-louis-jean-francois-lagrenee-c-1724-1805/

https://artvee.com/dl/alexander-consulting-the-oracle-of-apollo/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (aka Lagrenée the elder ) was a French rococo painter and student of Carle van Loo . He won the Grand Prix ​​de Rome for painting in 1749 and was elected a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1755. His younger brother Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (aka Lagrenée the younger ) was also a painter.

Lagrenée was born in Paris on 30 December 1724 and from an early age he showed promise in drawing and painting . During his youth, master painter members of the French Royal Academy offered a rolling program of courses, open to the public (for a small fee), in life drawing and the principles and techniques of art. These courses gave academy members a chance to identify and nurture six of the most gifted young students in any given year and offer them a place on a scheme known as the Royal School of Protected Students , a scheme which offered free tuition with a small stipend , for three years, preparing students for Prix ​​de Rome competitions.After being selected for and completing this three-year program, under the tutelage of Carle van Loo, Lagrenée won the Grand Prix de Rome on his first attempt in 1749, with the painting Joseph interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh (now lost).

As a student at the French Academy in Rome , Lagrenée developed a "Formative if youthful fixation with Baroque painting ". Above all, Lagrenée was inspired by the Bolognese School , particularly by the work of Guido Reni (1575-1642) and Francesco Albani (1578-1660). Later in his career, Lagrenée acquired the epithet 'the French Albani' ( l'Albane Francais ).

After returning from Rome in 1753, Lagrenée set to work on a large painting - The abduction of Dejaneira by the centaur Nessus (musée du Louvre ) - which, when finished in 1755, was the reception piece which earned him membership of the Académie de peinture and sculpture , by a unanimous vote. By this time, Lagrenée was already considered something of a celebrity.

Lagrenée's career blossomed in Paris, by completing many commissions for eminent patrons and members of a flourishing new financial community as well as submitting regular entries to Paris salon exhibitions. His reputation caught the attention of Elizabeth Petrovna , Empress of Russia, who, in 1760, appointed him to the office of the director of the Academy at St. Petersburg and that of her principle painter.
Paris
After only two years in Russia, Lagrenée returned to Paris to take up the appointment of professor-rector of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture .
Rome
Lagrenée spent the years between 1781 and 1787 at the Villa Medici in Rome, in his capacity as director of the French Academy ( Académie de France à Rome ).
Paris
A final return to Paris saw Lagrenée appointed to the position of honorary curator-director (administration) of the Louvre museum, a position which he held until his death in 1805.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Alexander Consulting the Oracle of Apollo by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée - Artvee

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée (aka Lagrenée the elder ) was a French rococo painter and student of Carle van Loo . He won the Grand Prix ​​de Rome for painting in 1749 and was elected a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1755.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Sculpture of Apollo or Alexander the Great, National Museums Liverpool

# data[].attributes.body
The images of Alexander the Great is higly resembled to the images of Apollo, as both of them are handsome young men with curly hair and no beard. It can be a way to get deified by overlapping his image with that of the god.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Apollo Citharoedus, a wall-painting from the Palatine Antiquarium

# data[].attributes.body
Since apollo is associated with multiple duties as "the god of oracles, healing, archery, music and arts, sunlight, knowledge, herds and flocks, and protection of the young", different duties would be emphasised by distinct tellers of the Apollo myths.

Before the Roman emperor Augustus, Apollo was largely depicted as a foreign god of healing. During Augustus' reign, Apollo became one of the major gods in Rome, as he attributed his victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actim to the god, and emphasised the prohetic nature of the the deity. The emperor's effort to grant Apollo authority might also helped him stabilize his authority over the empire/

https://ancient-history-blog.mq.edu.au/cityOfRome/ApolloBlog

# data[].attributes.body
Belenus is the god of sun and healing from the Celtic mythology. During the Roman period, the image of Belenus is often associated with the image of Apollo, perhaps due to their similar duties of healing the the sun.

https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Belenus

# data[].attributes.body
https://dionysianartist.wordpress.com/2016/10/24/symbols-and-icons-of-dionysos/

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Dionysus (; Greek: Διόνυσος Dionysos) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth.[2][3] He is also known as Bacchus ( or ; Greek: Βάκχος Bacchos), the name adopted by the Romans;[4] the frenzy that he induces is bakkheia. As Eleutherios ("the liberator"), his wine, music, and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His thyrsus, a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents.[5] Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself.[6]

Dionysus
(Bacchus)

God of wine, vegetation, fertility, festivity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, theatre

Member of the Twelve Olympians

Abode
Mount Olympus

Symbol

Thyrsus, grapevine, bull, panther, tiger or lion, ivy, goat, theatrical masks, snake, phallus

Festivals

Bacchanalia (Roman), Dionysia

Parents

Zeus and Semele,
Zeus and Demeter (some sources),
Zeus and Persephone ( Orphic),
Ammon and Amaltheia

Siblings

Aeacus, Angelos, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Eileithyia, Enyo, Eris, Ersa, Hebe, Helen of Troy, Hephaestus, Heracles, Hermes, Minos, Pandia, Persephone, Perseus, Rhadamanthus, Tantalus, the Graces, the Horae, the Litae, the Muses, the Moirai

Consort
Ariadne

Children

Priapus, Hymen, Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, Comus, Phthonus, the Graces, Deianira

Roman equivalent

Bacchus, Liber

Etruscan equivalent
Fufluns

Egyptian equivalent
Osiris

His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek.[7][8][9] In Orphic religion, he was variously a son of Zeus and Persephone; a chthonic or underworld aspect of Zeus; or the twice-born son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. The Eleusinian Mysteries identify him with Iacchus, the son or husband of Demeter. Most accounts say he was born in Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner. His attribute of "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults, as he is a god of epiphany, sometimes called "the god that comes".[10]

Wine was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus and was his earthly incarnation.[11] Wine could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness.[12] Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, the initial driving force behind the development of theatre in Western culture.[13] 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.[14] He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god.[15]

Romans identified Bacchus with their own Liber Pater, the "Free Father" of the Liberalia festival, patron of viniculture, wine and male fertility, and guardian of the traditions, rituals and freedoms attached to coming of age and citizenship, but the Roman state treated independent, popular festivals of Bacchus ( Bacchanalia) as subversive, partly because their free mixing of classes and genders transgressed traditional social and moral constraints. Celebration of the Bacchanalia was made a capital offence, except in the toned-down forms and greatly diminished congregations approved and supervised by the State. Festivals of Bacchus were merged with those of Liber and Dionysus.

The dio- prefix in Ancient Greek Διόνυσος (Diónūsos; /di.ó.nyː.sos/) has been associated since antiquity with Zeus ( genitive Dios), and the variants of the name seem to point to an original *Dios-nysos. The earliest attestation is the Mycenaean Greek dative form 𐀇𐀺𐀝𐀰 (di-wo-nu-so),[17] featured on two tablets that had been found at Mycenaean Pylos and dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. At that time, there could be no certainty on whether this was indeed a theonym,[18][19] but the 1989-90 Greek-Swedish Excavations at Kastelli Hill, Chania, unearthed, inter alia, four artefacts bearing Linear B inscriptions; among them, the inscription on item KH Gq 5 is thought to confirm Dionysus's early worship.[20] In Mycenean Greek the form of Zeus is di-wo.[21] The second element -nūsos is of unknown origin. It is perhaps associated with Mount Nysa, the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the Nysiads),[22] although Pherecydes of Syros had postulated nũsa as an archaic word for "tree" by the sixth century BC.[23][24] On a vase of Sophilos the Nysiads are named νύσαι ([25] nusae). Kretschmer asserted that νύση ( Thracian word that has the same meaning as νύμφη ( nusē) is a νυός ( snusā). nýmphē), a word similar with [26] He suggested that the male form is νῦσος ( nuos) (daughter in law, or bride, I-E *snusós, Sanskr. [25] Jane Ellen Harrison believed that the name Dionysus means "young Zeus".[27] Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name, since all attempts to find an nūsos) and this would make Dionysus the "son of Zeus". Indo-European etymology are doubtful.[17]

Later variants include Dionūsos and Diōnūsos in Boeotia; Dien(n)ūsos in Thessaly; Deonūsos and Deunūsos in Ionia; and Dinnūsos in Aeolia, besides other variants. A Dio- prefix is found in other names, such as that of the Dioscures, and may derive from Dios, the genitive of the name of Zeus.[28]

Nonnus, in his Dionysiaca, writes that the name Dionysus means "Zeus-limp" and that Hermes named the new born Dionysus this, "because Zeus while he carried his burden lifted one foot with a limp from the weight of his thigh, and nysos in Syracusan language means limping".[29] In his note to these lines, W. H. D. Rouse writes "It need hardly be said that these etymologies are wrong".[29] The Suda, a Byzantine encyclopedia based on classical sources, states that Dionysus was so named "from accomplishing [διανύειν] for each of those who live the wild life. Or from providing [διανοεῖν] everything for those who live the wild life."[30]

Academics in the nineteenth century, using study of philology and comparative mythology, often regarded Dionysus as a foreign deity who was only reluctantly accepted into the standard Greek pantheon at a relatively late date, based on his myths which often involve this theme - a god who spends much of his time on earth abroad, and struggles for acceptance when he returns to Greece. However, more recent evidence has shown that Dionysus was in fact one of the earliest gods attested in mainland Greek culture.[12] The earliest written records of Dionysus worship come from Mycenaean Greece, specifically in and around the Palace of Nestor in Pylos, dated to around 1300 BC.[31] The details of any religion surrounding Dionysus in this period are scant, and most evidence comes in the form only of his name, written as di-wo-nu-su-jo ("Dionysoio" = 'of Dionysus') in Linear B, preserved on fragments of clay tablets that indicate a connection to offerings or payments of wine, which was described as being "of Dionysoio". References have also been uncovered to "women of Oinoa", the "place of wine", who may correspond to the Dionysian women of later periods.[31]

Other Mycenaean records from Pylos record the worship of a god named Eleuther, who was the son of Zeus, and to whom oxen were sacrificed. The link to both Zeus and oxen, as well as etymological links between the name Eleuther or Eleutheros with the Latin name Liber Pater, indicates that this may have been another name for Dionysus. According to Károly Kerényi, these clues suggest that even in the thirteenth century BC, the core religion of Dionysus was in place, as were his important myths. At Knossos in Minoan Crete, men were often given the name "Pentheus", who is a figure in later Dionysian myth and which also means "suffering". Kerényi argued that to give such a name to one's child implies a strong religious connection, potentially not the separate character of Pentheus who suffers at the hands of Dionysus' followers in later myths, but as an epithet of Dionysus himself, whose mythology describes a god who must endure suffering before triumphing over it. According to Kerényi, the title of "man who suffers" likely originally referred to the god himself, only being applied to distinct characters as the myth developed.[31]The oldest known image of Dionysus, accompanied by his name, is found on a dinos by the Attic potter Sophilos around 570 BC. By the seventh century, iconography found on pottery shows that Dionysus was already worshiped as more than just a god associated with wine. He was associated with weddings, death, sacrifice, and sexuality, and his retinue of satyrs and dancers was already established. A common theme in these early depictions was the metamorphosis, at the hand of the god, of his followers into hybrid creatures, usually represented by both tame and wild satyrs, representing the transition from civilized life back to nature as a means of escape.[12]

Dionysus was variably known with the following epithets:

Acratophorus, Ἀκρατοφόρος ("giver of unmixed wine"), at Phigaleia in Arcadia.[32]

Aisymnetes, Αἰσυμνήτης (insensitive) who rules the faith (μοίρα).

Acroreites at Sicyon.[33]

Adoneus, a rare archaism in Roman literature, a Latinised form of Adonis, used as epithet for Bacchus.[34]

Aegobolus Αἰγοβόλος ("goat-shooter") at Potniae, in Boeotia.[35]

Aesymnetes Αἰσυμνήτης ("ruler" or "lord") at Aroë and Patrae in Achaea.

Agrios Ἄγριος ("wild"), in Macedonia.

Bassareus, Βασσαρεύς a Thracian name for Dionysus, which derives from bassaris or "fox-skin", which item was worn by his cultists in their mysteries.[39]

Bougenes, Βουγενής or Boηγενής ("borne by an cow"), in the Mysteries of Lerna.[40][41]

Braetes, Βραίτης ("related to beer") at Thrace.[42]

Briseus Βρῑσεὐς ("he who prevails") in Smyrna.[43][44]

Bromios Βρόμιος ("roaring", as of the wind, primarily relating to the central death/resurrection element of the myth,[45] but also the god's transformations into lion and bull,[46] and the boisterousness of those who drink alcohol. Also cognate with the "roar of thunder", which refers to Dionysus' father, Zeus "the thunderer".[47])

Choiropsalas χοιροψάλας ("pig-plucker": Greek χοῖρος = "pig", also used as a slang term for the female genitalia). A reference to Dionysus's role as a fertility deity.[48][49]

Dimetor Διμήτωρ ("twice-born") Refers to Dionysus's two births.[36][52][53][54]

Dendrites Δενδρίτης ("he of the trees"), as a fertility god.

Dithyrambos, Διθύραμβος used at his festivals, referring to his premature birth.

Eleutherios Ἐλευθέριος ("the liberator"), an epithet shared with Eros.

Endendros ("he in the tree").[55]

Enorches ("with balls"),[56] with reference to his fertility, or "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the baby Dionysus "into his thigh", understood to mean his testicles).[57] used in Samos and Lesbos.

Erikryptos Ἐρίκρυπτος ("completely hidden"), in Macedonia.

Euaster (Εὐαστήρ), from the cry "euae".[59]

Euius ( Euios), from the cry "euae" in lyric passages, and in Euripides' play, The Bacchae.[60]

Iacchus, Ἴακχος a possible epithet of Dionysus, associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries. In Eleusis, he is known as a son of Zeus and Demeter. The name "Iacchus" may come from the Ιακχος ( Iakchos), a hymn sung in honor of Dionysus.

Kemilius, Κεμήλιος ( kemas: "young deer, pricket").[62][63]

Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan"), as a fertility god connected with mystery religions. A winnowing fan was used to separate the chaff from the grain.

Lyaeus, or Lyaios (Λυαῖος, "deliverer", literally "loosener"), one who releases from care and anxiety.[65]

Lysius, Λύσιος ("delivering, releasing"). At Thebes there was a temple of Dionysus Lysius.[66][67][68]

Melanaigis Μελάναιγις ("of the black goatskin") at the Apaturia festival.

Morychus Μόρυχος ("smeared"); in Sicily, because his icon was smeared with wine lees at the vintage.[69][70]

Mystes Μύστης ("of the mysteries") at Tegea in Arcadia.[71][72]

Nysian Nύσιος, according to Philostratus, he was called like this by the ancient Indians.[73] Most probably, because according to legend he founded the city of Nysa.[74][75][76]

Oeneus, Οἰνεύς ("wine-dark") as god of the wine press.[77][78]

Omadios ("flesh-eater"), Eusebius writes in Preparation for the Gospel that, Euelpis of Carystus states that, in Chios and Tenedos they did human sacrifice to Dionysus Omadios.[79]

Phallen , ( Φαλλήν) (probably "related to the phallus"), at Lesbos.[80][81]

Phleus ("related to the bloοm of a plant").[82][83][84]

Pseudanor Ψευδάνωρ (literally "false man", referring to his feminine qualities), in Macedonia.

Semeleios[86] ( Semeleius or Semeleus),[87] an obscure epithet meaning 'He of the Earth', 'son of Semele'.[88][89][90][91] Also appears in the expression Semeleios Iakchus plutodotas ("Son of Semele, Iakchus, wealth-giver").[92]

Theoinus, Θέοινος (wine-god of a festival in Attica).[99][100][101]

Τhyiοn, Θυίων ("from the festival of Dionysus 'Thyia' (Θυῐα) at Elis").[102][103]

Dionysus worship became firmly established by the seventh century BC.[107] He may have been worshiped as early as c. 1500-1100 BC by Mycenaean Greeks;[108][20] and traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete.[31]

The Dionysia, Haloa, Ascolia and Lenaia festivals were dedicated to Dionysus.[109] The Rural Dionysia (or Lesser Dionysia) was one of the oldest festivals dedicated to Dionysus, begun in Attica, and probably celebrated the cultivation of vines. It was held during the winter month of Poseideon (the time surrounding the winter solstice, modern December or January). The Rural Dionysia centered on a procession, during which participants carried phalluses, long loaves of bread, jars of water and wine as well as other offerings, and young girls carried baskets. The procession was followed by a series of dramatic performances and drama competitions.[110]

The City Dionysia (or Greater Dionysia) took place in urban centers such as Athens and Eleusis, and was a later development, probably beginning during the sixth century BC. Held three months after the Rural Dionysia, the Greater festival fell near the spring equinox in the month of Elaphebolion (modern March or April). The procession of the City Dionysia was similar to that of the rural celebrations, but more elaborate, and led by participants carrying a wooden statue of Dionysus, and including sacrificial bulls and ornately dressed choruses. The dramatic competitions of the Greater Dionysia also featured more noteworthy poets and playwrights, and prizes for both dramatists and actors in multiple categories.[110][13]

Anthestria (Ἀνθεστήρια) was an Athenian festival that celebrated the beginning of spring. It spanned three days: Pithoigia (Πιθοίγια, "Jar-Opening"), Choes (Χοαί, "The Pouring") and Chythroi (Χύτροι "The Pots").[111] It was said the dead arose from the underworld during the span of the festival. Along with the souls of the dead, the Keres also wandered through the city and had to be banished when the festival ended.[112] On the first day, Wine vats were opened.[113] The wine was opened and mixed in honour of the god.[114] The rooms and the drinking vessels were adorned with flowers along with children over three years of age.[111]

On the second day, a solemn ritual for Dionysus occurred along with drinking. People dressed up, sometimes as members of Dionysus's entourage, and visited others. Choes was also the occasion of a solemn and secret ceremony. In one of the sanctuaries of Dionysus in the Lenaeum, which for the rest of the year was closed. The basilissa (or basilinna), wife of the basileus, underwent through a symbolic ceremonial marriage to the god, possibly representing a Hieros gamos. The basilissa was assisted by fourteen Athenian matrons (called Gerarai) who were chosen by the basileus and sworn to secrecy.[111][115]

The last day was dedicated to the dead. Offerings were also offered to Hermes, due to his connection to the underworld. It was considered a day of merrymaking.[111] Some poured Libations on the tombs of deceased relatives. Chythroi ended with a ritual cry intended to order the souls of the dead to return to the underworld.[115] Keres were also banished from the festival on the last day.[112]

To protect themselves from evil, people chewed leaves of whitethorn and smeared their doors with tar to protect themselves. The festival also allowed servants and slaves to join in on the festivities.[111][112]

The central religious cult of Dionysus is known as the Bacchic or Dionysian Mysteries. The exact origin of this religion is unknown, though Orpheus was said to have invented the mysteries of Dionysus.[116] Evidence suggests that many sources and rituals typically considered to be part of the similar Orphic Mysteries actually belong to Dionysian mysteries.[12] Some scholars have suggested that, additionally, there is no difference between the Dionysian mysteries and the mysteries of Persephone, but that these were all facets of the same mystery religion, and that Dionysus and Persephone both had important roles in it.[12][117] Previously considered to have been a primarily rural and fringe part of Greek religion, the major urban center of Athens played a major role in the development and spread of the Bacchic mysteries.[12]

The Bacchic mysteries served an important role in creating ritual traditions for transitions in people's lives; originally primarily for men and male sexuality, but later also created space for ritualizing women's changing roles and celebrating changes of status in a woman's life. This was often symbolized by a meeting with the gods who rule over death and change, such as Hades and Persephone, but also with Dionysus' mother Semele, who probably served a role related to initiation into the mysteries.[12]

The religion of Dionysus often included rituals involving the sacrifice of goats or bulls, and at least some participants and dancers wore wooden masks associated with the god. In some instances, records show the god participating in the ritual via a masked and clothed pillar, pole, or tree is used, while his worshipers eat bread and drink wine. The significance of masks and goats to the worship of Dionysus seems to date back to the earliest days of his worship, and these symbols have been found together at a Minoan tomb near Phaistos in Crete.[31]

As early as the fifth century BC, Dionysus became identified with Iacchus, a minor deity from the tradition of the Eleusinian Mysteries.[118] This association may have arisen because of the homophony of the names Iacchus and Bacchus. Two black-figure lekythoi (c. 500 BC), possibly represent the earliest evidence for such an association. The nearly-identical vases, one in Berlin,[119] the other in Rome,[120] depict Dionysus, along with the inscription IAKXNE, a possible miswriting of IAKXE.[121] More early evidence can be found in the works of the fifth-century BC Athenian tragedians Sophocles and Euripides.[122] In Sophocles' Antigone (c. 441 BC), an ode to Dionysus begins by addressing Dionysus as the "God of many names" ( πολυώνυμε), who rules over the glens of Demeter's Eleusis, and ends by identifying him with "Iacchus the Giver", who leads "the chorus of the stars whose breath is fire" and whose "attendant Thyiads" dance in "night-long frenzy".[123] And in a fragment from a lost play, Sophocles describes Nysa, Dionysus' traditional place of nurture: "From here I caught sight of Nysa, haunt of Bacchus, famed among mortals, which Iacchus of the bull's horns counts as his beloved nurse".[124] In Euripides' Bacchae (c. 405 BC), a messenger, describing the Bacchic revelries on mount Cithaeron, associates Iacchus with Bromius, another of the names of Dionysus, saying, they "began to wave the thyrsos ... calling on Iacchus, the son of Zeus, Bromius, with united voice."[125]

An inscription found on a stone stele (c. 340 BC), found at Delphi, contains a paean to Dionysus, which describes his travels.[126] From Thebes, where he was born, he first went to Delphi where he displayed his "starry body", and with "Delphian girls" took his "place on the folds of Parnassus",[127] then next to Eleusis, where he is called "Iacchus":

And in your hand brandishing your night-

lighting flame, with god-possessed frenzy

you went to the vales of Eleusis

...

where the whole people of Hellas'

land, alongside your own native witnesses

of the holy mysteries, calls upon you

as Iacchus: for mortals from their pains

you have opened a haven without toils.[128]

Strabo, says that Greeks "give the name 'Iacchus' not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries".[129] In particular, Iacchus was identified with the Orphic Dionysus, who was a son of Persephone.[130] Sophocles mentions "Iacchus of the bull's horns", and according to the first-century BC historian Diodorus Siculus, it was this older Dionysus who was represented in paintings and sculptures with horns, because he "excelled in sagacity and was the first to attempt the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed".[131] Arrian, the second-century Greek historian, wrote that it was to this Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone, "not the Theban Dionysus, that the mystic chant 'Iacchus' is sung".[132] The second-century poet Lucian also referred to the "dismemberment of Iacchus".[133]

The fourth- or fifth-century poet Nonnus associated the name Iacchus with the "third" Dionysus. He described the Athenian celebrations given to the first Dionysus Zagreus, son of Persephone, the second Dionysus Bromios, son of Semele, and the third Dionysus Iacchus:

They [the Athenians] honoured him as a god next after the son of Persephone, and after Semele's son; they established sacrifices for Dionysos late born and Dionysos first born, and third they chanted a new hymn for Iacchos. In these three celebrations Athens held high revel; in the dance lately made, the Athenians beat the step in honour of Zagreus and Bromios and Iacchos all together.[134]

By some accounts, Iacchus was the husband of Demeter.[135] Several other sources identify Iacchus as Demeter's son.[136] The earliest such source, a fourth-century BC vase fragment at Oxford, shows Demeter holding the child Dionysus on her lap.[137] By the first-century BC, Demeter suckling Iacchus had become such a common motif, that the Latin poet Lucretius could use it as an apparently recognizable example of a lover's euphemism.[138] A scholiast on the second-century AD Aristides, explicitly names Demeter as Iacchus' mother.[139]

In the Orphic tradition, the "first Dionysus" was the son of Zeus and Persephone, and was dismembered by the Titans before being reborn.[140] Dionysus was the patron god of the Orphics, who they connected to death and immortality, and he symbolized the one who guides the process of reincarnation.[141]

This Orphic Dionysus is sometimes referred to with the alternate name Zagreus ( Greek: Ζαγρεύς ). The earliest mentions of this name in literature describe him as a partner of Gaia and call him the highest god. Aeschylus linked Zagreus with Hades, as either Hades' son or Hades himself.[142] Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' katachthonios alter ego", Timothy Gantz thought it likely that Zagreus, originally, perhaps, the son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone.[143] However, no known Orphic sources use the name "Zagreus" to refer to the Orphic Dionysus. It is possible that the association between the two was known by the third century BC, when the poet Callimachus may have written about it in a now-lost source.[144] Callimachus, as well as his contemporary Euphorion, told the story of the dismemberment of the infant Dionysus,[145] and Byzantine sources quote Callimachus as referring to the birth of a "Dionysos Zagreus", explaining that Zagreus was the poets' name for the chthonic aspect of Dionysus.[146] The earliest definitive reference to the belief that Zagreus is another name for the Orphic Dionysus is found in the late first century writings of Plutarch.[147] The fifth century Greek poet Nonnus' Dionysiaca tells the story of this Orphic Dionysus, in which Nonnus calls him the "older Dionysos ... illfated Zagreus",[148] "Zagreus the horned baby",[149] "Zagreus, the first Dionysos",[150] "Zagreus the ancient Dionysos",[151] and "Dionysos Zagreus".[152]

The mystery cult of Bacchus was brought to Rome from the Greek culture of southern Italy or by way of Greek-influenced Etruria. It was established around 200 BC in the Aventine grove of Stimula by a priestess from Campania, near the temple where Liber Pater ("the Free Father") had a State-sanctioned, popular cult. Liber was a native Roman god of wine, fertility, and prophecy, patron of Rome's plebeians (citizen-commoners), and one of the members of the Aventine Triad, along with his mother Ceres and sister or consort Libera. A temple to the Triad was erected on the Aventine Hill in 493 BC, along with the institution of celebrating the festival of Liberalia. The worship of the Triad gradually took on more and more Greek influence, and by 205 BC, Liber and Libera had been formally identified with Bacchus and Proserpina.[153] Liber was often interchangeably identified with Dionysus and his mythology, though this identification was not universally accepted.[154] Cicero insisted on the "non-identity of Liber and Dionysus" and described Liber and Libera as children of Ceres.[155]

Liber, like his Aventine companions, carried various aspects of his older cults into official Roman religion. He protected various aspects of agriculture and fertility, including the vine and the "soft seed" of its grapes, wine and wine vessels, and male fertility and virility.[155] Pliny called Liber "the first to establish the practice of buying and selling; he also invented the diadem, the emblem of royalty, and the triumphal procession."[156] Roman mosaics and sarcophagi attest to various representations of a Dionysus-like exotic triumphal procession. In Roman and Greek literary sources from the late Republic and Imperial era, several notable triumphs feature similar, distinctively "Bacchic" processional elements, recalling the supposedly historic "Triumph of Liber".[157]

Liber and Dionysus may have had a connection that predated Classical Greece and Rome, in the form of the Mycenaean god Eleutheros, who shared the lineage and iconography of Dionysus but whose name has the same meaning as Liber.[31] Before the importation of the Greek cults, Liber was already strongly associated with Bacchic symbols and values, including wine and uninhibited freedom, as well as the subversion of the powerful. Several depictions from the late Republic era feature processions, depicting the "Triumph of Liber".[157]

In Rome, the most well-known festivals of Bacchus were the Bacchanalia, based on the earlier Greek Dionysia festivals. These Bacchic rituals were said to have included omophagic practices, such as pulling live animals apart and eating the whole of them raw. This practice served not only as a reenactment of the infant death and rebirth of Bacchus, but also as a means by which Bacchic practitioners produced "enthusiasm": etymologically, to let a god enter the practitioner's body or to have her become one with Bacchus.[158][159]

In Livy's account, the Bacchic mysteries were a novelty at Rome; originally restricted to women and held only three times a year, they were corrupted by an Etruscan-Greek version, and thereafter drunken, disinhibited men and women of all ages and social classes cavorted in a sexual free-for-all five times a month. Livy relates their various outrages against Rome's civil and religious laws and traditional morality (mos maiorum); a secretive, subversive and potentially revolutionary counter-culture. Livy's sources, and his own account of the cult, probably drew heavily on the Roman dramatic genre known as "Satyr plays", based on Greek originals.[160][161] The cult was suppressed by the State with great ferocity; of the 7,000 arrested, most were executed. Modern scholarship treats much of Livy's account with skepticism; more certainly, a Senatorial edict, the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus was distributed throughout Roman and allied Italy. It banned the former Bacchic cult organisations. Each meeting must seek prior senatorial approval through a praetor. No more than three women and two men were allowed at any one meeting, and those who defied the edict risked the death penalty.

In the Neoplatonist philosophy and religion of Late Antiquity, the Olympian gods were sometimes considered to number 12 based on their spheres of influence. For example, according to Sallustius, "Jupiter, Neptune, and Vulcan fabricate the world; Ceres, Juno, and Diana animate it; Mercury, Venus, and Apollo harmonize it; and, lastly, Vesta, Minerva, and Mars preside over it with a guarding power."[163] The multitude of other gods, in this belief system, subsist within the primary gods, and Sallustius taught that Bacchus subsisted in Jupiter.[163]

In the Orphic tradition, a saying was supposedly given by an oracle of Apollo that stated " Zeus, Hades, [and] Helios-Dionysus" were "three gods in one godhead". This statement apparently conflated Dionysus not only with Hades, but also his father Zeus, and implied a particularly close identification with the sun-god Helios. When quoting this in his Hymn to King Helios, Emperor Julian substituted Dionysus' name with that of Serapis, whose Egyptian counterpart Osiris was also identified with Dionysus.

According to the Lanercost chronicle, during Easter in 1282 in Scotland, the parish priest of Inverkeithing led young women in a dance in honor of Priapus and Father Liber, commonly identified with Dionysus. The priest danced and sang at the front, carrying a representation of the phallus on a pole. He was killed by a Christian mob later that year.[164] Historian C. S. Watkins believes that Richard of Durham, the author of the chronicle, identified an occurrence of apotropaic magic with his knowledge of ancient Greek religion, rather than recording an actual case of survival of pagan rituals.[165]

The late medieval Byzantine scholar Gemistus Pletho secretly advocated in favor of a return to paganism in medieval Greece.[citation needed ]

In 1820, Ephraim Lyon founded the Church of Bacchus in Eastford, Connecticut. He declared himself High Priest, and added local drunks to the list of membership. He maintained that those who died as members would go to a Bacchanalia for their afterlife.[167]

Modern pagan and polytheist groups often include worship of Dionysus in their traditions and practices, most prominently groups which have sought to revive Hellenic polytheism, such as the Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes (YSEE).[168] In addition to libations of wine, modern worshipers of Dionysus offer the god grape vines, ivy, and various forms of incense, particularly styrax.[169] They may also celebrate Roman festivals such as the Liberalia (March 17, close to the Spring Equinox) or Bacchanalia (Various dates), and various Greek festivals such as the Anthesteria, Lenaia, and the Greater and Lesser Dionysias, the dates of which are calculated by the lunar calendar.[170]

In the Greek interpretation of the Egyptian pantheon, Dionysus was often identified with Osiris.[171] Stories of the dismemberment of Osiris and the re-assembly and resurrection by Isis closely parallel those of the Orphic Dionysus and Demeter.[172] According to Diodorus Siculus,[173] as early as the fifth century BC, the two gods had been syncretized as a single deity known as Dionysus-Osiris. The most notable record of this belief is found in Herodotus' ' Histories'.[174] Plutarch also described his belief that Osiris and Dionysus were identical, stating that anyone familiar with the secret rituals associated with both gods would recognize obvious parallels, and that their dismemberment myths and associated public symbols are enough additional evidence that they are the same god worshiped by two different cultures.[175]

Other syncretic Greco-Egyptian deities arose out of this conflation, including with the gods Serapis and Hermanubis. Serapis was believed to be both Hades and Osiris, and the Roman Emperor Julian considered him the same as Dionysus as well. Dionysus-Osiris was particularly popular in Ptolemaic Egypt, as the Ptolemies claimed descent from Dionysus, and as Pharaoes they had claim to the lineage of Osiris.[176] This association was most notable during a deification ceremony where Mark Antony became Dionysus-Osiris, alongside Cleopatra as Isis-Aphrodite.[177]

Egyptian myths about Priapus said that the Titans conspired against Osiris, killed him, divided his body into equal parts, and "slipped them secretly out of the house". All but Osiris' penis, which since none of them "was willing to take it with him", they threw into the river. Isis, Osiris' wife, hunted down and killed the Titans, reassembled Osiris' body parts "into the shape of a human figure", and gave them "to the priests with orders that they pay Osiris the honours of a god". But since she was unable to recover the penis she ordered the priests "to pay to it the honours of a god and to set it up in their temples in an erect position."[178]

The fifth-fourth century BC philosopher Heraclitus, unifying opposites, declared that Hades and Dionysus, the very essence of indestructible life (zoë), are the same god.[179] Among other evidence, Karl Kerényi notes in his book[180] that the Homeric Hymn "To Demeter",[181] votive marble images[182] and epithets[183] all link Hades to being Dionysus. He also notes that the grieving goddess Demeter refused to drink wine, as she states that it would be against themis for her to drink wine, which is the gift of Dionysus, after Persephone's abduction, because of this association; indicating that Hades may in fact have been a "cover name" for the underworld Dionysus.[184] He suggests that this dual identity may have been familiar to those who came into contact with the Mysteries.[185] One of the epithets of Dionysus was "Chthonios", meaning "the subterranean".[186]

Evidence for a cult connection is quite extensive, particularly in southern Italy, especially when considering the heavy involvement of death symbolism included in Dionysian worship;[187] statues of Dionysus[188][189] found in the Ploutonion at Eleusis gives further evidence as the statues found bear a striking resemblance to the statue of Eubouleus, also called Aides Kyanochaites (Hades of the flowing dark hair),[190][191][192] known as the youthful depiction of the Lord of the Underworld. The statue of Eubouleus is described as being radiant but disclosing a strange inner darkness[193][191] Ancient portrayals show Dionysus holding in his hand the kantharos, a wine-jar with large handles, and occupying the place where one would expect to see Hades. Archaic artist Xenocles portrayed on one side of a vase, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, each with his emblems of power; with Hades' head turned back to front and, on the other side, Dionysus striding forward to meet his bride Persephone, with the kantharos in his hand, against a background of grapes.[194] Dionysus also shared several epithets with Hades such as Chthonios, Eubouleus and Euclius.

Both Hades and Dionysus were associated with a divine tripartite deity with Zeus.[195][196] Zeus, like Dionysus, was occasionally believed to have an underworld form, closely identified with Hades, to the point that they were occasionally thought of as the same god.[196]

According to Marguerite Rigoglioso, Hades is Dionysus, and this dual god was believed by the Eleusinian tradition to have impregnated Persephone. This would bring the Eleusinian in harmony with the myth in which Zeus, not Hades, impregnated Persephone to bear the first Dionysus. Rigoglioso argues that taken together, these myths suggest a belief that is that, with Persephone, Zeus/Hades/Dionysus created (in terms quoted from Kerényi) "a second, a little Dionysus", who is also a "subterranean Zeus".[196] The unification of Hades, Zeus, and Dionysus as a single tripartite god was used to represent the birth, death and resurrection of a deity and to unify the 'shining' realm of Zeus and the dark underworld realm of Hades.[195] According to Rosemarie Taylor-Perry,[195][196]

it is often mentioned that Zeus, Hades and Dionysus were all attributed to being the exact same god... Being a tripartite deity Hades is also Zeus, doubling as being the Sky God or Zeus, Hades abducts his 'daughter' and paramour Persephone. The taking of Kore by Hades is the act which allows the conception and birth of a second integrating force: Iacchos (Zagreus-Dionysus), also known as Liknites, the helpless infant form of that Deity who is the unifier of the dark underworld (chthonic) realm of Hades and the Olympian ("Shining") one of Zeus.

The Phrygian god Sabazios was alternately identified with Zeus or with Dionysus. The Byzantine Greek encyclopedia, Suda (c. tenth century), stated:[199]

Sabazios ... is the same as Dionysos. He acquired this form of address from the rite pertaining to him; for the barbarians call the bacchic cry "sabazein". Hence some of the Greeks too follow suit and call the cry "sabasmos"; thereby Dionysos [becomes] Sabazios. They also used to call "saboi" those places that had been dedicated to him and his Bacchantes ... Demosthenes [in the speech] "On Behalf of Ktesiphon" [mentions them]. Some say that Saboi is the term for those who are dedicated to Sabazios, that is to Dionysos, just as those [dedicated] to Bakkhos [are] Bakkhoi. They say that Sabazios and Dionysos are the same. Thus some also say that the Greeks call the Bakkhoi Saboi.

Strabo, in the first century, linked Sabazios with Zagreus among Phrygian ministers and attendants of the sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos.[200] Strabo's Sicilian contemporary, Diodorus Siculus, conflated Sabazios with the secret Dionysus, born of Zeus and Persephone,[201] However, this connection is not supported by any surviving inscriptions, which are entirely to Zeus Sabazios.[202]

Several ancient sources record an apparently widespread belief in the classical world that the god worshiped by the Jewish people, Yahweh, was identifiable as Dionysus or Liber via his identification with Sabazios. Tacitus, Lydus, Cornelius Labeo, and Plutarch all either made this association, or discussed it as an extant belief (though some, like Tacitus, specifically brought it up in order to reject it). According to Plutarch, one of the reasons for the identification is that Jews were reported to hail their god with the words "Euoe" and "Sabi", a cry typically associated with the worship of Sabazius. According to scholar Sean McDonough, it is possible that Plutarch's sources had confused the cry of "Iao Sabaoth" (typically used by Greek speakers in reference to Yahweh) with the Sabazian cry of "Euoe Saboe", originating the confusion and conflation of the two deities. The cry of "Sabi" could also have been conflated with the Jewish term "sabbath", adding to the evidence the ancients saw that Yahweh and Dionysus/Sabazius were the same deity. Further bolstering this connection would have been coins used by the Maccabees that included imagery linked to the worship of Dionysus such as grapes, vine leaves, and cups. However the belief that the Jewish god was identical with Dionysus/Sabazius was widespread enough that a coin dated to 55 BC depicting a kneeling king was labelled "Bacchus Judaeus" ( BACCHIVS IVDAEVS), and in 139 BC praetor Cornelius Scipio Hispalus deported Jewish people for attempting to "infect the Roman customs with the cult of Jupiter Sabazius".[203]

Various different accounts and traditions existed in the ancient world regarding the parentage, birth, and life of Dionysus on earth, complicated by his several rebirths. By the first century BC, some mythographers had attempted to harmonize the various accounts of Dionysus' birth into a single narrative involving not only multiple births, but two or three distinct manifestations of the god on earth throughout history in different lifetimes. The historian Diodorus Siculus said that according to "some writers of myths" there were two gods named Dionysus, an older one, who was the son of Zeus and Persephone,[205] but that the "younger one also inherited the deeds of the older, and so the men of later times, being unaware of the truth and being deceived because of the identity of their names thought there had been but one Dionysus."[206] He also said that Dionysus "was thought to have two forms...the ancient one having a long beard, because all men in early times wore long beards, the younger one being youthful and effeminate and young."[207]

Though the varying genealogy of Dionysus was mentioned in many works of classical literature, only a few contain the actual narrative myths surrounding the events of his multiple births. These include the first century BC Bibliotheca historica by Greek historian Diodorus, which describes the birth and deeds of the three incarnations of Dionysus;[208] the brief birth narrative given by the first century AD Roman author Hyginus, which describes a double birth for Dionysus; and a longer account in the form of Greek poet Nonnus's epic Dionysiaca, which discusses three incarnations of Dionysus similar to Diodorus' account, but which focuses on the life of the third Dionysus, born to Zeus and Semele.

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.[209] 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.[209]

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)[211] 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)[212] After her union with Zeus, Perseophone'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 the world. (Dionysiaca 6)[213]

Interpretation Edit

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 and then reborn. The myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus was alluded to as early as the fourth century BC by Plato in his Phaedo, in which Socrates claims that the initiations of the Dionysian Mysteries are similar to those of the philosophic path. Late Neoplatonists such as Damascius explored the implications of this at length.[214] The dismemberment of Dionysus (the sparagmos) is often considered to be the most important myth of Orphism.[215]

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.[216] As pieced together from various ancient sources, the reconstructed story, usually given by modern scholars, goes as follows.[217] 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 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.[218]

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.[219] 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.[209]

The birth narrative given by Gaius Julius Hyginus (c. 64 BC - 17 AD) in Fabulae 167, agrees with the Orphic tradition that Liber (Dionysus) was originally the son of Jove (Zeus) and Proserpine (Persephone). Hyginus writes that Liber was torn apart by the Titans, so Jove took the fragments of his heart and put them into a drink which he gave to Semele, the daughter of Harmonia and Cadmus, king and founder of Thebes. This resulted in Semele becoming pregnant. Juno appeared to Semele in the form of her nurse, Beroe, and told her: "Daughter, ask Jove to come to you as he comes to Juno, so you may know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god." When Semele requested that Jove do so, she was killed by a thunderbolt. Jove then took the infant Liber from her womb, and put him in the care of Nysus. Hyginus states that "for this reason he is called Dionysus, and also the one with two mothers" ( dimētōr).[220]

Nonnus describes how, when life was rejuvenated after the flood, it was lacking in revelry in the absence of Dionysus. "The Seasons, those daughters of the lichtgang, still joyless, plaited garlands for the gods only of meadow-grass. For Wine was lacking. Without Bacchos to inspire the dance, its grace was only half complete and quite without profit; it charmed only the eyes of the company, when the circling dancer moved in twists and turns with a tumult of footsteps, having only nods for words, hand for mouth, fingers for voice." Zeus declared that he would send his son Dionysus to teach mortals how to grow grapes and make wine, to alleviate their toil, war, and suffering. After he became protector of humanity, Zeus promises, Dionysus would struggle on earth, but be received "by the bright upper air to shine beside Zeus and to share the courses of the stars." (Dionysiaca 7).[221]

The mortal princess Semele then had a dream, in which Zeus destroyed a fruit tree with a bolt of lightning, but did not harm the fruit. He sent a bird to bring him one of the fruits, and sewed it into his thigh, so that he would be both mother and father to the new Dionysus. She saw the bull-shaped figure of a man emerge from his thigh, and then came to the realization that she herself had been the tree. Her father Cadmus, fearful of the prophetic dream, instructed Semele to make sacrifices to Zeus. Zeus came to Semele in her bed, adorned with various symbols of Dionysus. He transformed into a snake, and "Zeus made long wooing, and shouted "Euoi!" as if the winepress were near, as he begat his son who would love the cry." Immediately, Semele's bed and chambers were overgrown with vines and flowers, and the earth laughed. Zeus then spoke to Semele, revealing his true identity, and telling her to be happy: "you bring forth a son who shall not die, and you I will call immortal. Happy woman! you have conceived a son who will make mortals forget their troubles, you shall bring forth joy for gods and men." (Dionysiaca 7).[222]

During her pregnancy, Semele rejoiced in the knowledge that her son would be divine. She dressed herself in garlands of flowers and wreathes of ivy, and would run barefoot to the meadows and forests to frolic whenever she heard music. Hera became envious, and feared that Zeus would replace her with Semele as queen of Olympus. She went to Semele in the guise of an old woman who had been Cadmus' wet nurse. She made Semele jealous of the attention Zeus gave to Hera, compared with their own brief liaison, and provoked her to request Zeus to appear before her in his full godhood. Semele prayed to Zeus that he show himself. Zeus answered her prayers, but warned her than no other mortals had ever seen him as he held his lightning bolts. Semele reached out to touch them, and was burnt to ash. (Dionysiaca 8).[223] But the infant Dionysus survived, and Zeus rescued him from the flames, sewing him into his thigh. "So the rounded thigh in labour became female, and the boy too soon born was brought forth, but not in a mother's way, having passed from a mother's womb to a father's." (Dionysiaca 9). At his birth, he had a pair of horns shaped like a crescent moon. The Seasons crowned him with ivy and flowers, and wrapped horned snakes around his own horns.[224]

An alternate birth narrative is given by Diodorus from the Egyptian tradition. In it, Dionysus is the son of Ammon, who Diodorus regards both as the creator god and a quasi-historical king of Libya. Ammon had married the goddess Rhea, but he had an affair with Amaltheia, who bore Dionysus. Ammon feared Rhea's wrath if she were to discover the child, so he took the infant Dionysus to Nysa (Dionysus' traditional childhood home). Ammon brought Dionysus into a cave where he was to be cared for by Nysa, a daughter of the hero Aristaeus.[209] Dionysus grew famous due to his skill in the arts, his beauty, and his strength. It was said that he discovered the art of winemaking during his boyhood. His fame brought him to the attention of Rhea, who was furious with Ammon for his deception. She attempted to bring Dionysus under her own power but, unable to do so, she left Ammon and married Cronus.[209]

Interpretation Edit

Even in antiquity, the account of Dionysus' birth to a mortal woman led some to argue that he had been a historical figure who became deified over time, a suggestion of Euhemerism (an explanation of mythic events having roots in mortal history) often applied to demi-gods. The fourth century Roman emperor and philosopher Julian encountered examples of this belief, and wrote arguments against it. In his letter To the Cynic Heracleios, Julian wrote "I have heard many people say that Dionysus was a mortal man because he was born of Semele, and that he became a god through his knowledge of theurgy and the Mysteries, and like our lord Heracles for his royal virtue was translated to Olympus by his father Zeus." However, to Julian, the myth of Dionysus's birth (and that of Heracles) stood as an allegory for a deeper spiritual truth. The birth of Dionysus, Julian argues, was "no birth but a divine manifestation" to Semele, who foresaw that a physical manifestation of the god Dionysus would soon appear. However, Semele was impatient for the god to come, and began revealing his mysteries too early; for her transgression, she was struck down by Zeus. When Zeus decided it was time to impose a new order on humanity, for it to "pass from the nomadic to a more civilized mode of life", he sent his son Dionysus from India as a god made visible, spreading his worship and giving the vine as a symbol of his manifestation among mortals. In Julian's interpretation, the Greeks "called Semele the mother of Dionysus because of the prediction that she had made, but also because the god honored her as having been the first prophetess of his advent while it was yet to be." The allegorical myth of the birth of Dionysus, per Julian, was developed to express both the history of these events and encapsulate the truth of his birth outside the generative processes of the mortal world, but entering into it, though his true birth was directly from Zeus along into the intelligible realm.[11]

According to Nonnus, Zeus gave the infant Dionysus to the care of Hermes. Hermes gave Dionysus to the Lamides, or daughters of Lamos, who were river nymphs. But Hera drove the Lamides mad, and caused them to attack Dionysus, who was rescued by Hermes. Hermes next brought the infant to Ino for fostering by her attendant Mystis, who taught him the rites of the mysteries (Dionysiaca 9). In Apollodorus' account, Hermes instructed Ino to raise Dionysus as a girl, in order to hide him from Hera's wrath.[225] However, Hera found him, and vowed to destroy the house with a flood; however, Hermes again rescued Dionysus, this time bringing him to the mountains of Lydia. Hermes adopted the form of Phanes, most ancient of the gods, and so Hera bowed before him and let him pass. Hermes gave the infant to the goddess Rhea, who cared for him through his adolescence.[224]

Dionysus in Greek mythology is a god of foreign origin, and while Mount Nysa is a mythological location, it is invariably set far away to the east or to the south. The Homeric Hymn 1 to Dionysus places it "far from Phoenicia, near to the Egyptian stream".[227] Others placed it in Anatolia, or in Libya ("away in the west beside a great ocean"), in Ethiopia (Herodotus), or Arabia (Diodorus Siculus).[228] According to Herodotus:

As it is, the Greek story has it that no sooner was Dionysus born than Zeus sewed him up in his thigh and carried him away to Nysa in Ethiopia beyond Egypt; and as for Pan, the Greeks do not know what became of him after his birth. It is therefore plain to me that the Greeks learned the names of these two gods later than the names of all the others, and trace the birth of both to the time when they gained the knowledge.

The Bibliotheca seems to be following Pherecydes, who relates how the infant Dionysus, god of the grapevine, was nursed by the rain-nymphs, the Hyades at Nysa. Young Dionysus was also said to have been one of the many famous pupils of the centaur Chiron. According to Ptolemy Chennus in the Library of Photius, "Dionysus was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations."[229]

When Dionysus grew up, he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice, being the first to do so;[230] but Hera struck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the earth. In Phrygia the goddess Cybele, better known to the Greeks as Rhea, cured him and taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a progress through Asia teaching the people the cultivation of the vine. The most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India, which is said to have lasted several years. According to a legend, when Alexander the Great reached a city called Nysa near the Indus river, the locals said that their city was founded by Dionysus in the distant past and their city was dedicated to the god Dionysus.[231] These travels took something of the form of military conquests; according to Diodorus Siculus he conquered the whole world except for Britain and Ethiopia.[232]

Another myth according to Nonnus involves Ampelus, a satyr, who was loved by Dionysus. As related by Ovid, Ampelus became the constellation Vindemitor, or the "grape-gatherer":[233]

...not so will the Grape-gatherer escape thee. The origin of that constellation also can be briefly told. 'Tis said that the unshorn Ampelus, son of a nymph and a satyr, was loved by Bacchus on the Ismarian hills. Upon him the god bestowed a vine that trailed from an elm's leafy boughs, and still the vine takes from the boy its name. While he rashly culled the gaudy grapes upon a branch, he tumbled down; Liber bore the lost youth to the stars."

Another story of Ampelus was related by Nonnus: in an accident foreseen by Dionysus, the youth was killed while riding a bull maddened by the sting of a gadfly sent by Selene, the goddess of the Moon. The Fates granted Ampelus a second life as a vine, from which Dionysus squeezed the first wine.[234]

Returning in triumph to Greece after his travels in Asia, Dionysus came to be considered the founder of the triumphal procession. He undertook efforts to introduce his religion into Greece, but was opposed by rulers who feared it, on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it.

In one myth, adapted in Euripides' play The Bacchae, Dionysus returns to his birthplace, Thebes, which is ruled by his cousin Pentheus. Pentheus, as well as his mother Agave and his aunts Ino and Autonoe, disbelieve Dionysus' divine birth. Despite the warnings of the blind prophet Tiresias, they deny his worship and denounce him for inspiring the women of Thebes to madness.

Dionysus uses his divine powers to drive Pentheus insane, then invites him to spy on the ecstatic rituals of the Maenads, in the woods of Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus, hoping to witness a sexual orgy, hides himself in a tree. The Maenads spot him; maddened by Dionysus, they take him to be a mountain-dwelling lion, and attack him with their bare hands. Pentheus' aunts and his mother Agave are among them, and they rip him limb from limb. Agave mounts his head on a pike, and takes the trophy to her father Cadmus. The madness passes. Dionysus arrives in his true, divine form, banishes Agave and her sisters, and transforms Cadmus and his wife Harmonia into serpents. Only Tiresias is spared.[236]

When King Lycurgus of Thrace heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned Dionysus' followers, the Maenads. Dionysus fled and took refuge with Thetis, and sent a drought which stirred the people to revolt. The god then drove King Lycurgus insane and had him slice his own son into pieces with an axe in the belief that he was a patch of ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus. An oracle then claimed that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus lived, and his people had him drawn and quartered. Appeased by the king's death, Dionysus lifted the curse. This story is told in Homer's Iliad 6.136-137. In an alternative version, sometimes depicted in art, Lycurgus tries to kill Ambrosia, a follower of Dionysus, who was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and slowly strangled him.[237]

The Homeric Hymn 7 to Dionysus recounts how, while he sat on the seashore, some sailors spotted him, believing him a prince. They attempted to kidnap him and sail away to sell him for ransom or into slavery. No rope would bind him. The god turned into a fierce lion and unleashed a bear on board, killing all in his path. Those who jumped ship were mercifully turned into dolphins. The only survivor was the helmsman, Acoetes, who recognized the god and tried to stop his sailors from the start.[238]

In a similar story, Dionysus hired a Tyrrhenian pirate ship to sail from Icaria to Naxos. When he was aboard, they sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending to sell him as a slave. This time the god turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes so that the sailors went mad and, leaping into the sea, were turned into dolphins. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Bacchus begins this story as a young child found by the pirates, but transforms to a divine adult when on board.

Many of the myths involve Dionysus defending his godhead against skeptics. Malcolm Bull notes that "It is a measure of Bacchus's ambiguous position in classical mythology that he, unlike the other Olympians, had to use a boat to travel to and from the islands with which he is associated".[239] Paola Corrente notes that in many sources, the incident with the pirates happens towards the end of Dionysus' time among mortals. In that sense, it serves as final proof of his divinity, and is often followed by his descent into Hades to retrieve his mother, both of whom can then ascend into heaven to live alongside the other Olympian gods.[15]

Pausanias, in book II of his Description of Greece, describes two variant traditions regarding Dionysus' katabasis, or descent into the underworld. Both describe how Dionysus entered into the afterlife to rescue his mother Semele, and bring her to her rightful place on Olympus. To do so, he had to contend with the hell dog Cerberus, which was restrained for him by Heracles. After retrieving Semele, Dionysus emerged with her from the unfathomable waters of a lagoon on the coast of the Argolid near the prehistoric site of Lerna, according to the local tradition.[242] This mythic event was commemorated with a yearly nighttime festival, the details of which were held secret by the local religion. According to Paola Corrente, the emergence of Dionysus from the waters of the lagoon may signify a form of rebirth for both him and Semele as they reemerged from the underworld.[15][243] A variant of this myth forms the basis of Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs.[15]

According to the Christian writer Clement of Alexandria, Dionysus was guided in his journey by Prosymnus or Polymnus, who requested, as his reward, to be Dionysus' lover. Prosymnus died before Dionysus could honor his pledge, so to satisfy Prosymnus' shade, Dionysus fashioned a phallus from an olive branch and sat on it at Prosymnus' tomb.[244] This story survives in full only in Christian sources, whose aim was to discredit pagan mythology, but it appears to have also served to explain the origin of secret objects used by the Dionysian Mysteries.[245]

This same myth of Dionysus' descent to the underworld is related by both Diodorus Siculus in his first century BC work Bibliotheca historica, and Pseudo- Apollodorus in the third book of his first century AD work Bibliotheca. In the latter, Apollodorus tells how after having been hidden away from Hera's wrath, Dionysus traveled the world opposing those who denied his godhood, finally proving it when he transformed his pirate captors into dolphins. After this, the culmination of his life on earth was his descent to retrieve his mother from the underworld. He renamed his mother Thyone, and ascended with her to heaven, where she became a goddess.[246] In this variant of the myth, it is implied that Dionysus both must prove his godhood to mortals, then also legitimize his place on Olympus by proving his lineage and elevating his mother to divine status, before taking his place among the Olympic gods.[15]

Midas' golden touch Edit

Dionysus discovered that his old school master and foster father, Silenus, had gone missing. The old man had wandered away drunk, and was found by some peasants who carried him to their king Midas (alternatively, he passed out in Midas' rose garden). The king recognized him hospitably, feasting him for ten days and nights while Silenus entertained with stories and songs. On the eleventh day, Midas brought Silenus back to Dionysus. Dionysus offered the king his choice of reward.

Midas asked that whatever he might touch would turn to gold. Dionysus consented, though was sorry that he had not made a better choice. Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the test. He touched and turned to gold an oak twig and a stone, but his joy vanished when he found that his bread, meat, and wine also turned to gold. Later, when his daughter embraced him, she too turned to gold.

The horrified king strove to divest the Midas Touch, and he prayed to Dionysus to save him from starvation. The god consented, telling Midas to wash in the river Pactolus. As he did so, the power passed into them, and the river sands turned gold: this etiological myth explained the gold sands of the Pactolus.

Other myths Edit

When Hephaestus bound Hera to a magical chair, Dionysus got him drunk and brought him back to Olympus after he passed out.

When Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, Dionysus found and married her. She bore him a son named Oenopion, but he committed suicide or was killed by Perseus. In some variants, he had her crown put into the heavens as the constellation Corona; in others, he descended into Hades to restore her to the gods on Olympus. Another account claims Dionysus ordered Theseus to abandon Ariadne on the island of Naxos, for Dionysus had seen her as Theseus carried her onto the ship and had decided to marry her.

A third descent by Dionysus to Hades is invented by Aristophanes in his comedy The Frogs. Dionysus, as patron of the Athenian dramatic festival, the Dionysia, wants to bring back to life one of the great tragedians. After a poetry slam, Aeschylus is chosen in preference to Euripides.

Psalacantha, a nymph, failed to win the love of Dionysus in preference to Ariadne, and ended up being changed into a plant.

Dionysus fell in love with a handsome satyr named Ampelos, who was killed. He was changed into a grape-vine or grape gathering constellation upon death. There are two versions of his death. In Dionysiaca, Ampelos is killed by Selene due to him challenging her.[247] In another, recorded by Ovid, Ampelos fell and died because he was trying to pick grapes from a branch. Upon death, he is turned into a Constellation.[248]

Lycurgus[249] was a king of Edonia in or somewhere in the region of west Asia. He drove Dionysus and his nurses fleeing from their home on Mount Nysa to seek the refuge with Thetis. Due to this, he was punished by being driven mad. He hacked apart his own wife and child because of the madness induced belief they were spreading vines, and later driven from his home and was devoured by wild beasts on Mt Pangaios.[250][251]

Callirrhoe was a Calydonian woman who scorned Coresus, a priest of Dionysus, who threatened to afflict all the women of Calydon with insanity (see Maenad). The priest was ordered to sacrifice Callirhoe but he killed himself instead. Callirhoe threw herself into a well which was later named after her.

Dionysus also sent a fox that was fated never to be caught on Thebes. Creon, king of Thebes, sent Amphitryon to catch and kill the fox. Amphitryon obtained from Cephalus the dog that his wife Procris had received from Minos, which was fated to catch whatever it pursued.

Another account about Dionysus's parentage indicates that he is the son of Zeus and Gê (Gaia), also named Themelê (foundation), corrupted into Semele.[252][253]

Offspring

Mothers

(?) The Charites or Graces ( Pasithea, Euphrosyne, Thalia)

Aphrodite[254] or Coronis[255]

Ceramus, Enyeus, Euanthes, Eurymedon, Latramys, Maron, Oenopion, Phanus, Peparethus, Phlias, Staphylus, Tauropolis, Thoas

Ariadne

Carmanor[256]

Alexirrhoe

Iacchus[257] and his twin brother[258]

Aura

Medus[259]

Alphesiboea

Phlias

Araethyrea or Chthonophyle

Priapus

Aphrodite[260] or Chione[261] or Percote[262]

Telete

Nicaea

Narcaeus[263]

Physcoa

Comus, Methe, Sabazius, Thysa[264]

Unknown

The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a fennel staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature describes him as womanly or "man-womanish".[265] In its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession (thiasus) is made up of wild female followers ( maenads) and bearded satyrs with erect penises; some are armed with the thyrsus, some dance or play music. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a bearded, drunken Silenus. This procession is presumed to be the cult model for the followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. Dionysus is represented by city religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society and he thus symbolizes the chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.[266]

Dionysus was a god of resurrection and he was strongly linked to the bull. In a cult hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is invited to come as a bull; "with bull-foot raging". Walter Burkert relates, "Quite frequently [Dionysus] is portrayed with bull horns, and in Kyzikos he has a tauromorphic image", and refers also to an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by the Titans.[267]

The snake and phallus were symbols of Dionysus in ancient Greece, and of Bacchus in Greece and Rome.[268][269][270] He typically wears a panther or leopard skin and carries a thyrsus. His iconography sometimes includes maenads, who wear wreaths of ivy and serpents around their hair or neck.[271][272][273]

The cult of Dionysus was closely associated with trees, specifically the fig tree, and some of his bynames exhibit this, such as Endendros "he in the tree" or Dendritēs, "he of the tree". Peters suggests the original meaning as "he who runs among the trees", or that of a "runner in the woods". Janda (2010) accepts the etymology but proposes the more cosmological interpretation of "he who impels the (world-)tree". This interpretation explains how Nysa could have been re-interpreted from a meaning of "tree" to the name of a mountain: the axis mundi of Indo-European mythology is represented both as a world-tree and as a world-mountain.[274]

Dionysus is also closely associated with the transition between summer and autumn. In the Mediterranean summer, marked by the rising of the dog star Sirius, the weather becomes extremely hot, but it is also a time when the promise of coming harvests grow. Late summer, when Orion is at the center of the sky, was the time of the grape harvest in ancient Greece. Plato describes the gifts of this season as the fruit that is harvested as well as Dionysian joy. Pindar describes the "pure light of high summer" as closely associated with Dionysus and possibly even an embodiment of the god himself. An image of Dionysus' birth from Zeus' thigh call him "the light of Zeus" ( Dios phos) and associate him with the light of Sirius.[31]

The god, and still more often his followers, were commonly depicted in the painted pottery of Ancient Greece, much of which made to hold wine. But, apart from some reliefs of maenads, Dionysian subjects rarely appeared in large sculpture before the Hellenistic period, when they became common.[275] In these, the treatment of the god himself ranged from severe archaising or Neo Attic types such as the Dionysus Sardanapalus to types showing him as an indolent and androgynous young man, often nude.[276] Hermes and the Infant Dionysus is probably a Greek original in marble, and the Ludovisi Dionysus group is probably a Roman original of the second century AD. Well-known Hellenistic sculptures of Dionysian subjects, surviving in Roman copies, include the Barberini Faun, the Belvedere Torso, the Resting Satyr. The Furietti Centaurs and Sleeping Hermaphroditus reflect related subjects, which had by this time become drawn into the Dionysian orbit.[277] The marble Dancer of Pergamon is an original, as is the bronze Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo, a recent recovery from the sea.

The Dionysian world by the Hellenistic period is a hedonistic but safe pastoral into which other semi-divine creatures of the countryside have been co-opted, such as centaurs, nymphs, and the gods Pan and Hermaphrodite.[278] "Nymph" by this stage "means simply an ideal female of the Dionysian outdoors, a non-wild bacchant".[279] Hellenistic sculpture also includes for the first time large genre subjects of children and peasants, many of whom carry Dionysian attributes such as ivy wreaths, and "most should be seen as part of his realm. They have in common with satyrs and nymphs that they are creatures of the outdoors and are without true personal identity."[280] The fourth-century BC Derveni Krater, the unique survival of a very large scale Classical or Hellenistic metal vessel of top quality, depicts Dionysus and his followers.

Dionysus appealed to the Hellenistic monarchies for a number of reasons, apart from merely being a god of pleasure: He was a human who became divine, he came from, and had conquered, the East, exemplified a lifestyle of display and magnificence with his mortal followers, and was often regarded as an ancestor.[281] He continued to appeal to the rich of Imperial Rome, who populated their gardens with Dionysian sculpture, and by the second century AD were often buried in sarcophagi carved with crowded scenes of Bacchus and his entourage.[282]

The fourth-century AD Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum is a spectacular cage cup which changes colour when light comes through the glass; it shows the bound King Lycurgus being taunted by the god and attacked by a satyr; this may have been used for celebration of Dionysian mysteries. Elizabeth Kessler has theorized that a mosaic appearing on the triclinium floor of the House of Aion in Nea Paphos, Cyprus, details a monotheistic worship of Dionysus.[283] In the mosaic, other gods appear but may only be lesser representations of the centrally imposed Dionysus. The mid-Byzantine Veroli Casket shows the tradition lingering in Constantinople around 1000 AD, but probably not very well understood.

Bacchic subjects in art resumed in the Italian Renaissance, and soon became almost as popular as in antiquity, but his "strong association with feminine spirituality and power almost disappeared", as did "the idea that the destructive and creative powers of the god were indissolubly linked".[284] In Michelangelo's statue (1496-97) "madness has become merriment". The statue aspires to suggest both drunken incapacity and an elevated consciousness, but this was perhaps lost on later viewers, and typically the two aspects were thereafter split, with a clearly drunk Silenus representing the former, and a youthful Bacchus often shown with wings, because he carries the mind to higher places.[285]

Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne (1522-23) and The Bacchanal of the Andrians (1523-26), both painted for the same room, offer an influential heroic pastoral,[286] while Diego Velázquez in The Triumph of Bacchus (or Los borrachos - "the drinkers", c. 1629) and Jusepe de Ribera in his Drunken Silenus choose a genre realism. Flemish Baroque painting frequently painted the Bacchic followers, as in Van Dyck's Drunken Silenus and many works by Rubens; Poussin was another regular painter of Bacchic scenes.[287]

A common theme in art beginning in the sixteenth century was the depiction of Bacchus and Ceres caring for a representation of love - often Venus, Cupid, or Amore. This tradition derived from a quotation by the Roman comedian Terence (c. 195/185 - c. 159 BC) which became a popular proverb in the Early Modern period: Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus ("without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes"). Its simplest level of meaning is that love needs food and wine to thrive. Artwork based on this saying was popular during the period 1550-1630, especially in Northern Mannerism in Prague and the Low Countries, as well as by Rubens. Because of his association with the vine harvest, Bacchus became the god of autumn, and he and his followers were often shown in sets depicting the seasons.[288]

Dionysus has remained an inspiration to artists, philosophers and writers into the modern era. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872), the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche proposed that a tension between Apollonian and Dionysian aesthetic principles underlay the development of Greek tragedy; Dionysus represented what was unrestrained chaotic and irrational, while Apollo represented the rational and ordered. This concept of a rivalry or opposition between Dionysus and Apollo has been characterized as a "modern myth", as it is the invention of modern thinkers like Nietzsche and Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and is not found in classical sources. However, the acceptance and popularity of this theme in Western culture has been so great, that its undercurrent has influenced the conclusions of classical scholarship.[289]

Nietzsche also claimed that the oldest forms of Greek Tragedy were entirely based upon the suffering Dionysus. In Nietzsche's 1886 work Beyond Good and Evil, and later The Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist and Ecce Homo, Dionysus is conceived as the embodiment of the unrestrained will to power. In The Hellenic Religion of the Suffering God (1904), and Dionysus and Early Dionysianism (1921), the poet Vyacheslav Ivanov elaborates the theory of Dionysianism, tracing the origins of literature, and tragedy in particular, to ancient Dionysian mysteries. Ivanov said that Dionysus' suffering "was the distinctive feature of the cult" just as Christ's suffering is significant for Christianity.[290] Karl Kerényi characterizes Dionysus as representative of the psychological life force (Greek Zoê).[291] Other psychological interpretations place Dionysus' emotionality in the foreground, focusing on the joy, terror or hysteria associated with the god.[292][293][294][295][296] Sigmund Freud specified that his ashes should be kept in an Ancient Greek vase painted with Dionysian scenes from his collection, which remains on display at Golders Green Crematorium in London.

Walt Disney depicted Bacchus in the " Pastoral" segment of the animated film Fantasia, as a Silenus-like character. In 1969, an adaption of The Bacchae was performed, called Dionysus in '69. A film was made of the same performance. The production was notable for involving audience participation, nudity, and theatrical innovations.[297] In 1974, Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove adapted Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs into a modern musical, which hit broadway in 2004 and was revived in London in 2017. The musical keeps the descent of Dionysus into Hades to bring back a playwright; however, the playwrights are updated to modern times, and Dionysus is forced to choose between George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare.[298]

In 2006, The Orion Experience, in the album Cosmicandy, included a song titled "Cult of Dionysus". The song invokes themes from the god's cult. The entire album is described as "short, sharp, and ultimately memorable, glowing with a long-forgotten disco-synth energy."[299] The song overall plays upon the god's themes of being devious and rebelling against social norms.

In 2018, the Australian musical project Dead Can Dance released an album entitled Dionysus. Musician Brendan Perry described the inspiration for the album as a trance-like, "Dionysian" experience he had at a festival during a trip to rural Spain. "It's the spring festivals like that one where you see the real remnants of Dionysian festivals. They're all over the Mediterranean in remote places where Christian influence hasn't been as great. ... People wear masks and dance in circles almost like time has stood still in their celebrations." Perry chose to employ Mediterranean folk instruments that mimic natural sounds in addition to a vocal chorus, in order to evoke the atmosphere of an ancient festival.[300]

In 2019, the South Korean boy band BTS released a rap-rock- synth-pop- hip hop track.[195][301] named " Dionysus" as part of their album Map of the Soul: Persona. The naming of this song comes from the association of the namesake with debauchery and excess, this is reflected in its lyrics talking about "getting drunk on art" - playing on the Korean words for "alcohol" (술 sul) and "art" (예술 yesul) as an example - alongside expressions about their stardom, legacy, and artistic integrity. The band's leader RM in a press release described the song as, "the joy and pain of creating something" and "an honest track".[302]

Numerous scholars have compared narratives surrounding the Christian figure of Jesus with those associated with Dionysus.

Some scholars of comparative mythology identify both Dionysus and Jesus with the dying-and-rising god mythological archetype.[303] On the other hand, it has been noted that the details of Dionysus' death and rebirth are starkly different both in content and symbolism from Jesus. The two stories take place in very different historical and geographic contexts. Also, the manner of death is different; in the most common myth, Dionysus was torn to pieces and eaten by the Titans, but "eventually restored to a new life" from the heart that was left over.[304][305]

Another parallel can be seen in The Bacchae where Dionysus appears before King Pentheus on charges of claiming divinity, which is compared to the New Testament scene of Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate.[306][307][308] However, a number of scholars dispute this parallel, since the confrontation between Dionysus and Pentheus ends with Pentheus dying, torn into pieces by the mad women, whereas the trial of Jesus ends with him being sentenced to death. The discrepancies between the two stories, including their resolutions, have led many scholars to regard the Dionysus story as radically different from the one about Jesus, except for the parallel of the arrest, which is a detail that appears in many biographies as well.[309]

E. Kessler has argued that the Dionysian cult developed into strict monotheism by the fourth century AD; together with Mithraism and other sects, the cult formed an instance of "pagan monotheism" in direct competition with Early Christianity during Late Antiquity.[310] Scholars from the sixteenth century onwards, especially Gerard Vossius, also discussed the parallels between the biographies of Dionysus/Bacchus and Moses (Vossius named his sons Dionysius and Isaac). Such comparisons surface in details of paintings by Poussin.[311]

John Moles has argued that the Dionysian cult influenced early Christianity, and especially the way that Christians understood themselves as a "new" religion centered around a savior deity. In particular, he argues that the account of Christian origins in the Acts of the Apostles was heavily influenced by Euripides' The Bacchae.[303] Moles also suggests that Paul the Apostle may have partially based his account of the Lord's Supper[1 Cor 11:23-26] on the ritual meals performed by members of the Dionysian cult.[303]: 96

The Dionysus Cup, a sixth-century BC kylix with Dionysus sailing with the pirates he transformed to dolphins

Dionysus's family tree [313]

1. In Greek "both votary and god are called Bacchus". Burkert, p. 162. For the initiate as Bacchus, see ^ Euripides, Bacchae 491. For the god, who alone is Dionysus, see Sophocles, Oedipus Rex 211 and Euripides, Hippolytus 560.

2. Olszewski, E. (2019). ^ Dionysus's enigmatic thyrsus. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 163(2), 153-173.

3. Sutton, p. 2, mentions Dionysus as The Liberator in relation to the city ^ Dionysia festivals. In Euripides, Bacchae 379-385: "He holds this office, to join in dances, [380] to laugh with the flute, and to bring an end to cares, whenever the delight of the grape comes at the feasts of the gods, and in ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over men."

4. Julian, trans. by Emily Wilmer Cave Wright. To the Cynic Heracleios. The Works of the Emperor Julian, volume II (1913) Loeb Classical Library.

5. Isler-Kerényi, Cornelia; Watson, Wilfred G. E. (2007). "An Iconography in Process". Dionysos in Archaic Greece. Brill. pp. 5-16. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctt1w76w9x.7.

6. Brockett, Oscar Gross (1968). History of the Theatre. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. pp. 18-26.

7. Corrente, Paola. 2012. Dioniso y los Dying gods: paralelos metodológicos. Tesis doctoral, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

8. Palaima, Thomas G. University of Texas at Austin , 1998, https://sites.utexas.edu/scripts/files/2020/05/1998-TGP-LinearBandtheOriginsofGreekReligion.pdf.

9. ^ "The Linear B word di-wo-nu-so". Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of ancient languages.

10. Raymoure, K. A. (November 2, 2012). "Khania Linear B Transliterations". Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean."Possible evidence of human sacrifice at Minoan Chania". Archaeology News Network. 2014. Raymoure, K. A. "Khania KH Gq Linear B Series". Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean. "KH 5 Gq (1)". Dāmos: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo. University of Oslo.

11. Martin Nilsson Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion (1967). Vol. I, p. 567.

12. ^ νυός . Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek-English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.

13. Kerényi, Karl. 1976. Dionysus. Trans. Ralph Manheim, Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691029156, 978-0691029153

14. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Ακρωρεία

15. Used thus by ^ Ausonius, Epigrams, 29, 6, and in Catullus, 29; see Lee M. Fratantuono, NIVALES SOCII: CAESAR, MAMURRA, AND THE SNOW OF CATULLUS C. 57, Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, New Series, Vol. 96, No. 3 (2010), p. 107, Note 2.

16. ^ Stephan, Christian. "Suidas". Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. doi:10.1163/2405-8262_rgg4_sim_025853.

17. ^ Hau, Lisa Irene (2016-07-01), "Diodorus Siculus", Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus, Edinburgh University Press, doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474411073.003.0003, ISBN 978-1-4744-1107-3

18. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.16.6; Fowler, p. 63.

19. Mentioned by ^ Erasmus in The Praise of Folly

20. ^ Suidas (1705). Souidas. : Suidæ lexicon, Græce & Latine. Textum Græcum cum manuscriptis codicibus collatum a quamplurimis mendis purgavit, notisque perpetuis illustravit: versionem Latinam Æmilii Porti innumeris in locis correxit; indicesque auctorum & rerum adjecit Ludolphus Kusterus, Professor humaniorum literarum in Gymnasio Regio Berolinensi. Typis academicis. OCLC 744697285.

21. ^ Euripides. (2019). The Bacchae. Neeland Media LLC. ISBN 978-1-4209-6184-3. OCLC 1108536627.

22. Sir Arthur Pickard-Cambridge. The Dramatic Festivals of Athens. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953 (2nd ed. 1968). ISBN 0-19-814258-7

23. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Anthesteria" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 93-94.

24. ^ (Photius, Lexicon, s.v. "Thyraze Kares.") To the doors, Kares, it is no longer Anthestria": some authorities contented that this is what is said to the crowd of Karian slaves, since at the Anthestria they join in the feast and do not do any work. Therefore, when the festival is over, they send them back out to work with the words, "To the doors, Keres, it is no longer Anthestria." since the souls [keres] wander about through the city at the Anthestria.

25. Rice, David G. Stambaugh, John E. (2014). Sources for the Study of Greek Religion Corrected Edition. Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-1-62837-067-6. OCLC 893453849.

26. Pseudo-^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca Library and Epitome, 1.3.2. "Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria."

27. Jiménez San Cristóbal 2013, ^ p. 279, Bowie, A. M., pp. 232-233; Sophocles, Antigone 1115-1125, 1146-1154; Versnel, pp. 23-24. Jebb, in his note to line 1146 χοράγ᾽ ἄστρων, understands the Sophoclean use of the name "Iacchus" as specifically denoting the Eleusinian Dionysus.

28. Encinas Reguero, p. 350; Jiménez San Cristóbal 2013, ^ p. 282, with n. 41; Bowie, A. M., p. 233; Euripides, Bacchae 725. Jiménez San Cristóbal also sees possible associations between Iacchus and Dionysus in Euripides: Ion 1074-1086, The Trojan Women 1230, Cyclops 68-71, and fr. 586 Kannicht (apud Strabo, 10.3.13) = fr. 586 Nauck (Collard and Cropp, pp. 56, 57).

29. Bowie, E. L., ^ pp. 101-110; Fantuzzi, pp. 189, 190, 191; PHI Greek Inscriptions, BCH 19 (1895) 393.

30. Hard, ^ p. 134; Grimal, s.v. Iacchus, p. 224; Tripp, s.v. Iacchus, p. 313; Rose, Oxford Classical Dictionary s.v. Iacchus; scholiast on Aristophanes, Frogs 324 (Rutherford 1896, p. 316).

31. Parker 2005, ^ p. 358 n. 139; Lucretius, 4.1168-1169. Arnobius, Adversus Gentes 3.10 (p. 157) referring to the Lucretius verse, lists "the full-breasted Cerses nursing Iaccus" as a sight "the mind longs" to see. Compare with Photius, s.v. Ἴακχος and Suda, s.v. Ἴακχος (iota,16), which identify Iacchus with Διόνυσος ἐπὶ τῷ μαστῷ ('Dionysus at the breast').

32. Linforth, pp. ^ 311, 317-318; Plutarch, The E at Delphi 389 A.

33. Grimal, Pierre, ^ The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1.[1]

34. Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 2.6O. See also St Augustine, De Civitatis Dei, 4.11.

35. ^ Wiseman, T.P. (1988). "Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica". The Journal of Roman Studies. 78: 1-13. doi:10.2307/301447. JSTOR 301447. Certainly it is hard to imagine anything less consistent with Roman mos maiorum than the anarchic hedonism of satyrs. It was precisely libido, that morally subversive aspect of the Bacchic cult, that led to its brutal suppression...

36. Sallustius, On Gods and the World, ch. VI.

37. ^ Maxwell, Herbert (1913). The Chronicle of Lanercost, 1272-1346. Glasgow, Scotland: Glasgow : J. Maclehose. pp. 29-30.

38. ^ Ashe, Geoffrey (2000). The Hell-Fire Clubs: A History of Anti-Morality. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. p. 114. ISBN 9780750924023.

39. ^ Herodotus. Histories. George Rawlinson Translation. Book 2.

40. ^ Kampakoglou, Alexandros v (2016). Danaus βουγενής: Greco-Egyptian Mythology and Ptolemaic Kingship. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. pp. 119-122.

41. ^ Scott, Kenneth (1929). Octavian's Propaganda and Antony's De Sua Ebrietate (24th ed.). Classical Philology. pp. 133-141.

42. Heraclitus, encountering the festival of the ^ Phallophoria, in which phalli were paraded about, remarked in a surviving fragment: "If they did not order the procession in honor of the god and address the phallus song to him, this would be the most shameless behavior. But Hades is the same as Dionysos, for whom they rave and act like bacchantes", Kerényi 1976, pp. 239-240.

43. ^ Loyd, Alan B (2009). What is a God?: Studies in the Nature of Greek Divinity. The Classical Press of Wales. ISBN 978-1905125357. The identification of Hades and Dionysus does not seem to be a particular doctrine of Herakleitos, nor does it commit him to monotheism. The evidence for a cult connection between the two is quite extensive, particularly in Southern Italy, and the Dionysiac mysteries are associated with death rituals.

44. ^ "Photographic image" (JPG). My-favourite-planet.de.

45. ^ "Photographic image" (JPG). My-favourite-planet.de.

46. ^ "Photographic image" (JPG). Upload.wikimedia.org.

47. Summary of Karl Kerényi: These attempts at a reconstruction would remain very fragmentary were we not, in conclusion, to look attentively into the face of the god Eubouleus. The Lord of the Underworld bore this name in the youthful form represented in the statue, ascribed to Praxiteles, which is now in the National Museum at Athens and probably stood originally in the place where it was found, the Ploutonion. This youth is Plouton himself - radiant but disclosing a strange inner darkness - and at the same time his double and servant, comparable to Hermes or Pais besides Kabeiros or Theos [p. 172]. ... The plentiful hair or long curls suggest rather Hades kyanochaites, Hades of the dark hair [p. 173].

48. ^ Kerényi, Karl (1991). Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691019154.

49. ^ Taylor-Perry, Rosemarie (2003). The God who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited. Barnes & Noble. pp. 4, 22, 91, 92, 94, 168. ISBN 9780875862309.

50. ^ Rigoglioso, Marguerite (2010). Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-11312-1.

51. ^ "British Museum Collection". britishmuseum.org.

52. Sudas, under "Sabazios", "saboi"; Sider, David. "Notes on Two Epigrams of Philodemus". ^ The American Journal of Philology, 103.2 (Summer 1982:208-213) pp. 209ff.

53. E.N. Lane has taken pains to dismiss this widespread conflation: Lane, "Towards a definition of the iconography of Sabazios", ^ Numen 27 (1980:9-33), and Corpus Cultis Jovis Sabazii:, in Études Préliminaires aux Religions Orientales dans l'Empire Romain: Conclusions 100.3 (Leiden, etc: Brill) 1989.

54. ^ "Sarcophagus Depicting the Birth of Dionysus". The Walters Art Museum.

55. Diodorus Siculus 3.62-74.

56. 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:^ 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.'

57. 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, ^ p. 35; March, s.v. Zagreus, p. 788; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456; Burkert, pp. 297-298; Guthrie, p. 82; also see Ogden, p. 80. For a detailed examination of many of the ancient sources pertaining to this myth see Linforth, pp. 307-364. The most extensive account in ancient sources is found in Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5.562-70, 6.155 ff., other principal sources include Diodorus Siculus, 3.62.6-8 (= Orphic fr. 301 Kern), 3.64.1-2, 4.4.1-2, 5.75.4 (= Orphic fr. 303 Kern); Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.110-114; Athenagoras of Athens, Legatio 20 Pratten (= Orphic fr. 58 Kern); Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.15 pp. 36-39 Butterworth (= Orphic frs. 34, 35 Kern); Hyginus, Fabulae 155, 167; Suda s.v. Ζαγρεύς. See also Pausanias, 7.18.4, 8.37.5.

58. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 9. (trans. Rouse)

59. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 10.175-430, 11, 12.1-117 (Dalby 2005, pp. 55-62).

60. ^ "Theoi.com" Homeric Hymn to Dionysus". Theoi.com.

61. ^ Homer., The Iliad, ISBN 978-2-291-06449-7, OCLC 1130228845

62. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 48.548. Nonnus mentions both Dionysus and Hera as the parents of Pasithea on separate occasions, but it's unclear whether those two are supposed to be Pasithea's parents together.

63. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca 1.26-28 I pp. 4, 5, 48.245-247 III pp. 440-443, 48.848-968 III pp. 484-493.

64. ^ Scholia on Theocritus' Idylls 1.21

65. ^ Strabo, 10.3.13, quotes the non-extant play Palamedes which seems to refer to Thysa, a daughter of Dionysus, and her (?) mother as participants of the Bacchic rites on Mount Ida, but the quoted passage is corrupt.

66. ^ Otto, Walter F. (1995). Dionysus Myth and Cult. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-20891-2.

67. ^ Greenspun, Roger (March 23, 1970). "Screen::De Palma's 'Dionysus in 69'". New York Times.

68. ^ Daly, Rhian (April 22, 2019). "All the biggest talking points from BTS' global press conference: Jungkook's missing mixtape, Suga's next prophecy, and the meaning behind 'Map Of The Soul: Persona'". NME.

69. ^ Moles, John (2006). "Jesus and Dionysus in "The Acts Of The Apostles" and early Christianity". Hermathena. Trinity College Dublin. 180 (180): 65-104. JSTOR 23041662.

70. ^ Wick, Peter (2004). "Jesus gegen Dionysos? Ein Beitrag zur Kontextualisierung des Johannesevangeliums". Biblica. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute. 85 (2): 179-198.

71. E. Kessler, ^ Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus. Symposium on Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire, Exeter, 17-20 July 2006 Abstract Archived 2008-04-21 at the Wayback Machine)

72. According to ^ Homer, Iliad 1.570-579, 14.338, Odyssey 8.312, Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.

73. According to ^ Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione (Iliad 5.370-71), see Gantz, pp. 99-100.

Aristophanes, Frogs, Matthew Dillon, Ed., Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, 1995. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.

Beekes, Robert S. P. (2009). Etymological Dictionary of Greek. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-32186-1.

Bowie, A. M., Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy, Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN 0521440122.

Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, Harvard University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-674-36281-0.

Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp, Euripides Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus: Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library No. 506. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-674-99631-1. Online version at Harvard University Press.

Dalby, Andrew (2005). The Story of Bacchus. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 0-7141-2255-6.

Edmonds, Radcliffe (1999), "Tearing Apart the Zagreus Myth: A Few Disparaging Remarks On Orphism and Original Sin", Classical Antiquity 18 (1999): 35-73. PDF.

Encinas Reguero, M. Carmen, "The Names of Dionysos in Euripides' Bacchae and the Rhetorical Language of Teiresias", in Redefining Dionysos, Editors: Alberto Bernabé, Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui, Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal, Raquel Martín Hernández. Walter de Gruyter, 2013. ISBN 978-3-11-030091-8.

Lightfoot, J. L. Hellenistic Collection: Philitas. Alexander of Aetolia. Hermesianax. Euphorion. Parthenius. Edited and translated by J. L. Lightfoot. Loeb Classical Library No. 508. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-674-99636-6. Online version at Harvard University Press.

Fox, William Sherwood, The Mythology of All Races, v. 1, Greek and Roman, 1916, General editor, Louis Herbert Gray.

Graf, F. (2005), "Iacchus" in Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 6, Lieden-Boston 2005.

Harder, Annette, Callimachus: Aetia: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-19-958101-6. (two volume set). Google Books

Herodotus; Histories, A. D. Godley (translator), Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920; ISBN 0674991338. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.

Hyginus, Gaius Julius, Fabulae in Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007. ISBN 978-0-87220-821-6.

Janda, Michael, Die Musik nach dem Chaos, Innsbruck 2010.

Kerényi, Karl 1967, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, Princeton University Press, 1991. ISBN 9780691019154.

Kerényi, Karl 1976, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, Princeton University Press, 1996. ISBN 9780691029153.

Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, Sophocles: Fragments, Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Loeb Classical Library No. 483. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0-674-99532-1. Online version at Harvard University Press.

March, Jenny, Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Casell & Co, 2001. ISBN 0-304-35788-X. Internet Archive

McDonough, Sean M. (1999), YHWH at Patmos: Rev. 1:4 in Its Hellenistic and Early Jewish Setting, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2. Reihe, vol. 107, Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, ISBN 978-3-16-147055-4, ISSN 0340-9570

Sara Peterson, An account of the Dionysiac presence in Indian art and culture. Academia.edu, 2016

Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur, The Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, 1946.

Powell, Barry B., Classical Myth, 5th edition, 2007.

Pseudo-Plutarch, De fluviis, in Plutarch's morals, Volume V, edited and translated by William Watson Goodwin, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1874. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.

Ridgeway, William, The Dramas and Dramatic Dances of non-European Races in special reference to the origin of Greek Tragedy, with an appendix on the origin of Greek Comedy, 1915.

Riu, Xavier, Dionysism and Comedy, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers (1999). ISBN 0-8476-9442-9.

Rutherford, William G., (1896) Scholia Aristphanica, London, Macmillan and Co. and New York, 1896. Internet Archive*Seaford, Richard. "Dionysos", Routledge (2006). ISBN 0-415-32488-2.

Sommerstein, Alan H., Aeschylus: Fragments. Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Loeb Classical Library No. 505. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-674-99629-8. Online version at Harvard University Press.

Strabo, Geography, translated by Horace Leonard Jones; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. (1924). Books 6-14, at the Perseus Digital Library

Versnel, H. S., "ΙΑΚΧΟΣ. Some Remarks Suggested by an Unpublished Lekythos in the Villa Giulia", Talanta 4, 1972, 23-38. PDF

Livy, History of Rome, Book 39:13, Description of banned Bacchanalia in Rome and Italy

Detienne, Marcel, Dionysos at Large, tr. by Arthur Goldhammer, Harvard University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-674-20773-4. (Originally in French as Dionysos à ciel ouvert, 1986)

Albert Henrichs, Between City and Country: Cultic Dimensions of Dionysus in Athens and Attica, (April 1, 1990). Department of Classics, UCB. Cabinet of the Muses: Rosenmeyer Festschrift. Paper festschrift18.

Sara Peterson, An account of the Dionysiac presence in Indian art and culture. Academia, 2016

Frazer, James "The Golden Bough"

Kern, O. Dionysos (2) in Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, tr. into English

Walter F. Otto "Dionysus: Myth and Cult"

Redifining Dionysos, a large collaborative academic study on Dionysus and his worship in antiquity.

Richard Seaford, Routledge "Dionysos"

Henk Versnel "Heis Dionysus - One Dionysus? A polytheistic perspective" an examination of Greek religion and Dionysos himself.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dionysus (; Greek: Διόνυσος Dionysos) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth.[2] [3] He is also known as Bacchus ( or ; Greek: Βάκχος Bacchos), the name adopted by the Romans;[4] the frenzy that he induces is bakkheia.

# data[].attributes.body
The spirit of the sun is to immerse people in the beautiful appearance of all things, trying to create a kind of dreamy beauty to avoid the true colors of life and the world, so that people can overcome the pain of the world and life in aesthetics, that is, beautify the existence with the spirit of the sun.
The spirit of Dionysus is essentially an affirmation of life. What it evokes is the most authentic life impulse of people. In this Dionysian ecstasy, people create a perceptible image relative to the real world. It experiences and accepts the hardships of life and integrates and transcends them.

# data[].attributes.headline
Nietzsche and Dionysus: Tragedy and the Affirmation of Life

# data[].attributes.subject
Nietzsche and Dionysus: Tragedy and the Affirmation of Life

# data[].attributes.body
Dionysus symbolizes the madness and pain of life. Nietzsche says in his book that even the Socratic Euripides returned to Dionysus at the end of his life. In Dionysus of Euripides, it had Dionysus killed the male protagonist Pentheus who didn't believe in God, symbolizing his final understanding of Dionysian's power. In Nietzsche's eyes, the spirit of Dionysus is the helplessness of life, the comprehension of the emptiness of life and the eternal pain of life, and the begging of trying to understand the true meaning of life with the help of madness and irrational power. He symbolizes the transcendent justice above the physical appearance of life, all your instinctive desires. In Nietzsche's eyes, Buddhism is a typical Dionysian culture, completely rejecting the possibility of obtaining answers and reconciliation in the real world, and resorting to a higher existence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nietzsche and Dionysus: Tragedy and the Affirmation of Life

# data[].attributes.body
Robert Fagan (1761-1816) - Dionysus, Bacchus, Ampelos, Silenus and a Maenad - 609084 - National Trust

# data[].attributes.body
"Dionysus and Ampelos" Jacob Matham / David Vinckboons 17th century, engraving Rijksmuseum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hymnic Narrative and the Narratology of Greek Hymns

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hymnic Narrative and the Narratology of Greek Hymns examines the forms and functions of narratives in Ancient Greek hymns, in the contexts of the hymn genre and the development of ancient Greek narrative literature.

# data[].attributes.body
But nowhere in Bernini’s oeuvre is his fascination with metamorphoses more fully expressed than in Apollo and Daphne. Here, he captures the precise moment. As scholar Andrea Bolland put it, even Daphne’s expression “seems to betray a transformation: The fear of being caught gives over to horror at the means by which she will avoid capture.” Bernini conveys Apollo’s savage sexual appetite through movement as well: the god’s hands flex, his robes threaten to slip off his waist, and a spray of leaves emerging from Daphne point to his groin.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bernini's "Apollo and Daphne" Is an Unnerving Depiction of Unwanted Desire

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bernini's "Apollo and Daphne" is a masterwork of sculpture that also reads as a powerful, disquieting depiction of unwanted pursuit and predation.

# data[].attributes.body
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo

# data[].attributes.body
https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/myths/apollo-and-daphne/

https://www.thecollector.com/apollo-and-daphne/

# data[].attributes.headline
I ain't the same river since I gave up scavenging and turned waterman 

# data[].attributes.subject
I ain't the same river since I gave up scavenging and turned waterman 

# data[].attributes.body
Series of photographs inspired by different events related to the Thames

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Images and words by Julia Fullerton-Batten

As a teenager I moved from Germany to live in Oxford on the banks of the River Thames. I grew up along the stretch of the river called Isis and since then the Thames has fascinated me. I now live in West London, still just a short walk from the river. Its constantly changing face, moving with the tide and the seasons and the activities that surround the river are an inspiration. But it is the history of the Thames and its stories that draw me in. These stories, countless whimsical, idiosyncratic and tragic happenings, all make up a history of one of the most important rivers in the world.

I am not alone in my admiration of the river. A constant inspiration to so many, there are more paintings of the Thames than I had ever imagined could be possible. Monet painted the river repeatedly. Turner captured the working river revealing the early nineteenth century fumes and smoke plumes from the city's factories and river traffic. In the 1860s and 70s Whistler was drawn to paint the bustling and rapidly changing urban neighbourhoods close to the river. When one views all these works, it is not difficult to understand why they sought inspiration along its shores.

In my project Old Man Thames, I set forth investigating cultural and historical narratives that have occurred along the river and have translated several of these stories into photographs and a short film. These wonderful stories of life and living, of challenge and heartache and of hope and death all exist along the shores of the Thames.

Baptisms along the Thames

Baptism is an important act in the affirmation of faith, and is done before a group of people who witness the their confession of faith in Jesus Christ. It is the rite in the Christian Church by which immersion in water symbolizes the washing away of sins and admission into the Church. For many centuries full immersion baptisms were performed by Baptists in the non-tidal section of the River Thames, upstream from London. It was one of the more ancient rituals on the river. Several hundred people would congregate to watch the open-air ceremony. My photograph was taken in the ancient town of Cricklade in Wiltshire, 100 miles outside of London, where the ceremonies have taken place in an area known as Hatchett's Ford since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Annette Kellerman - Swam the River Thames

Annette Kellerman was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress, writer, and business owner. She arrived in the UK in 1905 at 19 years old with the goal to swim the English Channel. She failed three times. However, Kellerman became the first woman ever to swim any distance on the Thames. She swam from Putney to Blackwall, a distance of 27km. On these occasions she wore a one-piece bathing suit that she had self-designed. This was very daring and controversial as, at that time, women still wore bloomers and long sleeve dresses. Her daring apparel was duly noted and became headlines in the UK press. Two years later she was arrested in America for indecency, as she continued her fight for the right of women to wear a fitted one-piece bathing suit above the knee.

Children - Mudlarks

In Victorian times, along Thames at low tide, it was a common sight to see groups of dirty, ill-clad, barefoot young boys and the occasional girl foraging on the muddy, slippery foreshore of the river. Moving on calloused feet they scavenged for anything brought up by the tide that they could sell. They were aptly named, Mudlarks. Their booty might be merely wood, coal, rope and bones, but, if they were lucky, they could find something of higher value, perhaps buttons, coins, objects of historical value, and very occasionally, precious metal items. They belonged to the poorest among society, maybe homeless orphans or children of large, destitute families. Sometimes the Mudlarks were joined by the elderly, or the penniless, hoping to find enough to pay for a small meal or for alcohol.

Mudlarks were still active on the Thames until early in the 20th century. Even today, Mudlarks explore the muddy, shoe-sucking shores of the Thames. Better clothed, well shod and using metal-detectors and other sophisticated equipment to help them make their finds.

Swan Upping

Swan Upping became important back in the Middle Ages in Britain. Back then, not only was the mute swan a valuable commodity and regularly traded between noblemen, but swan owners were legally bound by the Crown to mark their swans with nicks in their beaks. This activity took place annually in a ceremony called "swan upping". Although now largely symbolic, the event still takes place today on the Monday of the third week in July, and serves to monitor the condition and number of swans on the Thames. The year's new cygnets can be marked when they are reasonably well grown but cannot yet fly.

The Thames Whale

In January 2006, a juvenile female northern bottlenose whale was found swimming in the River Thames in central London. Approximately five metres long, she weighed about seven tonnes. Her normal habitat would have been along the coast of the far north of Scotland and Northern Ireland, or in the Arctic Ocean. It was the first time since records began in 1913, a whale had ever been seen in the River Thames. Sadly, the whale died the next day from a seizure as she was being rescued. Her skeleton is now exhibited at the Natural History Museum.

Suicide attempt by Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 - 1797), born in Spitalfields in the east of London, was a famous English writer, philosopher and advocate for women's rights. Today her life and work are regarded as influential in the formation of the feminist movement.

She lived her adult life to the fullest and was known to have many ill-fated affairs, and a daughter by one of her lovers. She became pregnant again from a passionate relationship with the philosopher William Godwin. She married him in 1797, but died eleven days after giving birth to a second daughter. She was 38.

After her death, Godwin published a Memoir (1798) of Wollstonecraft's life, revealing her unconventional life and loves. He described that she had attempted suicide twice. She took poison for her first attempt, but her second attempt was much more melodramatic. In October 1795, upon learning about the infidelity of her current lover, Wollstonecraft decided to commit suicide by jumping from Putney Bridge. She went out on a rainy night and walked up and down for some time "to make her clothes heavy with water", then jumped into Thames. However, a boatman had seen her fall and rescued her in dramatic fashion.

Sweet Message in a Bottle

Married with a baby daughter, Private Thomas Hughes boarded a troopship in September 1914 to go to fight the Germans with the Third Army Corp Expeditionary Force. Some whim encouraged him to write a message to his young wife and place it in a green ginger beer bottle with a screw-on rubber stopper, then throw it into the sea. He died two days later. His final words remained unread until 1999, 85 years later, when fisherman Steve Gowan scooped the bottle up in his net as he fished for cod in the Thames Estuary off the Essex coast. The note was still dry and intact.

The message read: "Dear Wife, I am writing this note on this boat and dropping it into the sea just to see if it will reach you. . . . . Ta ta sweet, for the present. Your Hubby." He also wrote a covering letter: "Sir or madam, youth or maid, would you kindly forward the enclosed letter and earn the blessing of a poor British soldier on his way to the front this ninth day of September,1914. Signed Private T. Hughes, Second Durham Light Infantry."

Private Hughes's wife, Elizabeth, had died in 1979, but their 86-year-old daughter, Emily, pleaded with Mr. Gowan to return the letter to her. She was only two years old when she last saw her father as he headed off to battle in 1914. Emily's daughter, Elizabeth, commented: "It is too late for the letter to be opened by the person it was intended for, but the next best thing is for it to be handed to his daughter. It's incredible that something lying on the seabed for almost a century has survived intact for so long".

Bathers at Tower Bridge

Standing today in the shadow of Tower Bridge, one of the most iconic of London's bridges, we would never consider that, in the 18th Century, the area was once a popular bathing spot for all classes of society, foremost, women and their children escaping the claustrophobia of crowded dwellings in Central and the East End of London. Of course, it was only possible to bathe or sun-bathe for short periods of time as high tide on the Thames was every 3 - 4 hours, making it unsafe to do so. Indecency laws prohibiting bathing were introduced in 1815, as men had started bathing in the nude.

Tower Beach, as it was called, was used for paddling, sun-bathing and swimming from 1934 to 1971, but poor water quality once again forced closure. However, the improved quality of water in the Thames may soon mean bathing will be possible again.

I chose to profile the 1950s era in my image, photographing women and children in vintage one-piece swimwear and period dresses; the men in the shot were going about their daily business against the iconic background of the Thames and Tower Bridge. Interposed are some of the entertainments of the day, Punch and Judy shows, donkey rides, and fast food on offer, ice-cream and hot dog stalls. Most of the stalls and equipment were designed to facilitate a hasty retreat from the artificially prepared beach as the tide began to rise.

Slut's Hole

Slut's Hole was the name given in the12th Century to a row of ancient tumbledown cottages nestled against the south wall of the churchyard of St Nicholas Church in Chiswick, then a small village on the boundary of London. The street lead to a ferry landing which was then, the only crossing point for miles. The inhabitants of the street were fishermen, watermen, and small traders; their families lived in extreme poverty. Although the street was named 'Slut's Hole', with obvious inferences according to modern-day terminology, it is suggested that the name was derived from the ancient word for 'sluice'.

Today, Chiswick is a leafy suburb in the west of London. Unsurprisingly, the street has long since been renamed as Fisherman's Place, but the name 'Slut's Hole' still reverberates in the folklore and history of Chiswick, raising the question of the origin of such an audacious name. There are many anecdotal indications that the old cottages truly did harbour local ladies fighting against their poverty by providing carnal pleasures to travellers crossing the river by ferry. I wondered how the whores made a living and thought of passing kings and bishops on their way to Hampton Court. The Thames being the main thoroughfare from Tudor times onwards.

The Race Box

The River Thames is a favoured location for internationally renowned boat races, not only the annual University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge, but also The Great River Race, over 21.6 miles from the London Docklands to Ham in Surrey. This race annually attracts several hundred crews from all over the globe. Yachting and rowing clubs line the banks of the river. Every day of the week and especially on weekends, yachtsmen and rowers can be seen enjoying their hobby, whatever the weather.

One such club, the London Corinthian Sailing Club was forced to relocate its clubhouse in the 1960s after its previous clubhouse was deemed unsafe having suffering severe bomb damage from a V-1 flying bomb during WW II. The clubhouse had to be demolished and the club moved a mere 200 metres upstream. The new clubhouse, called Linden House, a gracious refurbished Georgian building in the grounds of which an award-winning race officer's starting box was installed next to the river. From this elevated position yacht racing officials and the occasional guest, have a clear uninterrupted view along the entire racecourse.

The Grain Tower

The Grain Tower is an off-shore fort that was built in the middle of the 19th Century to protect the River Thames from invasion by the French navy. Standing 600 metres out to sea, it can only be reached a high tide by boat or at low-tide by a causeway. The tower was initially oval and three stories high, with 3.6 metre thick walls. It was named after the next nearest town of Grain in Kenta and was manned by a gun crew with barracks, storehouse and officer's quarters. Internal gangways connected various parts of the building.

My story involves a report in The Times newspaper of 23rd May 1867, which reported that Marie Eugenie, the youngest daughter of Captain E. F. S. Lloyd of the Royal Engineers had died at the Grain Tower. We can assume that he was the commanding officer at the time, also that his wife and daughter were residing in the barracks. Marie Eugenie may have fallen sick from tuberculosis, then a very common cause of death, or experienced a fatal accident. In my image we see the disconsolate father carrying the body of his precious daughter across the causeway to her burial place on the mainland, in Grain.

Ophelia

John Everett Millais' famous painting of Shakespeare's Ophelia, hanging in the Tate Gallery, London, has long been one of my favourite works of art. Ophelia was a noble woman in Shakespeare's play Hamlet. She was frustrated in her love of Hamlet. The painting shows the beautiful and vulnerable Ophelia lying on her back in a stream after falling from a tree, still clutching flowers that she had just collected. She was singing, unaware of her eminent pending doom. Air trapped in her clothing kept her afloat until they were saturated, and she drowned.

It is well known that Millais created the painting in two stages. The first stage in 1851 was to paint the background, using the Hogsmill River at Ewell in Surrey as his location. The second stage in 1852 was to paint in Ophelia, using Elizabeth Siddal ('Lizzie') as his model. She had been a milliner and was only 19 years old when discovered by the Pre-Raphaelites, who appreciated her unique beauty. She sat for several of them before Millais hired her for his painting of the second part of his Ophelia project.

During preparatory researches for my 'Thames' project I was delighted to discover that Hogsmill River is a tributary of the Thames. I decided that this justified including the very moving story of the creation of Millais painting in the project. I was aware that several other photographers had shot versions of the Ophelia painting. Although I decided to shoot the scene in its entirety, I otherwise wanted to make my image as authentic to the actual creation of Millais' painting as possible. With the help of the vicar of the local Baptist Church, who knew the details of Millais' stay in the locality, I was able to shoot the scene at the exact spot where he created the first part of his painting in 1851. Furthermore, recognising their importance to the interpretation of the content of the painting I replicated in my image every single flower present in the painting. In addition, I ensured that my model had similar features, hair and skin colouring to those of Lizzie. I dressed her in an antique dress onto which my stylist handstitched the gold applique to replicate the dress she wore in the painting.

For his second stage of the painting Millais' had Lizzie lie fully dressed in a water-filled bathtub. Now winter time he kept the water warm with oil lamps placed under the tub. Once, pre-occupied with his work, he let the oil lamps go out. Lizzie lay acquiescent in the increasingly colder water for several hours, afterwards she became very ill and was sickly for the rest of her short life. To ease her health problems she took laudanum, an opiate, and became addicted to it. She experienced a long and turbulent relationship with another famous Pre-Raphaelite painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti before marrying him and bearing a still-born baby daughter. Depressed, she died from an overdose of laudanum, at 33. What a tragic coincidence that Lizzie's death in real life eventually mirrored the fictional fate of Ophelia!

Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson gained worldwide recognition and became the heroine of the British population, especially among women, when in 1930 at 27, she became the first female pilot to fly solo from Britain to Australia. Her plane was a second-hand de Havilland Gipsy Moth bi-plane. She named it Jason. It now hangs in the Science Museum in London. She subsequently set records for flights to Moscow, New York and Tokyo, and survived several crash landings in doing so. As well as gaining her incredible pilot credentials, she graduated from Sheffield University with a Bachelor Degree in Economics.

In 1940, at the outbreak of WW II, with 164 other female pilots, she signed up with the newly formed Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). Their job was to ferry military aircraft, fighters and bombers, single-handedly to various RAF bases around the country.

My image illustrates the tragic death of this remarkable woman. She lost her way flying a plane in bad weather from the North of England to a base near Oxford. She had to bail out of her plane when it ran out of fuel over the Thames Estuary. A minesweeper close by saw her enter the rough sea on her parachute and attempted to rescue her. The boat's commandant jumped overboard, but was unsuccessful. He died two days later from hypothermia. Amy's body was never found.

Escaping the Flood

Flooding has occurred along the River Thames for millennia. As the size of London and its population grew, the effects of flooding grew more intense, causing considerable damage to homes and land. High walls, now called The Embankment, were built along the banks of the river in London in the 18th Century, but flooding still occurred. Only when the Thames Barrier became operational in 1982 could the potential for floods reaching London be successfully controlled.

In the first half of the 20th Century flooding happened with such regularity that people living on low-lying land along the banks of the Thames developed a very stoic attitude towards the flooding. Black and white photographs from that time pictured people escaping from the upper windows of their homes, walking on a raised pathway of wooden planks, rowing boats or paddling improvised craft down flooded streets.

My image shows two elegantly dressed ladies poling their way through deep water, perched precariously on a door they had wrenched off its hinges. A little girl sitting in a galvanised bathtub accompanies them. They have rescued their pet rabbit and carry it with them in a birdcage, the only receptacle they could find in their haste. A suitcase contains a few clothes for a few nights stay in drier accommodations. In the background, the river has claimed a prestigious victim as a rather expensive, locally parked car idly bobs up and down, partially submerged in the flood.

1928 Flooding of the Tate Gallery

The Thames becomes tidal a few miles upstream from London. The difference in water level between low and high tide is 7 metres at London Bridge. In the past, flooding occurred regularly when strong winds blew a tidal surge up the river from the Thames Estuary, coincided with inland flood water.

The Embankments were built along the banks of the river in London in the mid-18th Century to prevent flooding in low lying parts of the city. But one fateful day in January 1928 unfavourable elements coincided. The river rose rapidly to the highest level ever measured, causing the Embankments to be breached. In the ensuing flood fourteen people died, thousands were made homeless, and business life was severely affected. After the flood receded, many buildings were condemned and demolished.

The world-famous Tate Gallery with its walls full of priceless paintings was one of the buildings that had flooded. The basement flooded to a depth of about 8 feet (2.4m). Paintings were damaged, including many valuable sketches and watercolours by Turner, one of Britain's most prestigious artists.

My image captures the aftermath of the flood in the Tate Gallery. A massive wet painting is carried by a group of porters to safety. Paintings were allowed to dry naturally and then restored. Miraculously, despite their emersion in muddy Thames water for several hours, only eighteen paintings were damaged beyond repair. Even more amazing was that the Turner watercolours had not run. In 2011, 80 years after the flood, John Martin's "Pompeii" could finally be fully restored and re-hung.

Another massive flood in 1953 killed over 300 people on the East Coast and along the lower reaches of the Thames. It was decided to build a flood defence mechanism that would stop dangerous tidal surges from reaching London. The Thames Barrier was finished in 1984 and has worked successfully ever since.

The Ladies' Bridge

They built a bridge. Not just an ordinary bridge, but the sleek and elegant Waterloo Bridge spanning the River Thames in London. Who were they? The clue lies in the alternative name for Waterloo Bridge - the 'Ladies' Bridge', the folklore name given to it by the riverboat guides daily plying the Thames. As they approach the bridge the guides explain to their eager listeners that Waterloo Bridge was completed during WWII by hundreds of women who left doing their daily chores at home, or other jobs, to work on the bridge as welders, joiners, stonemasons and labourers.

Building work had begun on the bridge in 1939 with about 500 male workmen. War broke out and gradually most of them were enlisted to fight. By 1941 only 50 men remained. Completing the bridge was a priority and it was completed, somehow. The bridge was opened to traffic and pedestrians in 1942. For over 70 years the details of its completion remained hazy. The Labour politician Herbert Morrisson said to the crowds gathered at the official opening ceremony that finally took place in December 1945: 'The men who built Waterloo Bridge are fortunate men. They know that, although their names may be forgotten, their work will be a pride and use to London for many generations to come.' Apparently only the riverboat guides knew the real story and in their minds, Waterloo Bridge was 'The Ladies Bridge' because they knew who had built it.

Only very recently, did historian, Christine Wall, research the story behind the strange name. She discovered archived photographs showing women welders and labourers working on the bridge and interviewed eye-witnesses who attested to this almost forgotten part of London's history. Working together with filmmaker, Karen Livesey, they made a video about the women workers, 'The Ladies' Bridge' (http://www.theladiesbridge.co.uk/). The story began to unfold.

The Waterloo Bridge we see and use today is the second bridge built across the Thames on this site. The first was completed in 1817 and was named after the famous victory at the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Built during the era of horse-drawn carriages, it was unsuitable for carrying motor vehicles and it was demolished in 1934. Taking its place, is the graceful "Ladies Bridge". Without their loudspeakers and the Londoners' wit of the riverboat guides, the truth about its creation during the Blitz years would possibly never have been known and the story of the forgotten heroines of London's "Ladies' Bridge" can now be celebrated.

Bengali Durga Immersion ('bhashaan')

Multiculturalism is very pronounced in the UK. People from many nations have brought their own religions, customs and cultures into the country and practice them, especially in London. One event encompassing all these facets is the ceremony of Durga Puja. This is a 5-day celebration of Durga, one of the most popular of the Hindu faith's many deities. Durga is shown as a warrior goddess riding a lion, or a tiger with eight or ten hands holding weapons and making symbolic hand gestures. Her mythology centres around combating evil and forces that threaten peace, prosperity and the karma of the good. She is the embodiment of feminine and creative energy (Shakti).

Durga Puja is celebrated throughout the world by Hindus annually in September or October. During the festival, Hindus commemorate Durga's victory over evil with prayers and readings, decorations in temples and homes, and events recounting Durga's legend. In India and especially in West Bengal, the festival ('puja') always concludes with the immersion of an effigy of Durga into a river or any other body of water. This age-old ritual bids farewell to Durga, as she returns to her husband and children in their spiritual home.

Durga Puja is celebrated enthusiastically wherever Bengalis have cast their roots. For health and safety considerations Bengalis living in London have only infrequently been permitted to perform the immersion ceremony on the banks of the River Thames. In 2018, thanks to the cooperation of the Bengali charity organisation, London Sharad Utsav, and by special permission of the Port of London Authorities, I was able to shoot a recreation of this Bengali 'bhashaan'ceremony on the banks of the Thames close to Putney Bridge.

My image shows the ten-armed, beautifully decorated effigy of Durga being ceremoniously carried into the river by a selected group of men as the crowd on the bank watch and chant the farewell 'asche bochor abar hobe' (until next year). The women are colourfully dressed in traditional laal-paar saris and the men in their equally traditional and colourful kurta. The effigy was built 10 years ago by London Sharad Utsav specially for the Durga Puja celebrations and shows Durga riding a lion and holding a weapon in each hand. For the past decade during Durga Puja, the idol could only be worshipped indoors in Ealing Town Hall. This year it could fulfil its rightful role in this recreated 'mock-up' immersion ceremony.

The Lady of Shalott

The famous English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson first published 'The Lady of Shalott' in 1832, a poem based on one of the legends surrounding King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. In his poem 'The Lady' lives isolated in a tower on an island called Shalott close to Camelot, King Arthur's palace. She bore the curse that if ever she looked at Camelot from her window she would be punished. Her only view of the outside world was its reflection in a mirror. Courious, one day she stole a look and the mirror shattered. Bewitched by what she had seen she climbed out of the tower window, took to a boat, and floated down the Thames River in the direction of Camelot.

On the bank of the river, she sees Sir Lancelot, one of King Arthur's knights, and instantly falls in love with him. But he does not see her and cannot return her feelings. She dies before reaching Camelot where Lancelot finally sees her - but only as a corpse.

My image is based on the famous 1888 painting made by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse, 'The Lady of Shalott'. He portrays 'The Lady' as she sits in the boat as a sorrowful maiden dressed in virginal white. He heightens her sensuality with bright red lips, long flowing hair, and a low-slung sash. She has just cast off from the island, the mooring chain is still in her hand, a crucifix lies near the bow of the boat and three nearby candles suggest her spirituality. But only one of the candles remains lit, a portend of the fateful future awaiting her. The tapestry that drags in the water is one that she had woven on her loom during her lonely days in the tower.

Waterhouse painted three different versions of The Lady of Shalott. It is believed that his wife modelled for this one.

The Frost Fair of 1814

With our present concerns about global warming, it may be a surprise to many to learn that the northern hemisphere was in the grip of a 'Little Ice Age' between the 17th century and early 19th century. During this period the River Thames froze over in twenty-four winters. On six occasions beginning in 1608 and ending in 1814, the ice was thick enough for Londoners to set up tents and hold the famous Frost Fairs.

It was apparent that the construction of the 'Old' London Bridge was a root cause for the build-up of ice as its many narrow arches reduced the flow of water and ice was more prone to form. When the bridge was demolished in 1831 and replaced by the 'New' London Bridge it was built with much wider arches. Combined with other changes made to prevent freezing of the tidal part of the River Thames, freezing became a thing of the past and the Frost Fair of 1814 was the last fair Londoners have experienced.

Over a period stretching from the end of December 1813 to the end of January 1814, the ice build-up became thick enough for people to skate or sledge across the river from one riverbank to the other. Unable to ply their trade, the watermen demanded a toll for letting people onto the ice.

Knowing the history of prior Frost Fairs, London tradespeople soon set up make shift tents which they decorated with 'flags of all nations, streamers and signs'. A street called 'City Road' was created. All kinds of entertainment were offered. The most startling event was when an African elephant was led across the frozen Thames close to Blackfriars Bridge.

Over the next four days until a gradual thaw set in, Londoners flocked onto the frozen river to enjoy the party. Kitchens and furnaces were set up offering food and, of course, gin and beer were plentiful. Pickpockets, gamblers and prostitutes all did a roaring trade, especially as visitors became more drunk. Some paid to have the watermen escort them off the ice again, especially as the ice was not entirely safe in places. In fact, it was recorded that three men broke through the ice, disappeared from sight and were presumably drowned in the freezing water.

Julia Fullerton-Batten
Hyper-realism and cinematic are characteristic descriptions of Julia Fullerton-Batten's images. They are often set in unexpectedly surreal settings with dramatic lighting, communicating simultaneously both tension and mystery. Her latest project is a series of images inspired by her fascination with the River Thames and celebrates 'the glories of the river' against a backdrop of historical ad traditional events, anecdotes and legends. Her works are in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK and the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Thames & Hudson used one of her images for the front cover of their publication A Guide to Collecting Contemporary Photography

Website | Instagram

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Images and words by Julia Fullerton-Batten As a teenager I moved from Germany to live in Oxford on the banks of the River Thames. I grew up along the stretch of the river called Isis and since then the Thames has fascinated me. I now live in West London, still just a short walk from the river.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Julia Fullerton Batten - Old Father Thames

# data[].attributes.body
Through my research of Old Farther Thames so far, I came to see his most recent form as somewhat of a patron saint of mudlarkers. With his stick and bucket trudging through the shores of the Thames collecting any treasures sacrificed or items thrown away.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Old Father Thames, St Johns Lock - WHERE THAMES SMOOTH WATERS GLIDE

# data[].attributes.body
https://thames.me.uk/s02261.htm

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Old Father Thames, St Johns Lock - WHERE THAMES SMOOTH WATERS GLIDE

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Boating Guide to Old father Thames statue at ST JOHN’S LOCK on the River Thames,UK

# data[].attributes.headline
Questions to consider when researching your topic.

# data[].attributes.subject
Questions to consider when researching your topic.

# data[].attributes.body
When myths are retold, what aspects of them are highlighted and what parts are absent?

do the myths have relevance in contemporary culture?

# data[].attributes.body
Symbology

- Mythical creatures

- Symbols of vegetation (plants)

- Love in myths symbology

- Symbolism of the mother

Religion

- Afterlife of different religions

- The virgin and son, religious stories

- William Blakes’ interpretations of religious stories

- Egyptians and death
- Tower of Babel

Personification

- Personification of animals

- Personification of natural elements

Sociology

- Rumours develop into religious stories

- Ship of fools

- Killer (man kills wife) fin name

- Conspiracy behind Mozart death

- Myths and legends informing truths of social systems -  (psychoanalytical)

Phil suggests that we should draw our images and add references.

# data[].attributes.body
As famous as Griffin are fantastic Creatures, and more familiar are centaurs. It is often described as a rough, violent, barbaric representative, greedy and lawless, a symbol of human primitive instinct, untamed side. But there are a few well-regarded centaurs who are educated, educated, and turn old demons into cherubs. The "Centaur With Two Faces" etchcut in the exhibition is also a reproduction by Giulio Bonazon, one of Italy's most important and prolific printmakers of the 16th century. The original was made by the 16th century Italian mannerist painter Parmigianino, who was one of the first Italian painters to experiment with printmaking. The original paintings are now in the Louvre museum in France and Windsor Castle in England.

# data[].attributes.body
I am interested in the idea of personification, looking at how humans create deities through personifying the natural events and elements.

# data[].attributes.body
I am interested in analyzing how myths and legends inform and reveal truths about human behavior and social systems.

# data[].attributes.body
It's hard not to think this kid is dementia, in stark contrast to the previous image. Of course, the improvement in the way of portrayal is also obvious.

# data[].attributes.headline
Kiki Smith, Lilith, 1994. Bronze with glass eyes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

# data[].attributes.subject
Kiki Smith, Lilith, 1994. Bronze with glass eyes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

# data[].attributes.body
In Jewish mythology, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She was made from the same earth as Adam, whereas Eve was made from Adam's rib. Because of this, Lilith saw herself as equal to Adam and, refusing to be subservient to him, fled Eden.
(Lilith, 2014)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
May 23, 2014
Morgan, High School Intern

I was introduced to by Kiki Smith on a tour of modern sculpture at the Met. What first struck me about this piece was its location: it's literally hanging upside down in the middle of the wall as you walk up the stairs in the Modern and Contemporary Art galleries from the first floor to the second.

The entire statue is made of a rugged bronze material, but when I came closer and examined the front, I was greeted with the figure's penetrating, steely blue-grey eyes. They're glass, which gives them an intelligent and lifelike quality. The juxtaposition between the unrefined, stark body and the hyperrealistic, knowing eyes was unexpected and unnerving.

My first thought upon seeing this figure and gazing into her eyes was, "Who is this powerful and supernatural woman?" I half-expected her to blink back at me and continue her scurry down the wall. After absorbing the piece, I looked at the label for an explanation; it was titled , which answered some of my questions. In Jewish mythology, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. She was made from the same earth as Adam, whereas Eve was made from Adam's rib. Because of this, Lilith saw herself as equal to Adam and, refusing to be subservient to him, fled Eden.

The figure's position on the wall shields her female anatomy, and her pose is aggressive and guarded. This contrasts with how women are typically depicted in art, especially in the West. Most female sculptures feature beautiful nudes meant to be admired in open, graceful, and revealing poses: the female body put on display for all to marvel at. Almost all of these works are made by men depicting their ideal of women. In contrast, Smith shows the female figure in a radically atypical but empowering way, a product of defiance and refusal to submit-unexpected, intelligent, and just the right amount of creepy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
High School Intern Morgan describes her encounter with Kiki Smith's Lilith in the Modern and Contemporary Art galleries.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca da Rimini (‘The Whirlwind of Lovers’) (1826–7, reprinted 1892)

# data[].attributes.subject
The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca da Rimini (‘The Whirlwind of Lovers’) (1826–7, reprinted 1892)

# data[].attributes.body
Dante is so moved by this romantic tale that he faints, hence his position flat on his back. Notice that above Virgil’s head a sun-like disc contains a sketch of a couple embracing, while the wind-blown lovers themselves seem to be flying up and out of the picture to freedom. Blake disapproved of Dante for depicting God as a vengeful judge, whose role was to inflict ingenious punishment (similar to his own Urizen), and these details are his subtle protest. As we can see in poems such as The Garden Of Love, Blake himself believed that suppressing desire was a far worse crime than yielding to it.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39/blake-illustrations-dante

# data[].attributes.body
A fanciful picture of the 'Breed of Barnackle-geese,' the myth according to which gooseneck barnacles develop into geese.

# data[].attributes.headline
Myth - Serial killer -Bluebeard (French fairy tale)

# data[].attributes.subject
Myth - Serial killer -Bluebeard (French fairy tale)

# data[].attributes.body
Story01:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard

Story02:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitcher%27s_Bird

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bluebeard gives his wife the keys to his castle, art by Gustave Doré (1862)

# data[].attributes.headline
Mandrake, from a treaty by Dioscorides (AD 40-c.90) (vellum)

# data[].attributes.subject
Mandrake, from a treaty by Dioscorides (AD 40-c.90) (vellum)

# data[].attributes.body
dog was chained to the root to pull it out because during medieval period it was believed that whoever pulled it out would die

# data[].attributes.body
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, legendary zoophyte of Central Asia, once believed to grow sheep as its fruit. The sheep were connected to the plant by an umbilical cord and grazed the land around the plant. When all the plants were gone, both the plant and sheep died.

# data[].attributes.body
1.
The Tower of Babel is a structure mentioned in Genesis 11, when the people tried to build a tower to the sky and the Lord came down and confused the language of the world, "Babel" meaning disruption. The size and shape of the Tower of Babel is not mentioned in the Bible, but is described in detail in The Book of Jubilees, and the shape in the early paintings of the Tower of Babel is derived from historical documents.

2.
Erik Desmazières produced an etching of The Library of Babel in 1997, which was conceived by Borges in his 1941 novel as a library containing the books of the universe.

3.
The Digital library of Babel is another iteration of Jonathan Basile's website based on the Library Babel, which uses illustrations by Antonio Toca Fernández and uses programming to attempt to restore the building described in the novel.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.lecantiche.com/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
fter an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, as in Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. While the structures of the Inferno and Purgatorio were based on different classifications of sin, the structure of the Paradiso is based on the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues. The seven lowest spheres of Heaven deal solely with the cardinal virtues of Prudence,

Fortitude, Justice and Temperance. The first three spheres involve a deficiency of one of the cardinal virtues - the Moon, containing the inconstant, whose vows to God waned as the moon and thus lack fortitude; Mercury, containing the ambitious, who were virtuous for glory and thus lacked justice; and Venus, containing the lovers, whose love was directed towards another than God and thus lacked Temperance.

The seven subdivided into three are raised further by two more categories: the eighth sphere of the fixed stars that contain those who achieved the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, and represent the Church Triumphant - the total perfection of humanity, cleansed of all the sins and carrying all the virtues of heaven; and the ninth circle, or Primum Mobile, which contains the angels, creatures

never poisoned by original sin. Topping them all is the Empyrean, which contains the essence of God, completing the 9-fold division to 10. Dante meets and converses with several great saints of the Church, including Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Saint Peter, and St. John. The Paradiso is consequently more theological in nature than the Inferno and the Purgatorio. However, Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is

merely the one his human eyes permit him to see, and thus the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante's personal vision.

The Divine Comedy finishes with Dante seeing the Triune God. In a flash of understanding that he cannot express, Dante finally understands the mystery of Christ's divinity and humanity, and his soul becomes aligned with God's love.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
fter an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, as in Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. While the structures of the Inferno and Purgatorio were based on different classifications of sin, the structure of the Paradiso is based on the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues.

# data[].attributes.body
1. Wix: https://www.wix.com/

2. Wordpress + Godaddy + Elementor
https://elementor.com/

3. Weebly: https://www.weebly.com/

# data[].attributes.body
According to the book of Genesis, “God created man in his own image.”¹⁶ According to Aristotle, “men create the gods after their own image.” (Wright, 2022)

Wright, R., 2022. The Evolution Of God, The origins of our beliefs - Google Play. [online] Play.google.com. Available at: <https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Pz0pxFgnLK4C&pg=GBS.PT295.w.5.0.16_245&hl=en_GB> [Accessed 2 May 2022].

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Old Father Thames sung by Peter Dawson in January 1933

# data[].attributes.body
I really enjoy this illustration of Father Thames offering his children to the mother of parliaments. This illustration depicts  'The great stink', an event that occurred in London in 1858, lasting one year. Where the Thames become so full of human excrement that filled the air of London and birthed three great diseases; dysentery, typhoid and cholera. These three diseases are said to be the children of Father Thames.

# data[].attributes.body
Each song describes between one and three counties, describing their topography, traditions and histories. Copies were illustrated with maps of each county, drawn by William Hole, whereon places were depicted anthropomorphically.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Poly-Olbion is an expansive poetic journey through the landscape, history, traditions and customs of early modern England and Wales. Originally published in two parts (1612, 1622), it is also a richly collaborative work: Michael Drayton's 15,000-line poem, which navigates the nation county by county, is embellished by William Hole's thirty exquisite engraved county maps, and accompanied for its first eighteen 'songs' by the young John Selden's remarkable prose 'Illustrations'.

The core purpose of The Poly-Olbion Project, based at the University of Exeter and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), is to produce a new scholarly edition of the text. In addition, the project aims to generate some fresh critical work, building on a successful conference at the Royal Geographical Society in September 2015, and culminating in the publication of an edited volume of critical essays.

We are also committed to engagement with a wider audience. This website provides access to the text and maps in various forms, including modernized extracts. Furthermore, we have enjoyed an unique and productive partnership, co-funded by the AHRC and the Heritage Lottery Fund, with Flash of Splendour. The product of this collaboration, ' The Children's Poly-Olbion', has involved a programme of innovative workshops with selected groups of children, and 2015 exhibitions in London and Exeter.

To learn more about the Stuart era, start with this animated film made by our friends at Stuarts Online.

Children's Poly-Olbion Explore the innovative work of Flash of Splendour Arts in this video report.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Poly-Olbion is an expansive poetic journey through the landscape, history, traditions and customs of early modern England and Wales. Originally published in two parts (1612, 1622), it is also a richly collaborative work: Michael Drayton's 15,000-line poem, which navigates the nation county by county, is embellished by William Hole's thirty exquisite engraved county maps, and accompanied for its first eighteen 'songs' by the young John Selden's remarkable prose 'Illustrations'.

# data[].attributes.body
Simple web authoring tool with hyperlinks and sub-pages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL0r47Q7iMY&t=306s
Here is one of the tutorial video.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HOTGLUE.ME :: unique tool for web publication & samizdat

# data[].attributes.body
Originally Father Thames was depicted in a Roman style sculpture, but after 'The Great Stink' Father Thames was illustrated as an unclean old man carrying a bucket with a dead cat. I find it interesting how we alter deities form, reflecting any changes to what it represents.

# data[].attributes.headline
Myth, money and movement - old father Thames

# data[].attributes.subject
Myth, money and movement - old father Thames

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.thankgodforevolution.com/node/2010

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
God is not a person; God is a mythic personification of reality. If we miss this we miss everything.

Birth, life, death, the cycles and rhythms of Nature, the elemental forces of the Universe-these are undeniably real. Like it or not, we humans have always been in an inescapable relationship with a Reality that we could neither fully predict nor control. And given the nature of our brains, there's one thing that people in every culture and throughout history have instinctually done: we've used metaphors and analogies to understand and relate to that which is unavoidably, undeniably real and/or mysterious. We can't not do this. Consciously or unconsciously, we will always interpret via metaphors.

ALL images and concepts of God are more or less meaningful interpretations and personifications. And it didn't take a genius to figure out that if you trust, or have faith, in what is ultimately inescapable, your life works better than if you judge or resist what is real. This is not theological rocket science.

Religion Is About Rght Relationship to Reality, Not the Supernatural

All religions offer maps of what's real and what's important. So contends philosopher-of-religion Loyal Rue in his 2006 book, Religion Is Not About God (Youtube clip here). Religions offer practices, too, that help adherents live in right relationship with each other, their society, and with reality as a whole-regardless of how that "reality" is mythically personified.

Darwin didn't kill God. To the contrary, he and Alfred Russel Wallace offered the first glimpse of the real Creator behind and beyond the world's myriad mythic portrayals of reality.

Joseph Campbell, Huston Smith, Paul Tillich, Rudolf Bultmann, Robert Bellah, Pascal Boyer, Michael Shermer, and other scholars of comparative religion and/or evolutionary psychology and neurobiology remind us that we cannot understand religion and religious differences if we don't understand how the human mind instinctually relationalizes, or personifies, reality. (Shermer refers to this deep-seated tendency as "agenticity".) Think of the movie " Castaway" with Tom Hanks. The personified volleyball, Wilson, was the only thing that kept Hank's character sane (sort of).

Evidence from a wide range of disciplines, from cognitive neuroscience to anthropology to cross-cultural studies of the world's myths and religions, all support the claim that God is (and always has been) an interpretation, a personification. Furthermore, there is no counter-evidence supporting the claim that God is a person! This fact alone makes sense of the hundreds of competing stories around the world as to what God supposedly said or did.

"God" is a mythic personification of reality, not an invisible friend or otherworldly entity. Indeed, any so-called God that is imagined as less than this is hardly worthy of our devotion and deserves to be mocked, as the New Atheists so readily do. As I regularly remind audiences...

Poseidon was not the god of the oceans, as if some supernatural entity separate from water was looking down from on high or rising from the deep. Poseidon was the personification of the incomprehensibly powerful and capricious seas! The same, of course, is true of Neptune.

Sol was not the spirit of the Sun, as if there were a separation between the two. Sol was a proper, reverential name for that seemingly eternal, life-giving source of heat and light, and occasionally a life-taking source in times of desperate drought. By saying "Sol," "Helios" or some other proper name, our ancestors experienced that reality as a "Thou" to be related to.

Whenever any story or any scriptural passage claims that "God said this" or "God did that", what follows is always an interpretation-specifically, an interpretation of what some person (or group of people) thought or felt or sensed or wished reality (life / the universe) was "saying" or "doing," and almost always as justification after the fact or to make a theological point. Such subjectively meaningful claims are never objective, measurable truth.

In other words, had CNN or ABC News been there to record the moment of "divine revelation" there would have been nothing out of the ordinary or miraculous to report on the evening news-nothing other than what was coming out of someone's mouth, or pen, or whatever folks wrote with back then. If we fail to grasp this, not only will we trivialize the very notion of the divine but, more tragically still, we will miss what reality is "saying and doing" today. As I say in the preface of Thank God for Evolution,

How was the world made? Why do earthquakes, tornados, and other bad things happen? Why must we die? And why do different peoples answer these questions in different ways? The big questions that children have always asked and will continue to ask cannot be answered by the powers of human perception alone. Ancient cultures gave so-called supernatural answers to these questions, but those answers were not truly supernatural-they were prenatural. Prior to advances in technology and scientific ways of testing truth claims, factual answers were simply unavailable. It was not just difficult to understand infection before microscopes brought bacteria into focus; it was impossible. Without an evolutionary worldview, it is similarly impossible to understand ourselves, our world, and what is required for humanity to survive.

Supernatural Is Unnatural Is Uninspiring

Everything shifts when we move from a worldview given by tradition and authority to one based on facts and empirical evidence. For example, evidence suggests that the only place that the so-called supernatural realm has ever existed has been in the minds and hearts (and speech) of human beings-and only quite recently. As Benson Saler showed in his 1977 American Anthropological Association's Ethos paper, " Supernatural as a Western Category," the very notion of supernatural-in opposition to the natural-is a Western invention.

The "supernatural realm" only came into being as a thought form after we began to understand things in a natural, scientific way. Only when the concept of "the natural" emerged was it deemed necessary by some to speak of "the supernatural": that which was imagined to be above or outside of nature.

As we have collectively learned ever more about the natural, the supernatural has become ever less. After all, supernatural and unnatural are synonyms. Anything supposedly supernatural is, by definition, unnatural. And most people find unnatural relatively uninspiring when they really stop and think about it.

It should not surprise us that young people en masse are turning their backs on religion and that the New Atheists are riding bestseller lists when "the gospel", God's supposed Great News for all of humanity, is reduced to this...

An unnatural king who occasionally engages in unnatural acts sends his unnatural son to Earth in an unnatural way. He's born an un- natural birth, lives an unnatural life, performs unnatural deeds, and is killed and unnaturally rises from the dead in order to redeem humanity from an unnatural curse brought about by an unnaturally talking snake. After 40 days of unnatural appearances he unnaturally zooms off to heaven to return to his unnatural father, sit on an unnatural throne, and unnaturally judge the living and the dead. If you profess to believe in all this unnatural activity, you and your fellow believers get to spend an unnaturally long time in an unnaturally boring paradise while everyone else suffers an unnatural, torturous hell forever.

Rudolf Bultmann: What Does the Word 'God' Point To?

Rudolf Bultmann, arguably the most influential theologian of the 20th century, wrote an important essay in 1931 titled, " The Crisis of Faith" In it, he tries to move discussion of God in a modern context beyond beliefs to universal experience. (I first learned of Bultmann's essay reading Gene Marshall's, A Primer on Radical Christianity, chapter 4: " What Reality in Human Experience Do We Point to With the Word 'God'?", which I highly recommend.)

We are all concerned with what it takes to be safe and secure. We naturally and inevitably partake in activities designed to provide the essentials of living: food, water, warmth, enjoyment, and so forth. But just like the biblical story of the man who filled his barns with grain only to learn that he was going to die before he could use what he stored, we all experience unexpected misfortune. Plans go awry. Our efforts to be secure prove fruitless. The unexpected happens. Perhaps a spouse divorces us or we lose our job, a loved one dies, or our home is damaged by fire or flood. I experienced this myself last September when I was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment to shrink then remove a tumor attached to my spleen. I was quickly reminded of how insecure and fragile life is.

Being a frail, finite, mortal being dependent on other frail, finite, mortal beings and things means that I am always vulnerable to having my achievements and things that make me feel secure ripped away from me. If it were up to me, I'd be secure. My insecurity comes from something-some power, some force, some inescapable something -other than me. Whatever we may choose to call this reality, it's beyond belief or disbelief. It just is. We all know it through our experience. It is this inescapable reality that Bultmann calls "God".

Similarly, we all long for true and beautiful moments that we'd love to hang onto. We all know what it's like to wish for time to stand still, for the moment to stop, but of course this doesn't happen. If it were up to me it would, but I'm simply not able to stop time or make some temporal thing eternal. No matter how much I'd like the pleasure to continue, I can't even smell lilacs for more than 30 seconds and have my senses un-dulled. I can't make the clock stand still or a beautiful moment last. Time moves on. Whatever it is that controls the temporal and eternal is not me. Bultmann calls it "God".

Another example: because we are social animals almost all of us are driven by a desire for love and connection. If we cannot be forever secure and content, we can at least know true friendship and nourishing companionship. And of course, for most of us, most of the time, this is true. Many of us go long periods of our life rich in relationships. But as we all discover sooner or later, we must make our own big decisions. We must do our own living, and certainly must do our own dying. No matter how many friends and family we have, in a very important sense we are also alone. In the end, we are finally and unavoidably alone. As Bultmann says, "The power which drives us into that final solitude is what I am pointing to when I use the word 'God'."

Similarly, we all know that our knowledge is limited. After years of learning skills and acquiring knowledge we often find ourselves back at the starting gate, a beginner once more. In the words of Gene Marshall,

The honest study of reality is somewhat like this story: I went on a long trip, and while I was gone my closest colleagues began doing entirely different things. When I came home they were using a new set of words. I did not know what they were talking about. They were doing new things that I did not know how to do. All my hard-won wisdoms of the past were irrelevant to what was now going on. Without consulting me, things change. Reality moves on ahead. I come off as someone who does not know what is going on anymore.

We also experience our limitations re our actions and accomplishments. Even the Egyptian pyramids will eventually wear away to nothing-rather quickly on a geological time scale! The power that sets a limit to knowing and doing is what Bultmann means by "God".

Bultmann's last example relates to our desire for self-mastery. Again, no matter how we conceive what it is that we want to do, or what we think we should do, our conscience ends up pronouncing us guilty of wasted time and lost opportunity, impure thoughts and mean actions. Whatever kind of excellence and success we aim for, we realize, if we are honest with ourselves, that we fall short.

All the aforementioned ways of experiencing human limitations are, of course, unavoidable. Life itself makes us finite. I am not making myself finite. Some mysterious "more than me" is making me finite. This mysterious power, this undeniable reality, says Bultmann, is what cultures throughout history have meant by the word, "God".

It is God who makes us finite, who makes a comedy of our care, who allows our longing to miscarry, who casts us into solitude, who sets a limit to our knowing and doing, who calls us to responsibility, and who fills us with guilt when we fall short. But it is also God who allows us to experience the gift of life, who drives us to care; who fills our hearts with love and trust and gratitude, who gives us knowledge and the strength to work, and who blesses us with the seemingly never-ending dance between self-interest and responsibility to others.

Now Bultmann has focused our attention: we see an enigmatic power operative in our everyday lives, giving us our life and all good gifts yet also limiting us in nearly every conceivable way, and finally taking our lives away. This is real life! This is reality as it really is, whether or not we like it. There can be no argument whether or not this reality exists. If you don't want to call it a power, call it a force, an up-against-ness, or simply the universe as it really is. As Bultmann points out in his essay, we are not talking about some metaphysical idea here. We are talking about an unavoidable actuality. Words may fail us, but we all know this reality intimately, personally.

Now that Bultmann has focused our attention on our common human experience, he asks,

"Why call this mysterious power 'God'? Why give the enigma, the mystery that drives us this way and that and hedges us in, any other name but 'the enigma', or 'fate'? Or, if there must be a name, why not equally well 'the devil'? Doesn't this power play a cruel game with us, destroying and annihilating? Is not unfulfillment the distinguishing mark of every life? Is not death and nothingness the end?"

These questions reveal that it matters how we name what is undeniable so, how we think about the inevitabilities of life, because our naming will influence how we will relate to our own finitude-indeed, to all aspects of our lives. If we call this enigmatic power or force, "the devil", we are thereby proclaiming reality to be fundamentally evil and untrustworthy. Such a stance toward life can only lead to despair. If reality is seen as evil, then we are estranged from reality. Yet because we are also inextricably bound to reality-we cannot escape it-we despair.

But despair is not the only option. Bultmann suggests that faith has nothing to do with beliefs; it's about trust. Trust that reality is okay just as it is. Reality is not too tough for me; I was made for reality! This trust gives meaning to our lives. For me to look into the awe-filling fullness of life and pronounce the name "God" means a commitment of my life to reality-based living. That's why I say, Reality is my God, evidence is my scripture, and integrity (living in right relationship with reality and helping others do the same) is my religion. Life as it really is, with all its warts and glory, this is the primary object of my trust, my loyalty, my love.

I foresee the concept of a "personal God" imaged as an unnatural being with the best and worst of human traits-now the hallmark of evangelical Christianity-being replaced by a reality-based view of God within a few generations. Despite how it appears in the Bible, ultimate Reality does not have the deranged personality and character flaws of a Bronze Age warlord. Indeed, evidence suggests that God has no character traits or personality at all, other than what we embody and/or project. God is a personification, not a person. This fundamental shift in the 'root metaphor' of the Abrahamic traditions will, I predict, be seen historically as perhaps the greatest theological transformation in millennia. This shift, and what follows naturally from it, will also go a long way toward reconciling science and religion. It will do this not by accommodating science to religion, but by naturalizing, REALizing, religion. This shift leads to a serious upgrading of our map of reality. It opens the door to thinking about "God ways" and "God's guidance" via science rather than ancient texts. In the words of Frank Lloyd Wright, "I believe in God, only I spell it Nature."

Beyond theism, atheism, deism, pantheism, or even panentheism, this nested holarchical view, which celebrates evolutionary emergence and the fact Universe itself is creative, I refer to as "creatheism" in my book, Thank God for Evolution. However we may refer to it, I believe this evidence-based perspective can move us beyond old arguments and into a new world pregnant with fresh possibilities.

PLEASE DO READ: "What Reality in Human Experience Do We Point to with the Word, 'God'?", a pdf of a short essay by evolutionary theologian and bioregionalist, Gene Marshall. This chapter from one of Gene's books is foundational to an evolutionary understanding of the divine. (The pdf shows up sideways, so you'll need to open it with Adobe Reader and, under the "View" menu, rotate it clockwise. Otherwise you'll need to print it out. It's only 10 pages and well worth it!)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
God is Reality Personified, Not a Person | Thank God For Evolution

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
God is not a person; God is a mythic personification of reality. If we miss this we miss everything. Birth, life, death, the cycles and rhythms of Nature, the elemental forces of the Universe-these are undeniably real. Like it or not, we humans have always been in an inescapable relationship with a Reality that we could neither fully predict nor control.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The myth of Apollo and Daphne is a story describing what happens when lust faces rejection. It's a tale about the power of love, the power of Cupid (or Eros in Greek) who can even blind the most powerful amongst the Greek Gods. In the myth, Apollo falls madly in love with Daphne, a woman sworn to remain a virgin. Apollo hunts Daphne who refuses to accept his advances. Right at the moment he catches her, she turns into a laurel tree, a scene famously depicted in Bernini's Apollo and Daphne sculpture.

The Myth Of Apollo And Daphne

The earliest source of this famous transformation myth is Parthenius, a Greek poet who lived during the 1 st century BCE. Another notable source is Pausanias, a Greek travel writer of the 2 nd CE century. However, the most lyrical attempt at presenting Apollo and Daphne's story was carried out by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses a collection of Greek fables written in 8 CE.

In this article, we will first explore the story as told by Ovid. Afterward, we will take a look at the other versions. The final section will briefly present Bernini's Apollo and Daphne famous sculpture.

Apollo Slays The Python And Offends Cupid

The story of Apollo and Daphne in Ovid's Metamorphoses (I.438-567) took place right after Apollo killed the Python, the great snake that terrorized mankind. Apollo, called Phoebus by Ovid, pierced the Python with 1,000 arrows and founded the sacred Pythian Games named after the serpent. The sanctuary of Delphi, home to the famous oracle, called Pythia, was built on top of the Python's dead body.

After his triumph over such a powerful enemy, Apollo was full of arrogance. Seeing the god of love, Eros, better known as cupid, who was also a famous bowman, Apollo started making fun of him:

"Impudent boy, what are you doing with a man's weapons?"

Cupid was often depicted as a winged boy which explains Apollo's comment. Apollo felt that Cupid was stealing his glory by gaining fame as a famous archer. Having defeated the Python, he believed that he and only he was worthy of holding a bow and a quiver:

"I can hit wild beasts of a certainty, and wound my enemies, and not long ago destroyed with countless arrows the swollen Python that covered many acres with its plague-ridden belly. You should be intent on stirring the concealed fires of love with your burning brand, not laying claim to my glories!"

Cupid's Reaction To Apollo's Remarks

Cupid did not take the offense lightheartedly:

"You may hit every other thing Phoebus, but my bow will strike you: to the degree that all living creatures are less than gods, by that degree is your glory less than mine."

The next thing Cupid did was something Apollo did not see coming. The god of love stroke his wings and flew right next to the god of music. He then shot him on the chest with a "golden arrow with a sharp glistening point". This arrow did not kill or hurt Apollo. The true injury was not corporeal, it was sentimental, but Apollo would learn that soon.

With a second arrow, a "blunt one with lead beneath its shaft", Cupid shot Daphne, a nymph who also happened to be a virgin huntress of the goddess Artemis. Daphne was very beautiful and many men came to ask her hand. However, she was devoted to hunting and following the laws of the goddess Artemis, who demanded chastity and virginity. Ovid writes that her father, the river god Peneus, disagreed with her life and asked her to settle down and give him grandchildren:

"It is my due, child of my heart, to be given grandchildren", said Peneus.

"Dearest father, let me be a virgin forever! Diana's father granted it to her", Daphne always replied.

Apollo's Love Meets Daphne's Disgust: A Tragic Dead-End

Coming back to Cupid's arrows, they both had special abilities. The one that hit Apollo, was an arrow of love and intense passion. The moment he got hit by the arrow, Apollo spotted Daphne hunting in the wild and unable to contain his passion went after her. However, the arrow that hit Daphne, was an arrow that filled the nymph's heart with disgust for the god who appeared in front of her.

Cupid's revenge was cruel. Apollo was madly in love with a woman who hated him with every ounce of her being.

Apollo's love for Daphne was so strong that the god of prophecy was unable to foretell his future but still, his emotions were uncontrollable. He approached the nymph whom he now saw more beautiful and virtuous than she actually was. He started praising her again and again. But Daphne could not even stand his presence. Before Apollo could even get a proper response, Daphne had fled.

Apollo Chases Daphne

"Wait nymph, daughter of Peneus, I beg you!", screamed Apollo but Daphne did not even look back.

The god kept begging Daphne to stop. He tried to explain that he posed no threat to her and that his intentions were good:

"I who am chasing you am not your enemy. Nymph, Wait! This is the way a sheep runs from the wolf, a deer from the mountain lion, [...] but it is love that is driving me to follow you! Pity me!"

The chase went on as Apollo was becoming more and more paranoid. He was afraid that Daphne might fall and get hurt. In a hopeless attempt to make her stop he started explaining to her who he was. Besides, he was the god of beauty, prophecy, medicine, and music, no woman should be able to resist him:

"Rash girl, you do not know, you cannot realize, who you run from, and so you run. Delphi's lands are mine, Claros and Tenedos, and Patara acknowledges me, king. Jupiter (Zeus) is my father. Through me what was, what is, and what will be, are revealed. Through me, strings sound in harmony, to the song. My aim is certain, but an arrow truer than mine has wounded my free heart! The whole world calls me the bringer of aid; medicine is my invention; my power is in herbs. But love cannot be healed by any herb, nor can the arts that cure others cure their lord!"

The Tragic Conclusion

"Like a hound of Gaul starting a hare in an empty field, that heads for its prey, she for safety"

With these words Ovid ( Metamorphoses 525-550) describes Apollo and Daphne's chase as the story was nearing its tragic conclusion.

Apollo focused on catching Daphne. He was running and running while the nymph could see that she was getting closer and closer to getting caught. At times Apollo could almost grab her but she escaped him at the last second. However, it was becoming clear that Daphne would be caught sooner or later. As moments passed Daphne was becoming exhausted. And then, finally, Apollo grabbed her:

"So the virgin and the god: he driven by desire, she by fear. He ran faster, Amor giving him wings, and allowed her no rest, hung on her fleeing shoulders, breathed on the hair flying round her neck. Her strength was gone, she grew pale, overcome by the effort of her rapid flight"

Right at that moment Daphne saw the waters of her father's river, Peneus and screamed:

"Help me father! If your streams have divine powers change me, destroy this beauty that pleases too well!"

Peneus helped his daughter who was now firmly in the hands of Apollo. Daphne started transforming into a tree. Her hair became leaves, her arms branches, and her legs roots. Before Apollo could have a look at her face, she was gone. The only thing standing where Daphne stood was a beautiful laurel tree (literally a daphne tree in Greek).

Apollo's Love Never Dies

Even after Daphne's transformation, Apollo's love did not wither away. The god took the leaves of the tree in his hands and kissed the wood of the tree. He then whispered:

"Since you cannot be my bride, you must be my tree! Laurel, with you my hair will be wreathed, with you my lyre, with you my quiver. You will go with the Roman generals when joyful voices acclaim their triumph, and the Capitol witnesses their long processions. You will stand outside Augustus's doorposts, a faithful guardian, and keep watch over the crown of oak between them. And just as my head with its uncropped hair is always young, so you also will wear the beauty of undying leaves."

And truly since then, the laurel became the sacred tree of Apollo. In the Delphi, the oracle would chew laurel leaves before receiving the divine wisdom that she translated into a prophecy. Also, the prize of the Pythian Games, the second most important Games in antiquity after the Olympics was a crown of laurel.

Other Versions Of The Myth

According to Parthenius, Daphne was the daughter of Amyclas (and not of Peneus) and lived in a group of women loyal to Artemis. As followers of Artemis, they had to retain their virginity and, consequently, no men were allowed in their ranks. However, Leucippus the son of Oenomaus, the king of Pisa, fell in love with Daphne.

To approach Daphne, Leucippus dressed like a woman and became her best friend living amongst the followers of Artemis. But Apollo who was also in love with Daphne and envious of Oenomaus used his divine powers to make Daphne want to bathe in a stream. When they arrived, Daphne and her female attendants stripped, but Oenomaus refused. Using force, the women tore his clothes. When they realized that it was a man that was with them all along, they immediately attacked him with their spears. This was not the end of Daphne's misfortunes. Apollo, just like in Ovid, fell in love with the nymph and went after her. In this version, Daphne turned into a tree after she prayed to Zeus (and not to Peneus).

Pausanias, a Greek travel writer of the 2 nd century CE, presents the same story as the above but with Daphne as the daughter of the river Ladon.

Hyginus, a contemporary of Pausanias, wrote that Daphne begged for protection from Gaia (Earth) who turned her into a tree.

Bernini's Apollo And Daphne

The story of Apollo and Daphne has been particularly popular amongst visual artists throughout the ages. The transformation of a woman into a tree posed a true challenge to all those who wanted to prove that they could transcend the greatest problem in art; the depiction of movement. If nothing else, visually, that is exactly what the final act of Apollo and Daphne's myth is about, rapid movement. Apollo is chasing Daphne who, moments before giving up, screams to her father for protection. The two protagonists are still moving as Daphne gradually transforms into a tree.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Apollo and Daphne (c. 1622-1625) sculpture managed to capture this moment perfectly. The sculptor also managed to create an unparalleled work of art that is still admired for its movement and grace. Apollo grabs Daphne and his hands almost seem like they are grabbing a real person. The desperation in Daphne's eyes is evident as she can tell that she has been caught. At the same time, her hands are just starting to turn into branches.

Bernini's Apollo and Daphne is righteously considered a masterpiece. One can almost feel Apollo's desperation as his beloved one is transforming into a tree as well as Daphne's transition from fear to relief. It is a very rare case for a sculpture to capture movement in such a way that one can almost see a whole scene unraveling, and Bernini's Apollo and Daphne is certainly one of these rare cases.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Apollo And Daphne: A Detailed Breakdown Of The Famous Greek Myth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What happens when the god of music, beauty and prophecy falls in love with a nymph sworn to protect her chastity? This is the myth of Apollo and Daphne.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Razor Blade in the Apple: The Social Construction of Urban Legends

# data[].attributes.subject
The Razor Blade in the Apple: The Social Construction of Urban Legends

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Razor Blade in the Apple The Social Construction of Urban Legends

# data[].attributes.body
The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a journey through the world’s mythological traditions, from the ancient Egyptians, to the Romans, the Hindu and Buddhist legends of the east, and the folk-tales and foundation myths of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Oceania.

It explores the common themes and story elements that define the world’s mythologies—though cultures are separated by vast gulfs of space and time, they all tell their stories in similar ways, using the same essential mythological template: the hero’s journey.

https://www.shortform.com/summary/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces-summary-joseph-campbell#:~:text=The%20Hero%20With%20a%20Thousand%20Faces%20is%20an%20exploration%20of,of%20living%20by%20telling%20stories.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a journey through the world's mythological traditions, from the ancient Egyptians, to the Romans, the Hindu and Buddhist legends of the east, and the folk-tales and foundation myths of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Oceania.

It explores the common themes and story elements that define the world's mythologies-though cultures are separated by vast gulfs of space and time, they all tell their stories in similar ways, using the same essential mythological template: the hero's journey.

The Hero's Journey

The archetypal myth is that of the hero's journey, which details the exploits of an exalted figure such as a legendary warrior or king. But the hero can also start out as an obscure figure of humble origins, on the fringes of society. Frequently, this hero is born to lowly circumstances in a remote corner of the world and is the product of immaculate conception and virgin birth. Thus, they start out with some essential element of the gods already inside them.

The hero sets out on a journey to acquire some object or attain some sort of divine wisdom. This can be something material (like Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail) or something with far greater spiritual weight (like the Buddha's journey to find ultimate enlightenment). The hero undergoes great trials and tribulations during the course of their quest, undergoes a spiritual (and sometimes literal) death and rebirth, and transforms into an entirely new being. They gain new powers, and with those powers, achieve their goal-they receive the ultimate boon. They then return home to share this heavenly reward with their people-and in doing so, redeem all mankind.

Although the hero's journey is often filled with daring exploits, the slaying of fantastical monsters, and unions with strange and beautiful goddesses, it is at heart a deeply introspective and inward-looking adventure, one with profound spiritual and psychological implications. Through their arduous trial, the hero learns new things about himself or herself and discovers hidden strengths that were dormant within them the entire time -in fairy tales, this is often made literal by the revelation of the hero to have been "the Chosen One" or "the King's son." These new (but latent) powers enable a thorough transformation of the hero's outward being and psyche.

When viewed this way, mythology is deeply egalitarian. It tells us who we are and the rewards that await us if we would only set aside our focus on the day-to-day humdrum of life and embrace the hero's journey. The hero, far from being just a literary character of long-dead civilizations, symbolizes the great godly potential within all of us.

The Hero With a Thousand Faces breaks down this mythological template even further and also explores the creation and destruction stories that mankind has told since before the age of recorded history, from cultures all over the world. A few key themes emerge.

The Monomyth

The core structure of mythology is called the monomyth. It involves three rites of passage-separation, initiation, and return. From the myths of the ancient Egyptians and the medieval Arthurian legend to the folk-tales of the native Maoris of New Zealand, the pattern of the hero's journey usually follows this cycle: a separation from the world he or she has always known (embarking on the quest), gaining some spiritual or other-worldly power, and a return in which they share the boon of the new power with humanity.

There are familiar beats throughout world-legend -the call to action; the initial reluctance of the hero; the aid of a supernatural...

Want to learn the rest of The Hero with a Thousand Faces in 21 minutes?

Unlock the full book summary of The Hero with a Thousand Faces by signing up for Shortform .

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

Being 100% comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book

Cutting out the fluff: you don't spend your time wondering what the author's point is.

Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.

READ FULL SUMMARY OF THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES
Here's a preview of the rest of Shortform's The Hero with a Thousand Faces summary:

The Hero with a Thousand Faces Summary Introduction

The Hero With a Thousand Faces is an exploration of the power of myth and storytelling, from the ancient world to modern times, and spanning every human culture across the world. All peoples, and indeed, all individuals, make sense of the world they live in and grapple with the experience of living by telling stories. Myths are the foundation of all human physical and intellectual pursuits, be they religious, economic, social, or cultural, because these mythstell us who we are and what destinies we are here to fulfill.

The Composite Hero

The heroes of mythology, whether it's King Arthur, Odysseus, the Buddha, the Chinese emperor Huang Ti, or Moses, share similar characteristics.

They are often figures who have unique talents or gifts and hold an exalted position within their society-they are renowned scholars, warriors, or kings. But the opposite can also be true: the archetypal, or composite hero can also start out as an obscure figure of humble origins, on the fringes of society. But whether they start out as prince or pauper, they set out on their journey to address some sort of need, to fill some kind of spiritual void. In simple romance tales or...

The Hero with a Thousand Faces Summary The Journey, Part One: Separation

With this introduction in place, we'll discuss each major stage of the monomyth in the hero's journey.

The Call to Adventure

In the first part of the monomyth, we meet our hero, our "man of destiny," and witness their call to adventure. The call to adventure can come about through chance, even a mistake or blunder, which introduces the hero to a hidden world of possibility, guided by mysterious forces which the hero will come to understand through the course of their journey.

A frequent device employed in mythology is that of the herald or conjurer, the (often unlikely) figure who reveals the hero's destiny and spurs them to action. The herald represents our subconscious, wherein all of our darkest fears are hidden. They are forcing us to confront things that we do not want to. As such, the herald is frequently a grotesque or unpleasant-looking figure, like a frog or a beast, or otherwise some veiled, mysterious, or unknown figure.

The hero is fascinated by the arrival of the herald. The herald represents the first conscious manifestation of the world of the subconscious. The world which the hero has known suddenly becomes devoid of value or interest-mimicking...

Why people love using Shortform

"I LOVE Shortform as these are the BEST summaries I've ever seen...and I've looked at lots of similar sites. The 1-page summary and then the longer, complete version are so useful. I read Shortform nearly every day."
Sign up for free
The Hero with a Thousand Faces Summary The Journey, Part Two: Initiation

Now we move into the main action of the myth, wherein the hero undergoes a series of trials and tests, with the aid of their supernatural helper. The hero might also discover the existence of a benevolent, omnipotent power guiding all things in the universe.

Connection with Our Subconscious

Removed from the confines of their safe and familiar world, the mythological hero now confronts a land of symbolic and allegorical figures-according to the psychoanalysts, the same imagery we see in our dreams. Just as the images are instrumental in helping the hero achieve their transformation, they are also puzzles that each of us must unlock in order to understand what our subconscious is trying to tell us.

Unlike the ancients, we do not have the benefit of allegory and mythology to help us make sense of the bubbling up of our subconscious. As a secular, rational society, we increasingly lack the language to process this-psychoanalysis may be the closest thing, but it's not a substitute for the power of mythology and religion. Indeed, we have rationalized and argued our gods away. It is only through studying these ancient soothsayers and shamans and the dead gods they...

The Hero with a Thousand Faces Summary The Journey, Part Three: Return

After the completion of the quest, the hero must return home with their bounty, be it Jason's Golden Fleece, or the Little Briar Rose of German legend. The final piece of the monomyth now requires the hero to share this wisdom, this hard-won prize back to the real world, where it will benefit the hero's community, and, possibly, the universe.

Refusing the Return

But sometimes, mythology records a hero unwilling to return to the world. Just as they may have refused the initial call to adventure, so they may refuse their duty to return home and bestow their newfound wisdom upon the rest of humanity. Even the Buddha, after his victory at the Tree of Enlightenment, doubted if it was even possible to bring the joy of true enlightenment to other mortals. It is tempting for the hero to simply turn away from the world and reside forever in Paradise.

King Muchukunda

In an ancient Hindu legend, King Muchukunda is granted his wish for eternal sleep after helping the gods defeat an army of demons (his Ultimate Boon). He further requests that anyone who attempts to rouse him be burned to a crisp when he lays eyes upon them. He sleeps through the ages as empires and...

The Hero with a Thousand Faces Summary Beginnings and Ends

Mythology is more than just a common set of story structures that are shared across cultures. The myths of the ancients also point us to our place in the cosmos, our role in the great movement of the universe. Just as the monomyth we've explored shows the death, birth, and transformation of the individual in the form of the hero, so does mythology show the workings of all time and space-the origin story of the universe, and the means by which it will be destroyed and rebuilt. This is the cosmogonic cycle.

The cosmogonic cycle can be seen as a macrocosm of the cycle of waking and sleep that all humans experience. First is the state of unconscious deep sleep (the primordial beginnings before the creation of time and space); then there is the conscious waking state (the living, breathing world as we know it); and finally, we have the return to the unconscious (the destruction or end of the world as we know it). We repeat this cycle for all of our days on earth, just as the cosmogonic cycle turns over and over.

The cosmogonic cycle often shows a world without end, the universal round. In a version of this cycle told among the Aztecs of pre-Columbian Mexico, each of the...

Want to read the rest of this
Book Summary?

With Shortform, you can:

Highlight what

Take notes on your

Download PDF Summaries.
Sign up for free
The Hero with a Thousand Faces Summary Epilogue: Interpreting Mythology

There is no one set way to interpret the mythologies of humankind. Although we have traced the universal hero's journey, the monomyth, and explored how so many cultures across time and space have made sense of the beginnings and ends of the universe, there is an infinite variety of ways that myths are told.

Myths do not reveal themselves automatically to us; they are not self-evident. They will only yield up the answers to the questions that we choose to ask of them. If we look to them as simply stories to entertain or amuse us, they will...

What Our Readers Say

This is the best summary of How to Win Friends and Influence People I've ever read. I learned all the main points in just 20 minutes.
Learn more about our summaries →
Shortform Exercise: Reflect on the Hero's Journey

Explore the main takeaways from The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Why do you think mythologies have so much in common, across cultures and across historical eras?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Hero with a Thousand Faces Book Summary by Joseph Campbell

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a journey through the world's mythological traditions, from the ancient Egyptians, to the Romans, the Hindu and Buddhist legends of the east, and the folk-tales and foundation myths of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Oceania.

# data[].attributes.body
"The World of Myth: An Anthology" by David Adams Leeming is a nonfiction work that explores and defines a series of ancient mythologies. Leeming is an author of world renown with a large body of work to his credit, much of which focuses on specific aspects of mythology, including its origins, plausibility, tradition, cultural influence, and how the myths create, support, and reinvent themselves over the course of centuries all over the world.

http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-the-world-of-myth/#gsc.tab=0

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This section contains 477 words
(approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page)

The World of Myth Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:

This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on The World of Myth by David Adams Leeming.

"The World of Myth: An Anthology" by David Adams Leeming is a nonfiction work that explores and defines a series of ancient mythologies. Leeming is an author of world renown with a large body of work to his credit, much of which focuses on specific aspects of mythology, including its origins, plausibility, tradition, cultural influence, and how the myths create, support, and reinvent themselves over the course of centuries all over the world.

While the world of mythology is complex, Leeming manages to create a type of primer, introducing the reader to various myths while successfully interjecting enough explanation, theory and fact that the text will be enjoyable for the reader who already may know a fair bit about ancient myths.

Leeming is fond of separating out the myths and showing the reader how some of the elements may have come about, what they represent, and how they have been recycled throughout various cultures over the periods of hundreds of years, and even millennia.

Leeming recounts the oldest myths.

The oldest written myth was found in Egypt circa 3000-2200 B.C.E. The tale, referred to as the Pyramid Texts, was recorded in hieroglyphics on the Old Kingdom's inner chamber walls. The next Egyptian myth, titled the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom, originated around 2134-1660 B.C.E. Then came one of the most famous Egyptian myths found in "The Book of Going Forth by Day," also called "The Book of the Dead," which was recorded during the New Kingdom around 1550 B.C.E.

Another ancient myth was found in Mesopotamia. The Enuma elish, celebration of the high god Marduk, is thought to have been composed around the time of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in the 12th century B.C.E.

The Hebrew version of Genesis was composed around the time of the Babylonian captivity during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. The Greek myths were first recorded by Hesiod, a scholar who lived in the eighth century B.C.E.

Leeming does not waste time giving unnecessary details about the myths, rather the author just covers the very basic concepts before moving on to compare and contrast the myths. There is a great deal of symbolism in myths, a topic which Leeming explores.

Each section of the book is devoted to a specific topic and lists the myths that correspond to the subject, along with basic information, meaning, use of metaphors, and how the myth may have been recycled and integrated into other cultures. While most recycled myths remain almost identical except for changes in the names of the characters and locations, there are some that differ.

Some of the topics in "The World of Myth" include: "The Creation," "The Flood," "The Afterlife," "The Apocalypse," "The Pantheons," "Gods, Goddesses and Lesser Spirits," "Hero Myths," and "Place and Object Myths."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This section contains 477 words (approx. 2 pages at 400 words per page) The World of Myth Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections: This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion and a Free Quiz on The World of Myth by David Adams Leeming.