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Myths about the Roman God Bacchus
He is described as a youth of a plump figure, and naked,
with a ruddy face, and an effeminate air; he is crowned with
ivy and vine leaves, and bears in his hand a thyrsus, or
javelin with an iron head, encircled with ivy and vine
leaves: his chariot is sometimes drawn by lions, at others
by tigers, leopards, or panthers; and surrounded by a band
of Satyrs, Bacchae, and Nymphs, in frantic postures; whilst
old Silenus, his preceptor, follows on an ass, which
crouches with the weight of his burden.
The women who accompanied him as his priestesses, were
called Maenades, from their madness; Thyades, from their
impetuosity; Bacchae, from their intemperate depravity; and
Mimallones, or Mimallonides, from their mimicking their
leaders.
The victims agreeable to him were the goat and the swine;
because these animals are destructive to the vine. Among the
Egyptians they sacrificed a swine to him before their doors;
and the dragon, the trees and plants used in his garlands were the fir, the
oak, ivy, the fig, and vine; as also the daffodil, or
narcissus. Bacchus had many temples erected to him by the
Greeks and the Romans.
Whoever attentively reads Horace's inimitable ode to this
god, will see that Bacchus meant no more than the
improvement of the world by tillage, and the culture of the
vine.
Myths about the Roman God Bacchus
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