The Roman Bacchus and the Greek Dionysus

- Doc Opeh

He is not the disreputable god of wine and inebriation. Also known as Dionysus, He was the god around whom arose a profound mysticism influencing many subsequent philosophers and their philosophies. Bacchus worship also shaped Christian theology. Bachhus worship is so remarkable that its study is a must to understanding Greek thought.

Bachhus was originally the god of primitive agricultural people of Thracia, who were considered crude by the Greeks. Like all primitive agrarian societies, where a good harvest and fertility were inexhorably linked, a god who promoted fertility, good harvest, is inevitable. The Thracian god was Bachhus alias Dionysus. It is not know if Bachhus had the shape of a bull or a man.

When they discovered how to make beer, the Thracians praised Bachhus for it. They thought intoxication divine. When wine making was discovered, they thought still better of Him. Thus his role as god of fertility was lost to the divine madness produced by wine.

At what stage of history the cult of Bachhus migrated to Greece is not known. But the orthodox opposed it for its element of barbarism and curious element of feminism, that consequently led to respectable women and maidens spending whole nights on the hills dancing in ecstacy, partly alcoholic but mainly mystical.

In a nutshell, 'the worshipper of Dionysus reacts against prudence. In Intoxication, physical or spiritual, he recovers an intensity of feeling which prudence has destroyed. Bachhic ritual produced *enthusiasm*, etymologically, having god enter into the worshipper, who believes that he became one with god.'

The worship of Dionysus in its original form was savage and repulsive in many ways. Bachhus was spiritualised by Orpheus into an ascetic cult that replaced physical with mental intoxication.

All the same, at present, Bachhus is synonymous with alcohol and drunkenness.

See Dionysus