Definition of Dionysus

1. Noun. (Greek mythology) god of wine and fertility and drama; the Greek name of Bacchus.

Category relationships: Greek Mythology
Generic synonyms: Greek Deity
Derivative terms: Dionysian

Definition of Dionysus

1. Proper noun. (Greek god) The god of wine, specifically its intoxication and social influence, but also the patron of agriculture and the theater. Also related to the mystery of religion, as in "spiritual intoxication". ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Dionysus

Diogenes cup
Diomedea exulans
Diomedea nigripes
Diomedeidae
Diomedes
Dion
Dionaea muscipula
Dione
Dionean
Dionysia
Dionysiac
Dionysian
Dionysius
Dionysius the Elder
Dionysos
Dionysus
Diophantine
Diophantine equation
Diophantine equations
Diophantus
Dior
Dioscorea alata
Dioscorea batata
Dioscorea bulbifera
Dioscorea elephantipes
Dioscorea paniculata
Dioscorea trifida
Dioscoreaceae
Dioscuri
Diospyros

Literary usage of Dionysus

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General (1890)
"The earliest image. were of wood with the branches still attached in parts, whence he was called dionysus Dendrites. He was figured also, like Hermes, ..."

2. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion by James George Frazer (1900)
"Meantime it remains to point out that in some places, instead of an animal, a human being was torn in pieces at the rites of dionysus. ..."

3. History of the Literature of Ancient Greece: To the Period of Isocrates by Karl Otfried Müller, George Cornewall Lewis (1847)
"Their firm hopes of this result were founded upon dionysus, from the worship of whom all their ... According to them, dionysus-Zagreus was a son of Zeus, ..."

4. Studies of the Gods in Greece at Certain Sanctuaries Recently Excavated by Louis Dyer (1891)
"But to return to dionysus. That this dionysus of ... and the old Icarian dionysus of course was thought of as having preceded him. See the article Dionysia, ..."

5. The Universal Anthology: A Collection of the Best Literature, Ancient by Richard Garnett, Leon Vallée, Alois Brandl (1899)
"And so the child dionysus sprang from the thigh of Zeus, and was hidden from the jealous malice of Hera till he was grown. ..."

6. Poems and Plays by Percy MacKaye (1916)
"dionysus! Who hath rolled back the rock from the cave Cimmerian And blinded ... It is thou, dionysus ! Out of the niggard, numbing dark of the ages Thou, ..."

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