Dionysus
(mythology) Greece
God of wine
Son of Semele and Zeus, god of wine, madness, poetry and love, and also of orgiastic eccess - an animal, or on occasion a child, being torn to pieces alive, was eaten. He was identified with the Roman god Bacchus, whose rites were less savages. His festival, the Dionysia, were particularly assocated with Athens. Attendant of him were wild women (maenads) and goatlike men (satyrs) with pointed ears horns and a tail.
Dionysus is depicted as soft and feminine, yet virile and strong. He wore women's clothing to hide from his stepmother's wrath.
Dionysus became lovers with the gods Adonis and Hermaphrodite. He had other male lovers, for instance Prosymnus and Ampelos.
Dionysus & Ampelos
When Dionysus was still a young god, was hunting in the Phrygian hills with his companions the Satyrs. Several local youths were also present because the young men of Phrygia loved the company of the happy Satyrs. On this day, however, Dionysus saw amongst them a youth he never saw before. His name was Ampelos and he had the most perfect face and body Dionysys had ever encountered in a human.
Approaching the lad, he found a sunny spirit and laughing charm which totally enraptured him. He could not help himself. He set out immediately to seduce him. His only fear was that, because of his beauty, his father, Zeus, might want Ampelos for himself and so he addressed to his father -
"Grant to me one grace oh Father Zeus! I do not ask the heavenly fire of your lightning, nor the cloud, nor the thunderclap. ... My lad's beauty to me is dearer than Olympus. Tell me, Father, do not hide it, swear by your own young friend - where you were an eagle, when you picked up the boy with gentle, greedy claws and brought him to heaven - had he such beauty as Ampelos when you made him one of the heavenly table? Forgive me Father Longwing! But don't talk to me of your Trojan wine-pourer, the servant of your cup. To me lovely Ampelos outshines even your beautiful Ganymede. To me he is more radiant. And for you there are plenty more; beautiful troops of fine young men. Court them all if you like. But please - leave this one lad to Dionysus!"
And indeed, Zeus was content to leave Ampelos to Dionysus.
Dionysus, disposed more to affectionate persuasion than force, started taking long walks with Ampelos, often swimming together in a forest pond, where their love was first consummated, hunting, throwing the thrysus, and especially - wrestling.
Both played in the woods together, now throwing the thrysus to travel through the air, not on some unshaded flat, or again they tramped the rocks hunting the hill bred lion. Often alone on a deserted bank they played on the sands of a pebbly river and had a wrestling match; no tripod was their prize, no flower-graven cauldron lay ready for the victory, no horse from the grass, but a double pipe of love - [an actual musical instrument and also an allusion to erect penises] - with clear sounding notes. It was a delightful strife for both, for mad Love stood between them!
Both stood forward as Love's Athletes! They joined their palms garlandwise over each other's back, packed at the waist with a knot of the hands, squeezed the ribs tight with the muscles of their four forearms, lifting each other from the ground alternately. Dionysus was in heaven amid this honeysweet grappling, and love gave him a double joy, lifting and being lifted. Ampelos enclosed the god's wrist in his palm, then joining hands and tightening that intruding grip, interlaced his fingers in a double knot squeezing the right hand of willing Dionysus.
Next the god ran his two hands round the young man's buttocks, squeezing his body with a loving grip, and lifted Ampelos high. But then Ampelos kicked the god neatly behind the knee and Dionysus, laughing heartily at the blow from his young comrade's naked foot, let himself fall on his back in the dust. While the god lay willingly on the ground, the naked youth sat straddling his naked belly, and Dionysus in pure delight lay stretched at full length on the ground gladly sustaining the sweet burden on his paunch. Then both rolled in the dust and the sweat poured out... In bliss...
Thus Dionysus was conquered with his own consent, like his father as an athlete, who was conquered at last, though invincible; for mighty Zeus himself, wrestling with Herakles beside the Alpheios, bent willing knees and fell of his won accord before his son.
But The Fates had decreed that such beauty as Ampelos's must die young. On one of their many hunts together Ampelos was mortally wounded by a wild bull.
Dionysus, stricken with grief held his dying lover in his arms. Then, out of compassion for Dionysus, the gods - led by Eros - changed the beautiful youth into a beautiful vine while the god was holding him. This vine is henceforth sacred to Dionysus and from it he gives the grape and wine to mankind.
Source & ©: The Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation, 2001
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