Dionysus, the twice-born God
The Myth
According to a spread tradition, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele (Hom. Hymn. VI. 56; Eurip. Bacch.; Apollod. III. 4. § 3). There is no doubt about the origin of the name Semele, for it is nothing but a Greek modification of that of the Thraco-Phrygian earth-goddess Zemelo. In Greek myth, however, she is fully mortal, as one of the four daughters of Cadmos, king of Thebes.
The common story runs as follows: Zeus felt in love with Semele and used to visit her in secret at night, exciting the jealousy of Hera, who plotted her rival’s destruction. Hera visited her in the disguise of a friend, or an old woman, and persuaded her to request Zeus to appear to her in the same glory and majesty in which he was accustomed to approach his own wife Hera. When all entreaties to desist from this request were fruitless, Zeus finally complied, and appeared to her in thunder and lightning. Semele was terrified and overpowered by the sight, and was seized by the fire. Before her body was fully consumed, however, Zeus snatched her sixth- or seventh-month child from her womb, and sewed it into his own thigh, from where it was subsequently brought to birth at the fulfillment of the normal time of gestation. Some claimed that the child was already deified by contact with the divine fire. As for the unfortunate Semele, she was later rescued from the Underworld by her son and taken up to Olympos to become the goddess Thyone. After his extraordinary birth, which may be compared to that of Athena from Zeus’s head, Dionysos had to be provided with a nurse or nurses. In some accounts, Zeus asked Hermes to convey the child to the nymphs of Nysa. This mysterious place is already mentioned in connection with Dionysos in the Iliad, which states that Lykourgos chased “the nurses of mad Dionysus down over the sacred mountain of Nysa”.
The Relief
Hermes is ready to assist the newborn god and convey him on the Mount Nysa, where, by the will of Zeus, will be entrusted to the care of the nymphs. Hermes holds animal skins in which wrap the newborn Dionysus; behind Hermes are depicted three nymphs.
This work is a neo-attic bas-relief dating from the Hadrian's age. The carved slab, perhaps belonging to a frieze, is presumably a copy of a “choragic” relief dating fro the IV century BC.
Neo-attic marble bas-relief
Approx. 120 -140 AD.
From Porta Portese, Rome
Rome, Vatican Museums, Museo Pio Clementino.
Dionysus, the twice-born God
The Myth
According to a spread tradition, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele (Hom. Hymn. VI. 56; Eurip. Bacch.; Apollod. III. 4. § 3). There is no doubt about the origin of the name Semele, for it is nothing but a Greek modification of that of the Thraco-Phrygian earth-goddess Zemelo. In Greek myth, however, she is fully mortal, as one of the four daughters of Cadmos, king of Thebes.
The common story runs as follows: Zeus felt in love with Semele and used to visit her in secret at night, exciting the jealousy of Hera, who plotted her rival’s destruction. Hera visited her in the disguise of a friend, or an old woman, and persuaded her to request Zeus to appear to her in the same glory and majesty in which he was accustomed to approach his own wife Hera. When all entreaties to desist from this request were fruitless, Zeus finally complied, and appeared to her in thunder and lightning. Semele was terrified and overpowered by the sight, and was seized by the fire. Before her body was fully consumed, however, Zeus snatched her sixth- or seventh-month child from her womb, and sewed it into his own thigh, from where it was subsequently brought to birth at the fulfillment of the normal time of gestation. Some claimed that the child was already deified by contact with the divine fire. As for the unfortunate Semele, she was later rescued from the Underworld by her son and taken up to Olympos to become the goddess Thyone. After his extraordinary birth, which may be compared to that of Athena from Zeus’s head, Dionysos had to be provided with a nurse or nurses. In some accounts, Zeus asked Hermes to convey the child to the nymphs of Nysa. This mysterious place is already mentioned in connection with Dionysos in the Iliad, which states that Lykourgos chased “the nurses of mad Dionysus down over the sacred mountain of Nysa”.
The Relief
Hermes is ready to assist the newborn god and convey him on the Mount Nysa, where, by the will of Zeus, will be entrusted to the care of the nymphs. Hermes holds animal skins in which wrap the newborn Dionysus; behind Hermes are depicted three nymphs.
This work is a neo-attic bas-relief dating from the Hadrian's age. The carved slab, perhaps belonging to a frieze, is presumably a copy of a “choragic” relief dating fro the IV century BC.
Neo-attic marble bas-relief
Approx. 120 -140 AD.
From Porta Portese, Rome
Rome, Vatican Museums, Museo Pio Clementino.