BACCHUS, in Heathen Mythology, the god of
wine, with whose fabulous adventures every school-boy
is acquainted. This personage is seldom named in
modern times but as a sensual encourager of feast and
jollity; but he was regarded in a more respectable light
by the ancients, who worshipped him in different coun-
tries under the following appellations: in Egypt, he
was called Qiris; in Myſſia, Panaces; in India, Di-
onysus; Liber, throughout the Roman dominions; A-
doneus, in Arabia; and Penibeus, by the Lucanians.
Mythologists furnish reasons for all these different names
given to the same god, which may be seen in the se-
cond volume of Banier's Mythology.
It is natural to suppose that the Greeks and Romans,
as usual, bestowed upon the one Bacchus which they
worshipped, the several actions and attributes of the
many divinities known by that name, and by other
equivalent denominations in different countries. How-
ever,
Bacchus, ever, antiquity chiefly distinguished two gods under the title of Bacchus: that of Egypt, the son of Ammon, and the same as Osiris; and that of Thebes in Boeotia, the son of Jupiter and Semele.
The Egyptian Bacchus was brought up at Nyssa, a city of Arabia Felix, whence he acquired the name of Dionysus, or the god of Nyssa; and this was the conqueror of India. Though this Bacchus of the Egyptians was one of the elder gods of Egypt, yet the son of Semele was the youngest of the Grecian deities. Diodorus Siculus tells us, that Orpheus first deified the son of Semele by the name of Bacchus, and appointed his ceremonies in Greece, in order to render the family of Cadmus, the grandfather of the Grecian Bacchus, illustrious.
The great Bacchus, according to Sir Isaac Newton, flourished but one generation before the Argonautic expedition. This Bacchus, says Hermippus, was potent at sea, conquered eastward as far as India, returned in triumph, brought his army over the Hellefpons, conquered Thrace, and left music, dancing, and poetry there. And, according to Diodorus Siculus, it was the son of Semele who invented farces and theatres, and who first established a music school, exempting from all military functions such musicians as discovered great abilities in their art; on which account, says the same author, musicians formed into companies have since frequently enjoyed great privileges.
History of Music. Dr Burney observes, that the dithyrambics which gave birth to dramatic representations, are as ancient as the worship of Bacchus in Greece; and there is little doubt but that the ceremonies of his mysteries gave rise to the pomp and illusions of the theatre. Many of the most splendid exhibitions upon the stage for the entertainment of the people of Athens and Rome, being performed upon the festivals of Bacchus, gave occasion to the calling all those that were employed in them, whether for singing, dancing, or reciting, servants of Bacchus.
Pausanias, in his Attics, speaks of a place at Athens consecrated to Bacchus the singer; thus named, he says, for the same reason as Apollo is called the chief and conductor of the muses. Whence it should seem that Bacchus was regarded by the Athenians not only as the god of wine, but of song; and it must be owned, that his followers, in their cups, have been much inclined to singing ever since. Indeed we are certain, that in none of the orgies, processions, triumphs, and festivals, instituted by the ancients to the honour and memory of this prince of bons vivants, music was forgotten, as may be still gathered from ancient sculpture, where we find not only that musicians, male and female, regaled him with the lyre, the flute, and with song; but that he was accompanied by fawns and satyrs playing upon timbrels, cymbals, bagpipes, and horns; these Suidas calls his minstrels; and Strabo gives them the appellations of Bacchi, Sileni, Satyri, Bacchor, Lenae, Thyce, Mamillones, Naiades, Nymphae, and Tityri. These representations have furnished subjects for the finest remains of ancient sculpture; and the most voluptuous passages of ancient poetry are descriptions of the orgies and festivals of Bacchus. See ORCIA.