ancient poetry, a kind of foot composed of a short syllable, and two long ones; as the word [ävär]. It takes its name from the god Bacchus, because it frequently entered into the hymns composed in his honour. The Romans called it likewise anastus, tripodius, fallos.

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 feasting and jollity; but he was regarded in a more respectable light by the ancients, who worshipped him in different countries under the following appellations: in Egypt, he was called Osiris; in Mytia, Faunaces; in India, Dionysius; Liber, throughout the Roman dominions; Adonis, in Arabia; and Pentheus, by the Lucanians. Mythologists furnish reasons for all these different names given to the same God, which may be seen in the second 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. However, 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 Nysa, a city of Arabia Felix, whence he acquired the name of Dionysius, or the God of Nysa; 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 devised 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 Hellespont, 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.

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, citing, servants of Bacchus.

Paulanias, 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 sons vivans, 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, Bacche, Lene, Thyr, 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.

The orgia, or feasts and sacrifices performed in honour of this god in Greece, were chiefly celebrated on the mountains of Thrace by wild distracted women called Bacche. The Orgia were likewise called Orphica, from their founder Orpheus. However, Servius says, that at first Orgia was a common name for all kinds of sacrifices among the Greeks, and of the farce import with the word ceremony among the Romans. Virgil calls the feasts of Bacchus Orgia tritirica, from their being celebrated once in three years.

They had certainly their rise in Egypt, where Osiris was the model of the Grecian Bacchus; from thence they passed into Greece, Italy, Gaul, and were adopted almost throughout the whole pagan world. They were at first performed with simplicity and decorum; but afterwards they degenerated into so much folly and licentiousness, that historians assure us the debaucheries practised in them during the night time were enormous, as to oblige the Roman senate, in the 556th year of the city, 186 B.C., to abolish them entirely throughout the Roman dominions. After their prohibition, however, recorded at large by Livy *, several persons seem to have continued their use: Tacitus gives an elegant description of the Bacchanalia as celebrated by Messalina. The orgies of Bacchus furnished Eschylus with a subject for one of his tragedies; from whence may be acquired a truer idea of them before their corruption than from any other remains of antiquity.

The orgies being a commemoration of the march of the elder Bacchus into India, and that prince having had in his train musicians of both sexes, satyrs, and fawns, or men equipped like fawns and satyrs, these were afterwards employed in the processions and orgies, and formed into bands of music, playing upon drums and cymbals, and crying out Evode Bacche!

In the Julian garden at Rome there is a marble vase of most precious workmanship, upon which is a representation of these orgies of Bacchus. This vase, from the beauty of the sculpture, is supposed to be by the hand of Saurus. The whole pomp of one of these processions is there admirably represented; in which are introduced Bacchus, the Bacchanals, the Mænades, the players on flutes, matrons, and virgins, with the Crotalum, or cymbalum, and tympanum; fawns and satyrs, holding in their hands vases and cups; priests leading the victims destined for sacrifice, such as the boar, the he-goat, and the bull; and, lastly, old Silenus, drunk, upon his ass, which he is hardly able to guide.

With respect to Bacchanalian Songs, as the ancient Greeks and modern French have at all times had the Rurex, best wine to drink, they seem to have been the most happy in fingering its praises. Anacreon will authorize this opinion with respect to the Greeks; and the French have many Anacreons, among whom may be numbered the abbe de Chailieu, La Chapelle, La Fare, and St Aulais.

But Bacchus is said by Diodorus † to have invented ‡ Lib. iv. beer, for the use of mankind in such parts of the globe as are unfit for the culture of the grape; and our gluey potations, with the black juice of Oporto, have sometimes inspired the bards of this island with wit and jollity in their drinking songs. And indeed our catches, by the ingenuity of the musical composer, are perhaps fraught with more pleasantry, and are productive of more genuine mirth, than the Bacchanalian hymns of any other people on the globe.