The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

20 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)Myth of the deathand resurrection ofDionysus. Legendthat the infantDionysus occupiedfor a short timethe throne of hisfather Zeus. Deathand resurrectionof Dionysusrepresented in hisrites.[013]This last emblem points plainly to a conception of the god asa personification of the fruits of the earth in general; and as ifto emphasise the idea of fecundity conveyed by such a symbolthere sometimes appears among the fruits in the winnowing-fanan effigy of the male organ of generation. The prominent placewhich that effigy occupied in the worship of Dionysus 46 hintsbroadly, if it does not strictly prove, that to the Greek mindthe god stood for the powers of fertility in general, animal aswell as vegetable. In the thought of the ancients no sharp lineof distinction divided the fertility of animals from the fertilityof plants; rather the two ideas met and blended in a nebuloushaze. We need not wonder, therefore, that the same coarse butexpressive emblem figured conspicuously in the ritual of FatherLiber, the Italian counterpart of Dionysus, who in return for thehomage paid to the symbol of his creative energy was believedto foster the growth of the crops and to guard the fields againstthe powers of evil. 47Like the other gods of vegetation whom we considered in thelast volume, Dionysus was believed to have died a violent death,but to have been brought to life again; and his sufferings, death,and resurrection were enacted in his sacred rites. His tragic storyis thus told by the poet Nonnus. Zeus in the form of a serpentvisited Persephone, and she bore him Zagreus, that is, Dionysus,a horned infant. Scarcely was he born, when the babe mountedthe throne of his father Zeus and mimicked the great god bybrandishing the lightning in his tiny hand. But he did not occupythe throne long; for the treacherous Titans, their faces whitenedwith chalk, attacked him with knives while he was looking athimself in a mirror. For a time he evaded their assaults by turning46 Herodotus, ii. 48, 49; Clement of Alexandria, Protrept. ii. 34, pp. 29-30,ed. Potter; Dittenberger, Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 2 No. 19, vol. i. p.32; M. P. Nilsson, Studia de Dionysiis Atticis (Lund, 1900), pp. 90 sqq.; L. R.Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, v. 125, 195, 205.47 Augustine, De civitate Dei, vii. 21.