2/19/2023 0 Comments Collatinus roman mythology![]() ![]() The Greeks had also come to view Dionysus as a chthonic figure. His followers, the Maenads, were said to be driven to such a state of frenzy in their drunken worship of him that they could rip a man to shreds with their bare hands or lay waste to huge swathes of the forest. Therefore, when the Romans first introduced Bacchus to their pantheon, he was already a god of extreme behavior.ĭionysus had become known in Greece as a god of revelry, immorality, and even violence. Festivals and associations that had developed over hundreds of years in Greece were brought in immediately to Rome. The Romans, however, had access to some of the more extreme aspects of the god from the beginning. The mythology, iconography, and worship of the Roman Bacchus were virtually identical to what it had been in Greece. The Romans were influenced by the Greek god Dionysus in the creation of their own god of viticulture. Like most of the Roman pantheon, he had a Greece source. In Roman mythology, Bacchus was the god of wine. Less than a decade later, however, the god would show that he still had importance as a model for heroic conquest. The immorality and debauchery of their rituals were so shocking that some of Rome’s greatest writers decried the cult as a threat to the state.īacchus’s worshippers would be brought under control by one of Roman history’s most draconian measures. In a culture built on propriety and a tightly-controlled social structure, the revels of Bacchus were terrifyingly uncontrolled.īacchus and his cult earned a reputation, perhaps not entirely deserved, for dangerous excess. The Bacchanalia and the mystery cults long associated with Dionysus/Bacchus posed a threat to the structured, moralistic Roman world. While the Greeks saw this as an only occasional menace, however, many Romans thought Bacchus could destroy their entire society. Instead, the two existed side by side as different versions of the god of wine.īacchus, like Dionysus before him, was noted for the revelry and frenzy that he brought with them. While many Italian gods were forgotten, however, Bacchus never replaced his native counterpart. Like many Roman gods, Bacchus was inspired by both Greek and native influences.
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