BACCHUS, bad-chus, generally called Mad/ sus by the Greeks, was son of Jupiter and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus. Juno per suaded Semele, when pregnant with Bacchus, to ask Jupiter to visit her in all his majesty : she did so ; Jupiter acceded, and the mortal Semele, unable to bear his splendour, was re duced to ashes ; but the babe was saved, and placed in Jupiter's thigh, and in due time born, —hence Bacchus is called Bit-later. Accord ing to some, he was saved from the flames by Dirce, a nymph of the AchelOus. According to a tradition related by Pausanias, as current at Brasim, in Peloponnesus, Cadmus had shut up Semele and the babe in a coffer, and ex posed them on the sea; the coffer drifted to Brasim, when Bacchus was found alive, and was reared, while Semele, who was found dead, was magnificently buried. According to Ovid, Bacchus was brought up by his aunt Ino, and next by the nymphs of Nysa. Accord ing to Lucian, Mercury carried him to the nymphs of Nysa ; but, according to Apollonius, to a nymph in Eubwa, whence he was expelled by Juno, the chief deity of the place. Bacchus is the Osiris of the Egyptians. He assisted the gods in their war with the giants. In his youth he was taken asleep at Naxos, and ' carried off by some mariners, whom he changed into dolphins, except the pilot, who had com miserated him. He made a famous expedition into the East at the held of an arm of men and women, all inspired by divine ry, and armed with thyrsuses, cymbals, and other musical instruments, Bacchus being drawn in a chariot by a lion and a tiger, and accom panied by Pan and Silenus and all the Satyrs ; his conquests were easy, and the people grate fully elevated to the rank of a god the hero who taught them the use of the vine, the culti vation of the earth, and the art of making honey. Amidst his benevolence to mankind,
be was relentless in punishing all affronts to his divinity (See PENTIIEUS, AGAVE, LYCUR. GUS, &c.) The other names of Bacchus were Li'ber (from being identified with the ancient Italian god), Bran'lus (noisy, from the orgies), Ljdus (as freeing from care, &c.), F, vies (from 601, the cry at his festivals), ThPonalus ("inspired," from Thlone, a name of Semele), Fsi las (the unbeardea), &c. He is usually represented crowned with vine and ivy-leaves, and a thyrsus (a pole surmounted by a pine apple, or ivy-leaves, or a cluster of grapes) in his hand, and his figure is that of an effeminate young man, but sometimes an old man, at times with horns, and occasionally as infant nfant holding a thyrsus and cluster of grapes with a horn, and riding on the shoulders of Pan, or in the arms of bilenus. Bacchus married Ariadne when deserted by Theseus at Naxos, and had by her Ceranus, Thoas, CEno pion, rauropolis, &c. The fir, fig, and yew trees, the ivy and the vine, the panther and magpie, were sacred to him. A goat was gene rally sacrificed (from its propensity to destroy the vine), and in Egypt pigs.