Bacchus

Bacchus is the Roman god of wine, fertility, ritual madness, theatre, and ecstasy, equivalent to the Greek Dionysus. He embodies the liberating and perilous aspects of intoxication, bringing revelry and creative inspiration as well as danger through frenzied excess.

In myth, Bacchus is the son of Zeus and Semele. After Semele’s death, Zeus saved the unborn child by sewing him into his thigh, and Bacchus later matured to bring wine and ecstatic ritual to humanity. He is associated with vine cultivation, the grape harvest, and the transforming power of intoxication, which can inspire joy and artistic imagination or provoke madness.

Bacchus was worshipped in Bacchic or Dionysian cults. In Rome these rites, sometimes called the Bacchanalia, featured processions, feasting, music, and ecstatic dances led by Maenads and their male followers. The cult spread widely in the Italian peninsula and beyond, influencing literary and dramatic traditions as well as religious practices. The Roman state at times attempted to regulate or suppress these rites, most famously in 186 BCE when authorities feared hidden conspiracies and excessive revelry.

Iconography commonly shows Bacchus with the thyrsus (a staff wrapped in ivy and topped with a pine cone), ivy, grape clusters, and a drinking cup. He is often depicted as a youthful or mature figure accompanied by satyrs, Maenads, and occasionally accompanied by a leopard or panther skin. His imagery has had a lasting impact on art, theatre, and wine culture throughout the ancient world and later periods.