If you missed my article on Eset, you could find it here.
Bacchus is the Roman God of wine and grapes. He also is associated with drunkenness, ecstasy, creativity, and fertility. His Greek counterpart is Dionysus. If you look up Bacchus, you will usually find articles of Dionysus instead. Bacchus’s symbols are the grapevine, bulls, chalices, and he is often seen wearing an ivy crown.
His father is Jupiter (Zeus in Greek), and his mother is Semele (this is her Greek name, I could not find her Roman counterpart). Bacchus’s siblings include Apollo, Mars (Ares), Diana (Artemis), Mercury (Hermes), Hercules (Heracles), among many others. Arianna (Ariadne is her Greek counterpart) is Bacchus’s wife. She is associated with mazes and labyrinths. His children are Mutunus Tutunus, Talasius, the Graces, and Deianira, who married Bacchus’s brother Hercules.
As I said, Bacchus’s mother is Semele, and she is a mortal woman. Jupiter’s wife Juno was pissed because Jupiter cheated and impregnated someone again. She insisted Semele call out to the baby’s father. When Jupiter appeared, it was in his God form, and the mortal body of Semele could not handle it. She died. Jupiter saved Bacchus by sewing him into his own thigh, where Bacchus stayed until he matured. Thus, Bacchus is a twice-born God and the last to enter Mount Olympus (Mount Olympus was home to the Gods in both Greek and Roman mythology).
Bacchus is the god of wine, drunken revelry, ecstasy, creativity, and fertility. In fact, Bacchus and Ceres are the principal deities of the Earth and provide the bounty we harvest every year. Bacchus also had a following of women called maenades, and they were mad women, drunk on wine. There is still a yearly festival called Bacchanalia that started in ancient times. In ancient times it was only attended by women who got drunk and often turned sexual. Nowadays, it is attended by men, women, and everything between and betwixt. It can be found here in the States and over in Europe and other places.
Are you going to find a Bacchanalia near you? How does a God of Drunkenness and Fertility do well in a fighting game? Have you played him? Let me know in the comments below. Until next week…
