Bassareus

This article is about the epithet of the Greek god Dionysus. For the genus of beetle, see Bassareus (beetle).

Bassareus (Ancient Greek: Βασσαρεύς) was an epithet of the Greek god Dionysus, with varied significance, as being the wearer of distinctive fox robes, or as a symbolic fox, or the protector of vineyards.

It is a very old epithet, with evidence on Linear B tablets dating back to Mycenaean Greece, that is, the 2nd millennium BCE.[1]

Name

Greek origins

According to the explanations of the Greeks, the name "Bassareus" is derived from bassara or bassaris (βασσάρα or βασσαρίς), the long robe which the god himself and the Maenads used to wear in Thrace, where the Maenads were themselves often called bassarae or the bassarides, as in the lost play of Aeschylus, Bassarae.[2][3][4][5] And in Latin poetry, a follower of Dionysus is often called a bassaris.[6]

The name of this garment seems to be connected with, or rather the same as, the Lydian word bassaris (βασσαρίς), meaning "fox", probably because it was originally made of fox-skins.[7]

Several scholars have pointed out the fact that foxes eat grapes, and are in fact one of the chief pests of vineyards, and are called out as such many times in ancient literature, thereby making a connection of fox-robed Dionysus as the protector of vineyards.[4][8][9] And there is a story in which the wrath of Dionysus manifested as a plague of foxes sent to pester Thebes.[10][11]

Semitic language origins

Others derive the name Bassareus from a Semitic word, bāșar, which could mean "flesh", often referring to an unripe grape, according to which its meaning would be the same as the Greek protrygis (προτρύγης), that is, the precursor of the vintage.[12] This could also mean "to cut or tear to pieces", referring to the violent rites and imagery of Dionysus, as in the Maenads tearing Orpheus to pieces in Greek mythology.[1]

Archaeology

The 19th-century French archaeologist François Lenormant claimed to have assembled a series of ancient Lydian coins, including many with an incuse of a fox, and suggested they were part of a series of coins bearing the symbol of Dionysus Bassareus.[13] Other scholars disputed whether the coins in question bear any imprint of a fox at all.[14]

At least one other archaeologist claimed to have unearthed fox coins depicting Dionysus Bassareus in Cyzicus, though some numismatists consider their identification with Bassareus to be dubious.[15][16]

Cult

While strongly associated with Lydian tradition, scholars have connected the fox symbolism of Bassareus with cultic Dionysus art discovered as far away as Cologne.[17][18]

Discoveries of altars on Milos suggest a cult of Bassareus on that island dates to the 5th century BCE, brought by colonists from Athens.[19]

We elsewhere have evidence of cult ceremonies in which "many knobbed" cakes (Ancient Greek: πόπανα πολυόμφαλα, or popana polyomphala) were placed in a mystic cista for Dionysus Bassareus.[20][21][22]

References

  1. ^ a b Astour, Michael C. (1964). "Greek Names in the Semitic World and Semitic Names in the Greek World". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 23 (3): 195. doi:10.1086/371772. JSTOR 543377. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  2. ^ Horace, Odes 1.18. 11
  3. ^ Macrobius, Saturnalia i. 18
  4. ^ a b Ridgeway, William (1896). "On the origin of the name Bassareus". The Classical Review. 10 (1): 21–22. doi:10.1017/S0009840X0020293X. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  5. ^ Alexander, Christine (1933). "Abstract of the Articles on the Bacchic Inscription in the Metropolitan Museum". American Journal of Archaeology. 37 (2): 267. doi:10.2307/498441. JSTOR 498441. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  6. ^ Bremmer, Jan N. (2006). "A Macedonian Maenad in Posidippus (AB 44)". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 155: 39. JSTOR 20191022. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Alphabetical Collection of all Words s.v. βασσάραι
  8. ^ Frothingham Jr., Arthur L.; Marquand, Allan (1896). Frothingham Jr., Arthur L. (ed.). "Archaeological News". American Journal of Archaeology. 11 (1): 130. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  9. ^ van der Graaf, Cornelis, ed. (1945). The Dirae: With Translation, Commentary and an Investigation of Its Authorship. Brill Publishers. p. 13. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  10. ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece ix. 19. 1
  11. ^ Elderkin, G.W. (1936). "Dionysos Eleutheros and Liber". Classical Philology. 31 (3): 259–261. doi:10.1086/361943. JSTOR 264159. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  12. ^ Brown, Robert (1877). The great Dionysiak myth. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. p. 167. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  13. ^ François Lenormant, Monnaies royales de la Lydie. Paris, 1876
  14. ^ "Notices of Recent Numismatic Publications". The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society. 17: 76–77. 1877. JSTOR 42680969. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  15. ^ Greenwell, W. (1887). "The Electrum Coinage of Cyzicus". The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society. 7: 25. JSTOR 45276067. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  16. ^ Head, Barclay V. (1887). "Electrum Coins and their Specific Gravity". The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society. 7: 280. JSTOR 45276082. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  17. ^ Horn, Heinz Günter (1972). Mysteriensymbolik auf dem Kölner Dionysosmosaik (in German). Bonner Jahrbücher.
  18. ^ Ogilve, R.M. (1976). "Review". The Classical Review. 26 (1): 144. JSTOR 711208. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
  19. ^ "Archaeological Discussions". American Journal of Archaeology. 2 (4): 301. 1898. doi:10.2307/496807. JSTOR 496807. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  20. ^ Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.22.4
  21. ^ Ferrari, Franco (2011). "Rites without Frontiers: Magi and Mystae in the Derveni Papyrus". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. 179: 81. JSTOR 41616876. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  22. ^ Brumfield, Allaire (1997). "Cakes in the Liknon: Votives from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth". Hesperia. 66 (1): 151. doi:10.2307/148477. JSTOR 148477. Retrieved 2025-12-30.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Schmitz, Leonhard (1870). "Bassareus". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 470.

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