Bacchanālia, festivals in honour of Bacchus at Rome, the same as the Dionysia of the Greeks. See: [Dionysia].
Bacchantes, [♦]priestesses of Bacchus, who are represented at the celebration of the orgies almost naked, with garlands of ivy, with a thyrsus, and dishevelled hair. Their looks are wild, and they utter dreadful sounds, and clash different musical instruments together. They were also called Thyades and Menades. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 6, li. 592.—Horace, bk. 3, ode 25.—Propertius, bk. 3, poem 21.—Lucan, bk. 1, li. 674.
[♦] ‘priestessess’ replaced with ‘priestesses’
Bacchi, a mountain of Thrace, near Philippi. Appian.
Bacchiădæ, a Corinthian family descended from Bacchia daughter of Dionysius. In their nocturnal orgies they, as some report, tore to pieces Actæon son of Mellissus, which so enraged the father, that before the altar he entreated the Corinthians to revenge the death of his son, and immediately threw himself into the sea. Upon this the Bacchiadæ were banished, and went to settle in Sicily, between Pachynum and Pelorus. Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 407.—Strabo, bk. 8.
Bacchĭdes, a general who betrayed the town of Sinope to Lucullus. Strabo, bk. 12.
Bacchis, or Balus, king of Corinth, succeeded his father Prumnides. His successors were always called Bacchidæ, in remembrance of the equity and moderation of his reign. The Bacchidæ increased so much, that they chose one of their number to preside among them with regal authority, and it is said that the sovereign power continued in their hands near 200 years. Cypselus overturned this institution by making himself absolute. Strabo, bk. 8.—Pausanias, bk. 2, ch. 4.—Herodotus, bk. 5, ch. 92.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 5, li. 407.
Bacchium, a small island in the Ægean sea, opposite Smyrna. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 3.
Bacchius and Bithus, two celebrated gladiators of equal age and strength; whence the proverb to express equality: Bithus contra Bacchium. Suetonius, Augustus.—Horace, bk. 1, satire 7, li. 20.
Bacchus, was son of Jupiter and Semele the daughter of Cadmus. After she had enjoyed the company of Jupiter, Semele was deceived, and perished by the artifice of Juno. This goddess, always jealous of her husband’s amours, assumed the shape of Beroe, Semele’s nurse, and persuaded Semele that the lover whom she entertained was not Jupiter, but a false lover, and that to prove his divinity she ought to beg of him, if he really were Jupiter, to come to her bed with the same majesty as when he courted the embraces of Juno. The artifice succeeded, and when Jupiter promised his mistress whatever she asked, Semele required him to visit her with all the divinity of a god. Jupiter was unable to violate his oath, and Semele unwilling to retract it; therefore, as she was a mortal, and unable to bear the majesty of Jupiter, she was consumed and reduced to ashes. The child, of which she had been pregnant for seven months, was with difficulty saved from the flames, and put in his father’s thigh, where he remained the full time which he naturally was to have been in his mother’s womb. From this circumstance Bacchus has been called Bimater. According to some, Dirce, a nymph of the Achelous, saved him from the flames. There are different traditions concerning the manner of his education. Ovid says that, after his birth, he was brought up by his aunt Ino, and afterwards entrusted to the care of the nymphs of Nysa. Lucian supposes that Mercury carried him, as soon as born, to the nymphs of Nysa; and Apollonius says that he was carried by Mercury to a nymph in the island of Eubœa, whence he was driven by the power of Juno, who was the chief deity of the place. Some support that Naxus can boast of the place of his education, under the nymphs Philia, Coronis, and Clyda. Pausanias relates a tradition which prevailed in the town of Brasiæ in Peloponnesus; and accordingly mentions that Cadmus, as soon as he heard of his daughter’s amours, shut her up, with her child lately born, in a coffer, and exposed them on the sea. The coffer was carried safe by the waves to the coast of Brasiæ; but Semele was found dead, and the child alive. Semele was honoured with a magnificent funeral, and Bacchus properly educated. This diversity of opinion shows that there were many of the same name. Diodorus speaks of three, and Cicero of a greater number; but among them all, the son of Jupiter and Semele seems to have obtained the merit of the rest. Bacchus is the Osiris of the Egyptians, and his history is drawn from the Egyptian traditions concerning that ancient king. Bacchus assisted the gods in their wars against the giants, and was cut to pieces; but the son of Semele was not then born. This tradition, therefore, is taken from the history of Osiris, who was killed by his brother Typhon, and the worship of Osiris has been introduced by Orpheus into Greece, under the name of Bacchus. In his youth he was taken asleep in the island of Naxos, and carried away by some mariners whom he changed into dolphins, except the pilot, who had expressed some concern at his misfortune. His expedition into the east is most celebrated. He marched, at the head of an army composed of men, as well as of women, all inspired with divine fury, and armed with thyrsi, cymbals, and other musical instruments. The leader was drawn in a chariot by a lion and a tiger, and was accompanied by Pan and Silenus, and all the Satyrs. His conquests were easy, and without bloodshed: the people easily submitted, and gratefully elevated to the rank of a god the hero who taught them the use of the vine, the cultivation of the earth, and the manner of making honey. Amidst his benevolence to mankind, he was relentless in punishing all want of respect to his divinity; and the punishment he inflicted on Pentheus, Agave, Lycurgus, &c., is well known. He has received the name of Liber, Bromius, Lyæus, Evan, Thyonæus, Psilas, &c., which are mostly derived from the places where he received adoration, or from the ceremonies observed in his festivals. As he was the god of vintage, of wine, and of drinkers, he is generally represented crowned with vine and ivy leaves, with a thyrsus in his hand. His figure is that of an effeminate young man, to denote the joys which commonly prevail at feasts; and sometimes that of an old man, to teach us that wine taken immoderately will enervate us, consume our health, render us loquacious and childish like old men, and unable to keep secrets. The panther is sacred to him, because he went in his expedition covered with the skin of that beast. The magpie is also his favourite bird, because in triumphs people were permitted to speak with boldness and liberty. Bacchus is sometimes represented like an infant, holding a thyrsus and clusters of grapes with a horn. He often appears naked, and riding upon the shoulders of Pan, or in the arms of Silenus, who was his foster-father. He also sits upon a celestial globe, bespangled with stars, and is then the same as the Sun or Osiris of Egypt. The festivals of Bacchus, generally called Orgies, Bacchanalia, or Dionysia, were introduced into Greece from Egypt by Danaus and his daughters. The infamous debaucheries which arose from the celebration of these festivals are well known. See: [Dionysia]. The amours of Bacchus are not numerous. He married Ariadne, after she had been forsaken by Theseus in the island of Naxos; and by her he had many children, among whom were Ceranus, Thoas, Œnopion, Tauropolis, &c. According to some, he was the father of Hymenæus, whom the Athenians made the god of marriage. The Egyptians sacrificed pigs to him, before the doors of their houses. The fir tree, the yew tree, the fig tree, the ivy, and the vine, were sacred to him; and the goat was generally sacrificed to him, on account of the great propensity of that animal to destroy the vine. According to Pliny, he was the first who ever wore a crown. His beauty is compared to that of Apollo, and, like him, he is represented with fine hair loosely flowing down his shoulders, and he is said to possess eternal youth. Sometimes he has horns, either because he taught the cultivation of the earth with oxen, or because Jupiter his father appeared to him in the deserts of Libya under the shape of a ram, and supplied his thirsty army with water. Bacchus went down to hell to recover his mother, whom Jupiter willingly made a goddess, under the name of Thyone. The three persons of the name of Bacchus, whom Diodorus mentions, are, the one who conquered the Indies, and is surnamed the bearded Bacchus; a son of Jupiter and Proserpine, who was represented with horns; and the son of Jupiter and Semele, called the Bacchus of Thebes. Those mentioned by Cicero are, a son of Proserpine; a son of Nisus, who built Nysa; a son of Caprius, who reigned in the Indies; a son of Jupiter and the moon; and a son of Thyone and Nisus. Cicero, de Natura Deorum, bks. 2 & 3.—Pausanias, bk. 2, chs. 22, 37; bk. 3, ch. 24; bk. 5, ch. 19, &c.—Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 150; bk. 2, chs. 42, 48, 49.—Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride.—Diodorus, bks. 1, 3, &c.—Orpheus, Dionysius.—Apollodorus, bk. 1, ch. 9; bk. 3, ch. 4, &c.—Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 3, fable 3, &c.—Amores, bk. 3, poem 3.—Fasti, bk. 3, li. 715.—Hyginus, fables 155, 167, &c.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 56; bk. 8, ch. 2; bk. 36, ch. 5.—Homer, Iliad, bk. 6.—Lactantius, de falsa religione, bk. 1, ch. 22.—Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, &c.—Euripides, Bacchæ.—Lucian, de Sacrificiis; Bacchus; Dialogi Deorum.—Oppian, Cynegetica.—Philostratus, bk. 1, Imagines, ch. 50.—Seneca, Chorus of Œdipus.—Martial, bk. 8, ltr. 26; bk. 14, ltr. 107.