. ) speaks of Dionysus as a very lateaddition to the Hellenic gods, and such doubtlesshe was under the guise familiar in Greek lite-rature ; but among the deities who had beenidentified with him and absorbed into hisworship, were old gods of the country whoselocal rites gave rise to many of the legendsabout Dionysus himself. He represents amongother attributes a nature-god of fruitfulnessand reproduction of all trees and vegetation,and this from a period before the vine, after-wards his chief gift, had been introduced intoGreece. The
. ) speaks of Dionysus as a very lateaddition to the Hellenic gods, and such doubtlesshe was under the guise familiar in Greek lite-rature ; but among the deities who had beenidentified with him and absorbed into hisworship, were old gods of the country whoselocal rites gave rise to many of the legendsabout Dionysus himself. He represents amongother attributes a nature-god of fruitfulnessand reproduction of all trees and vegetation,and this from a period before the vine, after-wards his chief gift, had been introduced intoGreece. The deity was a tree spirit, or a spiritof any other vegetable product of the earth,and either the tree itself or some animal re-garded in any locality as the incarnation of the DIONYSUS 295 vegetation, became sacred and received sacri-fices—in earlier times, even human is thus not easy to say when the more savagepart of the ritual of Dionysus was a remnantof primitive Greek worship, and when it wasThracian or Oriental. Of this early Greek deity. Phupheus llaccliusi finding Semla iSemelc) In the under-world. See p. b. (From a mirror found at Vulci.) of trees and vegetation incorporated into theworship of Dionysus, we have the survival inAi6vv<ros S(v5pirr)i, or ZvSevSpos (Pint. 1), A. <tvkiti)s (Athen. p. 78), A. ivSiqs ( 81, 2); and in archaic art the god is repre-sented as a rude image, half tree and half hu-man. The new religion of Dionysus, whichabsorbed these old beliefs and rites, and tooktheir place alike in the higher mysteries andin peasant festivals, was derived in the firstinstance from the Thracians. Herodotus speaksof the three chief divinities of Thrace asDionysus, Ares, and Artemis (= Bendis). TheThracians were notable for their strong beliefin a future life and immortality. Herodotus(iv. 94) describes the fashion among the Getaeof sending messages to their god by tossing oneof their tribesmen upon spears, that so hemight journe
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