Hail!!!
I open this thread to deepen with the followers of Sanatana Dharma the strong links, or rather the identity among the "Greek" God Dionysos and the "Indian" God Shiva.
As someone wrote:
, I think it is fair and appropriate and proper to say something more on this topic, so that even non-Greeks could better understand the God Dionysos.Originally Posted by Atanu
This is a brief example of the parallel epithets of these two Gods:
Dionysos is Protogonos, and Shiva is PrathamajA,
Dionysos is Phanes, and Shiva is BhAskara
Dionysos is Meilichios("the god that can be propitiated", or "the gracious"),
Dionysos is Bromios, and Shiva is Bhairava and Rudra,
Dionysos is Chronos, and Shiva is KAla,
Dionysos is Kolonatas, and Shiva is Girisha,
Dionysos is Agrionios, and Shiva is Sarva,
Dionysos is Mainomenos, and Shiva is Unmatta,
Dionysos is Perikionos, and Shiva is SthAnu,
Dionysos is Melpomenos, and Shiva is NatarAja,
Dionysos is Phlios, and Shiva is BhUpati,
Dionysos is Nyktipolos, and Shiva is NisAcAra,
Dionysos is Anax (Lord), and Shiva is IshAna
Some Epithets of Dionysos:
Agrios (wild one)
Aisymnetes ( monarch, judge)
Akratophoros (of unmixed wine)
Anax (lord)
Anthios (god of all blossoming things)
Anthroporraistes (slayer of men)
Areion (martial one)
Arretos (ineffable)
Arsenothelys (man-womanly)
Auxites (bringer of growth)
Botryophoros (bearer of grape clusters)
Briseus (son of the nymphs)
Bromios (boisterous)
Charidotes (giver of grace)
Choreutês (dancer)
Chthonios (subterranean)
Dasullios (of the thicket, wild-wood)
Dendrites (of the tree)
Dikerotes (two-horned)
Diphyes (two-natured)
Dithyrambos (of the dithyrambic hymn)
Druphoros (oak-bearer)
Eiraphiotes (insewn)
Eleuthereus (emancipator)
Endendros (tree)
Eriphios (goat kid)
Euanthes (fair blossoming)
Eubouleus (good counselor)
Euios (from the ritual cry)
Hagnos (pure, holy)
Hues (of moisture)
Hugiates (dispenser of health)
Iackhos (crier, caller)
Iatros (healer)
Isodaites (divider of sacrificial meat)
Katharsios (he who releases)
Kissobryos (ivy-wrapped)
Kissokomes (ivy-crowned)
Kissos (ivy)
Korymbophoros (cluster-laden)
Kryphios (hidden, secret)
Lampteros (torch-bearer)
Leibenos (of libations)
Lenaios (of the wine press)
Limnaios (of the marsh)
Luaeus (he who frees)
Lusios (liberator)
Manikos (mad one)
Mantis (prophet, seer)
Meilikhios (mild, gentle)
Melanaigis (he of the black goatskin)
Melpomenos (harp-singer)
Morychos (dark one)
Nyktelios (nocturnal)
Nyktiphaês (night-illuminating)
Nyktipolos (night prowler)
Omadios (of the raw feast)
Omestes (feeds on raw flesh)
Orthos (the erect)
Pelagios (of the sea)
Perikionios (of the column)
Ploutodotês (bestower of riches)
Polyeides (of many images)
Polygethes (bringer of many joys)
Polymorphos (many formed)
Polyonomos (many named)
Polyparthenos (of many maidens)
Protogonos (first born)
Protrugaios (feast before the vintage)
Psilax (winged)
Pyrigenes (fire born)
Sannion (wagging one)
Skêptouchos (scepter-bearer)
Soter (savior)
Sphaleotas (he who causes stumbling)
Staphylos (the grape)
Sukites (of the fig tree)
Taurokeros (bull horned)
Taurophagos (bull devourer)
Tauropôn (bull faced)
Teletarches (lord of initiations)
Thriambos (of the triumphal hymn)
Thullophoros (bearer of boughs)
Thursophoros (thyrsus bearer)
Trigonos (thrice-born)
Zagreus (hunter)
Ancient hymns to Dionysos:
" Come here, Lord Dithyrambos, Bakchos, god of jubilation, Bull, with a crown of ivy in your hair, Roarer, oh come in this holy season of spring - euhoi, o io Bakchos, o ie Paian! Once upon a time, in ecstatic Thebes, Thyona bore you to Zeus and became mother of a beautiful son. All immortals started dancing, all mosrtals rejoicing at your birth, o bacchic god. - Ie Paian, come o Saviour, and kindly keep this city in happy prosperity.
On that day Kadmos' famous country jumped up in bacchic revelry, the vale of the Minyans, too, and fertile Euboia - euhoi, o io Bakchos, o ie Paian! Brimful with hymns, the holy and blessed country of Delphi was dancing. And you yourself, you revealed you starry shape, taking position on the crags of Parnassos, accompanied by Delphic maidens. - Ie Paian, come o Saviour, and kindly keep this city in happy prosperity.
Swinging your firebrand in your hand - light in the darkness of night - you arrived in your enthusiastic frenzy in the flower-covered vale of Eleusis - euhoi, o io Bakchos, o ie Paian! There the entire Greek nation, surrounding the indigenous witnesses of the holy Mysteries, invokes you as Iakchos: you have opened for mankind a haven, relief from suffering. - Ie Paian, come o Saviour, and kindly keep this city in happy prosperity."
("Philodemos' Paian to Dionysos")
"God of the many names, Semele's golden child,
child of Olympian thunder, Italy's lord.
Lord of Eleusis, where all men come
to mother Demeter's plain."(from "Antigone")
"TO DIONYSOS (incense--storax)
I call upon loud-roaring and reveling Dionysos,
primeval, two-natured, thrice-born, Bacchic lord,
savage, ineffable, secretive, two-horned and two-shaped.
Ivy-covered, bull-faced, warlike, howling, pure,
you take raw flesh, you have triennial feasts, wrapt in foliage, decked
with grape clusters.
Resourceful Eubouleus, immortal god sired by Zeus...
HYMN TO DIONYSOS
Come, blessed Dionysos, bull-faced god conceived in fire,
Bassareus and Bacchos, many-named master of all.
You delight in bloody swords and in the holy Maenads,
as you howl throughout Olympus, O roaring and frenzied Bacchos.
Armed with thyrsus and wrathful in the extreme, you are honored
by all the gods and by all the men who dwell upon the earth...
TO DIONYSOS LIKNITES (incense - powdered frankincense)
I summon to these prayers Dionysos Liknites,
born at Nysa, blossoming, beloved and kindly Bacchos,
nursling of the nymphs and of fair-wreathed Aphrodite.
The forest once felt your feet quiver in the dance
as frenzy drove you and the graceful nymphs on and on,
and the counsels of Zeus brought you to noble Persephone
who reared you to be loved by the deathless Gods...
TO DIONYSOS THE GOD OF TRIENNIAL FEASTS (incense - aromatic herbs)
I call upon you, blessed, many-named and frenzied Bacchos,
bull-horned Nysian redeemer, god of the wine-press, conceived in fire.
Nourished in the thigh, O Lord of the Cradle, you marshal torch-lit processions
in the night, O filleted and thyrsus-shaking Eubouleus.
Threefold is your nature and ineffable your rites, O secret offspring of Zeus;
primeval, Erikepaios, father and son of gods,
you take raw flesh and, sceptered, you lead into the madness of revel and dance
in the frenzy of triennial feasts that bestow calm on us.
You burst forth from the earth in a blaze...O son of two mothers,
and, horned and clad in fawnskin, you roam the mountains, O lord worshipped in annual feasts.
Paian of the golden spear, nursling, decked with grapes,
Bassaros, exulting in ivy, followed by many maidens...
Joyous and all-abounding..."("Orphic Hymns")
Tyrannos
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