Diodorus also mentions the link to the Egyptian Osiris (Library of
History, 4.1):
'We have stated in the previous Books that certain barbarian peoples claim
for themselves the birthplace of this god. The Egyptians, for example, say
that the god who among them bears the name Osiris is the one whom the
Greeks call Dionysus. And this god, as their myths relate, visited all the
inhabited world, was the discoverer of wine, taught mankind how to
cultivate the vine, and because of this benefaction of his received the
gift of immortality with the approval of all. But the Indians likewise
declare that this god was born among them, and that after he had
ingeniously discovered how to cultivate the vine he shared the benefit
which wine imparts with human beings throughout the inhabited world. But
for our part, since we have spoken of these matters in detail, we shall at
this point recount what the Greeks have to say about this god.'
Sorry about the inconsistent use of references and the numerical garble in
my last -- my mind is apparently on other things.
az
> Scott, Bacchus is associated by Conti with Osiris, a detail he got from
> Plutarch's "Of Isis and Osiris": "when Osiris reigned over the Egyptians
> he made them reform their destitute and bestial mode of living, showing
> them the art of cultivation, and giving them laws, and teaching them how
> to worship the gods. Afterwards he travelled over the whole earth,
> civilizing it; far from requiring arms, he tamed mankind through
> persuasion and reasoning joined with song of all kinds and music which
> he brought over; wherefore he is held by the Greeks to be the same with
> Bacchus." This is just before the bit where Isis, having discovered
> that Typhon tore Osiris into pieces, seeks out the fragments of the
> body, enabling his (sort of) resurrection. The one bit she can't locate
> is his penis, so she makes a "consecrated replica" and later conceives a
> son by him. In other words, you can connect the Bacchus reference of
> 5.11-2 to the Temple of Isis and to Britomart's needing to be the one
> who helps Artegall get it together after he's emasculated by Radigund.
> That's the connection I would make, anyway.
>
>
>
> Katherine
>
> Katherine Eggert
> Associate Professor of English
> University of Colorado at Boulder
> 226 UCB
> Boulder, CO 80309-0226
> [log in to unmask]
>
> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Scott Lucas
> Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2011 1:59 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: SIDNEY-SPENSER: Bacchus in Book V of _FQ_
>
> Dear list members,
>
> I just finished teaching Book 5 of the Faerie Queene a little while ago, and I have had a question lingering with me ever since we began that book that I hope someone can answer. At the opening of canto 1, Spenser recounts how vice was combatted in ancient times by "some of the vertuous race" who heroically opposed unrighteousness. The very first of these virtuous figures, according to Spenser, was the god Bacchus, who, coming to the eastern world, "wrong repressed, and establisht right,/ Which lawlesse men had formerly fordonne./ There Iustice first her princely rule begonne" (V.i.1-2).
>
> Bacchus seems to me a very strange figure to laud as a champion of "right," lawfulness, and justice, since I tend to think of him as a god of frenzy, chaos, and release from moral restraint. Spenser's treatment of the wine god here seems even stranger when one notes that Spenser apparently associates Bacchus with sin rather than righteousness in Book 1, when he has Gluttony in the House of Pride's parade of sins "right fitly" dressed in "greene vine leaues," suggesting either Bacchus' wine-grape leaves or his ivy (I had thought the former, but A.C. Hamilton in his edition glosses I.iv.22, line 1, as a reference to Bacchus' sacred ivy).
>
> Hamilton, in his edition of FQ, suggests that Spenser got the idea of Bacchus bringing order and justice to the east from a Renaissance mythographer such as Comes/Conti. Does anyone know what Comes' logic behind presenting Bacchus as a figure of justice and a defender of virtue might have been, and whether there are any classical precedents for this view? In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Bacchus certainly takes care of belligerent types such as his would-be kidnappers and Pentheus, but these seem actions done against those who defy him personally and not deeds done for the sake of the establishment of justice, as Spenser suggests.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Scott
>
>
>
> Scott C. Lucas
> Professor of English
> The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina
> Charleston, SC 29409
>
> (843) 953-5133
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
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