Dionysus

A Greek god, in whose worship there are three distinct strata. The first consists of those rites with wliieh spirits of vegeta- tion (originally probably plant-totems) are wor- ''hipped by all primitive peoples, in the new world as well as the old, who possess any cultivated plants. This stratum is probably not older than the separation of the European from the other mem- bers of the Aryan family, for it was only after that separation that the Aryans began to domesti- cate plants.

The next consists in the worshijp associated with the cultivation of the vine : tliifl originated where, according to the most recent researches, the vine was first cultivated by the European branch of the Aryans, viz. in Thrace. The process of syncretism by which these rites were amalgamated \\'ith those of the vegetation- spirit was not completed, if indeed it had begun, in the time of Homer ; for in the Homeric poems D. occurs as a god, but is not associated with the vine, e.

\cept in passages generally admitted to be comparatively late interpolations. The third stratum belongs to the 7th cent. B.C., the period in which, amon" the E. nations conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians, national calamity led men to look for assistance tx> a ritual more potent than that in daily use. This more potent ritual was found in the older and more awful forms of sacrifice which lingered on in connexion with out- of-the-way altars.

To the form of worsliip thus revived, only those were admitted who were formally initiated into these 'mysteries.' From the East the institution of ' mysteries ' spread to Greece ; and the reason why it attached itself particularly to the worship of such deities as Demeter and Dionysus was that that worship was an evolved form of the rites (common to many Aryan and Semitic and other peoples) with which vegetation-spirits were originally worshipped.

The resemblances which thus made possible the spread of ' mysteries ' from the East to the West also facilitated that dissemination of the worship of Dionysus over the E., for which mytholcgists {e.g. Nonnus) accounted by the hypothesis of aa E. campaign on the part of the god. It is in the readiness with which the worship of D. was re- ceived in many parts of Syria and Pal. that we find the explanation of tlie attempts or threats to establish the worship of D.

amongst the Jews : it was presumed, e.g. by Nicanor (2 ^lac 14") arid Antiochus Epiphanes (2 Mac 6'), that it would be acceptable to them as to otlier |ieoples, while Ptolemy Philopator, who branded tlie Jews with the i\'y-leaf of Dionysus (3 Mac 2^), had an additional motive, in the fact that D.

was the family God of the Ptolemies, for forcing his worship on tliem by a means analogous to that which many Hindoo sects adopt to symbolize their devotion to their particular god, and which has a further jiarallel In the common barbaric custom of tattoo- ing the worshipper's body with the symbol of the god under whose protection and power he is. See further under DiONYSIA. F. B. jEVONS. DIOSCORINTHIUS (Aiis KopirOlov [rfrpdJi «al f/xdoi], Divscurus, 2 Mac 11"). See TIME.

DIOSCURI (Ai(5ff/toi/poi, RVm at Ac 28" ; text, The Twin Brothers ; AV, Castor and Pollux) are men- tioned as giving their name to the ship in which St. Paul sailed from Melita to Puteoli, on his way to Rome. The D. in mythology were the sons of Zeus and Leda, and brothers of Helen. Castor was the horse-tamer, and Pollux the prince of boxers. For their brotherly atl'ection they were placed in the sky as the constellation of the Twins (Gemini).

They were worshipped from early times in Greece, ('Grtecia Castoris niemor' Hor. Od. iv. 5. 35), in Cyrene in Africa (Find. Fyth. v.), not far from Alexandria, in Southern Itaiy, and enjoyed especial lionour at Rome on account of tlieir supernatural appearance at the battle of Lake Regillus. Their image was printed on the reverse of the earliest DiOTKJiPHES DISCIPLE 609 silver coins of the Romans {dennrii) as that of two youths on horseback.

They were, however, best known as the tutelary gods of sailors, who iilcnti- lied their presence with the pale blue lliime or li;;ht seen in thundery weather at the mast head. They are tlius mentioned Hor. Oil. i. 3. 2 : ' Sic fratres Helenoe lucida sidera' ; also Od. iii. 29. 64 : ' tutuiii feret geminus Pollux'; also Cat nil. iv. 27 and Ixviii. 65 ; and Eurip. Helen. 1663-65.

It was a common practice to put, as a irapdirrifiov (Ac 28") or insirjne, some device for a figure-head to a ship, in imitation of the person or object (not alwavs complimentary, Virg. /En. x. 188) after which the vessel was named. See Virg. yJSn. v. 116, ' Mnes- theus agit Prlstin ' ; ^w. x. 166, 195, 209, 'Hunc vehit inimanis Triton,' etc. This figure-head was to be distinguished from the Uitela (Ov. Trist. i. 10.

1), ' tutela Minervae,' or image of the protecting genius, under which the ship sailed, placed gener- ally in the stem of the vessel. In later times the distinction appears to have been effaced, and, in the vessel which carried St. Paul, the Dioscuri were probably intended for the 'tutela' as well as the ' insigne,' and their heads were probably fastened, one on each side, in front. LrrKfL&TURB. — Se>'ffart, Diet, of Clast. Antvj. by Nettleship and SandyB*, Bicb, DicL qf Antiq.

; Pa^e, AcU of the Apoatiei, <nUx. C. H. Prichard. DIOTREPHES (Aicrrpf0))», WH-^^j).— A person, other\\ise unknown, who is introduced in 3 John (w.'") as ambitious, resisting the writer's author- ity, and standing in the way of the hospitable recep- tion of brethren who visited the Church — probably travelling evangelists, such as are mentioned in the Didachi. It has been inferred by some that he was a presbyter or a deacon in the Church.

It has also been supposed that he was in conflict with the Jewish-Christian party ; or, on the other hand, that he was a teacher of false doctrine, Judaistic or Gnostic. But all is matter of conjecture. Others think that his action indicates an illegitim- ate assumption of authority over the Church, con- nected with the tendency to the establishment of a monarchical episcopate, which may have begun during the lifetime of St. John. S. D. F. Salmond.

DIPHATH (ns-i) occurs in RV and AVm of 1 Ch 1', but it is practically certain that AV Riphath is the correct reading. By an easily explicable scribal error nsi has arisen from nsn, the reading of MT in the parallel pa.ssage Gn lO*. See RlPllATll. J. A. Selbik.