View source for Zagreus

{{short description|Figure in Greek mythology}}
{{about|the Greek god}}
{{Lead too short|date=September 2025}}
{{Greek myth (Hades)}}

In [[ancient Greek religion]] and [[Greek mythology|mythology]], '''Zagreus''' ({{langx|grc|Ζαγρεύς|Zagreus}}) was a god sometimes identified with an [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]] [[Dionysus]] who was dismembered by the [[Titans (mythology)|Titans]] and reborn.<ref>Gantz, p. 118; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456.</ref> In the earliest mention of Zagreus, he is paired with [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] and called the "highest" god, though perhaps only in reference to the gods of the underworld. [[Aeschylus]], however, links Zagreus with [[Hades]], possibly as Hades' son, or as Hades himself.<ref>Sommerstein, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-attributed_fragments/2009/pb_LCL505.237.xml p. 237 n. 1]; Gantz, p. 118; Smyth, [https://archive.org/stream/aeschyluswitheng02aescuoft#page/458/mode/2up p. 459].</ref> Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' ''katachthonios'' alter ego", [[Timothy Gantz]] postulated that Zagreus, originally the son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone.<ref>Gantz, p. 119.</ref>

== Etymology and origins ==
According to [[Martin Litchfield West]], the "most plausible etymology" derives "Zagreus" from ''zagre'', which is "properly a pit for catching animals, but perhaps also one used for depositing animal remains or offerings to a chthonic deity", making Zagreus literally the "god of pitfalls".<ref>West 1983, p. 153.</ref> Based on this etymology, [[Károly Kerényi|Karl Kerényi]] concludes that ''zagreus'' was the Greek word for a "hunter who catches living animals", and that "an exact translation" of "Zagreus" would be "catcher of game".<ref>Kerényi, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA82 82].</ref>

As West notes, the word ''zagre'', which only survives in [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]], has an [[Ionic Greek|Ionic]] ending.<ref>West 1983, p. 153 n. 29, see [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]] [https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/Γλώσσαι/Ζ s.v. ζάγρη], defined as [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=bo/qros βόθρος], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=la/paqon λάπαθον]. See also Kerényi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA82 p. 82], with note 101.</ref> So if "Zagreus" does derive from ''zagre'', then this would suggest an Ionian origin for Zagreus. But, according to Kerényi, Hesychius' definition of ''zagre'', "proves that the name contains the root ''zoë'' and ''zoön''", the Greek words for "life" and "Living thing",<ref>Kerényi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA82 p. 82]; [[LSJ]] s.vv. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dzwh%2F ζωή], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dzw%3D%7Con ζῷον].</ref> and according to West "the vocalism, Zā- for Zō-, points to a Doric or North-west Greek home for the god".<ref>West 1983, p. 153 n. 39. West speculates that "some poet writing in Ionic must have taken over the dialect word, probably as a technical term."</ref> 

The tenth-century ''Etymologicum Gudianum'' interpreted the name as "great hunter", deriving the word from ''za-'' ("very") and ''agreuein'' ("hunt"), an etymology rejected by both West and Kerényi.<ref>West 2003, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_theban_cycle_alcmeonis/2003/pb_LCL497.61.xml p. 61 n. 17]; Kerényi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&pg=PA82 p. 82]; Astour, p. 202 (which, while noting that this etymology "seems to be very plausible ... (such avatars of Dionysos as ''Aqht'' and Actaeon were famous hunters)", also says "the prefix ''za-'' normally goes with adjectives and not with nouns, while ''agreus'' is a noun".); ''Etymologicum Gudianum'' s.v. Ζαγρεύς [= ''[[Alcmeonis]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_theban_cycle_alcmeonis/2003/pb_LCL497.61.xml fr. 3 West]].</ref>
Others have suggested a relationship with the [[Zagros Mountains]] of western [[Iran]].<ref>West 1983, p. 153 n. 39; Astour, p. 202.</ref> While Michael C. Astour suggests a derivation from the [[Ugaritic]] ''Sġr'' (pronounced ''ṣaġru''?)  meaning "the Young One".<ref>Astour, pp. 202&ndash;204.</ref>

== Underworld ==
The early mentions of Zagreus, which occur only in fragments from lost works, connect Zagreus with the [[Greek underworld]].<ref>Gantz, pp. 118&ndash;119.</ref> The earliest is in a single quoted line from the (6th century BC?)<ref>West 2003, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_theban_cycle_oedipodea/2003/pb_LCL497.11.xml p. 11].</ref> epic ''[[Alcmeonis]]'':

{{blockquote|Mistress Earth [Gaia], and Zagreus highest of all the gods.<ref>''[[Alcmeonis]]'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_theban_cycle_alcmeonis/2003/pb_LCL497.61.xml fr. 3 West] [= ''Etymologicum Gudianum'' s.v. Ζαγρεύς].</ref>}}

Perhaps here meaning the highest god of the underworld.<ref>According to West 2003, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_epic_fragments_theban_cycle_alcmeonis/2003/pb_LCL497.61.xml p. 61 n. 17]: "The line perhaps comes from a prayer in which Alcmaon called upon the powers of the earth to send up his father Amphiaraus."</ref>

Evidently for [[Aeschylus]], Zagreus was, in fact, an underworld god. In a fragment from one of Aeschylus' lost ''Sisyphus'' plays (c. 5th century BC), Zagreus seems to be the son of Hades,<ref>Gantz, p. 118; West 1983, p. 153; Aeschylus [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-attributed_fragments/2009/pb_LCL505.237.xml fr. 228 Sommerstein]  [= fr. 228 Radt = [https://archive.org/stream/aeschyluswitheng02aescuoft#page/458/mode/2up fr. 124 Smyth]].</ref> while in Aeschylus' ''Egyptians'' (''Aigyptioi''), Zagreus was apparently identified with Hades himself.<ref>Gantz, p. 118 (citing Aeschylus fr. 5 Radt); Sommerstein, p. 237, fr. 228 n. 1.</ref>

A fragment from [[Euripides]]' lost play ''Cretan Men'' (''Kretes'') has the chorus of Cretan men describe the "pure life" they have led since they became initiates (''mystai'') of [[Mount Ida (Crete)|Idaean]] Zeus and celebrants of:
{{blockquote|night-ranging Zagreus, performing his feasts of raw flesh;  and raising torches high to the mountain Mother among the Curetes,<ref>[[Euripides]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL504.539.xml fr. 472 Collard and Cropp].</ref>}}

and were consecrated and received the title of "Bacchus".<ref>Gantz, p. 118; West 1983, p. 153.</ref> This passage associates Zagreus with the cult of Zeus at Cretan [[Mount Ida (Crete)|Mount Ida]], where the infant Zeus was guarded by the Cretan [[Korybantes|Curetes]]. According to West, Zagreus here is "a god of nocturnal mystery-rites, associated with a sacramental feast of raw flesh (and thus with the dismemberment of an animal victim)" and infers from this Euripidean passage that Zagreus "played a part in mysteries which claimed a Cretan origin."<ref>West 1983, pp. 153&ndash;154.</ref>

== Orphic Dionysus Zagreus ==
[[File:Gaziantep_Zeugma_Museum_Dionysos_Triumf_mosaic_1921.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Dionysus in a 3rd-century AD mosaic from the House of Poseidon, [[Zeugma Mosaic Museum]]<ref>Miguélez-Cavero, p. 179 with n. 25.</ref>]]

Zagreus from the Euripides fragment is suggestive of [[Dionysus]], the wine god son of [[Zeus]] and [[Semele]],<ref>Gantz, p, 118; West 1983, p. 154.</ref> and in fact, although it seems not to occur anywhere in Orphic sources, the name “Zagreus” is elsewhere identified with an Orphic Dionysus, who had a very different tradition from the standard one.<ref>According to Gantz, p. 118, "Orphic sources preserved seem not to use the name 'Zagreus{{' "}}, and according to West 1983, p. 153, the "name was probably not used in the Orphic narrative". Edmonds 1999, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs#page=5 p. 37 n. 6] says: "Lobeck 1892 seems to be responsible for the use of the name Zagreus for the Orphic Dionysos. As Linforth noticed, 'It is a curious thing that the name Zagreus does not appear in any Orphic poem or fragment, nor is it used by any author who refers to Orpheus' (Linforth 1941:[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=337 311]). In his reconstruction of the story, however, Lobeck made extensive use of the fifth-century CE epic of Nonnos, who does use the name Zagreus, and later scholars followed his cue. The association of Dionysos with Zagreus appears first explicitly in a fragment of Callimachus preserved in the Etymologicum Magnum (fr. 43.117 P), with a possible earlier precedent in the fragment from Euripides ''Cretans'' (fr. 472 Nauck). Earlier evidence, however, (e.g., ''Alkmaionis'' fr. 3 PEG; Aeschylus frr. 5, 228) suggests that Zagreus was often identified with other deities."</ref> This Dionysus Zagreus was a son of Zeus and Persephone who was, as an infant, attacked and dismembered by the [[Titans (mythology)|Titans]],<ref>Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=336 pp. 310&ndash;311].</ref> but later reborn as the son of Zeus and Semele.<ref>Meisner, pp. 267&ndash;268; [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.1], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#75 5.75.4] [= Orphic fr. 283 I Bernabé (I p. 235) = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 303 Kern]]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 167; [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/206/mode/2up 5.562&ndash;70], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/224/mode/2up 6.155&ndash;231].</ref> This dismemberment of Dionysus Zagreus (the ''[[sparagmos]]''), taken together with an assumed Orphic [[wikt:anthropogenesis|anthropogony]], in which human beings arose from the ashes of the Titans (who had been struck by Zeus with his thunderbolt in punishment for the dismembering), is sometimes called the "Zagreus myth".<ref>Meisner, p. 238; Chrysanthou, p. 85; Edmonds 2013, p. 297.</ref> This story has often been considered the most important myth of [[Orphism]],<ref>According to Meisner, p. 238, "[o]ver the last two centuries, many scholars have considered this narrative of Dionysus and the Titans to have been the central, defining myth of Orphism". For example, in the first half of the 20th century, Nilsson, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1508326?seq=1 p. 202] described it as "the cardinal myth of Orphism", and Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA107 p. 107] similarly called the myth "the central point of Orphic story", while Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333 p. 307] said it is "commonly regarded as essentially and peculiarly Orphic and the very core of the Orphic religion". More recently, Parker 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dsOEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA495 p. 495] writes that "it has been seen as the Orphic 'arch-myth'", while, according to Meisner, p. 9, Edmonds "argues that the myth of Dionysus Zagreus was not nearly as central to Orphic thought as modern scholars have assumed".</ref> and has been described as "one of the most enigmatic and intriguing of all Greek myths".<ref>Henrichs, p. 61.</ref>

=== The ''sparagmos'' ===
As pieced together from various ancient sources, the reconstructed story of the ''sparagmos'', that is, the dismemberment of Dionysus Zagreus, usually given by modern scholars, goes as follows:<ref>West 1983, pp. 73–74, provides a detailed reconstruction with numerous cites to ancient sources, with a summary on p. 140. For other summaries, see  Meisner, p. 237; Graf and Johnston, p. 67; Morford, p. 311; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]; March, [https://archive.org/stream/March.Jenny_Cassells.Dictionary.of.Classical.Mythology#page/n787/mode/2up s.v. Zagreus, p. 788]; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456; Burkert, pp. 297–298; Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA82 p. 82]; also see Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA80 p. 80]. For a detailed examination of many of the ancient sources about this myth, see Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333 pp. 307–364]. The most extensive account in ancient sources is found in [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/206/mode/2up 5.562–70], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/224/mode/2up 6.155 ff.], other principal sources include [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62.6–8] [= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 301 Kern]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1–2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.1–2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#75 5.75.4] [= Orphic fr. 283 I Bernabé (I p. 235) = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 303 Kern]]; [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:6.87-6.145 6.110–114]; [[Athenagoras of Athens]], ''Legatio'' 20 [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_II/A_Plea_for_the_Christians#cite_ref-66 Pratten] [= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/138/mode/2up fr. 58 Kern]]; [[Clement of Alexandria]], '' [[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]'' 2.17.2&ndash;18.2 (Butterworth, [https://archive.org/stream/clementofalexand00clem#page/36/mode/2up pp. 36–39 15 P.]) [= Orphic frr. 306 I (I p. 249), 312 I (I p. 256), 315 I (I p. 257), 318 I (I p. 260), 322 I (p. 265), 588 I (II p. 169) Bernabé = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up frr. 34, 35 Kern]]; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 155, 167; ''[[Suda]]'' s.v. [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&searchstr=zeta,4&field=adlerhw_gr&num_per_page=1 Ζαγρεύς]. See also [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:7.18.4 7.18.4], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.37.5 8.37.5].</ref> Zeus had intercourse with Persephone in the form of a serpent, producing Dionysus. He is taken to [[Mount Ida]] where (like the infant Zeus) he is guarded by the dancing [[Korybantes|Curetes]]. Zeus intended Dionysus to be his successor as ruler of the cosmos, but a jealous Hera incited the Titans to kill the child. Distracting the infant Dionysus with various toys, including a mirror, the Titans seized Dionysus and tore (or cut)<ref>West 1983, p. 160 remarks that while "many sources speak of Dionysus' being 'rent apart' ... those who use more precise language say that he was cut up with a knife".</ref> him to pieces. The pieces were then boiled, roasted, and partially eaten by the Titans. But Athena managed to save Dionysus' heart, by which Zeus was able to contrive his rebirth from Semele.

Although the extant Orphic sources do not mention the name "Zagreus" in connection with this dismembered Dionysus (or anywhere else), the (c. 3rd century BC) poet [[Callimachus]] perhaps did.<ref>Gantz, pp. 118–119; West 1983, p. 154, which after asserting that [[Nonnus]], at ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/details/dionysiaca01nonnuoft/page/224/mode/2up?view=theater 6.165], "probably took Zagreus' name from Callimachus" says that "This raises the suspicion that Callimachus had used the name in the context of Dionysus' dismemberment"; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=335 pp. 309–311], which concludes ([https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=337 p. 311]) that "we may reasonably suppose that [Callimachus] used the name Zagreus in his story of the dismemberment".</ref> We know that Callimachus, as well as his contemporary [[Euphorion of Chalcis|Euphorion]], told the story of the dismembered child,<ref>Gantz, pp. 118–119; West 1983, p. 151; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=335 p. 309]; [[Euphorion of Chalcis|Euphorion]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euphorion_chalcis-poetic_fragments/2010/pb_LCL508.227.xml fr. 14 Lightfoot] [= fr. 13 Powell = fr. 12 Scheidweiler = [[Tzetzes]] on [[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' 207 (Scheer, [https://archive.org/details/lycophronisalexa02lycouoft/page/98 p. 98 lines 5&ndash;10]) = Orphic fr. 36 Bernabé (I pp. 52&ndash;53) = [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/230/mode/2up fr. 210 pp. 230&ndash;231 Kern]]; cf. [[Callimachus]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/callimachus-fragments_uncertain_location/2022/pb_LCL550.205.xml fr. 643 Clayman] [= [https://archive.org/details/callimachus0001call/page/430/mode/2up fr. 643 Pfeiffer]].</ref> and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] sources quote Callimachus as referring to the birth of a "Dionysos Zagreus", explaining that "Zagreus" was the poet's name for a ''[[chthonic]]'' Dionysus, the son of Zeus by Persephone.<ref>Gantz, p. 118; West 1983, pp. 152–153; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=336 p. 310]; ''[[Etymologicum Genuinum]]'' s.v. Ζαγρεύς (Harder 2020a, [https://books.google.com/books?id=a5YdwJJatoAC&pg=PA190 p. 190 on line 34]); ''[[Etymologicum Magnum]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/etymologikontome00etymuoft#page/n203/mode/2up s.v. Zagreus]; [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]] [https://el.wikisource.org/wiki/Γλώσσαι/Ζ s.v. ''Ζαγρεύς'']; ''[[Suda]]'' s.v. [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&searchstr=zeta,4&field=adlerhw_gr&num_per_page=1 Ζαγρεύς]; [[Callimachus]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/callimachus-aetia/2022/pb_LCL421.147.xml fr. 43b.34 Clayman] [= [https://books.google.com/books?id=a5YdwJJatoAC&pg=PA190 fr. 43b.34 Harder] = [https://archive.org/details/callimachus0001call/page/54/mode/2up fr. 43.117 Pfeiffer] = Orphic fr. 34 Bernabé (I pp. 51&ndash;52) = [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/230/mode/2up fr. 210 p. 230 Kern]]; Harder 2012b, p. 368 on line 34.</ref> The earliest certain identification of Zagreus with the dismembered Dionysus occurs in the writings of the late 1st century – early 2nd century AD biographer and essayist [[Plutarch]], who mentions "Zagreus" as one of the names given to the figure by Delphic theologians.<ref>''[[Brill's New Pauly]]'', [https://referenceworks-brillonline-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/*-e12214290 s.v.  Zagreus]; Chrysanthou, p. 219; Linforth, pp. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=337 311], [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=343 317–318]; [[Plutarch]], ''The E at Delphi'' [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-moralia_e_delphi/1936/pb_LCL306.223.xml 389 A] [= Orphic fr. 613 II Bernabé (II p. 188)].</ref> Later, in the 5th century AD, the Greek epic poet [[Nonnus]], who tells the story of this Orphic Dionysus, calls him the "older Dionysos ... ill fated Zagreus",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/208/mode/2up 5.564–565].</ref> "Zagreus the horned baby",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/224/mode/2up 6.165].</ref> "Zagreus, the first Dionysos",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/348/mode/2up 10.294].</ref> "Zagreus the ancient Dionysos",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/128/mode/2up 39.72].</ref> and "Dionysos Zagreus",<ref>[[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]''  [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/314/mode/2up 44.255].</ref> and the 6th-century AD [[Pseudo-Nonnus]] similarly refers to the dismembered Dionysus as "Dionysus Zagreus".<ref>[[Pseudo-Nonnus]], 5.30 (Nimmo Smith, p. 89).</ref>

The 1st century BC historian [[Diodorus Siculus]] says that according to "some writers of myths" there were two gods named Dionysus, an older one, who was the son of Zeus and Persephone,<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.1].</ref> but that the "younger one [born to Zeus and Semele] also inherited the deeds of the older, and so the men of later times, being unaware of the truth and being deceived because of the identity of their names, thought there had been but one Dionysus."<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.5].</ref>

According to Diodorus, this older Dionysus, was represented in painting and sculpture with horns, because he "excelled in sagacity and was the first to attempt the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed",<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.2], see also [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1–2].</ref> and the younger was "called Dimetor (Of Two Mothers) ... because the two Dionysoi were born of one father, but of two mothers".<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.5].</ref> He also said that Dionysus "was thought to have two forms ... the ancient one having a long beard, because all men in early times wore long beards, the younger one being youthful and effeminate and young."<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#5 4.5.2].</ref>

====Cooking / eating====
Several accounts of the myth involved the Titans cooking and/or eating at least part of Dionysus.<ref>West 1983, pp. 160–161; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=338 pp. 312–313].</ref> In the account attributed to Callimachus and Euphorion, the dismembered pieces of Dionysus were boiled in a cauldron, and Euphorion is quoted as saying that the pieces of Dionysus were placed over a fire.<ref>Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=339 p. 313]; [[Euphorion of Chalcis|Euphorion]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euphorion_chalcis-poetic_fragments/2010/pb_LCL508.227.xml fr. 14 Lightfoot] [= fr. 13 Powell = fr. 12 Scheidweiler = [[Tzetzes]] on [[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' 207 (Scheer, [https://archive.org/details/lycophronisalexa02lycouoft/page/98 p. 98 lines 5&ndash;10]) = Orphic fr. 36 Bernabé (I pp. 52&ndash;53) = [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/230/mode/2up fr. 210 pp. 230&ndash;231 Kern]]; cf. [[Callimachus]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/callimachus-fragments_uncertain_location/2022/pb_LCL550.205.xml fr. 643 Clayman] [= [https://archive.org/details/callimachus0001call/page/430/mode/2up fr. 643 Pfeiffer]].</ref> Diodorus also says that the pieces were "boiled",<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62.6].</ref> and the late 2nd century Christian writer [[Clement of Alexandria]] says that the pieces were "first boiled" in a cauldron, then pierced with spits and roasted.<ref>[[Clement of Alexandria]], '' [[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]'' 2.18.1&ndash;2 (Butterworth, [https://archive.org/stream/clementofalexand00clem#page/38/mode/2up pp. 38, 39 15 P.]) [= Orphic fr. 312 I Bernabé (I p. 256) = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up fr. 35 Kern]].</ref> [[Arnobius]], an early 4th century [[Christian apologist]], says that Dionysus' severed parts were "thrown into pots that he might be cooked".<ref>[[Arnobius]], ''Adversus Gentes'' [https://archive.org/stream/thesevenbooksofa00arnouoft#page/n269/mode/2up 5.19 (p. 242)] [= Orphic fr. 312 III Bernabé (I p. 256) = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up fr. 34 Kern]].</ref> None of these sources mentions any actual eating, but other sources do. [[Plutarch]] says that the Titans "tasted his blood",<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''On the Eating of Flesh'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-eating_flesh/1957/pb_LCL406.559.xml 996 C] [= Orphic fr. 318 II Bernabé (I pp. 260&ndash;1) = [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/230/mode/2up fr. 210 p. 231 Kern]].</ref> the 6th century AD [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]] [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodorus]] says that they ate "his flesh",<ref>Edmonds 1999, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs#page=8 p. 40] ("the Titans, tear him to pieces and eat his [Dionysus'] flesh; [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodorus]], ''In Plato Phaedon'' 1.3 (Westerink 1976, pp. 40–3) [= Orphic fr. 320 I Bernabé (I p. 262) = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/238/mode/2up fr. 220 Kern]].</ref> and according to the 4th century [[euhemeristic]] account of the Latin [[astrologer]] and Christian apologist [[Firmicus Maternus]], the Titans cooked the "members in various ways and devoured them" (''membra consumunt''), except for his heart.<ref>[[Firmicus Maternus]], ''De errore profanarum religionum'' ("The Error of Pagan Religions") [https://books.google.com/books?id=MB5LMQ5j1z8C&pg=PA55 6.3 p. 55 Forbes] [= Orphic frr. 313 III (I p. 256), 314 IV (I p. 257) Bernabé = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/234/mode/2up fr. 214 Kern]].</ref>

====Resurrection / rebirth====
In the version of the story apparently told by Callimachus and Euphorion, the cauldron containing the boiled pieces of Dionysus is given to Apollo for burial, who placed it beside his tripod at Delphi.<ref>West 1983, p. 151; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=337 pp. 311–312]; [[Euphorion of Chalcis|Euphorion]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euphorion_chalcis-poetic_fragments/2010/pb_LCL508.227.xml fr. 14 Lightfoot] [= fr. 13 Powell = fr. 12 Scheidweiler = [[Tzetzes]] on [[Lycophron]], ''Alexandra'' 207 (Scheer, [https://archive.org/details/lycophronisalexa02lycouoft/page/98 p. 98 lines 5&ndash;10]) = Orphic fr. 36 Bernabé (I pp. 52&ndash;53) = [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/230/mode/2up fr. 210 pp. 230&ndash;231 Kern]]; cf. [[Callimachus]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/callimachus-fragments_uncertain_location/2022/pb_LCL550.205.xml fr. 643 Clayman] [= [https://archive.org/details/callimachus0001call/page/430/mode/2up fr. 643 Pfeiffer]].</ref> And according to [[Philodemus]], citing Euphorion, the pieces of Dionysus were "reassembled by [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], and brought back to life",<ref>[[Euphorion of Chalcis|Euphorion]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euphorion_chalcis-poetic_fragments/2010/pb_LCL508.271.xml fr. 40  Lightfoot] [= fr. 36 Powell = [[Philodemus]], ''On Piety'' 192–193 = Orphic fr. 59 I (I pp. 66&ndash;67) Bernabé = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up Orphic fr. 36 Kern]]; similarly, see Orphic fr. 59 II  (I p. 67) Bernabé.  For a discussion of this Philodemus text, see Henrichs, pp. 62&ndash;65. Compare with [[Lucius Annaeus Cornutus|Cornutus]], ''Theologiae Graecae Compendium'' [https://www.archive.org/stream/cornvtitheologi00corngoog?ref=ol#page/n88/mode/2up 30 p. 62, 11 Lang] [= Orphic fr. 59 IV (I pp. 67&ndash;68) Bernabé], which also has Rhea revive Dionysus (see Meisner, p. 254; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=341 p. 315]).</ref> while according to Diodorus Siculus, the reassembly and resurrection of Dionysus was accomplished by Demeter.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62.6]. With respect to this account, Graf and Johnston, p. 76, state that Demeter "was often equated with Rhea from the fifth century onwards, including in Orphic contexts"; for this equation in Orphic texts, see West 1983, pp. 72–74, 81–82, 93, 217.</ref> Later Orphic sources have Apollo receive Dionysus' remains from Zeus, rather than the Titans, and it was Apollo who reassembled Dionysus, rather than Rhea or Demeter.<ref>West 1983, p. 152; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=341 p. 315]; Orphic frr. [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up 34, 35], [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/226/mode/2up 209–211] Kern.</ref>

In the accounts of Clement, and Firmicus Maternus cited above, as well as [[Proclus]],<ref>[[Proclus]], ''Hymn to Athena'' [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sallust_On_the_Gods_and_the_World/The_Hymns_of_Proclus#To_MINERVA. 13–24]; ''In Plato Timaeus'' 35a (Taylor 1820b, [https://archive.org/stream/proclusontimaeus02procuoft#page/36/mode/2up pp. 37–38]) [= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/228/mode/2up fr. 210 Kern]].</ref> and a scholium on [[Lycophron]] 355,<ref>Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=337 p. 311]; [[Tzetzes]], Scholiast on [[Lycophron]] ''Alexandra'' [https://archive.org/stream/lycophronisalexa02lycouoft#page/136/mode/2up 355 p. 137 Scheer].</ref> Athena manages to save the heart of Dionysus, from which, according to Clement and the scholium, Athena received the name Pallas from the still beating (''πάλλειν'') heart. In Proclus' account, Athena takes the heart to Zeus, and Dionysus is born again from Semele. According to the ''[[Fabulae]]'' of [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] (the Roman equivalent of Zeus) "ground up his heart, put it in a potion, and gave it to Semele to drink", and she became pregnant with Dionysus.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 167.</ref>

====Osiris====
In the ''[[interpretatio graeca]]'' Dionysus is often identified with the [[Ancient Egyptian deities|Egyptian god]] [[Osiris]],<ref>Rutherford, [https://books.google.com/books?id=oBqHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA67 p. 67].</ref> and stories of the dismemberment and resurrection of [[Osiris]] parallel those of Dionysus Zagreus.<ref>Henrichs, pp. 64&ndash;65; Rutherford, [https://books.google.com/books?id=oBqHCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA69 p. 69].</ref> According to Diodorus Siculus,<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#6 4.6.3].</ref> Egyptian myths about [[Priapus]] said that the Titans conspired against Osiris, killed him, divided his body into equal parts, and "slipped them secretly out of the house". All but Osiris' penis, which, since none of them "was willing to take it with him", they threw into the river. [[Isis]], Osiris' wife, hunted down and killed the Titans, reassembled Osiris' body parts "into the shape of a human figure", and gave them "to the priests with orders that they pay Osiris the honours of a god". But since she was unable to recover the penis she ordered the priests "to pay to it the honours of a god and to set it up in their temples in an erect position."<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/1A*.html#21 1.21.1&ndash;3], relates another version of the Osiris story which more closely parallels the usual Egyptian account of the murder and dismemberment of Osiris by his brother Set. In this account, [[Typhon]] (whom the Greeks had come to identify with Set) killed his brother Osiris, the lawful king of Egypt, and cut the body of the slain Osiris into twenty-six pieces, giving one piece to each of his accomplices, so that they all would share equally in the "pollution". But Osiris' sister and wife, [[Isis]], with the help of her son [[Horus]], killed Typhon and became queen.</ref>

====Allegorical accounts====
[[Diodorus Siculus]] reports an allegorical interpretation of the myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus as representing the production of wine. Diodorus knew of a tradition whereby this Orphic Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Demeter, rather than Zeus and Persephone.<ref>Edmonds 1999, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs#page=19 p. 51]; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=342 p. 316]; [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62.6–8] [= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 301 Kern]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1].</ref> This parentage was explained allegorically by identifying Dionysus with the grape vine, Demeter with the earth, and Zeus with the rain, saying that "the vine gets its growth both from the earth and from rains and so bears as its fruit the wine which is pressed out from the clusters of grapes".  According to Diodorus, Dionysus' dismemberment by the Titans represented the harvesting of the grapes, and the subsequent "boiling" of his dismembered parts has been worked into a myth by reason of the fact that most men boil the wine and then mix it, thereby improving its natural aroma and quality."

The [[Nero|Neronian-era]] [[Stoicism|Stoic]] [[Lucius Annaeus Cornutus|Cornutus]] relates a similar allegorical interpretation, whereby the dismemberment represented the crushing of the grapes, and the rejoining of the dismembered pieces into a single body represented the pouring of the juice into a single container.<ref>Meisner, p. 254; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=342 pp. 316, 317]; [[Lucius Annaeus Cornutus|Cornutus]], ''Theologiae Graecae Compendium'' [https://www.archive.org/stream/cornvtitheologi00corngoog?ref=ol#page/n88/mode/2up 30 p. 62, 10&ndash;16 Lang].</ref>

====Rationalized accounts====
Diodorus also reports a rationalized account of the older Dionysus.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1&ndash;2].</ref> In this account this Dionysus was a wise man, who was the inventor of the plough, as well as many other agricultural inventions. And according to Diodorus, these inventions, which greatly reduced manual labor, so pleased the people that they "accorded to him honours and sacrifices like those offered to the gods, since all men were eager, because of the magnitude of his service to them, to accord to him immortality."

The Christian apologist [[Firmicus Maternus]] gives a rationalized [[euhemeristic]] account of the myth whereby Liber (Dionysus) was the illegitimate son of a [[Cretan]] king named Jupiter (Zeus).<ref>Meisner, pp. 255&ndash;6; Herrero de Jáuregui, pp. 156&ndash;7; [[Firmicus Maternus]], ''De errore profanarum religionum'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=MB5LMQ5j1z8C&pg=PA54 6.1 (Forbes, p. 54)] [= Orphic fr. 304 III Bernabé (I p. 248) = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/234/mode/2up fr. 214 Kern]]; see also Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=339 pp. 313&ndash;314, 315].</ref> When Jupiter left his kingdom in the boy's charge, the king's jealous wife Juno (Hera), conspired with her servants, the Titans, to murder the illegitimate child. Beguiling him with toys, the Titans ambushed and killed the boy. To dispose of the evidence of their crime, the Titans chopped the body into pieces, cooked, and ate them. However the boy's sister Minerva (Athena), who had been part of the murder plot, kept the heart. When her father the king returned, the sister turned informer and gave the boy's heart to the king.<ref>[[Firmicus Maternus]], ''De errore profanarum religionum'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=MB5LMQ5j1z8C&pg=PA54 6.2&ndash;3 (Forbes, pp. 54&ndash;5)] [= Orphic frr. 304 III (I p. 248), 309 VII (I p. 253), 313 III (I p. 256), 314 IV (I p. 257) Bernabé = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/234/mode/2up fr. 214 Kern]].</ref> In his fury, the king tortured and killed the Titans, and in his grief, he had a statue of the boy made, which contained the boy's heart in its chest, and a temple erected in the boy's honour.<ref>[[Firmicus Maternus]], ''De errore profanarum religionum'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=MB5LMQ5j1z8C&pg=PA55 6.4 (Forbes, p. 55)] [= Orphic frr. 318 V (I p. 261), 325 (I p. 267), 332 (I p. 274) Bernabé = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/234/mode/2up fr. 214 Kern]].</ref> The Cretans, in order to pacify their furious savage and despotic king, established the anniversary of the boy's death as a holy day. Sacred rites were held, in which the celebrants howling and feigning insanity tore to pieces a live bull with their teeth, and the basket in which boy's heart had been saved, was paraded to the blaring of flutes and the crashing of cymbals, thereby turning a mere boy into a god.<ref>[[Firmicus Maternus]], ''De errore profanarum religionum'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=MB5LMQ5j1z8C&pg=PA55 6.5 (Forber, pp. 55&ndash;6)] [= Orphic frr. 332 (I p. 274), 572 (II p. 137) Bernabé = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/234/mode/2up fr. 214 Kern]].</ref>

=== The anthropogony ===

Most sources make no mention of what happened to the Titans after the murder of Dionysus. In the standard account of the Titans, given in Hesiod's ''[[Theogony]]'' (which does not mention Dionysus), after being overthrown by Zeus and the other Olympian gods, in the ten-year-long [[Titanomachy]], the Titans are imprisoned in [[Tartarus]].<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''Theogony'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+627 630&ndash;721].</ref> This might seem to preclude any subsequent story of the Titans killing Dionysus,<ref>West 1983, p. 164; Spineto, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jpIJ64a5alUC&pg=PA34 p. 34].</ref> and perhaps in an attempt to reconcile this standard account with the Dionysus Zagreus myth, according to Arnobius and Nonnus, the Titans end up imprisoned by Zeus in Tartarus, as punishment for their murder of Dionysus.<ref>[[Arnobius]], ''Adversus Gentes'' [https://archive.org/stream/thesevenbooksofa00arnouoft#page/n269/mode/2up 5.19 (p. 242)] [= Orphic fr. 318 VII (I p. 261) Bernabé = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up fr. 34 Kern]]; [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/228/mode/2up 6.206&ndash;210].</ref>

However, according to one source, from the fate of the Titans came a momentous event, the birth of humankind. Commonly presented as a part of the myth of the dismembered Dionysus Zagreus, is an Orphic anthropogony, that is, an Orphic account of the origin of human beings. According to this widely held view, as punishment for the crime of the ''sparagmos'', Zeus struck the Titans with his [[thunderbolt]], and from the remains of the destroyed Titans humankind was born, which resulted in a human inheritance of ancestral guilt, for this original sin of the Titans, and by some accounts "formed the basis for an Orphic doctrine of the divinity of man."<ref>Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333  pp. 307&ndash;308]; Spineto, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jpIJ64a5alUC&pg=PA34 p. 34]. For presentations of the myth which include the anthropogony, see Dodds, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Lz7LNak21AQC&pg=PA155 pp. 155–156]; West 1983, pp. 74–75, 140, 164–166; Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA83 p. 83]; Burkert, pp. 297–298; March, [https://archive.org/stream/March.Jenny_Cassells.Dictionary.of.Classical.Mythology#page/n787/mode/2up s.v. Zagreus, p. 788]; Parker 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dsOEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA495 pp. 495–496]; Morford, p. 313.</ref> However, when and to what extent there existed any Orphic tradition which included these elements is the subject of open debate.<ref>See Meisner, chapter 6; Spineto [https://books.google.com/books?id=jpIJ64a5alUC&pg=PA37 pp. 37–39]; Edmonds [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs 1999], 2008, 2013 chapter 9; Bernabé 2002, 2003; Parker [https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-07-13.html 2014].</ref>

The only ancient source to explicitly connect the ''sparagmos'' and the anthropogony is the 6th century AD [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]] [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodorus]], who, as part of an argument against committing suicide, states that to take one's life is "forbidden" because human bodies have a divine Dionysiac element within them. He explains that, in the Orphic tradition, after the Titans dismember and eat Dionysus, Zeus, out of anger, "strikes them with his thunderbolts, and the soot of the vapors that rise from them becomes the matter from which men are created", meaning that, because the Titans ate the flesh of Dionysus, humans are a part of Dionysus, and so suicide is "forbidden because our bodies belong to Dionysus".<ref>Meisner, pp. 248&ndash;9; Edmonds 1999, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs#page=8 p. 40]; Olympiodorus, ''In Plato Phaedon'' 1.3 (Westerink 1976, pp. 40&ndash;3) [= Orphic fr. 320 I Bernabé (I p. 262) = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/238/mode/2up fr. 220 Kern]]; Spineto [https://books.google.com/books?id=jpIJ64a5alUC&pg=PA34 p. 34]; Burkert, p. 463 n. 15; West 1983, pp. 164–165; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=352 pp. 326 ff.]. According to Meisner, p. 249, "[b]ecause Olympiodorus is the only ancient source who mentions th[e] Dionysiac nature [of humans], scholars have questioned whether he preserves an authentic element of the Orphic narrative or adds his own innovation". Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699&view=1up&seq=356 p. 330] states that he invents this element to provide support for his argument against suicide, while Brisson, p. 494 similarly sees this argument on the basis of the Dionysiac nature of humankind as "very original" (''argument très original''). Edmonds 2009, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=classics_pubs#page=18 p. 530] goes further, arguing that the connection of the ''sparagmos'' and the anthropogony in the passage is Olympiodorus' "innovation", created "to make particular points within his argument". However at least for the Neoplatonists, like Olympiodorus, humankind, being metaphorically the descendants  of both the Titans and Dionysus, have both a Titanic and a Dionysiac nature, and thus, as Henrichs, p. 61, describes it,  "carry the seeds of primordial violence as well as a divine spark in their genes".</ref>

The 2nd century AD biographer and essayist [[Plutarch]], does make a connection between the ''sparagmos'' and a subsequent punishment of the Titans, but makes no mention of the anthropogony, or Orpheus, or Orphism. In his essay ''On the Eating of Flesh'', Plutarch writes of "stories told about the sufferings and dismemberment of Dionysus and the outrageous assaults of the Titans upon him, and their punishment and blasting by thunderbolt after they had tasted his blood".<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''On the Eating of Flesh'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-eating_flesh/1957/pb_LCL406.559.xml 1.996 C] [= Orphic fr. 313 I Bernabé (I p. 226)]; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=360 pp. 334 ff.]; Edmonds 1999, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs#page=12 pp. 44–47]. Plutarch goes on to mention "that faculty in us which is unreasonable and disordered and violent, and does not come from the gods, but from evil spirits, [which] the ancients gave the name Titans", which Bernabé 2008, pp. 594&ndash;5 sees as evidence that he is referring to the anthropogony. Edmonds 2013, pp. 334&ndash;45, however, sees this as an "allegorical interpretation" used to "bolster the credibility of the argument he has been making about the perils of eating flesh".</ref>

Other sources have been taken as evidence for the anthropogony having been part of the story before Olympiodorus.<ref>See, for example, Chrysanthou, p. 112; Bernabé 2002, p. 413; Meisner, p. 249.</ref> The 5th-century AD Neoplatonist [[Proclus]] writes that, according to Orpheus, there were three races of humans, the last of which is the "Titanic race", which "Zeus formed [{{lang|grc|συστήσασθα}}] from the limbs of the Titans".<ref>Meisner, p. 269; Graf and Johnston, pp. 88&ndash;90; [[Proclus]], in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' 2.74.26&ndash;75.12 [= Orphic fr. 320 II Bernabé (I pp. 262&ndash;3) = [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/186/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 140 Kern]].</ref> Proclus also refers to the "mythical chastisement of the Titans and the generation of all mortal living beings out of them" told by Orpheus,<ref>Chrysanthou, pp. 96&ndash;7; [[Proclus]], in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' 2.338.10&ndash;339.9 [= Orphic fr. 338 I Bernabé (I pp. 278&ndash;9) = [https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft/page/240/mode/2up?view=theater fr. 224 Kern]].</ref> connecting the birth of mankind with the punishment of the Titans, though it is unclear whether this punishment comes after the dismemberment of Dionysus or the Hesiodic Titanomachy.<ref>According to Edmonds 1999, p. 41 n. 14, "this tale of punishment is more likely to be the result of the Titanomachy rather than the murder of Dionysus", while Bernabé 2002, p. 407 argues that the punishment follows the death of Dionysus because the Titans are confined to Tartarus after the Titanomachy.</ref> [[Damascius]], after mentioning the Titans' "plot against Dionysus",<ref>[[Damascius]], in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Phaedo]]'', 1.4&ndash;5 (Westerink 1977, pp. 30, 31). At 1.4, Damascius refers to Dionysus being "divided", and at 1.6 states that "[t]heir punishment consists in the checking of their dividing activities".</ref> recounts that "lightning-bolts, shackles, [and] descents into various lower regions" are the three punishments which it has been said the Titans suffered,<ref>Chrysanthou, p. 106; Edmonds 2013, p. 373; [[Damascius]], in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Phaedo]]'' 1.7 (Westerink 1977, pp. 32&ndash;3) [= Orphic fr. 178 IV Bernabé (pp. 161&ndash;2)]; see also Bernabé 2002, p. 407.</ref> and then states that humans are "created from the fragments of the Titans", and "their dead bodies" have "become men themselves".<ref>[[Damascius]], in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Phaedo]]'' 1.8 (Westerink 1977, pp. 32, 33) [= Orphic fr. 320 IV Bernabé (p. 263)]; see also Meisner, p. 271.</ref> Passages from earlier sources have also been interpreted as referring to this idea: the 1st century AD writer [[Dio Chrysostom]] writes that humans are "of the blood of the Titans",<ref>[[Dio Chrysostom]], ''Orations'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/dio_chrysostom-discourses_30_charidemus/1939/pb_LCL339.409.xml 30.10 (pp. 408, 409)] [= Orphic fr. 320 VII Bernabé (p. 263)]. Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699&view=1up&seq=360 p. 334] states that he finds "no hint of the myth of the dismemberment" in this passage, while Edmonds 2013, p. 370 claims that it "cannot refer to the murder of Dionysus Zagreus", and that the "context of the Titanomachy" is "clear". Bernabé 2002, pp. 410&ndash;2, however, claims that "the entire phraseology of the fragment is very characteristic of Orphism" (''toute la phraséologie du fragment est très caractéristique de l'orphisme''), and argues that for the passage to not refer to the Orphic story would require the existence of a separate, non-Orphic myth in which men are created from the Titans' blood.</ref> while the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'' call the Titans the "ancestors of our fathers".<ref>''[[Orphic Hymn]] to the [[Titans]]'' (37), 2 (Athanassakis and Wolkow, [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780891301196/page/32/mode/2up?view=theater p. 33]; Quandt, p. 29) [= Orphic fr. 320 X Bernabé (I p. 264)]. On whether this passage refers to the anthropogony, see Morand, pp. 216&ndash;7; Ricciardelli, pp. 381&ndash;3.</ref>

Earlier allusions to the myth possibly occur in the works of the poet [[Pindar]], [[Plato]], and Plato's student [[Xenocrates]]. A fragment from a poem, presumed to be by Pindar, mentions Persephone accepting "requital for ancient wrong", from the dead, which might be a reference to humans' inherited responsibility for the Titans' killing of Dionysus.<ref>[[Pindar]], fr. 133 Bergk, apud [[Plato]], ''[[Meno]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0178%3Atext%3DMeno%3Asection%3D81b 81bc] [= fr. 127 Bowra]. This interpretation, first proposed by [[H. J. Rose]], is discussed by Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=371 pp. 345–350], who while raising several objections and giving other possible explanations, concludes by saying "but after all, and in spite of these objections, one must acknowledge that there is a high degree of probability in Rose's interpretation." Others have agreed: Dodds, pp. 155–156, says the line is "most naturally explained as referring to human responsibility for the slaying of Dionysus", Burkert, p. 298, says this "ancient grief" of Persephone "can only be the death of her child Dionysos"; Parker 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dsOEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA496 p. 496] says "No myth is known which really explains the allusion except that of the murder of Persephone's son Dionysus by man's ancestors". However, West 1983, p. 110 n. 82, Seaford, pp. 7–8, who sees "difficulties" in Rose's interpretation", and Edmonds 1999, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs#page=15 pp. 47–49], who rejects Rose's reading, all offer different interpretations. For a discussion of this fragment and its "competing interpretations" see Meisner, p. 244&ndash;245.</ref> Plato, in presenting a succession of stages whereby, because of excessive liberty, men degenerate from reverence for the law, to lawlessness, describes the last stage where "men display and reproduce the character of the Titans of story".<ref>[[Plato]], ''[[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg034.perseus-eng1:3.701 3.701bc] [= Orphic fr. 37 I Bernabé (I pp. 53&ndash;4) = [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/84/mode/2up fr. 9 Kern]].</ref> This Platonic passage is often taken as referring to the anthropogony, however, whether men are supposed by Plato to "display and reproduce" this lawless character because of their Titanic heritage, or by simple imitation, is unclear.<ref>Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=365 pp. 339–345]; Edmonds 1999, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs#page=11 pp. 43–44]; Edmonds 2013, pp. 326–334; Meisner, p. 245.</ref> Xenocrates' reference to the Titans (and perhaps Dionysus) to explain Plato's use of the word "custody" (''φρούρα''), has also been seen as possible evidence of a pre-Hellenistic date for the myth.<ref>[[Xenocrates]], [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_gp0YAAAAMAAJ#page/n179/mode/2up fr. 20 Heinze] [= [[Damascius]], ''In Phaedo'' 1.2]; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=363 pp. 337–339]; Dodds, p. 156; West 1983, pp. 21–22; Burkert, p. 298; Edmonds 1999, [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs#page=14 p. 46]; Parker 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dsOEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA496 p. 496]</ref>

== In popular culture ==
[[Zagreus (Hades)|Zagreus]] is the protagonist of the 2020 video game ''[[Hades (video game)|Hades]]''.<ref>Cameron, p. 369.</ref> In the game, Zagreus is the son of [[Hades]] and is attempting to escape the [[Greek underworld|underworld]] to find his mother [[Persephone]], whom he never met, to learn why she left for the surface.<ref>Cameron, pp. 358, 363, 372&ndash;374.</ref>

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Melinoë}}
* {{annotated link|Macaria (daughter of Hades)|Macaria}}

== Notes ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== References ==
* [[Arnobius]], ''The Seven Books of Arnobius Adversus Gentes'', translated by Archibald Hamilton Bryce and Hugh Campbell, Edinburg: T. & T. Clark. 1871. [https://archive.org/stream/thesevenbooksofa00arnouoft#page/n9/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* Astour, Michael C., ''Hellenosemitica: An Ethnic and Cultural Study in west Semitic Impact on Mycenaean Greece'',  Leiden, [[E. J. Brill]], 1967.
* [[Apostolos Athanassakis|Athanassakis, Apostolos N.]], and Benjamin M. Wolkow, ''The Orphic Hymns'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0882-8}}. [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780891301196/page/n3/mode/2up?view=theater Internet Archive].
* Bernabé, Alberto (2002), "La toile de Pénélope: a-t-il existé un mythe orphique sur Dionysos et les Titans?" ''Revue de l'histoire des religions'' 219(4): 401–433.
* Bernabé, Alberto (2003), "Autour du mythe orphique sur Dionysos et les Titans. Quelque notes critiques" in ''Des Géants à Dionysos. Mélanges offerts à F. Vian.'' D. A. P. Chuvin. Alessandria: 25–39.
* Bernabé, Alberto (2004), ''Poetae epici Graeci: Testimonia et fragmenta, Pars II: Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia, Fasc 1'', [[Bibliotheca Teubneriana]], Munich and Leipzig, K. G. Saur Verlag, 2004. {{ISBN|978-3-598-71707-9}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110943702 Online version at De Gruyter].
* Bernabé, Alberto (2005), ''Poetae epici Graeci: Testimonia et fragmenta, Pars II: Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia et fragmenta, Fasc 2'', [[Bibliotheca Teubneriana]], Munich and Leipzig, K. G. Saur Verlag, 2005. {{ISBN|978-3-598-71708-6}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110918915 Online version at De Gruyter].
* Bernabé, Alberto (2008), "El Mito Órfico de Dioniso y Los Titanes", in ''Orfeo y la tradición órfica'', pp. 591–607, edited by Alberto Bernabé and Fransec Casadesús, Madrid, Akal, 2008. {{ISBN|978-8-446-01896-4}}.
* ''[[Brill’s New Pauly]]: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Antiquity, Volume 15'', Tuc-Zyt, editors: Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider, [[Brill Publishers|Brill]], 2009. {{ISBN|978-90-04-14220-6}}. [https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-pauly Online version at Brill].
* [[Luc Brisson|Brisson, Luc]], ''Orphée et l'Orphisme dans l'Antiquité gréco-romaine'', Aldershot, Variorum, 1995. {{ISBN|0-86078-453-3}}.
* [[Walter Burkert|Burkert, Walter]], ''Greek Religion'', [[Harvard University Press]], 1985. {{ISBN|0-674-36281-0}}.
* Cameron, Hamish, "Escaping ''Hades'': Playing with Classical Reception", in ''Classical Reception: New Challenges in a Changing World'', pp. 357&ndash;382, edited by Anastasia Bakogianni and Luis Unceta Gómez, [[De Gruyter]], 2024. {{ISBN|9783110773385}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110773729 Online version at De Gruyter].
* Chrysanthou, Anthi, ''Defining Orphism: The Beliefs, the Teletae and the Writings'', [[De Gruyter]], 2020. {{ISBN|978-3-110-67839-0}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110678451 Online version at De Gruyter].
* Clayman, Dee L. (2022a), ''Callimachus: Aetia, Iambi, Lyric Poems'', edited and translated by Dee L. Clayman, [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 421, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]], 2022. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99734-9}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL421/2022/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* Clayman, Dee L. (2022b), ''Callimachus: Miscellaneous Epics and Elegies, Other Fragments, Testimonia'',  edited and translated by Dee L. Clayman. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 550. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2022. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99749-3}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL550/2022/volume.xml  Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Clement of Alexandria]], ''The Exhortation to the Greeks. The Rich Man's Salvation. To the Newly Baptized''. Translated by G. W. Butterworth. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 92. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]], 1919. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99103-3}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL092/1919/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].[https://archive.org/stream/clementofalexand00clem#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive 1960 edition].
* Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp, ''Euripides Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus: Other Fragments'', [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 506. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]], 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99631-1}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL506/2009/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Lucius Annaeus Cornutus|Cornutus]], ''Theologiae Graecae Compendium'', ed. Carl Lang, Leipzig: [[Teubner]], 1881.
* [[Dio Chrysostom]], ''Discourses 12-30'', translated by J. W. Cohoon, [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 339, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]], 1939. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99374-7}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL339/1939/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Diodorus Siculus]], ''Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History''. Translated by C. H. Oldfather. Twelve volumes. [[Loeb Classical Library]]. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989. [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html Online version by Bill Thayer]
* Dodds, Eric R., ''The Greeks and the Irrational'', University of California Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-520-93127-5}}.
* Edmonds, Radcliffe (1999), "Tearing Apart the Zagreus Myth: A Few Disparaging Remarks On Orphism and Original Sin", ''Classical Antiquity'' '''18''' (1999): 35–73. [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=arch_pubs PDF].
* Edmonds, Radcliffe (2008), [https://chs.harvard.edu/curated-article/radcliffe-g-edmonds-iii-recycling-laertes-shroud-more-on-orphism-original-sin/ "Recycling Laertes' Shroud: More on Orphism and Original Sin"], ''Center for Hellenic Studies''.
* Edmonds, Radcliffe (2009), "A Curious Concoction: Tradition and Innovation in Olympiodorus' "Orphic" Creation of Mankind", in ''American Journal of Philology'', Vol. 130, No. 4, pp.&nbsp;511–32. [https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=classics_pubs PDF].
* Edmonds, Radcliffe (2013), ''Redefining Ancient Orphism: A Study in Greek Religion'', Cambridge; New York:  Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-1-107-03821-9}}.
* [[Firmicus Maternus]], ''Firmicus Maternus: the Error of the Pagan Religions'', translated by Clarence A. Forbes, Newman Press 1970. {{ISBN|0-8091-0039-8}}.
* [[Timothy Gantz|Gantz, Timothy]], ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
* Graf, Fritz, and Sarah Iles Johnston, ''Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets'', Routledge, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-415-41550-7}}.
* Grimal, Pierre, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}.
* [[W. K. C. Guthrie|Guthrie, W. K. C.]], ''Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement'', Princeton University Press, 1935. {{ISBN|978-0-691-02499-8}}.
* Hard, Robin, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology"'', Psychology Press, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-415-18636-0}}.
* Harder, Annette (2012a), ''Callimachus: Aetia: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary'', Volume 1: Introduction, Text, and Translation, Oxford University Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-19-814491-5}}.
* Harder, Annette (2012b), ''Callimachus: Aetia: Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary'', Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford University Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-19-814492-2}}.
* Henrichs, Albert, "Dionysos Dismembered and Restored to Life: The Earliest Evidence (OF 59 I–II)", in ''Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic Fragments'', pp. 61–68, edited by Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui et al., [[De Gruyter]], 2011. {{ISBN|978-3-110-26053-3}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110260533 Online version at De Gruyter]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=D4tDMNaqKfIC Google Books].
* Herrero de Jáuregui, Miguel, ''Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity'', [[De Gruyter]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-3-110-20633-3}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110216608 Online version at De Gruyter]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ub7rpx7PzRMC Google Books].
* [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'', in ''The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White'', Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus, Gaius Julius]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' in ''Apollodorus' ''Library'' and Hyginus' ''Fabulae'': Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma'', Hackett Publishing Company,  2007. {{ISBN|978-0-87220-821-6}}.
* [[Károly Kerényi|Kerényi, Karl]], ''Dionysos: Archetypal image of indestructible life'', trans. Ralph Manheim, Princeton University Press, 1976. {{ISBN|0-691-09863-8}}.
* [[Otto Kern|Kern, Otto]]. ''Orphicorum Fragmenta'', Berlin, 1922. [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* Lightfoot, J. L., ''Hellenistic Collection: Philitas, Alexander of Aetolia, Hermesianax, Euphorion, Parthenius,'' edited and translated by J. L. Lightfoot, [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 508, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]], 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99636-6}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL508/2010/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Ivan Mortimer Linforth|Linforth, Ivan M.]], ''The Arts of Orpheus'', Berkeley, University of California Press, 1941. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=9 Online version at HathiTrust]
* March, Jenny, ''Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', Casell & Co, 2001. {{ISBN|0-304-35788-X}}. [https://archive.org/stream/March.Jenny_Cassells.Dictionary.of.Classical.Mythology#page/n0/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* Meisner, Dwayne A., ''Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2018. {{ISBN|978-0-190-66352-0}}.
* Miguélez-Cavero, Laura, "Personifications at the Service of Dionysus: the Bacchic Court", in ''Nonnus of Panopolis in Context: Poetry and Cultural Milieu in Late Antiquity with a Section on Nonnus and the Modern World'', pp. 175&ndash;191, edited by Konstantinos Spanoudakis, [[De Gruyter]], 2014. {{ISBN|978-3-110-33937-6}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110339420 Online version at De Gruyter].
* Morand, Anne-France, ''Études sur les Hymnes Orphiques'', [[Brill Publishers|Brill]], 2001. {{ISBN|978-900-4-12030-3}}. [https://brill.com/view/title/7182 Online version at Brill].
* Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, ''Classical Mythology'', Eighth Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-19-530805-1}}.
* [[Johann August Nauck|Nauck, Johann August]], ''Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta'', Leipzig, Teubner, 1889. [https://archive.org/stream/tragicorumgraeco00naucuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* Nilsson, Martin, P., "Early Orphism and Kindred Religions Movements", in ''[[The Harvard Theological Review]]'', Vol. 28, No. 3 (July 1935), pp.&nbsp;181–230. {{JSTOR|1508326}}.
* Nimmo Smith, Jennifer, ''A Christian's Guide to Greek Culture: The Pseudo-Nonnus ''Commentaries'' on ''Sermons'' 4, 5, 39 and 43 by Gregory of Nazianzus'', Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-85323-917-7}}.
* [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]''; translated by [[W. H. D. Rouse|Rouse, W H D]], I Books I–XV. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 344, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]''; translated by [[W. H. D. Rouse|Rouse, W H D]], II Books XVI–XXXV. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 345, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca02nonnuoft#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]''; translated by [[W. H. D. Rouse|Rouse, W H D]], III Books XXXVI–XLVIII. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 346, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1940. [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca03nonnuoft#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* Ogden, Daniel, ''Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds'', Oxford University Press, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-19-955732-5}}.
* [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Parker, Robert (2002), "Early Orphism" in ''The Greek World'', edited by Anton Powell, Routledge, 2002. {{ISBN|978-1-134-69864-6}}.
* Parker, Robert (2014), Review of Edmonds 2013. ''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' [https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-07-13.html BMCR 2014.07.13].
* [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ''Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.+1.1.1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
* Pfeiffer, Rudolf, ''Callimachus'', Volume I Fragments, Oxford University Press, 1965. [https://archive.org/details/callimachus0001call/page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* [[Plato]], ''[[Meno]]'' in ''Plato in Twelve Volumes'', Vol. 3 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg024.perseus-eng1  Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
* [[Plato]], ''[[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]]'' in ''Plato in Twelve Volumes'', Vols. 10 & 11 translated by [[Robert Gregg Bury|R.G. Bury]]. Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]]; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1967 & 1968. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg034.perseus-eng1  Online version at the Perseus Digital Library]
* [[Plutarch]], ''Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris. The E at Delphi. The Oracles at Delphi No Longer Given in Verse. The Obsolescence of Oracles''. Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 306. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1936. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99337-2}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL306/1936/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Plutarch]], ''Moralia, Volume XII: Concerning the Face Which Appears in the Orb of the Moon. On the Principle of Cold. Whether Fire or Water Is More Useful. Whether Land or Sea Animals Are Cleverer. Beasts Are Rational. On the Eating of Flesh''. Translated by Harold Cherniss, W. C. Helmbold. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 406. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1957. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99447-8}} [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL406/1957/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Proclus]], ''Hymn to Athena'' in ''Sallust, On the gods and the world; and the Pythagoric sentences of Demophilus, translated from the Greek; and five hymns by Proclus, in the original Greek, with a poetical version. To which are added five hymns by the translator'', translated by Thomas Taylor, London, Printed for E. Jeffrey, 1793. [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001223378 Online version at Hathi Trust].
* Quandt, Wilhelm, ''Orphei Hymni'', Berlin, Weidmann, 1955.
* Ricciardelli, Gabriella, ''Inni Orfici'', Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, 2000. {{ISBN|978-8-804-47661-0}}.
* Rutherford, Ian, ''Greco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BC-AD 300'', Oxford University Press, 2016. {{ISBN|9780191630118}}.
* Scheer, Eduard, ''Lycophronis ALexandra'', Volume II ''Scholia continens'', Weidmann, Berlin, 1908. [https://archive.org/stream/lycophronisalexa02lycouoft#page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* Seaford, Richard, "Immortality, Salvation, and the Elements", in ''[[Harvard Studies in Classical Philology]]'', Vol. 90 (1986), pp.&nbsp;1–26. {{JSTOR|311457}}. {{doi|10.2307/311457}}.
* [[Herbert Weir Smyth|Smyth, Herbert Weir]], ''Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth'', Volume II, London Heinemann, 1926. [https://archive.org/stream/aeschyluswitheng02aescuoft#page/n7/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* Sommerstein, Alan H., ''Aeschylus: Fragments.'' Edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 505. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]], 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99629-8}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL505/2009/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* Spineto, Natale, "Models of the Relationship between God and Huma in 'Paganism', in ''The Quest for a Common Humanity: Human Dignity and Otherness in the Religious Traditions of the Mediterranean'', BRILL, 2011. {{ISBN|9789004201651}}.
* [[Thomas Taylor (neoplatonist)|Taylor, Thomas]] (1820a), ''The Commentaries of Proclus on the Timæus of Plato'' Vol 1., London: Thomas Taylor, 1820. [https://archive.org/stream/proclusontimaeus01procuoft#page/n3/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* [[Thomas Taylor (neoplatonist)|Taylor, Thomas]] (1820b), ''The Commentaries of Proclus on the Timæus of Plato'' Vol 2., London: Thomas Taylor, 1820. [https://archive.org/stream/proclusontimaeus02procuoft#page/n3/mode/2up Internet Archive]
* [[Martin Litchfield West|West, M. L.]] (1983), ''The Orphic Poems'', Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-814854-8}}.
* [[Martin Litchfield West|West, M. L.]] (2003), ''Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC''. Edited and translated by Martin L. West. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 497. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]], 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99605-2}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL497/2003/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* Westerink, Leendert Gerrit (1976), ''The Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo. Volume I: Olympiodorus'', North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1976. {{ISBN|978-0-720-48331-4}}.
* Westerink, Leendert Gerrit (1977), ''The Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo. Volume II: Damascius'', North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1977. {{ISBN|978-1-898-91047-3}}.

== Further reading ==
* {{cite journal |doi=10.3406/rscir.1968.2519|title=Le mythe de Dionysos Zagreus chez Philon |year=1968 |last1=Ménard |first1=Jacques Étienne |journal=Revue des Sciences Religieuses |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=339–345 }}
* {{cite journal |doi=10.3406/dha.1994.2183|title=À propos du Dionysos thrace |year=1994 |last1=Pencova |first1=Elka |journal=Dialogues d'Histoire Ancienne |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=151–154 }}
* {{cite journal |doi=10.3406/antiq.2013.3840|title=As Multiform as Dionysus: New Perspectives on Nonnus' Dionysiaca |year=2013 |last1=Verhelst |first1=Berenice |journal=L'Antiquité Classique |volume=82 |pages=267–278 }}

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Greek religion}}
{{Greek mythology (deities)}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Child murder in Greece]]
[[Category:Children of Hades]]
[[Category:Children of Persephone]]
[[Category:Sons of Zeus]]
[[Category:Chthonic beings]]
[[Category:Deeds of Apollo]]
[[Category:Deeds of Athena]]
[[Category:Deeds of Demeter]]
[[Category:Deeds of Hera]]
[[Category:Greek gods]]
[[Category:Infanticide]]
[[Category:Killed deities]]
[[Category:Life-death-rebirth gods]]
[[Category:Mythology of Dionysus]]
[[Category:Residents of the Greek underworld]]
[[Category:Underworld gods]]