Liber Dionysi: The Book of Dionysus (Libri Deorum: The Books of the Gods) Paperback – March 17, 2024

A revised second edition featuring dozens of new texts!Dionysus (also known as Bacchus, Liber, or Fufluns) is a god of spiritual liberation, political freedom, and ecstatic joy. You may also know him as the god of wine, theatre, festivals, and the wild. He originated in the ancient Mediterranean but today has worshippers all over the world.However, many of the myths of Dionysus have remained scattered throughout multiple works rather than in one coherent volume. With this book, that is no longer. The Liber Dionysi, Latin for the Book of Dionysus, is a compendium of various Dionysian myths. The name itself is a pun—Liber is not only Latin for ‘book’, but is also another name for Dionysus, this word meaning ‘Free one’. This is one of Dionysus’ oldest names, cognate with the Greek Eleuthereus—the Liberator. It is to Dionysus Eleuthereus, god of every liberation, that this book is dedicated.Showing the power of the human and the divine to feel—laugh, love, cry, scream—herein are his births to Persephone and Semele as depicted in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca, his loves and losses of Ampelus and Ariadne, his bloody triumph in Euripides’ Bacchae, his farcical descent into hell in Aristophanes’ Frogs, and his ascent to Olympus. These are the texts that evoke his faith. Here is the book of Dionysus.Additions include:Standardized formatting in line with new books in the Libri Deorum series.An excerpt from Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods.Fragments from Porphyry's On Cult Images.The entry on Dionysus from the Suda.The section on Dionysus from Cornutus’ Compendium of Greek Theology.The full oration to Dionysus from Aelius Aristides’ Orations.The section on Dionysus from John Lydus’ On the Months.Dionysus’ attestations in Homer and Hesiod.The modern scholarly reconstructions of fragments in the Homeric Hymns to Dionysus.An excerpt from Manilius’ Astronomica.The section from Apollodorus’ Library regarding Dionysus.The anonymous fragment of the hexametrical poem Dionysus & Lycurgus.The papyrus fragment of Dionysius’ Bassarica.Silius Italicus’ telling of Dionysus and Falernus.Lucian’s Introduction to Dionysus, True History and an excerpt of Parliament of the Gods.Selections from Diodorus Siculus’ Library of History.Nonnus’ telling of Ariadne from his Dionysiaca.The full text of Propertius’ Elegy 3.17.Pindar’s Dithyramb to Dionysus.The Invocation of Elis. Read more