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dionysos' holy places in greece |
Naxos Naxos has always been
known as Dionysos' sacred island. It was on the
shores of Naxos that the god found the abandoned
Ariadne and made her his bride. Local history still
tells that Dionysos made their land fertile and
produced the famous vineyards. Some myth versions
even have Dionysos' birth on Naxos. And it was on
his way to Naxos once that the god was kidnapped by
pirates and turned his captors into dolphins to
escape. Delphi Dionysos shares Delphi
with his brother Apollon, ruling the area during
the winter months when Apollon leaves for the land
of the Hyperboreans. Although Apollon's oracle with
its Pythia is more famous, Plutarch - a priest at
Delphi - said that the religion of Dionysos was no
less important there. His maenads were known to
hold wild revels on the slopes of Mt. Parnassos.
And in ancient times one could see the grave of
Dionysos here, where his previous incarnation was
buried after being torn apart by the
Titans. Thrace It was often said in
ancient times that Dionysos was a foreign god,
whose cult came to Greece from the east (Asia
Minor) by way of Thrace, or originated in Thrace
entirely. Whether or not that is true historically,
Thrace became a particularly holy area for
Dionysian worship, and to this day the remnants of
such practices can be found there, and have been
brought to other areas of Greece by Thracians (like
those who perform the Anastenaria ritual). It was
in Thrace that Dionysos encountered the
antagonistic king Lykourgos. And in that same area,
now modern Bulgaria, there was in ancient times an
oracle of Dionysos, which archaeologists may have
just recently uncovered. Tinos
Island Pergamum
(Asia Minor) Athens
(Temple
and Theatre at the base of the
Acropolis) Delos Ikaria
(where Dionysos first introduced men to
wine) Vatera
(Lesbos) Teos
(where the Technitai Dionusou
originated) Villa of Mysteries
(Pompeii) |
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