There are numerous ancient authors who assert the essential unity of these two Gods.
"There is only the difference in names between the festivals of Bacchus and those of Osiris, between the Mysteries of Isis and those of Demeter." - Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, 1.13
"Osiris, they say, was reared in Nysa, a city of Arabia Felix near Egypt, being a son of Zeus; and the name which he bears among the Greeks is derived both from his father and from the birthplace, since he is called Dionysos." - Diodorus Siculus 1.15
"Osiris has been given the name Sarapis by some, Dionysos by others, Pluto by others, Ammon by others, Zeus by some, and many have considered Pan to be the same God; and some say that Sarapis is the God whom the Greeks call Pluto." - Diodorus Siculus 1.25
"That Osiris is identical with Dionysos who could more fittingly know than yourself, Clea? For you are at the head of the Thyiades of Delphi, and have been consecrated by your father and mother in the holy rites of Osiris." - Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, 35
"It is proper to identify Osiris with Dionysos." - Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, 28
"Dionysos was the first to bring from India into Egypt two bulls, one named Apis and the other Osiris." - Phylarchus
"Dionysos and Osiris are the same, who are called Epaphus" - Mnaseas
"For no Gods are worshiped by all Egyptians in common except Isis and Osiris, who they say is Dionysos; these are worshiped by all alike." - Herodotus, The Histories, 2.42
"Osiris is he who is called Dionysos in the Greek tongue." - Herodotus 2.144
Cicero included Osiris among the many Gods equated with Dionysos by the Greeks. (De Natura Deorum 3.21)
"He [Kadmos future king of Thebes in Greece and grandfather of Dionysos] showed forth the Euian secrets of Osiridos (Osiris) the wanderer, the Aigyptian Dionysos. He learned the nightly celebration of their mystic art, and declaimed the magic hymn in the wild secret language, intoning a shrill alleluia. While a boy in the temple full of stone images, he had come to know the inscriptions carved by artists deep into the wall." - Nonnos, The Dionysiaca 4.268
Under the entry for 'Osiris' in Suidas' Lexicon we read the following: "Some say he was Dionysos, others say another - who was dismembered by the daimon Typhon and became a great sorrow for the Egyptians, they kept the memory of his dismemberment for all time."
In a dedicatory stela erected by a Ptolemaic-era prophet of Chnubis, Dionysos is called Petempamenti, "He who is in Amenti", a title usually reserved for Osiris. (E. R. Bevan, The House of Ptolemy, 295)
Whether as a result of this equation, or on his own and through his own name, Dionysos has long been associated with Egypt and her neighbors. For instance, Hesychius located Nysa, the mythical birthplace of Dionysos, variously in Egypt, Ethiopia, or Arabia. (Lexicon 742) Hesiod locates the mysterious city of Nysa "near the streams of Aegyptus" (Frag. 287) as do the author of the first Homeric Hymn to Dionysos and Apollonius Rhodius (Argonautica 2.1214). Herodotus placed Nysa alternately in Egypt (3.97) or Arabia (3.111) with which Diodorus Siculus was in agreement (1.15).
According to Apollodorus (Library 1.6.3), Ovid (Metamorphoses 5.319ff), and Hyginus (Fabulae 152) among others, during the battle of Zeus and Typhon, the Gods were forced to flee Mount Olympos and take up residence in Egypt, where they took on the shapes of animals in order to conceal themselves. Hermes became an ibis, Aphrodite a dove, Apollo a hawk, and Dionysos a goat. This myth was, in all likelihood, an attempt by the Greeks to explain the predominance of zoomorphic Gods in Egypt, as the ancient author Lucian shrewdly perceived (On Sacrifices, 14).
Later on, Dionysos was said to return to Egypt during his wanderings, where he was kindly received by King Proteus (Apollodorus 2.29), and founded the oracle of Zeus-Ammon. (Statius' Thebaid 3.476) Hyginus tells the story in greater detail:
"When Liber was hunting for water in Egypt, and hadn't succeeded, a ram is said to have sprung suddenly from the ground, and with this as guide he found water. So he asked Jupiter to put the ram among the stars, and to this day it is called the equinoctial ram. Moreover, in the place where he found water he established a temple which is called the temple of Jupiter-Ammon." (Fabulae 133)
Herodotus insisted that Dionysos and his worship had been brought from Egypt into Greece: "Melampos was the one who taught the Greeks the name of Dionysos and the way of sacrificing to him and the phallic procession; he did not exactly unveil the subject taking all its details into consideration, for the teachers who came after him made a fuller revelation; but it was from him that the Greeks learned to bear the phallus along in honor of Dionysos, and they got their present practice from his teaching. I say, then, that Melampos acquired the prophetic art, being a discerning man, and that, besides many other things which he learned from Egypt, he also taught the Greeks things concerning Dionysos, altering few of them; for I will not say that what is done in Egypt in connection with the God and what is done among the Greeks originated independently: for they would then be of an Hellenic character and not recently introduced." (2.49)
Herodotus claimed that the people of Meroe, in Ethiopia, "worship no other Gods but Zeus and Dionysos," (2.29) while the Arabians believed only in Dionysos and Aphrodite Ourania, whom, he informs us, they called "Dionysos, Orotalt; and Aphrodite, Alilat." (3.8) In Libya they celebrated a festival called the Astydromia or "Town-running", which was sacred to Dionysos and the Nymphs and was, Suidas informs us, "like the birthday celebration of the city, and a Theodaisia festival." [An ancient Dionysos festival connected with wine] And Anacreon says that one of the titles of Dionysos was Aithiopais, meaning "The Ethiopian".
After the Ptolemies came to power in Egypt, Dionysos was one of the most popular Gods. He was the tutelar deity of their Dynasty - Ptolemy IV even adopted the title "Neos Dionysos" (Oxyrhynchus, ii No. 236b) - and under their reign, numerous temples and theaters were erected to him, including a few that are still standing, despite the best efforts of Christians and Moslems over the centuries. It was the destruction of Dionysos' temple in Alexandria by a mob of insane, violent Christians instigated by the Bishop Theophilus which inspired the remaining Pagans of the city to rise to the defense of the Serapeum. (Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, XXVIII) Under Ptolemy IV Philopator, Egypt became a center of Dionysian mysteries. This King sent out an edict decreeing that "those who perform initiations for Dionysos" should travel to Alexandria and register there, declaring "from whom they have received the sacred things, up to three generations, and to hand in the hieros logos in a sealed exemplar." Additionally, he required that the Egyptian Jews in the nomos of Arsinoe be initiated into the mysteries of Dionysos in order to "receive the same civic rights as the Alexandrians." (3 Maccabbees 2.30)
Dionysos and his myths were a favorite subject of Egyptian artists - especially scenes depicting his courtship of Ariadne and his sojourn under the sea with Thetis - and many lovely murals, frescoes, and tapestries have been preserved. The Egyptian Nonnos of Panopolis wrote his monumental collection of the God's myths the Dionysiaca - preserving some in the only form that has come down to us - in the 4th century C.E.
Copyright 2005 Sannion
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