h century), Sabazius, and
Bassareus, are also Thracian names of the god. The two first (like
Iacchus, Bromius and Euios) have been connected with the loud "shout"
([Greek: sabazein = bazein = euazein]) of his worshippers, Bassareus
with [Greek: bassarai], the fox-skin garments of the Thracian
Bacchanals. It has been suggested (J. E. Harrison _Prolegomena to Greek
Religion_) that Sabazius and Bromius = "beer-god," "god of a cereal
intoxicant" (cf. Illyrian _sabaia_ and modern Greek [Greek: bromi],
"oats"), while W. Ridgeway (_Classical Review_, January 1896), comparing
Apollo Smintheus, interprets Bassareus as "he who keeps away the foxes
from the vineyards" (for various interpretations of these and other
cult-titles, see O. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, ii. pp. 1408,
1532, especially the notes).

In Homer, notwithstanding the frequent mention of the use of wine,
Dionysus is never mentioned as its inventor or introducer, nor does he
appear in Olympus; Hesiod is the first who calls wine the gift of
Dionysus. On the other hand, he is spoken of in the _Iliad_ (vi. 130
foll., a passage belonging to the latest period of epic), as "raging,"
an epithet that indicates that in those comparatively early times the
orgiastic character of his worship was recognized. In fact, Dionysus may
be regarded under two distinct aspects: that of a popular national Greek
god of wine and cheerfulness, and that of a foreign deity, worshipped
with ecstatic and mysterious rites introduced from Thrace. According to
the usual tradition, he was born at Thebes--originally the local centre
of his worship in Greece--and was the son of Zeus, the fertilizing rain
god, and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, a personification of earth.
Before the child was mature, Zeus appeared to Semele at her request in
his majesty as god of lightning, by which she was killed, but the infant
was saved from the flames by Zeus (or Hermes). The epithet [Greek:
perikionios], originally referring to an ivy-crowned, pillar-shaped
fetish of the god, afterwards gave rise to the legend of a miraculous
growth of ivy "round the pillars" of the royal palace, whereby the
infant Dionysus was preserved from the flames. Zeus took him up,
enclosed him within his own thigh till he came to maturity, and then
brought him to the light, so that he was twice born; it was to celebrate
this double birth that the _dithyrambus_ (also used as an epithet of the
god) was sung (see _Etym. Mag._ s.v.). I