in a purely triumphal character are his
transforming into dolphins the Tyrrhene pirates who attacked him, as
told in the Homeric hymn to Dionysus and represented on the monument of
Lysicrates at Athens, and his part in the war of the gods against the
giants. The former story has been connected with the sailors' custom of
hanging vine leaves, ivy and bunches of grapes round the masts of
vessels in honour of vintage festivals. The adventure with the pirates
occurred on his voyage to Naxos, where he found Ariadne abandoned by
Theseus. At Naxos Ariadne (probably a Cretan goddess akin to Aphrodite)
was associated with Dionysus as his wife, by whom he was the father of
Oenopion (wine-drinker), Staphylus (grape), and Euanthes (blooming), and
their marriage was annually celebrated by a festival. Having compelled
all the world to recognize his divinity, he descended to the underworld
to bring up his mother, who was afterwards worshipped with him under the
name of Thyone ("the raging"), he himself being called after her
Thyoneus.

Another phase in the myth of Dionysus originated in observing the decay
of vegetation in winter, to suit which he was supposed to be slain and
to join the deities of the lower world. This phase of his character was
developed by the Orphic poets, he having here the name of Zagreus ("torn
in pieces"), and being no longer the Theban god, but a son of Zeus and
Persephone. The child was brought up secretly, watched over by Curetes;
but the jealous Hera discovered where he was, and sent Titans to the
spot, who, finding him at play, tore him to pieces, and cooked and ate
his limbs, while Hera gave his heart to Zeus. The tearing in pieces is
referred by some to the torture experienced by the grape
(_Naturschmerz_) when crushed for making into wine (cf. Burns's _John
Barleycorn_); but it is better to refer it to the tearing of the flesh
of the victim at sacrifices at which the deity or the sacred animal was
slain, and sacramentally eaten raw (cf. the title [Greek: omestes] given
to Dionysus in certain places, probably pointing to human sacrifice.) To
connect this with the myth of the Theban birth of Dionysus, it is said
that Zeus gave the child's heart to Semele, or himself swallowed it and
gave birth to the new Dionysus (called Iacchus from his worshippers' cry
of rejoicing), who was cradled and swung in a winnowing fan ([Greek:
liknos]; see J. E. Harrison, _Journ. Hellenic Studies_, xxiii.), the
swinging being