r combats; {Strophaios}, the guardian of doors; {Empolaios},
the merchant; {Eriounios}, beneficial to mortals; {Dolios}, subtle;
{Hegemonios}, guide, or conductor.

As to his origin, it must be looked for amongst the Phoenicians. The bag
of money which he held signified the gain of merchandise; the wings
annexed to his head and his feet were emblematic of their extensive
commerce and navigation; the caduceus, with which he was said to conduct
the spirit of the deceased to Hades, pointing out the immortality of the
soul, a state of rewards and punishments after death, and a
resuscitation of the body: it is described as producing three leaves
together, whence it was called by Homer, the _golden three-leaved wand_.

BACCHUS was the son of Jupiter, by Sem{)e}le, daughter of Cadmus, king
of Thebes, in which city he is said to have been born. He was the god of
good-cheer, wine, and hilarity; and of him, as such, the poets have not
been sparing in their praises: on all occasions of mirth and jollity,
they constantly invoked his presence, and as constantly thanked him for
the blessings he bestowed. To him they ascribed the forgetfulness of
cares, and the delights of social converse.

He is described as a youth of a plump figure, and naked, with a ruddy
face, and an effeminate air; he is crowned with ivy and vine leaves, and
bears in his hand a thyrsus, or javelin with an iron head, encircled
with ivy and vine leaves: his chariot is sometimes drawn by lions, at
others by tigers, leopards, or panthers; and surrounded by a band of
Satyrs, Bacchae, and Nymphs, in frantic postures; whilst old Sil{=}enus,
his preceptor, follows on an ass, which crouches with the weight of his
burden.

The women who accompained him as his priestesses, were called
Maen{)a}des, from their madness; Thy{)a}des, from their impetuosity;
Bacchae, from their intemperate depravity; and Mimall{=o}nes, or
Mimallon{)i}des, from their mimicking their leaders.

The victims agreeable to him were the goat and the swine; because these
animals are destructive to the vine. Among the Egyptians they sacrificed
a swine to him before their doors; and the dragon, and the pye on
account of its chattering: the trees and plants used in his garlands
were the fir, the oak, ivy, the fig, and vine; as also the daffodil, or
narcissus. Bacchus had many temples erected to him by the Greeks and the
Romans.

Whoever attentively reads Horace's inimitable ode to this god, will see