Bacchus playing with Ram - Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, UK - Epic Beings and Creatures on Waymarking.com

Grade II Listed on 29th January 1985 this statue is of carved marble and is a design by Vittorio Barbieri. It dates to the mid-18th century and shows Bacchus as an infant playing with a large ram. They stand on a pedestal amongst a flower bed outside the aviary.

Wikipedia describes Bacchus: visit link

'Dionysus or Dionysos is the ancient Greek god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy, and was also the driving force behind Greek theater. This god who inspires joyful worship and ecstasy, festivals, and celebration is a major figure of Greek mythology and the religion of ancient Greece. He is included as one of the twelve Olympians in some lists. Dionysus is typical of the god of the epiphany, "the god that comes". He was also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. Hailed as an Asiatic foreigner, he was thought to have had strong ties to the East and to Ethiopia in the South. He was also known as the Liberator (Eleutherios), freeing one from one's normal self, by madness, ecstasy or wine. The divine mission of Dionysus was to mingle the music of the aulos and to bring an end to care and worry. Scholars have discussed Dionysus' relationship to the "cult of the souls" and his ability to preside over communication between the living and the dead.

In Greek mythology, Dionysus is made out to be a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. He is described as being womanly or "man-womanish". The retinue of Dionysus was called the thiasus and was composed chiefly of maenads and satyrs. Dionysus is a god of mystery religious rites. In the Thracian mysteries, he wears the bassaris or fox-skin, symbolizing new life. His own rites, the Dionysian Mysteries practiced by maenads and others, were the most secret of all. Many scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity and a more powerful god from Thrace or Phrygia such as Sabazios or Zalmoxis.

Contradictions in Dionysus' origin suggest to some that we are dealing not with the historical memory of a cult that is foreign, but with a god in whom foreignness is inherent. Karl Kerenyi traces him to Minoan Crete, where his Minoan name is unknown but his characteristic presence is recognizable. Clearly, Dionysus had been with the Greeks and their predecessors a long time, and yet always retained the feel of something alien.'

Time Period: Ancient Approximate Date of Epic Period: c. 900-800 BC onwards Epic Type: Mythical Exhibit Type: Figure, Statue, 3D Art

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