Dionysius (Bacchus) & the Dionysius Crater - Versailles, France
Posted by: Metro2
N 48° 48.412 E 002° 06.581
31U E 434628 N 5406368
Yet another Bacchus sculpture at Versailles.
Waymark Code: WMD06D
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 11/01/2011
Views: 19
This 1712 marble sculpture of Bacchus depicts the God naked but for a strategically placed robe and a laurel. He stands casually shifting his weight to his right leg while his left hand rests on a tree stump. His right hand is raised to his shoulder holding a bunch of grapes.
Bacchus is known as Dionysius by the Greeks..and Wikipedia's article about him is under that name: (
visit link) website adds:
"He is also the Liberator (Eleutherios), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who partake in his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself.[9] His cult is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead."
The artist is Robert LeLorrain (1666-1743).
Wikipedia (
visit link) has this to say about the lunar crater:
"Dionysius is a lunar impact crater that lies on the western edge of the Mare Tranquillitatis. To the southeast is the crater pair of Ritter and Sabine. Just to the northwest is the system of rilles designated Rimae Ritter. These clefts follow a generally northwest direction.
The rim of Dionysius is generally circular and shows little sign of wear. The crater possesses a small ray system with a radius of over 130 kilometers. The formation has a high albedo and appears bright when the Sun is nearly overhead during a full Moon. It is surrounded by a bright halo, with darker material farther out. Some darker deposits are in the form of relatively rare dark rays."