Bacchus

Also known as: Bromius / Eleleus / Evan / Iacchus / Lenæus / Liber / Lyæus / Nyctelius / Nyseus / Thyoneus / Twice-Born · Family: Olympian gods · Role: infant god · First appears: Fable 34

Bacchus, also known as Bromius, Liber, Lyæus, and Twice-Born, is the infant god born to Semele. While still unformed, he is removed from Semele’s womb and placed in Jupiter’s thigh, where he completes the time he should have spent in the womb. His aunt Ino nurses him privately, after which the Nyseian Nymphs—Cysseis, Nysa, Erato, Eryphia, Bromia, and Polyhymnia—conceal him in caves and nourish him with milk.

When Bacchus arrives in Greece, festive rites spread through the fields. Pentheus forbids his worship and orders his servants to seize him, but they capture Acœtes instead; the sailors then leap overboard and are transformed, leaving Acœtes the sole survivor. Bacchus punishes the daughters of Minyas for their contempt of his worship by changing them into bats, subdues India, and is worshipped there as a god. Acrisius, who had insulted him and denied Perseus’s divine parentage, soon regrets it.

Later, Bacchus watches Medea restore youth and asks her for the same gift for his nurses. He embraces and aids the deserted Ariadne, placing her crown in the heavens as a lasting constellation. After Orpheus is murdered, Bacchus punishes the Edonian matrons and the Thracian women responsible, fastening them to the ground until wood grows over their bodies and they become oak trees. When Silenus, his tutor and foster-father, is restored to him by Midas, Bacchus grants Midas the power to turn whatever he touches into gold, then removes the gift after Midas begs for release.