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Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the

Orphic Hymns
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
Bryn Mawr College, [email protected]

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Custom Citation
R. G. Edmonds III, “Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns”, in A. Bernabé, M. Herrero de Jáuregui, A. I.
Jiménez San Cristóbal, R. Martín Hernández (eds.), Redefining Dionysos, Walter De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston, (2013), pp. 415 – 432.

This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/classics_pubs/101

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Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the
Orphic Hymns
1 Aim
In the collection of hexametrical hymns from the Imperial period that style
themselves hymns of Orpheus, two of the hymns to Dionysos invoke the god by a
peculiar epithet, Epaphie, the Epaphian Dionysos.

‘Λυσίου Ληναίου.’ Κλῦθι, μάκαρ, Διὸς υἷ᾽, ἐπιλήνιε Βάκχε, διμάτωρ,

σπέρμα πολύμνη〈σ〉τον, πολυώνυμε, λύσιε δαῖμον,
κρυψίγονον μακάρων ἱερὸν θάλος, εὔιε Βάκχε,
εὐτραφές, εὔκαρπε, πολυγηθέα καρπὸν ἀέξων,
ῥηξίχθων, ληναῖε, μεγασθενές, αἰολόμορφε,
παυσίπονον θνητοῖσι φανεὶς ἄκος, ἱερὸν ἄνθος
χάρμα βροτοῖς φιλάλυπον, ἐπάφιε, καλλιέθειρε,
λύσιε, θυρσομανές, βρόμι᾽, εὔιε, πᾶσιν ἐύφρων,
οἷς ἐθέλεις θνητῶν ἠδ᾽ ἀθανάτων † ἐπιφαύσκων
νῦν σε καλῶ μύσταισι μολεῖν ἡδύν, φερέκαρπον.
To Lysios – Lenaios

Hear, O blessed son of Zeus and of two mothers, Bacchos of the vintage,
unforgettable seed, many-named and redeeming demon,
holy offspring of the gods born in secrecy, reveling Bacchos,
plump giver of the many joys of fruits which grow well.
Mighty and many-shaped god, from the earth you burst forth to reach the wine-press
and there become a remedy for man’s pain, O sacred blossom!
A sorrow-hating joy to mortals, O lovely-haired Epaphian,
you are a redeemer and a reveler whose thyrsus drives to frenzy
and who is kind-hearted to all, gods and mortals, who see his light.
I call upon you now to come, a sweet bringer of fruit.1

While some commentators have in despair postulated textual corruption, others

have suggested the epithet must refer to Epaphos, son of Zeus and Io, but have
been at a loss to explain why Dionysos should receive such a title. I argue that the
epithet identifies Dionysos with a divine figure in an Egyptian context who is

1 Orph. H. 50. Cp. Orph. H. 52.9: ῥηξίχθων, πυριφεγγές, ἐπάφιε, κοῦρε διμάτωρ. ‘You burst forth
from the earth in a blaze, Epaphian, O son of two mothers.’ Orphic fragments are cited from both
the older edition of Kern 1922 and the more recent edition of Bernabé 2004, 2005, 2007.

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416 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

identified in various sources as Osiris, Apis, and Epaphos. This Dionysiac Epa-
phos suggests some fascinating processes of syncretism in the interrelation of
Greek and Egyptian culture, and the nature of these processes of identification of
deities, as they appear in ancient thinkers such as Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus,
and Plutarch, sheds light on the very nature of Greek religion. The connections
between the divine figures appear to be made, not on the level of the theological
meaning of the god or his role in the divine hierarchy of the cosmos, but rather at
the level of the vivid imagery of the ritual experience in the celebrations of the
god. Dionysos is called Epaphian, then, not because the Greeks thought that he,
like Osiris, was a chthonic lord of the underworld, but rather because they found
the imagery in the myths and rituals associated with Apis and Osiris reminiscent
of the rituals of Dionysos. This valuation, by the ancient Greek thinkers, of the
ritual experience over the theological significance points to the ‘imagistic,’ in-
stead of ‘doctrinal,’ nature of Greek religion and should provide modern scholars
with some parameters for handling the evidence for the cults of Dionysos in
ancient Greece.

2 Mythic Parallels
How could Dionysos be equated with Epaphos? Diodorus Siculus, in his list of the
many figures of Dionysos, lists the son of Zeus and Io as the second, a ruler in
Egypt who established the Dionysiac rituals there.2 Epaphos provides the Greek
ancestral connection to Egypt, the ancestor of the Danaids who return to Argos as
well as the ancestor of Agenor, father of Kadmos who founded Thebes. Theban
Kadmos is, of course, the father of Semele, mother of Dionysos.3 Plutarch men-

2 D. S. 3.74.1: τὸν μὲν οὖν πρῶτον Διόνυσον ἐξ Ἄμμωνος καὶ Ἀμαλθείας γενόμενον τοιαύτας οἱ
Λίβυες ἱστοροῦσιν ἐπιτελέσασθαι πράξεις· τὸν δὲ δεύτερόν φασιν ἐξ Ἰοῦς τῆς Ἰνάχου Διὶ γενόμενον
βασιλεῦσαι μὲν τῆς Αἰγύπτου, καταδεῖξαι δὲ τὰς τελετάς· τελευταῖον δὲ τὸν ἐκ Διὸς καὶ Σεμέλης
τεκνωθέντα παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησι ζηλωτὴν γενέσθαι τῶν προτέρων. ‘As for the first Dionysos, the son
of Ammon and Amaltheia, these, then, are the deeds he accomplished as the Libyans recount the
history of them; the second Dionysos, as men say, who was born to Zeus by Io, the daughter of
Inachus, became king of Egypt and appointed the initiatory rites of that land; and the third and
last, sprung from Zeus and Semele, became, among the Greeks, the emulator of the first two.’ Cp.
the list in Cic. ND 3.58 = test. 94 Kern = OF 497 I, where the second Dionysos is the son of Nilus, the
river of Egypt. Lobeck 1829, 1130–1135, reviews much of the evidence, but does not speculate on
the reasons why Dionysos might be identified with Epaphos.
3 Sch. A. Pr. 853: πρώτη γενεὰ Ἔπαφος, οὗ Λιβύη, ἧς Βῆλος, οὗ Δαναὸς, οὗ αἱ πεντήκοντα
θυγατέρες, ἃς Αἰσχύλος πέμπτην γενεὰν εἶπεν. ‘The first generation is Epaphos, of whom was born
Libya, of whom Belos, of whom Danaos, of whom were born fifty daughters, whom Aeschylus

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 Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns 417

tions that one ancient scholar, Mnaseas, argued that Dionysos was the same as
Osiris, Serapis, Apis, and Epaphos, and, centuries earlier, Herodotus firmly
identified the Egyptian Apis with Epaphos.4 Nevertheless, none of these points of
contact between them really explains the identification of Dionysos as Epaphian.5
What could it mean in the Hymns?
One possibility that commentators have noted is the parallels between the
myths told about them. While Epaphos appears most often as an entry in a
genealogical list, there is one myth associated with him that bears a strong
resemblance to the myth of the dismemberment of Dionysos. Both Dionysos and
Epaphos are set upon by a band of older men bent on destroying the child of Zeus
while he is still young. A similar story appears about the dismemberment of
Osiris, and the similarities between these three sets of myth may have contributed
to the assimilation of the figures.
While there is no solid evidence for the myth of the dismemberment of
Dionysos before the Hellenistic period, the tale appears in traces in poets such as
Euphorion and references in authors such as Diodorus Siculus.6 Although it does

says are the fifth generation.’ Sch. E. Ph. 678: ἀπόγονος Ἐπάφου Κάδμος, ἐπεὶ Ἀγήνορός ἐστιν υἱὸς
τοῦ Βήλου τοῦ Λιβύης τῆς Ἐπάφου τοῦ Ἰοῦς. ‘Kadmos is the descendant of Epaphos, since Agenor
is the son of Belus, son of Libya, daughter of Epaphos, son of Io.’
4 Plu. Is. et Os. 365F: ἐῶ δὲ Μνασέαν τῷ Ἐπάφῳ προστιθέντα τὸν Διόνυσον καὶ τὸν Ὄσιριν καὶ τὸν
Σάραπιν, ἐῶ καὶ Ἀντικλείδην λέγοντα τὴν Ἶσιν Προμηθέως οὖσαν θυγατέρα Διονύσῳ συνοικεῖν· αἱ
γὰρ εἰρημέναι περὶ τὰς ἑορτὰς καὶ τὰς θυσίας οἰκειότητες ἐναργεστέραν τῶν μαρτύρων τὴν πίστιν
ἔχουσι. ‘I leave out of account Mnaseas’s annexation of Dionysos, Osiris, and Serapis to Epaphus,
as well as Anticleides’ statement that Isis was the daughter of Prometheus and was wedded to
Dionysos. The fact is that the peculiarities already mentioned regarding the festival and sacrifices
carry a conviction more manifest than any testimony of authorities.’ Hdt. 3.28.2: ὁ δὲ Ἆπις οὗτος ὁ
Ἔπαφος γίνεται μόσχος ἐκ βοός, ἥτις οὐκέτι οἵη τε γίνεται ἐς γαστέρα ἄλλον βάλλεσθαι γόνον.
Αἰγύπτιοι δὲ λέγουσι σέλας ἐπὶ τὴν βοῦν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατίσχειν, καί μιν ἐκ τούτου τίκτειν τὸν
Ἆπιν. ‘This Apis, or Epaphus, is a calf born of a cow that can never conceive again. By what the
Egyptians say, the cow is made pregnant by a light from heaven, and thereafter gives birth to
Apis.’
5 Ricciardelli 2000, 426–427 ad loc.: ‘Vi è dunque più di un punto di contatto fra Dioniso ed
Epafo, il che comunque non spiega perché Dioniso sia detto Ἐπάφιε.’
6 Phld. Piet. 44 = fr. 36 Kern = OF 59 I: 〈πρώτην τούτ〉ων τὴν ἐκ μ〈ητρός〉, ἑτέραν δὲ τ〈ὴν ἐκ〉 τοῦ
μηροῦ, 〈τρί〉την δὲ τὴ〈ν ὅτε δι〉ασπασθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν Τιτάνων Ῥέ〈ας τὰ〉 μέλη συνθεί〈σης〉 ἀνεβίω[ι].
κἀν̣ 〈τῆι〉 Μοψοπίαι δ᾽ Εὐ〈φορί〉ω〈ν ὁ〉μολογεῖ 〈τού〉τοις, 〈οἱ〉 δ’ Ὀρ〈φικοὶ〉 καὶ παντά〈πασιν〉 ἐνδ-
ιατρε〈ίβουσιν〉. ‘The first of these was the birth from the mother, the second the one from the thigh,
and the third birth was when having been dismembered by the Titans, he came back to life after
Rhea gathered together his limbs. And in his Mopsopoiai Euphorion is in agreement with these
accounts, and the Orphics also absolutely go on about it.’ Euphorion provides the earliest sure
testimony to the tale of Dionysos’ dismemberment by the Titans, but the date and significance of
this story have been much debated. Linforth 1941, 307–364, provides a survey of the evidence,

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418 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

not appear in collections such as Ovid or the mythographical compilation of [ps.]

Apollodorus, it nevertheless, to judge from the brief and casual way in which the
story is mentioned in other sources, seems to have been widely known. The myth
was most popular in the Platonic tradition as an allegory of the One and the Many,
and many references survive in the Neoplatonists, but the first detailed account
that survives comes from the polemic of Clement of Alexandria.

τὰ γὰρ Διονύσου μυστήρια τέλεον ἀπάνθρωπα· ὃν εἰσέτι παῖδα ὄντα ἐνόπλῳ κινήσει περι-
χορευόντων Κουρήτων, δόλῳ δὲ ὑποδύντων Τιτάνων, ἀπατήσαντες παιδαριώδεσιν
ἀθύρμασιν, οὗτοι δὴ οἱ Τιτᾶνες διέσπασαν, ἔτι νηπίαχον ὄντα, … οἱ δὲ Τιτᾶνες, οἱ καὶ
διασπάσαντες αὐτόν, λέβητά τινα τρίποδι ἐπιθέντες καὶ τοῦ Διονύσου ἐμβαλόντες τὰ μέλη,
καθήψουν πρότερον· ἔπειτα ὀβελίσκοις περιπείραντες ‘ὑπείρεχον Ἡ φαίστοιο.’ Ζεὺς δὲ ὕστε-
ρον ἐπιφανείς … κεραυνῷ τοὺς Τιτᾶνας αἰκίζεται καὶ τὰ μέλη τοῦ Διονύσου ̓Απόλλωνι τῷ
παιδὶ παρακατατίθεται καταθάψαι. ὃ δέ, οὐ γὰρ ἠπείθησε Διί, εἰς τὸν Παρνασσὸν φέρων
κατατίθεται διεσπασμένον τὸν νεκρόν.

The mysteries of Dionysus are perfectly inhuman. While he was still a child, the Kouretes
danced around with clashing arms, and the Titans crept up by stealth and deceived him with
childish toys. Then these Titans dismembered Dionysos while he was still an infant, … The
Titans … tore him limb from limb, set a cauldron on a tripod and threw into it the limbs of
Dionysos. First they boiled them down and, then fixing them on spits, ‘held them over
Hephaestus (the fire).’ But later Zeus appeared; … He assails the Titans with his thunderbolt
and consigns the limbs of Dionysos to his son Apollo for burial. And Apollo, for he did not
disobey Zeus, bearing the dismembered corpse to Parnassus, deposited it there.7

Characteristically, Epaphos gets less coverage than Dionysos. Hyginus, who also
relates the dismemberment of Dionysos, tells that Juno arranged for the Titans to
have Epaphos killed in a ‘hunting accident’ and then to rebel against Zeus.8 Such
a scenario suggests an Epaphos rather older than the infant Dionysos distracted
by the shiny toys in Clement, but the evil step-mother trying to get rid of the child
of her husband and another woman remains a constant, as does the identification

while Detienne 1979 studies the broader set of stories of the death of Dionysos. More recently,
Bernabé 1998, 2002a has argued that the myth is central to Orphic doctrine, contra Edmonds 1999,
2008, in which I argue that different components of the tale are combined at different times with
shifting meanings, because no nucleus of Orphic doctrines ever existed.
7 Clem. Al. Prot. 2.17.2–18.2 = OF 588 I.
8 Hyg. Fab. 150: postquam Iuno vidit Epapho ex pellice nato tantam regni potestatem esse, curat in
venatu, ut Epaphus necetur, Titanosque hortatur, Iovem ut regno pellant et Saturno restituant. ‘After
Juno saw that Epaphus, born of a concubine, ruled such a great kingdom, she saw to it that he
should be killed while hunting, and encouraged the Titans to drive Jove from the kingdom and
restore it to Saturn.’

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 Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns 419

of the Titans as the villains. Apollodorus introduces a surprising variant, claiming

that Hera got, not the Titans, but the Curetes to do her dirty work. The Curetes
caused Epaphos to vanish, and so his mother Io wandered about seeking him.

τελευταῖον ἧκεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, ὅπου τὴν ἀρχαίαν μορφὴν ἀπολαβοῦσα γεννᾷ παρὰ τῷ Νείλῳ
ποταμῷ Ἔπαφον παῖδα. τοῦτον δὲ Ἥρα δεῖται Κουρήτων ἀφανῆ ποιῆσαι· οἱ δὲ ἠφάνισαν
αὐτόν. καὶ Ζεὺς μὲν αἰσθόμενος κτείνει Κούρητας, Ἰὼ δὲ ἐπὶ ζήτησιν τοῦ παιδὸς ἐτράπετο.
πλανωμένη δὲ κατὰ τὴν Συρίαν ἅπασαν (ἐκεῖ γὰρ ἐμηνύετο 〈ὅτι ἡ〉 τοῦ Βυβλίων βασιλέως
〈γυνὴ〉 ἐτιθήνει τὸν υἱόν) καὶ τὸν Ἔπαφον εὑροῦσα, εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἐλθοῦσα ἐγαμήθη Τηλε-
γόνῳ τῷ βασιλεύοντι τότε Αἰγυπτίων.

At last she came to Egypt, where she recovered her original form and gave birth to a son
Epaphus beside the river Nile. Him Hera besought the Curetes to make away with [Epaphus],
and make away with him they did. When Zeus learned of it, he slew the Curetes; but Io set
out in search of the child. She roamed all over Syria, because there it was revealed to her
that the wife of the king of Byblus was nursing her son; and having found Epaphus she came
to Egypt and was married to Telegonus, who then reigned over the Egyptians.9

The story of Osiris, as it appears in Greek sources such as Diodorus and Plutarch,
also involves the same pattern of a band of enemies conspiring to destroy and
dismember, and the same wandering to find. In Diodorus and Plutarch, however,
Osiris is a ruling king who is murdered, not by his evil step-mother, but by his
jealous brother, Set Typhon. In Diodorus’ historicizing version, Set divides up the
pieces of the body between his 26 co-conspirators, while Plutarch makes the
dismemberment a separate episode, after Osiris is killed by being nailed into a
coffin, dumped in the water, sought, and found by Isis.10 The coffin with the dead
Osiris floats off to Byblos, where it is found and incorporated into a pillar. Isis,
when she learns of its location, retrieves the body from the pillar and begins to
mourn it.11
In any case, the detail that seems important for Apollodorus to relate is that
Io wandered in search of Epaphos, just as Isis wandered in search of Osiris in
Plutarch, and that Io, like Isis, found what she sought in Byblos. Plutarch
provides a few more details of Isis’ wanderings, including that she was informed
by a child that Osiris had gone toward Byblos and that, when she reached Byblos,
she became the nurse to the royal family and attempted to immortalize one of the
princes, a process disrupted by the child’s mother. Plutarch’s tale of Isis’ wander-
ings, as many have noted, bears more than a little resemblance to the wanderings

9 Apollod. 2.1.3.
10 Cp. D. S. 1.21; Plu. Is. et Os. 358A, cp. 356AB.
11 Plu. Is. et Os. 357A.

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420 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

of Demeter near Eleusis, where she is informed of Hades’ abduction of Kore by a

shepherd boy (Triptolemos or Eubouleus or some other name) and where she acts
as nurse and attempts to immortalize the prince, an attempt again foiled by an
over-anxious mother.12 In tales of the dismembered Dionysos, Dionysos’ mother
Demeter or Demeter’s mother, Rhea, sometimes goes in search of the scattered
pieces of the god, bringing together the pieces.13
While the similarities are notable, the resemblances seem, as several com-
mentators have pointed out, to be rather superficial, with quite crucial differences
between the accounts.14 Io is the mother of Epaphos and Demeter (or Rhea) is the
mother (or grandmother) of Dionysos, whereas Isis is the wife of Osiris – a very
different relation, as the episode with the phallus of Osiris indicates! Not only is
the figure who seeks different, but what is sought is different – the chunks of flesh
torn from the infant Dionysos, the missing youth of Epaphos, or the coffined body
of Osiris. Dionysos is dismembered; Epaphos made to vanish; Osiris imprisoned
and chopped up after death. Such differences would seem crucial to any inter-
pretation of the religious significance of the story – did the god die or not?
Indeed, in the individual interpretations of particular stories that survive in
our sources, such details often carry important weight in the exegesis. Dionysos
was divided into seven parts, Proclus argues, because seven corresponds to the
soul, which divides things up and examines them analytically, whereas the
preservation of Dionysos’ heart by Athena represents the unity of the intellect.15

12 Cp. h.Cer., Apollod. 1.5.1.

13 D. S. 3.62.6 = fr. 301 Kern = OF 59 III, claims that the pieces of Dionysos were collected by his
mother, Demeter, whom Diodorus also understands as Ge, the Earth. Diodorus lists the rebirth of
Dionysos after his members are collected by Demeter as the third birth of Dionysos and claims that
this version agrees with the Orphica (3.62.8 = OF 58). Bernabé 2002b, 75–80, tries to sort out the
complicated testimonies in this passage. Cornutus ND 30 = OF 59 IV. has Rhea in the role of
collector instead of Demeter. In the Platonic tradition, Apollo, etymologized as a-pollon, not
many, is responsible for restoring the unity to Dionysos, who has been made multiple by the
forces of division.
14 Cp. Otto 1965, 195: ‘The myth of the death of Osiris differs from that of Dionysos in far to many
important points … These are not incidental characteristics.’
15 Cp. Procl. in Prm. 808 = fr. 210 Kern = OF 311 III: διὸ καὶ οἱ θεολόγοι τὸν μὲν νοῦν ἐν τοῖς
σπαραγμοῖς τοῖς Διονυσιακοῖς ἀμέριστον προνοίᾳ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς σώζεσθαι λέγουσι, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν
μερίζεσθαι πρώτως, καὶ ἡ εἰς ἑπτὰ γοῦν τομὴ ταύτης ἐστὶ πρώτης· οἰκεῖον οὖν αὐτῇ καὶ τὸ εἶδος
τῆς διαιρετικῆς καὶ τὸ θεωρεῖν μεταβατικῶς. οὐ δὴ θαυμαστόν ἐστιν οὐκέτι, τῶν θείων εἰδῶν ὁμοῦ
καὶ ἡνωμένως ἐν τῷ δημιουργικῷ νῷ προϋφεστηκότων, τὴν ἡμετέραν ψυχὴν διῃρημένως αὐτοῖς
ἐπιβάλλειν, καὶ νῦν μὲν τὰ πρώτιστα καὶ κοινότατα θεωρεῖν εἴδη, νῦν δὲ τὰ μέσην ἔχοντα τάξιν,
αὖθις δὲ τὰ μερικώτατα καὶ οἷον ἀτομώτατα τῶν εἰδῶν. ‘This is why the theologians say that at the
dismemberment of Dionysos his intellect was preserved undivided through the foresight of
Athena and that his soul was the first to be divided, and certainly the division into seven is proper

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 Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns 421

Plutarch tells us that Isis’ generation of Harpocrates with the phallus of the dead
Osiris, which produced a premature and lamed child, signifies the process of
correcting premature and imperfect thinking about the gods.16 Nevertheless, the
figures in these stories are identified with one another, not for what the stories
mean, but because of the common pattern of action within the myth – the schema
of threat/destruction followed by search and lamentation. The images of the
assaulted god, the searching goddess, and the mourning of the lost loved one are
what prompt the initial connection; the explanations are secondary, examples of
what Whitehouse would call ‘spontaneous exegetical reflection’ by Plutarch, or
Diodorus, or Herodotus.17 Thus, in a particular telling of the story, by any ancient
author, the details create a specific myth with a particular meaning, but the
general pattern, the mythic schema, does not have a fixed meaning that can be
transferred from one instantiation to another. To belabor the point, the myth of
the dismemberment of Dionysos does not have any particular meaning that
transcends the uses to which it is put.

3 Ritual Parallels
We may detect a similar phenomenon in the way the ancient sources make com-
parisons with the rituals. Here too, modern scholars have complained that the
parallels Plutarch, Herodotus, and others use are superficial, unable to support any
serious identification of the Greek and Egyptian figures. Nevertheless, our sources
repeatedly use these apparently superficial ritual parallels, and, rather than dis-
missing the arguments as superficial, we should consider why they might give such
arguments, rather than the arguments from theological meaning we might expect –

primarily to Soul. It is therefore appropriate that Soul should have the function of division and of
seeing things discursively. It is no wonder, then, that whereas the divine Forms exist primordially
together and unified in the demiurgic intellect, our soul attacks them separately, at one time
contemplating the first and most universal Forms, at another time those that have a middle
station, and again the most particular and, so to speak, the most atomic.’
16 Plu. Is. et Os. 358DE, 378C: τὴν δ’ Ἶσιν ἐξ Ὀσίριδος μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν συγγενομένου τεκεῖν
ἠλιτόμηνον καὶ ἀσθενῆ τοῖς κάτωθεν γυίοις τὸν Ἁρποκράτην. … τὸν δ’ Ἁρποκράτην οὔτε θεὸν
ἀτελῆ καὶ νήπιον οὔτε χεδρόπων τινὰ νομιστέον, ἀλλὰ τοῦ περὶ θεῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις λόγου νεαροῦ
καὶ ἀτελοῦς καὶ ἀδιαρθρώτου προστάτην καὶ σωφρονιστήν. ‘Osiris consorted with Isis after his
death, and she became the mother of Harpocrates, untimely born and weak in his lower limbs. …
And Harpocrates is not to be regarded as an imperfect and an infant god, nor some deity or other
that protects legumes, but as the representative and corrector of unseasoned, imperfect, and
inarticulate reasoning about the gods among mankind.’
17 Whitehouse 2000; cp. Whitehouse 2004a, 70–73, 113–117; Whitehouse 2004b, 218–220.

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422 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

for example, Osiris and Dionysos are the lords of the dead, representing the rebirth
of the human soul or its survival after physical death.18 Plutarch considers the ritual
parallels his most convincing argument when addressing Clea, an experienced
priestess in both the rites of Dionysos and Osiris, who moreover is clearly well-
versed in Platonic theology.19 If there were ever an occasion for a discussion at a
theological and doctrinal level, bypassing superficialities in favor of substantial
theological arguments, this would be it. Yet Plutarch, although he does not avoid
fairly complex and abstract discussions of theological principles, nonetheless
grounds his argument in parallels of ritual experience.
Plutarch starts by comparing the burial rites for the Apis bull, which he
identifies as Osiris,20 with a Dionysiac procession.

ἃ δ’ ἐμφανῶς δρῶσι θάπτοντες τὸν Ἆπιν οἱ ἱερεῖς, ὅταν παρακομίζωσιν ἐπὶ σχεδίας τὸ σῶμα,
βακχείας οὐδὲν ἀποδεῖ· καὶ γὰρ νεβρίδας περικαθάπτονται καὶ θύρσους φοροῦσι καὶ βοαῖς
χρῶνται καὶ κινήσεσιν ὥσπερ οἱ κάτοχοι τοῖς περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον ὀργιασμοῖς.

The public ceremonies which the priests perform in the burial of the Apis, when they convey
his body on an improvised bier, do not in any way come short of a Bacchic procession; for
they fasten skins of fawns about themselves, and carry Bacchic wands and indulge in
shoutings and movements exactly as do those who are under the spell of the Dionysiac
ecstasies.21

Dionysos must be the same as Osiris, since the actions of the fawnskin-clad,
thyrsos-wielding celebrants are the same in the Egyptian festival and the Greek
Dionysiac one; they both engage in ecstatic cries and movements while celebrat-
ing.22 The Apis bull form of Osiris who is the object of this worship finds its

18 Cp. Otto 1965, 196: ‘The lord of dying and of the dead himself goes through the horror of
destruction and, when it is time, must be summoned forth into the light from the abyss of eternal
night.’ Otto, like Kerényi 1976, sees Dionysos as a god of life-force, but emphasizes also the
imagery of death. Other scholars have frequently attributed the identification of the two gods
because of an association with the fertility of the crops. Burton 1972, 97: ‘However the identifica-
tion of the Dionysos and Osiris must have been assisted by the fact that both were pioneers of
civilization and that both were associated with corn.’ Cp. How/Wells 1949–1950 on Hdt. 2.42. For
fertility in general, cp. Lloyd 1976, 220–222.
19 Plu. Is. et Os. 364E–365A. Contrast Casadio 1996, 212: ‘Le analogie più superficiali sono quelle
relative al culto.’
20 Specifically, as the bodily image of the soul of Osiris – Is. et Os. 362D: ‘Most of the priests say
that Osiris and Apis are conjoined into one, thus explaining to us and informing us that we must
regard Apis as the bodily image of the soul of Osiris.’ Cp. 359B, 368C.
21 Plu. Is. et Os. 364E.
22 Griffiths (1970, 431–432) puzzles over the comparison. He notes that Egyptian evidence does
suggest a mourning processsion for Apis with an elaborate procession (citing Speigelberg ZÄS 56,
1920, non vidi), including fawnskins, shouts and cries, but worries over the difference in affect.

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 Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns 423

parallel in the tauriform statues of Dionysos in Greece, as well as in the ritual

invocations of Dionysos as a bull. The women of Elis cry, ‘Axie taure,’ while the
Argives summon the Bull-born Dionysos from the depths of the Lernaean Lake.
Herodotus identifies this Apis bull, not with Dionysos, but specifically with
Epaphos, a fact of which Plutarch was certainly not ignorant.23 For Herodotus,
then, all the rituals celebrated for Apis, both the joyous celebrations of his
appearance and the lamentations of his death, must have seemed to fit with
Epaphos, although he never explains this particular identification, merely de-
scribing Apis in terms of his ritual celebrations.24 He does, however, connect
Dionysos with Osiris in a number of places, again largely through the parallels of
ritual. Herodotus notes the special sacrifice of a pig to the Moon and Dionysos, as
he calls Isis and Osiris.

τὴν δὲ ἄλλην ἀνάγουσι ὁρτὴν τῷ Διονύσῳ οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι πλὴν χορῶν κατὰ ταὐτὰ σχεδὸν
πάντα Ἕλλησι· ἀντὶ δὲ φαλλῶν ἄλλα σφι ἐστὶ ἐξευρημένα, ὅσον τε πηχυαῖα ἀγάλματα νευ-
ρόσπαστα, τὰ περιφορέουσι κατὰ κώμας γυναῖκες, νεῦον τὸ αἰδοῖον, οὐ πολλῷ τεῳ ἔλασσον
ἐὸν τοῦ ἄλλου σώματος· προηγέεται δὲ αὐλός, αἳ δὲ ἕπονται ἀείδουσαι τὸν Διόνυσον.

The rest of the festival of Dionysos is observed by the Egyptians much as it is by the Greeks,
except for the dances; but in place of the phallus, they have invented the use of puppets two
feet high moved by strings, the male member nodding and nearly as big as the rest of the
body, which are carried about the villages by women; a flute-player goes ahead, the women
follow behind singing of Dionysos.25

This phallic ritual for Osiris, along with the procession of women singing to the
aulos, convinces Herodotus that the Greeks got the worship of Dionysos from
Egypt, and indeed he starts his whole theory of Greek religion derived from
Egypt from his description of this ritual. Herodotus credits Melampus with the

‘The Apis-burial was doubtless full of feeling, but it was sad. A “cry of lamentation” is enjoined;
when the bier is drawn by the priests “all the people raise a great cry of lamentation.” A very
different atmosphere, one would think, from that of the Dionysiac revel.’ (432).
23 Hdt. 2.38, 2.153, 3.27–28. Plutarch’s familiarity with Herodotus is attested by his entire treatise
on the historical method of Herodotus, as well as many other citations. Curiously, Plutarch does
not mention Herodotus in his treatise on Isis and Osiris.
24 Linforth 1910 cites a number of earlier scholars who tried to make the identification on the
basis of the names, Epaphos with Egyptian He-Papi, but notes that the Greeks transliterated the
Egyptian name as Apis. Linforth postulates that the identification of Io with Isis prompted the
invention of a son for Io to correspond with the child of Isis.
25 Hdt. 2.48.2. Griffiths notes ad loc, 220: ‘It is strange that H. should regard the absence of χοροί
as the major difference between Eg. and Gk. rites in honour of Dionysos.’

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424 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

borrowing, specifically citing the phallic processions.26 Diodorus Siculus, on the

other hand, credits Orpheus with the borrowing, devising an elaborate scheme
by which Orpheus adapted the rites of Osiris to please Kadmos in Thebes.27 The
phallic rites are once again the key link in the identification for the Greek
thinker.

διὸ καὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας, ἐξ Αἰγύπτου παρειληφότας τὰ περὶ τοὺς ὀργιασμοὺς καὶ τὰς Διονυσια-
κὰς ἑορτάς, τιμᾶν τοῦτο τὸ μόριον ἔν τε τοῖς μυστηρίοις καὶ ταῖς τοῦ θεοῦ τούτου τελεταῖς
τε καὶ θυσίαις, ὀνομάζοντας αὐτὸ φαλλόν.

Consequently the Greeks too, inasmuch as they received from Egypt the celebrations of the
orgies and the festivals connected with Dionysos, honor this member in both the mysteries
and the initiatory rites and sacrifices of this god, giving it the name ‘phallus.’28

26 Hdt. 2.49.1–2: δη ὦν δοκέει μοι Μελάμπους ὁ Ἀμυθέωνος τῆς θυσίης ταύτης οὐκ εἶναι ἀδαὴς
ἀλλ᾽ ἔμπειρος. Ἕλλησι γὰρ δὴ Μελάμπους ἐστὶ ὁ ἐξηγησάμενος τοῦ Διονύσου τό τε οὔνομα καὶ τὴν
θυσίην καὶ τὴν πομπὴν τοῦ φαλλοῦ· ἀτρεκέως μὲν οὐ πάντα συλλαβὼν τὸν λόγον ἔφηνε, ἀλλ᾽ οἱ
ἐπιγενόμενοι τούτῳ σοφισταὶ μεζόνως ἐξέφηναν· τὸν δ᾽ ὦν φαλλὸν τὸν τῷ Διονύσῳ πεμπόμενον
Μελάμπους ἐστὶ ὁ κατηγησάμενος, καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου μαθόντες ποιεῦσι τὰ ποιεῦσι Ἕλληνες. [2] ἐγὼ
μέν νυν φημὶ Μελάμποδα γενόμενον ἄνδρα σοφὸν μαντικήν τε ἑωυτῷ συστῆσαι καὶ πυθόμενον ἀπ᾽
Αἰγύπτου ἄλλα τε πολλὰ ἐσηγήσασθαι Ἕλλησι καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον, ὀλίγα αὐτῶν παραλλάξ-
αντα. οὐ γὰρ δὴ συμπεσεῖν γε φήσω τά τε ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ποιεύμενα τῷ θεῷ καὶ τὰ ἐν τοῖσι Ἕλλησι·
ὁμότροπα γὰρ ἂν ἦν τοῖσι Ἕλλησι καὶ οὐ νεωστὶ ἐσηγμένα. ‘Now then, it seems to me that
Melampus son of Amytheon was not ignorant of but was familiar with this sacrifice. For Melampus
was the one who taught the Greeks the name of Dionysos and the way of sacrificing to him and the
phallic procession; he did not exactly unveil the subject taking all its details into consideration,
for the teachers who came after him made a fuller revelation; but it was from him that the Greeks
learned to bear the phallus along in honor of Dionysos, and they got their present practice from
his teaching. [2] I say, then, that Melampus acquired the prophetic art, being a discerning man,
and that, besides many other things which he learned from Egypt, he also taught the Greeks
things concerning Dionysos, altering few of them; for I will not say that what is done in Egypt in
connection with the god and what is done among the Greeks originated independently: for they
would then be of an Hellenic character and not recently introduced.’
27 D. S. 1.23.2: Ὀρφέα γὰρ εἰς Αἴγυπτον παραβαλόντα καὶ μετασχόντα τῆς τελετῆς καὶ τῶν
Διονυσιακῶν μυστηρίων μεταλαβεῖν, τοῖς δὲ Καδμείοις φίλον ὄντα καὶ τιμώμενον ὑπ’ αὐτῶν
μεταθεῖναι τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν γένεσιν ἐκείνοις χαριζόμενον· τοὺς δ’ ὄχλους τὰ μὲν διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν, τὰ
δὲ διὰ τὸ βούλεσθαι τὸν θεὸν Ἕλληνα νομίζεσθαι, προσδέξασθαι προσηνῶς τὰς τελετὰς καὶ τὰ
μυστήρια. For they say that Orpheus, upon visiting Egypt and participating in the initiation and
mysteries of Dionysos, adopted them and as a favor to the descendants of Cadmus, since he was
kindly disposed to them and received honors at their hands, transferred the birth of the god to
Thebes; and the common people, partly out of ignorance and partly out of their desire to have the
god thought to be a Greek, eagerly accepted his initiatory rites and mysteries.
28 D. S. 1.22.7.

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 Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns 425

Diodorus’ Euhemeristic theory of how the Egyptian god became worshipped in

Greece naturally differs from Herodotus’ idea of the diffusion of divine knowledge
from Egypt to Greece, just as they both differ from the more complex theories of
Plutarch, but they all ground their comparisons in the similarities of ritual
actions. Plutarch speaks of a specific ritual of Pamylia for Osiris that resembles
the familiar phallic processions of Greece, and he cites this rite as part of his list
of ritual proofs for Clea that Dionysos and Osiris are one and the same.29
Also in Plutarch’s list is the rousing of Dionysos Liknites, the god in the liknon
or winnowing basket. Servius tells us that the liknon in which the infant Dionysos
was placed was identified with the liknon in which Isis placed the remains of
Osiris after his dismemberment.30 The liknon was used to carry first-fruits offer-
ings, and, in some rituals, a phallus. Again, what seems significant to the ancient
thinkers making the connections is the use of the liknon, not what exactly the
liknon bears or what its contents signify.
The pieces of Osiris, Plutarch tells us, were buried in a number of tombs
around Egypt, and various cities thus claim to be the place where the god is

29 Plu. Is. et Os. 355E: τὴν τῶν Παμυλίων ἑορτὴν αὐτῷ τελεῖσθαι Φαλληφορίοις ἐοικυῖαν. ‘It is in
his [Pamyles, who took in Osiris] honour that the festival of Pamylia is celebrated, a festival which
resembles the phallic processions.’ Cp. 365B. On this Hellenized form of an Egyptian epithet for
Osiris, see Griffiths 1970, 297–298 and Lloyd 1976, 223.
30 Serv. Georg. 1.165: id est cribrum areale. mystica autem Iacchi ideo ait quod Liberi Patris sacra
ad purgationem animae pertinebant: et sic homines eius Mysteriis purgabantur, sicut vannis
frumenta purgantur. hinc est quod dicitur Osiridis membra a Typhone dilaniata Isis cribro super-
posuisse: nam idem est Liber Pater in cuius Mysteriis vannus est: quia ut diximus animas purgat.
unde et Liber ab eo quod liberet dictus, quem Orpheus a gigantibus dicit esse discerptum. nonnulli
Liberum Patrem apud Graecos Λικνίτην dici adferunt; vannus autem apud eos λίκνον nuncupatur;
ubi deinde positus esse dicitur postquam est utero matris editus. alii mysticam sic accipiunt ut
vannum vas vimineum latum dicant, in quod ipsi propter capacitatem congere rustici primitias
frugum soleant et Libero et Liberae sacrum facere Inde mystica. ‘The mystic fan of Iacchus, that is
the sieve (cribrum) of the threshing-floor. He calls it the mystic fan of Iacchus, because the rites of
Father Liber had reference to the purification of the soul and men were purified through his
mysteries as grain is purified by fans. It is because of this that Isis is said to have placed the limbs
of Osiris, when they had been torn to pieces by Typhon, on a sieve, for Father Liber is the same
person, he in whose mysteries the fan plays a part, because as we said he purifies souls. Whence
he is also called Liber, because he liberates, and it is he who, Orpheus said, was torn asunder by
the Giants. Some add that Father Liber was called by the Greeks Liknites. Moreover the fan is
called by them liknon, in which he is said to have been placed directly after he was born from his
mother’s womb. Others explain its being called “mystic” by saying that the fan is a large wicker
vessel in which peasants, because it is of large size, are wont to heap their first-fruits and
consecrate it to Liber and Libera. Hence it is called “mystic”.’

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426 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

buried, as he notes, Delphi claims to be the burial place of Dionysos.31 At

Memphis in Egypt, Plutarch explains, the Apis bull is regarded as the image of the
soul of Osiris and the name of the city itself is interpreted as ‘the tomb of Osiris.’32
In addition to the joyous processions of the god’s arrival, then, there are also
rituals associated with his death. Herodotus recounts the lamentations and beat-
ing of breasts that take place in the festival at Bousiris, although he feels that it
would be profane to discuss the figure who is being lamented, most likely because
he feels that this ritual is similar enough to one in Greece where it is inappropriate
to talk about certain aspects of a ritual in a public context.33 Herodotus has a
similar objection to discussing Isis rites which remind him of Demeter’s Thesmo-
phoria, and there is little reason to doubt that the lamentation rites for Osiris seem
to him like Greek rites for Dionysos.34 Diodorus says bluntly that ‘The rite of Osiris

31 Plu. Is. et Os. 358A, 365A: ἐκ τούτου δὲ καὶ πολλοὺς τάφους Ὀσίριδος ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ λέγεσθαι διὰ
τὸ προστυγχάνουσαν ἑκάστῳ μέρει ταφὰς ποιεῖν. οἱ δ’ οὔ φασιν, ἀλλ’ εἴδωλα ποιουμένην διδόναι
καθ’ ἑκάστην πόλιν ὡς τὸ σῶμα διδοῦσαν ὅπως παρὰ πλείοσιν ἔχῃ τιμὰς. … Αἰγύπτιοί τε γὰρ
Ὀσίριδος πολλαχοῦ θήκας, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, δεικνύουσι, καὶ Δελφοὶ τὰ τοῦ Διονύσου λείψανα παρ’
αὐτοῖς παρὰ τὸ χρηστήριον ἀποκεῖσθαι νομίζουσι. ‘The traditional result of Osiris’s dismember-
ment is that there are many so-called tombs of Osiris in Egypt; for Isis held a funeral for each part
when she had found it. Others deny this and assert that she caused effigies of him to be made and
these she distributed among the several cities, pretending that she was giving them his body, in
order that he might receive divine honours in a greater number of cities. … The Egyptians, as has
already been stated, point out tombs of Osiris in many places, and the people of Delphi believe
that the remains of Dionysos rest with them close beside the oracle.’ Cp. Philoch. FGrHist 328 F 7b
ap. Io. Mal. Chron. 2.44.21.
32 Plu. Is. et Os. 359B: ἐν δὲ Μέμφει τρέφεσθαι τὸν Ἆπιν εἴδωλον ὄντα τῆς ἐκείνου ψυχῆς, ὅπου
καὶ τὸ σῶμα κεῖσθαι· καὶ τὴν μὲν πόλιν οἱ μὲν ὅρμον ἀγαθῶν ἑρμηνεύουσιν, οἱ δ’ ἰδίως τάφον
Ὀσίριδος. ‘In Memphis, however, they say, the Apis is kept, being the image of the soul of Osiris,
whose body also lies there. The name of this city some interpret as “the haven of the good” and
others as meaning properly the “tomb of Osiris”.’
33 Hdt. 2.61.1: ταῦτα μὲν δὴ ταύτῃ ποιέεται, ἐν δὲ Βουσίρι πόλι ὡς ἀνάγουσι τῇ Ἴσι τὴν ὁρτήν,
εἴρηται προτερόν μοι· τύπτονται μὲν γὰρ δὴ μετὰ τὴν θυσίην πάντες καὶ πᾶσαι, μυριάδες κάρτα
πολλαὶ ἀνθρώπων· τὸν δὲ τύπτονται, οὔ μοι ὅσιον ἐστὶ λέγειν. ‘This is what they do there; I have
already described how they keep the feast of Isis at Busiris. There, after the sacrifice, all the men
and women lament, in countless numbers; but it is not pious for me to say who it is for whom they
lament.’
34 Hdt. 2.61.1. See Lloyd ad loc. for a reconstruction of the Egyptian ritual from the Egyptian
sources. Lloyd points out that the Egyptians have a class of rites, that are kept out of the view of
the public and performed only by priests. This category does not correspond with the Greek
mysteria or with rites, like the Thesmophoria that Herodotus mentions in 2.171, which were
deemed profane to speak of, even if they were celebrated with a fairly large group of people (e.g.,
the women of Athens).

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 Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns 427

is the same as that of Dionysos and that of Isis very similar to that of Demeter, the
names alone have been interchanged.’35
Plutarch compares the Greek rituals of the Titanika and the Nyktelia to the
things related about the dismemberment of Osiris.36 Of the Titanika, we know
nothing more than the name, which does suggest a version of the dismemberment
tale involving the Titans, but Pausanias mentions a temple of Dionysos Nyktelios
in Megara, and various sources attest to rituals for Dionysos Nyktelios, so the
Nyktelia seems to be a polis cult, performed with a certain degree of secrecy, like
the Thesmophoria or the rites of the Gerarai at the Athenian Anthesteria.37 Such
rituals might indeed be the sort of Dionysos ritual Herodotus had in mind, not a
private or sectarian mystery, but a community ritual whose sanctity must be
respected.
The lamentations in the rites of Isis strike another ancient commentator as
resembling the rites of Demeter, which involve a search for her lost child. Lactan-
tius tells us that the priests of Isis lament and mourn the lost Osiris and seek him
as Isis did in the myth.38 This search resembles the search for Dionysos in various
Greek rituals such as the Agrionia, and Sourvinou-Inwood has identified a ritual

35 D. S. 1.96.5: τὴν μὲν γὰρ Ὀσίριδος τελετὴν τῇ Διονύσου τὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι, τὴν δὲ τῆς Ἴσιδος τῇ
τῆς Δήμητρος ὁμοιοτάτην ὑπάρχειν, τῶν ὀνομάτων μόνων ἐνηλλαγμένων.
36 Plu. Is. et Os. 364F: ὁμολογεῖ δὲ καὶ τὰ Τιτανικὰ καὶ Νυκτέλια τοῖς λεγομένοις Ὀσίριδος
διασπασμοῖς καὶ ταῖς ἀναβιώσεσι καὶ παλιγγενεσίαις. ‘Furthermore, the Titanika and the Nyktelia
agree with the accounts of the dismemberment of Osiris and his revivification and regenesis.’
37 Paus. 1.40.6: ἔστι μὲν Διονύσου ναὸς Νυκτελίου, πεποίηται δὲ Ἀφροδίτης Ἐπιστροφίας ἱερὸν
καὶ Νυκτὸς καλούμενόν ἐστι μαντεῖον καὶ Διὸς Κονίου ναὸς οὐκ ἔχων ὄροφον. ‘There is a temple of
Dionysos Nyctelios, a sanctuary built to Aphrodite Epistrophia, an oracle called that of Night and
a temple of Zeus Conius without a roof.’ For Dionysos Nyktelios, Plu. Quaest. Rom. et Gr. 291A,
mentions that Dionysiac ivy is used in the nocturnal rites of the Agrionia and Nyktelia, Ἀγριωνίοις
δὲ καὶ Νυκτελίοις, ὧν τὰ πολλὰ διὰ σκότους δρᾶται, πάρεστιν. Nyktelios is also one of the names
given to the dismembered Dionysos in Plu. De E ap. Delph. 388E. The nocturnal rites are
designated mysteries in EM s.v. Νυκτέλιος· Ὁ Διόνυσος, ᾧ νύκτωρ τὰ μυστήρια ἐπιτελεῖται. The
term ‘mysteries’ here, however, need not imply a private cult rather than a polis festival.
38 Lact. Div. Inst. Epit. 23: Isidis sacra nihil aliud ostendunt, nisi quemadmodum filium parvum,
qui dicitur Osiris, perdiderit et invenerit. nam primo sacerdotes ac ministri, derasis omnibus
membris, tunsisque pectoribus, plangunt, dolent, quaerunt, affectum matris imitantes; postmo-
dum puer per Cynocephalum invenitur. sic luctuosa sacra laetitia terminantur. his etiam Cereris
simile mysterium est, in quo, facibus accensis, per noctem Proserpina inquiritur, et ea inventa,
ritus omnis gratulatione ac taedarum jactatione finitur. ‘The sacred rites of Isis show nothing else
than the manner in which she lost and found her little son, who is called Osiris. For first her priests
and attendants, having shaved all their limbs, and beating their breasts, howl, lament, and
search, imitating the manner in which his mother was affected; afterwards the boy is found by
Cynocephalus. Thus the mournful rites are ended with gladness. The mystery of Ceres also
resembles these, in which torches are lighted, and Proserpine is sought for through the night; and

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428 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

schema involving such a search that plays out in different ways in different
places, with different figures as the object of the search.39 This kind of ritual
search amid lamentation evokes another set of Greek identifications with Egyp-
tian rituals. According to Plutarch, the rites of Isis include lamentations for
another figure, Maneros, a child who dies while Isis is mourning Osiris. Accounts
vary as to how this happened: he disturbed Isis while mourning and died when
she looked on him in anger or perhaps he just fell off the boat while they were
travelling together; his younger brother in any case had perished from the dread-
ful wail that Isis gave when disturbed in her process of trying to immortalize their
youngest brother in her capacity as nursemaid to the royal family at Byblos.
Again, what is striking about these tales is that why and how the boy died (and
even which brother is lamented) – is unimportant; what is important is that he is
lamented in the ritual.40 Herodotus identifies Maneros as the Egyptian Linos, the
youth lamented in the Linos song, a harvest song mentioned as early as Homer.41
Although some stories have Linos killed because of his musical talents, in Argos
Linos is lamented as the young prince who was torn apart in the midst of a

when she has been found, the whole rite is finished with congratulations and the throwing about
of torches.’
39 Plu. Quaest. Conv. 716F–717A: οὐ φαύλως οὖν καὶ παρ’ ἡμῖν ἐν τοῖς Ἀγριωνίοις τὸν Διόνυσον αἱ
γυναῖκες ὡς ἀποδεδρακότα ζητοῦσιν, εἶτα παύονται καὶ λέγουσιν ὅτι πρὸς τὰς Μούσας κατα-
πέφευγεν καὶ κέκρυπται παρ’ ἐκείναις. ‘It is not an accident that in the Agrionia, as it is celebrated
here, the women search for Dionysos as though he had run away, then desist and say that he has
taken refuge with the Muses and is hidden among them.’ Cp. Paus. 3.22.2 for Dionysos at Larysion,
Str. 12.4.3 for Hylas, and Paus. 1.43.2 for Demeter seeking Kore at Megara. Sourvinou-Inwood
2005, 346–351.
40 Plu. Is. et Os. 357E. Maneros, Plutarch adds, may not even be the name of a person, but simply
an expression, wishing for happiness.
41 Hdt. 2.79.1–3: τοῖσι ἄλλα τε ἐπάξια ἐστὶ νόμιμα, καὶ δὴ καὶ ἄεισμα ἕν ἐστι, Λίνος, ὅσπερ ἔν τε
Φοινίκῃ ἀοίδιμος ἐστὶ καὶ ἐν Κύπρῳ καὶ ἄλλῃ, κατὰ μέντοι ἔθνεα οὔνομα ἔχει, συμφέρεται δὲ
ὡυτὸς εἶναι τὸν οἱ Ἕλληνες Λίνον ὀνομάζοντες ἀείδουσι, ὥστε πολλὰ μὲν καὶ ἄλλα ἀποθωμάζειν
με τῶν περὶ Αἴγυπτον ἐόντων, ἐν δὲ δὴ καὶ τὸν Λίνον ὁκόθεν ἔλαβον τὸ οὔνομα· φαίνονται δὲ αἰεί
κοτε τοῦτον ἀείδοντες. ἔστι δὲ Αἰγυπτιστὶ ὁ Λίνος καλεύμενος Μανερῶς. ἔφασαν δέ μιν Αἰγύπτιοι
τοῦ πρώτου βασιλεύσαντος Αἰγύπτου παῖδα μουνογενέα γενέσθαι, ἀποθανόντα δὲ αὐτὸν ἄνωρον
θρήνοισι τούτοισι ὑπὸ Αἰγυπτίων τιμηθῆναι, καὶ ἀοιδήν τε ταύτην πρώτην καὶ μούνην σφίσι
γενέσθαι. ‘Among other notable customs of theirs is this, that they have one song, the Linus-song,
which is sung in Phoenicia and Cyprus and elsewhere; each nation has a name of its own for this,
but it happens to be the same song that the Greeks sing, and call Linus; so that of many things in
Egypt that amaze me, one is: where did the Egyptians get Linus? Plainly they have always sung
this song; but in Egyptian Linus is called Maneros. The Egyptians told me that Maneros was the
only son of their first king, who died prematurely, and this dirge was sung by the Egyptians in his
honor; and this, they said, was their earliest and their only chant.’

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 Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns 429

hunting expedition.42 Herodotus remarks in amazement that everyone around the

Mediterranean (Cyprus, Phoenicia and even elsewhere) seems to have a song like
this, and Pausanias makes a similar comment, although he thinks that the lament
for Linos spread around the world, even to the Egyptians, who call him Man-
eros.43 Later sources include the Maneros and Linos songs in a list of work songs
sung at the harvest, along with the Aletis song for Erigone and epilenaia songs
sung at the vintage.44 The scholiast to Clement, in defining ληναΐζοντας, refers
to the rustic song sung at the wine trough, the ληνός, having to do with the
dismemberment of Dionysos, again presumably a lament.45 The ancient Greek
religious thinkers, then, identified Maneros and Linos and perhaps even Dionysos
Lenaios, on the basis of the ritual lamentation performed for them.
Again, the insignificance, for the ancient classifiers, of the crucial details of
the story is striking to the modern scholar. It doesn’t really matter who Linos or
Maneros was, whether he was torn apart by his grandfather’s hounds or fell
overboard from Isis’ funeral barge. Was Dionysos torn apart by Titans as an infant
or Epaphos killed while hunting with the Curetes? Is it the harvest of the grain or
the trampling of the grapes? For the ancient thinkers who make the identifica-
tions, these questions seem not to be of primary concern. The experience of the
mourning ritual, the women lamenting and beating their breasts, the haunting
wail of the song, that is what prompts them to identify the figures. So too, the
exuberant processions, flaunting phalluses, and ecstatic cries that are found in
rituals to Osiris or Apis in Egypt cause Herodotus, Diodorus, and Plutarch to
identify them with Dionysos, since Dionysos too has rituals with such experiences
in various places in Greece.

42 Argive women and maidens in an annual festival lamented the death of Linos, who was torn
apart as a youth by his maternal grandfather’s hunting dogs (Call. fr. 26–31 Pf.).
43 Paus. 9.29.7: ἀποθανόντος δὲ τοῦ Λίνου τὸ ἐπ’ αὐτῷ πένθος διῆλθεν ἄρα καὶ ἄχρι τῆς βαρβάρου
πάσης, ὡς καὶ Αἰγυπτίοις ᾆσμα γενέσθαι Λίνον· καλοῦσι δὲ τὸ ᾆσμα Αἰγύπτιοι τῇ ἐπιχωρίῳ φωνῇ
Μανέρων. ‘On the death of Linos, mourning for him spread, it seems, to all the foreign world, so
that even among the Egyptians there came to be a Linos song, in the Egyptian language called
Maneros.’
44 Ath. 14.618c–620a and Poll. 4.52–53 list terms for many kinds of working songs, such as the
harvest οὖλος or ἴουλος and those named after Βώριμος, Μανέρως, Λιτυέρσης and Ἠριγόνη
(Ἀλῆτις); winnowing songs (πτιστικόν or πτισμός); vintage songs (ἐπιλήνια).
45 Sch. Clem. Al. Prot. 1.2.2, p. 297.4–8. Note that the Aletis song was defined as a lament for the
death of Erigone, who wandered in search of her murdered father, but also as Persephone, cp.
EM s.v. Ἀλῆτις (62.9).

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430 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

4 Conclusion
We could dismiss these identifications as ‘superficial,’ stemming either from a
blatant disregard of the ‘real’ meaning for the sake of the argument or from a
desire to hide the true doctrines on which the identifications are ‘really’ being
made. But the recurrence of this return to ritual to make the identifications should
prompt us to reconsider the very way in which the ancient Greeks thought about
their religion – their gods and their relations with them. We should take Plutarch
seriously when he claims, after reviewing the opinions of many learned religious
thinkers, that ‘the fact is that the peculiarities already mentioned regarding the
festival and sacrifices carry a conviction more manifest than any testimony of
authorities’ – the ritual similarities are the most important part of the argument.46
Such a weighting of the experience of the ritual over the religious doctrine
signified by the festival seems counterintuitive to modern scholars of religion, but
recent anthropological studies of religion by Whitehouse and others have shown
that many cultures have a mode of religious transmission that works quite differ-
ently from the doctrinal mode to which we are accustomed, an ‘imagistic’ mode
that relies on what Burkert has called ‘the extraordinary experience.’47 Rather
than regular forms of ceremony that include recitation of texts that reinforce the
memory of particular doctrines and ideas, in imagistic religious contexts:

virtually no attempt was made to communicate religious ideas as bodies of doctrine.

Revelations were codified in iconic imagery, transmitted primarily through the choreogra-
phy of collective ritual performances. Religious representations were structured as sets of
revelatory images connected by loose (and somewhat fluid) thematic associations, rather
than as cohering strings of logically connected dogma.48

Such a set of images connected by loose associations describes quite well the
nature of the evidence from the Greek-Egyptian context. The significance of the
religious experience depends not on understanding the meaning of the myth or
ritual but upon the vivid images of the myth (the goddess wailing for her lost
loved one) or the extraordinary experience of the rite itself. That is to say, it is the
similarity of the experience of the phallic procession or the ritual laments and
search for the lost one that truly does matter most to the ancient Greek interpreter
and thus truly is the most solid ground upon which he can explain a comparison
of Greek and Egyptian rituals to a Greek audience.

46 Plu. Is. et Os. 365F: αἱ γὰρ εἰρημέναι περὶ τὰς ἑορτὰς καὶ τὰς θυσίας οἰκειότητες ἐναργεστέραν
τῶν μαρτύρων τὴν πίστιν ἔχουσι.
47 Burkert 1987, 89–114.
48 Whitehouse 2000, 14.

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 Dionysos in Egypt? Epaphian Dionysos in the Orphic Hymns 431

The connection of Dionysos to Apis and Osiris implied by the epithet Epaphie
in the Hymn therefore does not depend on the identification of some chthonic or
underworldly aspect of Dionysos. Indeed, it is striking, when examining the
ancient testimonies that connect the deities, to note the absence of connections
made between Osiris as ruler of the dead and Dionysos, the first connection made
by most modern scholars. The ancient thinkers who identified the gods did so
primarily on the basis of the kinds of ritual experiences associated with the two
figures, not on the basis of a classification like chthonic or Olympian. Diodorus
identifies Epaphos as the Egyptian Dionysos, not as the ruler of the dead or the
one who conquers death, but as the one responsible for the rites in Egypt.49 In
Euripides’ Phoinissai, the Theban chorus invokes Epaphos as the child of Io, who
is the προμάτωρ of all the Thebans. Epaphos is thus an ancestor of Dionysos, an
Egyptian child of Zeus who must be invoked by a barbarian (Egyptian) cry, hailed
with foreign prayers and rites.50
By the time of Plutarch and the Orphic Hymn, the identification has become
traditional; Plutarch can dismiss Mnaseas’ presumably learned and lengthy iden-
tification of Dionysos, Osiris, and Serapis to Epaphos with a brief mention, while
the Orphic Hymn tosses in the epithet, Epaphie, among a long string of other
identifications for the god. To invoke Dionysos as Epaphian, then, is to evoke the
kind of rituals for Dionysos which Greek thinkers for centuries had connected
with rites of Osiris and Apis in Egypt, joyous processions celebrating the arrival of
the god and mournful searches and lamentations for the absent god. Such rituals
may indeed have been the same as those evoked by the epithet Lenaie, the aspect
of Dionysos to whom the hymn is addressed. My investigation of the epithet,
Epaphie, by means of the comparisons made by Greek thinkers such as Herodo-
tus, Diodorus, and Plutarch, suggests that modern scholars need to take such
ritual connections more seriously and abandon the attempts to find doctrinal

49 D. S. 3.74.1: τὸν δὲ δεύτερόν φασιν ἐξ Ἰοῦς τῆς Ἰνάχου Διὶ γενόμενον βασιλεῦσαι μὲν τῆς
Αἰγύπτου, καταδεῖξαι δὲ τὰς τελετάς. ‘The second Dionysos, as men say, who was born to Zeus by
Io, the daughter of Inachus, became king of Egypt and appointed the initiatory rites of that land.’
50 E. Ph. 676–689: καὶ σέ, τὸν προμάτορος / Ἰοῦς ποτ᾽ ἔκγονον / Ἔπαφον, ὦ Διὸς γένεθλον, /
[ἐκάλες᾽] ἐκάλεσα βαρβάρῳ βοᾷ, / ἰώ, βαρβάροις λιταῖς· Iβᾶθι βᾶθι τάνδε γᾶν·| – σοί νιν ἔκγονοι
κτίσαν| καὶ διώνυμοι θεαί,| Περσέφασσα καὶ φίλα / Δαμάτηρ θεά, / πάντων ἄνασσα, πάντων δὲ Γᾶ
τροφός, / κτήσαντο – πέμπε πυρφόρους / θεάς, ἄμυνε τᾷδε γᾷ· / πάντα δ᾽ εὐπετῆ θεοῖς. ‘And you,
Epaphus, born from Io, our first mother, and child of Zeus: you I summon in foreign cry, oh! in
foreign prayers: come, come to this land; your descendants settled here; and the goddesses of
twofold name, Persephone and the kindly goddess Demeter the queen of all, Earth the nurse of all,
won it for themselves; send to the help of this land those torch-bearing goddesses; for to gods all
things are easy.’

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432 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

significance in the myths of Dionysos, especially the dismembered Dionysos

whose rites, Herodotus and Diodorus tells us, were brought from Egypt.

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Redefining
Dionysos

Edited by
Alberto Bernabé, Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui,
Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal,
Raquel Martín Hernández

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MythosEikonPoiesis

Herausgegeben von
Anton Bierl
Wissenschaftlicher Beirat:
Gregory Nagy, Richard Martin

Band 5

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isbn 978-3-11-030091-8
e-isbn 978-3-11-030132-8
issn 1868-5080

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