Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus was a god sometimes identified with an Orphic Dionysus who was dismembered by the Titans and reborn. In the earliest mention of Zagreus, he is paired with Gaia and called the "highest" god, though perhaps only in reference to the gods of the underworld. Aeschylus, however, links Zagreus with Hades, possibly as Hades' son, or as Hades himself. Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' katachthonios alter ego", Timothy Gantz postulated that Zagreus, originally the son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone.
Etymology and origins
According to Martin Litchfield West, the "most plausible etymology" derives "Zagreus" from zagre, which is "properly a pit for catching animals, but perhaps also one used for depositing animal remains or offerings to a chthonic deity", making Zagreus literally the "god of pitfalls". Based on this etymology, Karl Kerényi concludes that zagreus was the Greek word for a "hunter who catches living animals", and that "an exact translation" of "Zagreus" would be "catcher of game".As West notes, the word zagre, which only survives in Hesychius, has an Ionic ending. So if "Zagreus" does derive from zagre, then this would suggest an Ionian origin for Zagreus. But, according to Kerényi, Hesychius' definition of zagre, "proves that the name contains the root zoë and zoön", the Greek words for "life" and "Living thing", and according to West "the vocalism, Zā- for Zō-, points to a Doric or North-west Greek home for the god".
The tenth-century Etymologicum Gudianum interpreted the name as "great hunter", deriving the word from za- and agreuein, an etymology rejected by both West and Kerényi.
Others have suggested a relationship with the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. While Michael C. Astour suggests a derivation from the Ugaritic Sġr meaning "the Young One".
Underworld
The early mentions of Zagreus, which occur only in fragments from lost works, connect Zagreus with the Greek underworld. The earliest is in a single quoted line from the epic Alcmeonis:Perhaps here meaning the highest god of the underworld.
Evidently for Aeschylus, Zagreus was an underworld god. In a fragment from one of Aeschylus' lost Sisyphus plays, Zagreus seems to be the son of Hades, while in Aeschylus' Egyptians, Zagreus was apparently identified with Hades himself.
A fragment from Euripides' lost play Cretans has the chorus of Cretan men describe the "pure life" they have led since they became initiates of Idaean Zeus and celebrants of:
and were consecrated and received the title of "Bacchus". This passage associates Zagreus with the cult of Zeus at Cretan Mount Ida, where the infant Zeus was guarded by the Cretan Curetes. According to West, Zagreus here is "a god of nocturnal mystery-rites, associated with a sacramental feast of raw flesh " and infers from this Euripidean passage that Zagreus "played a part in mysteries which claimed a Cretan origin." Richard L. Gordon suggests that Zagreus was originally a master of animals god who became syncretized with Hades.
Orphic Dionysus Zagreus
The Zagreus from the Euripides fragment is suggestive of Dionysus, the wine god son of Zeus and Semele, and in fact, although it seems not to occur anywhere in Orphic sources, the name “Zagreus” is elsewhere identified with an Orphic Dionysus, who had a very different tradition from the standard one. This Dionysus Zagreus was a son of Zeus and Persephone who was, as an infant, attacked and dismembered by the Titans, but later reborn as the son of Zeus and Semele. This dismemberment of Dionysus Zagreus, taken together with an assumed Orphic anthropogony, in which human beings arose from the ashes of the Titans, is sometimes called the "Zagreus myth". This story has often been considered the most important myth of Orphism, and has been described as "one of the most enigmatic and intriguing of all Greek myths".The ''sparagmos''
As pieced together from various ancient sources, the reconstructed story of the sparagmos, that is, the dismemberment of Dionysus Zagreus, usually given by modern scholars, goes as follows: Zeus had intercourse with Persephone in the form of a serpent, producing Dionysus. He is taken to Mount Ida where he is guarded by the dancing Curetes. Zeus intended Dionysus to be his successor as ruler of the cosmos, but a jealous Hera incited the Titans to kill the child. Distracting the infant Dionysus with various toys, including a mirror, the Titans seized Dionysus and tore him to pieces. The pieces were then boiled, roasted, and partially eaten by the Titans. But Athena managed to save Dionysus' heart, by which Zeus was able to contrive his rebirth from Semele.Although the extant Orphic sources do not mention the name "Zagreus" in connection with this dismembered Dionysus, the poet Callimachus perhaps did. We know that Callimachus, as well as his contemporary Euphorion, told the story of the dismembered child, and Byzantine sources quote Callimachus as referring to the birth of a "Dionysos Zagreus", explaining that "Zagreus" was the poet's name for a chthonic Dionysus, the son of Zeus by Persephone. The earliest certain identification of Zagreus with the dismembered Dionysus occurs in the writings of the late 1st century – early 2nd century AD biographer and essayist Plutarch, who mentions "Zagreus" as one of the names given to the figure by Delphic theologians. Later, in the 5th century AD, the Greek epic poet Nonnus, who tells the story of this Orphic Dionysus, calls him the "older Dionysos... ill fated Zagreus", "Zagreus the horned baby", "Zagreus, the first Dionysos", "Zagreus the ancient Dionysos", and "Dionysos Zagreus", and the 6th-century AD Pseudo-Nonnus similarly refers to the dismembered Dionysus as "Dionysus Zagreus".
The 1st century BC historian Diodorus Siculus says that according to "some writers of myths" there were two gods named Dionysus, an older one, who was the son of Zeus and Persephone, but that the "younger one also inherited the deeds of the older, and so the men of later times, being unaware of the truth and being deceived because of the identity of their names thought there had been but one Dionysus."
According to Diodorus, this older Dionysus, was represented in painting and sculpture with horns, because he "excelled in sagacity and was the first to attempt the yoking of oxen and by their aid to effect the sowing of the seed", and the younger was "called Dimetor ... because the two Dionysoi were born of one father, but of two mothers". He also said that Dionysus "was thought to have two forms... the ancient one having a long beard, because all men in early times wore long beards, the younger one being youthful and effeminate and young."
Cooking / eating
Several accounts of the myth involved the Titans cooking and/or eating at least part of Dionysus. In the account attributed to Callimachus and Euphorion, the dismembered pieces of Dionysus were boiled in a cauldron, and Euphorion is quoted as saying that the pieces of Dionysus were placed over a fire. Diodorus also says that the pieces were "boiled", and the late 2nd century Christian writer Clement of Alexandria says that the pieces were "first boiled" in a cauldron, then pierced with spits and roasted. Arnobius, an early 4th century Christian apologist, says that Dionysus' severed parts were "thrown into pots that he might be cooked". None of these sources mention any actual eating, but other sources do. Plutarch says that the Titans "tasted his blood", the 6th century AD Neoplatonist Olympiodorus says that they ate "his flesh", and according to the 4th century euhemeristic account of the Latin astrologer and Christian apologist Firmicus Maternus, the Titans cooked the "members in various ways and devoured them", except for his heart.Resurrection / rebirth
In the version of the story apparently told by Callimachus and Euphorion, the cauldron containing the boiled pieces of Dionysus is given to Apollo for burial, who placed it beside his tripod at Delphi. And according to Philodemus, citing Euphorion, the pieces of Dionysus were "reassembled by Rhea, and brought back to life", while according to Diodorus Siculus, the reassembly and resurrection of Dionysus was accomplished by Demeter. Later Orphic sources have Apollo receive Dionysus' remains from Zeus, rather than the Titans, and it was Apollo who reassembled Dionysus, rather than Rhea or Demeter.In the accounts of Clement, and Firmicus Maternus cited above, as well as Proclus, and a scholium on Lycophron 355, Athena manages to save the heart of Dionysus, from which, according to Clement and the scholium, Athena received the name Pallas from the still beating heart. In Proclus' account, Athena takes the heart to Zeus, and Dionysus is born again from Semele. According to the Fabulae of Hyginus, Jupiter "ground up his heart, put it in a potion, and gave it to Semele to drink", and she became pregnant with Dionysus.