a-gnosis: 05: Zagreus-DionysosNow you have died and now you have come into being, O thrice happy one

a-gnosis: 05: Zagreus-DionysosNow you have died and now you have come into being, O thrice happy one, on this same day.Tell Persephone that the Bacchic One himself released you.From a woman’s grave in a sarcophagus in Pelinna, late 4th cent. BCE, inscribed on two ivy-shaped tablets lying on the chest of the deceased.“According to the Ionian philosopher Heraclitus, Hades and Dionysos were the same. The concept of a chthonian, underworld Dionysos who had a role to play in the fate of the soul was widespread, though not fully manifested in state religion. Instead, it was disseminated through private Bakchic mysteries, which seems to have arisen in the late Archaic period.”“An esoteric Orphic tradition held that Persephone was the mother of Zagreus, who as a child was torn apart and consumed by the Titans, yet came to life again as Dionysos in the womb of Semele. This unique experience meant that Dionysos, in conjunction with Persephone, was able to grant release from the miserable lot of the dead; thus his epithet Lysios (Releaser) had one meaning for the general public and another for the initiate.”Ancient Greek Cults: A Guide by Jennifer Larson -- source link
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