Dionysus.
Sophocles in
Tyros [calls him so].[1] [Used] instead of[2] because an ox was given to
Dionysus by the winners of the dithyrambic [competition].[3] Alternatively the eater of raw flesh. From which
Aristophanes has even applied the name, metaphorically, to
Cratinus.
"Who [...] has neither seen or danced the orgies of the noble
Muses, nor been initiated in the Bacchic rites of the tongue of bull-eating
Cratinus."[4] As to
Aristarchus[5] and his circle, who think that [the word arises] because a bull is the prize for them; this is false. What the passage from the
Tyros of
Sophocles says [is]: "of
Dionysus the bull-eater". And because he [
Cratinus] loved wine; and because of this, they give this epithet of
Dionysus to him. Some apply the word, even more curiously, to the mother of
Cratinus, who had been initiated in the Bacchic rites, which are those of
Dionysus the calf-eater. Alternatively rash [
tolmera], from the Bacchantes.
No. of records found: 1
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