The Roman god Bacchus corresponds to the Greek god Dionysus and was adopted more or less one-to-one by the Romans. His name derives from bacchos (shouter, shouting), as he was called because of the noise caused by his boisterous entourage. Bacchus is the Roman god of fertility and ecstasy, of wine and viticulture. His external attributes are the thyrsos staff wreathed with ivy and vines (fertility symbol) and the kantharos (drinking vessel for wine). He travels through the lands accompanied by the satyrs (mixed creatures of man and goat representing revelry and fertility demons devoted to dance and wine) and nymphs led by the god Pan. The Bacchanalia (boisterous festivities with excessive consumption of wine) named after the god correspond to the Greek Dionysia. Images of Bacchus have been created by countless painters and sculptors; among them a bronze statue from Pompeii, which was destroyed in 79 AD during the eruption of Vesuvius. AD, which was buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
In what is now Lebanon, a temple in honour of Bacchus was built under Roman rule in the 2nd century AD in the ancient city of Baalbek (Greek: Heliopolis) in the Bekaa Valley on the edge of the Atlas Mountains. It was excavated at the beginning of the 20th century and bears witness to the splendour of this era. Even today, this is the Lebanese wine-growing centre. In Germany, there is a new variety created by Peter Morio (1887-1960) called Bacchus. The wine god Bacchus is depicted with a bunch of grapes on the supra-regional quality mark Deutsches Wein siegel for wines of outstanding quality. In Austria there is the Bacchus Prize awarded by ÖWM for special services to Austrian wine. For more information on this topic, see also Wine customs, Intoxication, Satyricon, Symposion, Drinking culture and Wine gods.
Picture on the left: By Caravaggio, public domain, link
Picture middle: By Claus Ableiter - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Picture right: By Peter Paul Rubens, Public domain, Link
