Zagreus

Zagreus is also the name of a genus of ladybird beetle. See Zagreus for more information.

In Greek mythology, Zagreus was identified with the god Dionysus and was worshipped by followers of Orphism who believed him to be an ancient god of the Minoans.

According to the followers of Orphism, Zeus had lain with Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter in Orphism,^[1] in the form of a snake. The result of their union was Zagreus. Zeus had intended Zagreus to be his heir, but a jealous Hera persuaded the Titans to kill the child.

Like the infant Zeus in Cretan myth, the child Zagreus was entrusted to the Titans who distracted him with toys. While he gazed into a mirror they tried to seize him and he fled, changing into various animal forms in his attempt to escape. Finally he took the form of a bull, and in that form they caught him tore him to pieces, and devoured him. Zeus, discovering the crime, hurled a thunderbolt at the Titans, turning them to ashes, but Persephone (or in some accounts Athena or Hermes) managed to recover Zagreus' heart. From the ashes of the Titans, mixed with the divine flesh they had eaten, came humankind; this explains the mix of good and evil in humans, the story goes, for humans possess both a trace of divinity as well as the Titans' maliciousness.^[2]

Zeus implanted the still-beating heart into the mortal woman Semele, from whom the child was eventually born again, despite Hera's intervention. Some accounts say that he was reassembled and resurrected by Demeter; others, that Zeus fed his heart to Semele in a drink, making her pregnant with Dionysus.

The Orphics believed in the transmigration of souls and that a person was able to remove their intrinsic evilness by living three virtuous lives. Afterwards, they would dwell in Elysium forever.

In Orphic tradition, Persephone was the mother of Zagreus (Dionysus) by Zeus; in the Iliad, Persephone's consort Hades, king of the underworld, is called Zeus Katachthonios, "Underground Zeus". In Hesiod's account, it was by Zeus' decree that Hades abducted Persephone, suggesting that their roles are sometimes interchangeable. Both Zeus and Poseidon were consorts of Demeter. "Underworld Zeus" is linked with Demeter by Hesiod. It is this that has generated some suggestions that Zagreus may be a son of Persephone with her husband Hades. The name Zagreus is also an old epithet of Hades.^[2]

In popular culture

In Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who audio dramas, Zagreus is a nursery rhyme villain on Gallifrey. According to the legendary Book of Zagreus he is a creature of anti-time whose domain is at the end of the universe, and who is being fought by Rassilon for eternity. Zagreus is also the title of an audio drama concerning this character.

In Wyndham Lewis' 1930 satirical novel The Apes of God, there is a character named Horace Zagreus. A 60-something albino observer of the art world critically described in the novel, he serves as mentor of the hapless protagonist, Daniel Boleyn. Later, Zagreus drops Boleyn in favor of another young protegé, Archie Margolin, before finally marrying the wealthy, elderly Lady Fredigonde, generally considered to be a parody of Dame Edith Sitwell. Horace Zagreus himself is thought by some to be a caricature of Aleister Crowley or a similar figure of the period.

In the HBO drama True Blood, the character Maryann, a maenad, uses this origin story for Dionysus during a ritual. Zagreus' heart being the only remaining part of him is the reason she ritually steals the hearts of her victims in sacrifice to her god.

References

1. ^ Powell, Barry (2007). "Chapter 11: Myths of Death". Classical Myth, Fifth Edition. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Campbell, Lewis (1898). "Chapter 11: The Mysteries". Religion in Greek Literature. 

• March, J., Cassell's Dictionary Of Classical Mythology, London, 1999. ISBN 0-304-35161-X
• Article for Zagreus at the Theoi Project