or is the phallus-cult peculiar to Dionysus;
this cult is widely diffused, and its origin is to be referred not
specifically to the recognition of the general generative power of
nature, but to the mystery of human life.[1340] In his original home
Dionysus seems to have represented everything that touched the life of
his people. When, at a certain time, he passed into Hellas (carried,
doubtless, by immigrants), he took on the character necessitated by his
new surroundings--a process of transformation began. Exact chronological
data are lacking, but as in the Iliad[1341] he is the son of Zeus, he
must have been adopted by the Greeks very early. In his new home he
became the patron of the vine.[1342] In a vine-growing region any
prominent deity may become a wine-god;[1343] but the special connection
of Dionysus with wine in Greece suggests that in his earlier home he was
somehow identified with intoxicating drinks. With vegetation in general
also he may have been connected in Thrace--such a relation would be
natural for a clan god--and in that case his Hellenic role as god of
vegetation would follow as a matter of course; or, if he advanced from
the vine to the whole of vegetable nature, the development is
intelligible.

+778+. When and on what grounds he was accepted as one of the Olympians
is not clear;[1344] perhaps it was on account of the importance of vine
culture, perhaps from the mysterious character of his cult, the
enthusiasm of divine inspiration reflected in the frenzy of the
worshipers, or from these causes combined; his later name, Bacchus,
which seems to refer to cultic orgiastic shouting, would appear to
indicate this element of the cult as a main source of his popularity.
Once established as a great god he was credited with various functions.
The Greek drama arose in connection with his worship, and at Eleusis the
old element of seizure by the god was transformed by the higher thought
of the time into the conception of ethical union with the deity. Thus
the old savage god came to stand for man's highest aspirations.

+779+. As among other peoples, so among the Greeks the government of the
Underworld was gradually organized, and a head thereof appointed.[1345]
Already in the Iliad and in Hesiod[1346] the universe is divided into
three parts under the rule of the Kronids Zeus, Poseidon, and Aides
respectively; the earth, however, and Olympos, says Poseidon, are the
common property of them all--there was no