ng.
_Kissos_--the Greek word for Ivy--was a young faun beloved by Bacchus,
who accompanied the god of the Cup and of life, in all his strange
adventures. Mad with wine, Kissos once at an orgie danced until he fell
dead. Then his lord, grieving bitterly, raised the beloved form in his
arms, and, changing it to Ivy, wreathed it around his brow. It is the
old story of death and revival.

But we may expect to find of course a feminine goddess, or demi-goddess,
whose name includes the same root as Kissos--and she appears in
_Kiseis_, one of the nymphs to whom Bacchus gave the infant Bacchus to
be brought up. For her reward, she was placed by Bacchus among the
stars--in the constellation of the weeping Hyades--that she might have a
place in heaven. Apropos of which we may quote the words of the quaint
old Jesuit GALTRUCHIUS, saying that 'Bacchus was brought up with the
Nymphs, which teacheth us that we must mix Water with our Wine.'[2]

We also find that _Kisaea_, was, at Epidaurus, one of the names of
Minerva. Notwithstanding the apparent dissimilarity between the wild god
of wine and the goddess of calm wisdom, it was still taught in the
mysteries that they had an affinity in more than one lower form, and, of
course, an _identity_ in their highest. 'The temple of Bacchus,' says
Galtruchius, 'was next to _Minerva's_, to express how useful Wine is to
revive the Spirits, and enable our Fancy to Invent.'[3] In the older
worship, Minerva was one with Venus, Diana, Proserpine--the generating
female principle of love and of beauty being of course predominant. 'In
this _unity_ or identity of barbarian divinities,' says Creuzer
(_Symbolik_, IV. _Theil_), ('to speak like the Greeks') 'we must,
however, seek for the source of that _variety_ which made the Greeks so
rich in gods; and what had in Hellas been separated into so many,
remained by the 'barbarians' single and undivided. Therefore the older a
Greek local worship might be, so much the more did it in this resemble
the barbarian. * * So we have truly learned in Argos, Laconia, Dodona,
and Sicily, * * that Proserpine was one and the same with Venus and
Diana, and the identity with Minerva may also be proved.' For the proof
I refer the reader to his work. With Venus, however, Bacchus had amours,
begetting Priapus. Certain it is that the Ivy _Kissos_ appears in both
male and female names.

But as the Ivy formed the cup--_kissubion_--into which life entered, and
from which it was