In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus () was a god sometimes identified with an Orphic Dionysus who was dismembered by the Titans and reborn.Gantz, p. 118; Hard, p. 35; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456. In the earliest mention of Zagreus, he is paired with Gaia and called the "highest" god, though perhaps only in reference to the gods of the underworld. Aeschylus, however, links Zagreus with Hades, possibly as Hades' son, or as Hades himself.Sommerstein, p. 237 n. 1; Gantz, p. 118; Smyth, p. 459. Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' katachthonios alter ego", Timothy Gantz postulated that Zagreus, might have been a son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone.Gantz, p. 119.
Etymology and origins According to Martin Litchfield West, the "most plausible etymology" derives "Zagreus" from zagre, which is "properly a pit for catching animals, but perhaps also one used for depositing animal remains or offerings to a chthonic deity", making Zagreus literally the "god of pitfalls".West 1983, p. 153. Based on this etymology, Karl Kerényi concludes that zagreus was the Greek word for a "hunter who catches living animals", and that "an exact translation" of "Zagreus" would be "catcher of game".Kerényi, p. 82.
As West notes, the word zagre, which only survives in Hesychius, has an Ionic ending.West 1983, p. 153 n. 29, see Hesychius s.v. ζάγρη, defined as βόθρος, λάπαθον. See also Kerényi, p. 82, with note 101. So if "Zagreus" does derive from zagre, then this would suggest an Ionian origin for Zagreus. But, according to Kerényi, Hesychius' definition of zagre, "proves that the name contains the root zoë and zoön", the Greek words for "life" and "Living thing",Kerényi, p. 82; LSJ s.vv. ζωή, ζῷον. and according to West "the vocalism, Zā- for Zō-, points to a Doric or North-west Greek home for the god".West 1983, p. 153 n. 39. West speculates that "some poet writing in Ionic must have taken over the dialect word, probably as a technical term."
The tenth-century Etymologicum Gudianum interpreted the name as "great hunter", deriving the word from za- ("very") and agreuein ("hunt"), an etymology rejected by both West and Kerényi.West 2003, p. 61 n. 17; Kerényi, p. 82; Astour, p. 202 (which, while noting that this etymology "seems to be very plausible ... (such avatars of Dionysos as Aqht and Actaeon were famous hunters)", also says "the prefix za- normally goes with adjectives and not with nouns, while agreus is a noun".); Etymologicum Gudianum s.v. Ζαγρεύς [= Alcmeonis fr. 3 West]. Others have suggested a relationship with the Zagros Mountains of western Iran,West 1983, p. 153 n. 39; Astour, p. 202. while Michael C. Astour suggests a derivation from the Ugaritic Sġr (pronounced ṣaġru?) meaning "the Young One".Astour, pp. 202–204.
Underworld The early mentions of Zagreus, which occur only in fragments from lost works, connect Zagreus with the Greek underworld.Gantz, pp. 118–119. The earliest is in a single quoted line from the (6th century BC?)West 2003, p. 11. epic Alcmeonis:
Perhaps here meaning the highest god of the underworld.According to West 2003, p. 61 n. 17: "The line perhaps comes from a prayer in which Alcmaon called upon the powers of the earth to send up his father Amphiaraus."
Evidently for Aeschylus, Zagreus was an underworld god. In a fragment from one of Aeschylus' lost Sisyphus plays (c. 5th century BC), Zagreus seems to be the son of Hades,Gantz, p. 118; West 1983, p. 153; Aeschylus fr. 228 Sommerstein [= fr. 228 Radt = fr. 124 Smyth]. while in Aeschylus' Egyptians (Aigyptioi), Zagreus was apparently identified with Hades himself.Gantz, p. 118 (citing Aeschylus fr. 5 Radt); Sommerstein, p. 237, fr. 228 n. 1.
A fragment from Euripides' lost play Cretans (Kretes) has the chorus of Cretan men describe the "pure life" they have led since they became initiates (mystai) of Idaean Zeus and celebrants of:
and were consecrated and received the title of "Bacchus".Gantz, p. 118; West 1983, p. 153. This passage associates Zagreus with the cult of Zeus at Cretan Mount Ida, where the infant Zeus was guarded by the Cretan Curetes. According to West, Zagreus here is "a god of nocturnal mystery-rites, associated with a sacramental feast of raw flesh (and thus with the dismemberment of an animal victim)" and infers from this Euripidean passage that Zagreus "played a part in mysteries which claimed a Cretan origin."West 1983, pp. 153–154. Richard L. Gordon suggests that Zagreus was originally a master of animals god who became syncretized with Hades.Brill's New Pauly, s.v. Zagreus.
Orphic Dionysus Zagreus
The Zagreus from the Euripides fragment is suggestive of Dionysus, the wine god son of Zeus and Semele,Gantz, p, 118; West 1983, p. 154. and in fact, although it seems not to occur anywhere in Orphic sources, the name “Zagreus” is elsewhere identified with an Orphic Dionysus, who had a very different tradition from the standard one.According to Gantz, p. 118, "Orphic sources preserved seem not to use the name 'Zagreus, and according to West 1983, p. 153, the "name was probably not used in the Orphic narrative". Edmonds 1999, p. 37 n. 6 says: "Lobeck 1892 seems to be responsible for the use of the name Zagreus for the Orphic Dionysos. As Linforth noticed, 'It is a curious thing that the name Zagreus does not appear in any Orphic poem or fragment, nor is it used by any author who refers to Orpheus' (Linforth 1941:311). In his reconstruction of the story, however, Lobeck made extensive use of the fifth-century CE epic of Nonnos, who does use the name Zagreus, and later scholars followed his cue. The association of Dionysos with Zagreus appears first explicitly in a fragment of Callimachus preserved in the Etymologicum Magnum (fr. 43.117 P), with a possible earlier precedent in the fragment from Euripides Cretans (fr. 472 Nauck). Earlier evidence, however, (e.g., Alkmaionis fr. 3 PEG; Aeschylus frr. 5, 228) suggests that Zagreus was often identified with other deities." This Dionysus Zagreus was a son of Zeus and Persephone who was, as an infant, attacked and dismembered by the Titans,Linforth, pp. 310–311. but later reborn as the son of Zeus and Semele.Meisner, pp. 267–268; Diodorus Siculus, 3.64.1, 4.4.1, 5.75.4 [= Orphic fr. 283 I Bernabé (I p. 235) = fr. 303 Kern]; Hyginus, Fabulae 167; Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5.562–70, 6.155–231. This dismemberment of Dionysus Zagreus (the sparagmos), taken together with an assumed Orphic anthropogony, in which human beings arose from the ashes of the Titans (who had been struck by Zeus with his thunderbolt in punishment for the dismembering), is sometimes called the "Zagreus myth".Meisner, p. 238; Chrysanthou, p. 85; Edmonds 2013, p. 297. This story has often been considered the most important myth of Orphism,According to Meisner, p. 238, "[o]ver the last two centuries, many scholars have considered this narrative of Dionysus and the Titans to have been the central, defining myth of Orphism". For example, in the first half of the 20th century, Nilsson, p. 202 described it as "the cardinal myth of Orphism", and Guthrie, p. 107 similarly called the myth "the central point of Orphic story", while Linforth, p. 307 said it is "commonly regarded as essentially and peculiarly Orphic and the very core of the Orphic religion". More recently, Parker 2002, p. 495 writes that "it has been seen as the Orphic 'arch-myth'", while, according to Meisner, p. 9, Edmonds "argues that the myth of Dionysus Zagreus was not nearly as central to Orphic thought as modern scholars have assumed". and has been described as "one of the most enigmatic and intriguing of all Greek myths".Henrichs, p. 61.
The sparagmos As pieced together from various ancient sources, the reconstructed story of the sparagmos, that is, the dismemberment of Dionysus Zagreus, usually given by modern scholars, goes as follows:West 1983, pp. 73–74, provides a detailed reconstruction with numerous cites to ancient sources, with a summary on p. 140. For other summaries, see Meisner, p. 237; Graf and Johnston, p. 67; Morford, p. 311; Hard, p. 35; March, s.v. Zagreus, p. 788; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456; Burkert, pp. 297–298; Guthrie, p. 82; also see Ogden, p. 80. For a detailed examination of many of the ancient sources about this myth, see Linforth, pp. 307–364. The most extensive account in ancient sources is found in Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5.562–70, 6.155 ff., other principal sources include Diodorus Siculus, 3.62.6–8 [= Orphic fr. 301 Kern], 3.64.1–2, 4.4.1–2, 5.75.4 [= Orphic fr. 283 I Bernabé (I p. 235) = fr. 303 Kern]; Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.110–114; Athenagoras of Athens, Legatio 20 Pratten [= Orphic fr. 58 Kern]; Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.17.2–18.2 (Butterworth, pp. 36–39 15 P.) [= Orphic frr. 306 I (I p. 249), 312 I (I p. 256), 315 I (I p. 257), 318 I (I p. 260), 322 I (p. 265), 588 I (II p. 169) Bernabé = frr. 34, 35 Kern]; Hyginus, Fabulae 155, 167; Suda s.v. Ζαγρεύς. See also Pausanias, 7.18.4, 8.37.5. Zeus had intercourse with Persephone in the form of a serpent, producing Dionysus. He is taken to Mount Ida where (like the infant Zeus) he is guarded by the dancing Curetes. Zeus intended Dionysus to be his successor as ruler of the cosmos, but a jealous Hera incited the Titans to kill the child. Distracting the infant Dionysus with various toys, including a mirror, the Titans seized Dionysus and tore (or cut)West 1983, p. 160 remarks that while "many sources speak of Dionysus' being 'rent apart' ... those who use more precise language say that he was cut up with a knife". him to pieces. The pieces were then boiled, roasted, and partially eaten by the Titans. But Athena managed to save Dionysus' heart, by which Zeus was able to contrive his rebirth from Semele.