Zagreus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the obscure and ancient figure of
Zagreus was identified with the god Dionysus and was worshipped by followers of Orphism, whose late Orphic hymns invoke his name. A single early appearance of
Zagreus is in a quoted line from the lost epic
Alkmeonis, written in the sixth century BC if not earlier: "Mistress Earth and Zagreus who art above all other gods." An invocation linking him with the earth goddess Gaia and placing him above all other gods, could not fit easily into the Olympian religion of Zeus. In Greek a hunter who catches living animals is called
zagreus, Karl Kerenyi notes, and the Ionian word
zagre signifies a "pit for the capture of live animals" Greeks in Crete preserved a tradition that Zagreus was the son of Zeus and Persephone. Two passing references by Aeschylus link Zagreus with Hades and identify him as Hades' son; in his
Cretan Men, which survives in quoted fragments, Aeschylus mentions the "thunders of the noctural Zagreus".