Zagreus

Zagreus

Zagreus was an Underworld God of hunting and rebirth. He was a son of Hades  and Persephone, who the god seduced in the guise of a serpent. He was later re-written to become the 'first born Dionysus' and his linage was re-written to become the son of Zeus and Persephone

Mythology

Early Life

In the original pre-Orphic myths, Demeter, mother of Persephone, worried about her daughter after many gods tried to court her, so she went to the house of Astraios, the god of astrology. Astraios told Demeter to guard her daughter against a robber-bridegroom and before marriage a false and secret bedfellow will come unforeseen, a half monster and cunning mind. Demeter hid her gorgeous young daughter, in a cave deep under ground and two dragons were placed to gard the cave. Hades was bewitched by Persephone beauty and somehow found out the cave where Demeter had hid her. Hades transformed himself into a serpent, lulled the two dragons into sleep, who were guarding the cave, and managed to get inside the cave. Where the maiden goddess Persephone, was seduced by Hades in the form of a serpent. The result of their union was Zagreus. 

After a while, Persephone birthed their first child, Zagreus. Zeus loved Hades' newborn son so much he felt compelled to steal the child away. Hera jealous in fit that Zeus loved a child of Hades more so than his own, she decided out of jealously to urge the Titans to attack the child. The Titans, who were opposed to Zeus' power, sneaked into Olympos, took the child to the woods and beguiled him with toys, then dismembered him and consumed the child except for his heart. Zeus recovered the child's heart and making it into a potion, fed it to one of his many lovers: Semele. From the drink she conceived the younger Dionysos, as a reincarnation of the first.

In another tale, the genitals of Zagreus were recovered by the Kabeiroi gods of Samothrake. They deposited them in a sacred cave on the isle and instituted the Samothrakian Mysteries in his honour.

In the earliest mention of Zagreus, he is paired with Gaia (Earth) and called the “highest” god [of the underworld?] and Aeschylus links Zagreus with Hades, possibly as Hades' son, or Hades himself. Noting “Hades’ identity as Zeus’ katachthonios alter ego”, Gantz says that in the story of Zagreus written by Nonnus, Zeus disguising himself as a serpent in order to ravish Persephone, was originally the story of the first union between Hades and Persephone, whom he would later abduct. In other words, Zagreus was originally the son of Hades and Persephone, and was later re-written to become the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone.

It's also worth noting that Orpheus was the one who was said to have written the Orphic Hymns and in some sotries his death came as a result of Zeus stricking him with lightning for his lies and hubris towards Hades and Persephone.

The early mentions of Zagreus occur only in fragments from lost works. The earliest is in a single quoted line from the (6th century BC?) epic Alcmeonis:

“Mistress Earth [Gaia], and Zagreus highest of all the gods.”

Perhaps here meaning the highest god of the underworld.

And apparently for Aeschylus, Zagreus was, in fact, an underworld god. In a fragment from one of Aeschylus’ lost Sysiphus plays (c. 5th century BC), Zagreus seems to be the son of Hades, while in Aeschylus’ Egyptians (Aigyptioi), Zagreus was apparently identified with Hades himself. A fragment from Euripides’ lost play Cretan Men (Kretes) has the chorus describe themselves as initiates of Idaean Zeus and celebrants of “night-ranging Zagreus, performing his feasts of raw flesh”.

In Greek a hunter who catches living animals is called zagreus, Karl Kerényi notes, and the Ionian word zagre signifies a "pit for the capture of live animals". "We may justifiably ask," observes Kerenyi, "Why was this great mythical hunter, who in Greece became a mysterious god of the underworld, a capturer of wild animals and not a killer?" Kerényi links the figure of Zagreus with archaic Dionysiac rites in which small animals were torn limb from limb and their flesh devoured raw, "not as an emanation of the Greek Dionysian religion, but rather as a migration or survival of a prehistoric rite".

Parents

Persephone (mother) & Hades (Father)