Iacchus

Iacchus (Iakchos) was the god whose name was cried in the procession from Athens to Eleusis at the Eleusinian Mysteries, and who led the initiates to the festival of Demeter and her daughter. By the fifth century BC he was closely linked with Dionysus, and poets sometimes use the name Iacchus for Dionysus himself.

Iacchus and the Eleusinian Mysteries

The Cry and the Procession

Iacchus is first seen in the sources as a shout and a song. Herodotus tells how, while Attica was being laid waste by the army of Xerxes, the Athenian exile Dicaeus and the Spartan Demaratus saw a cloud of dust rising from Eleusis across the Thriasian plain, as if raised by the feet of about thirty thousand men, and heard a cry that seemed to be the “Iacchus” of the mysteries. Demaratus asked what it meant, and Dicaeus answered that it was the cry they uttered at the festival for the Mother and the Maiden (Herodotus 8.65). In the same way, Plutarch reports that before the battle of Salamis a great light flamed out from Eleusis and an echoing cry filled the Thriasian plain down to the sea, “as of multitudes of men together conducting the mystic Iacchus in procession” (Plutarch, Themistocles 15.1).

Plutarch says that on the twentieth of Boedromion the Athenians “escort the mystic Iacchus forth” from the city to Eleusis (Plutarch, Camillus 19.6; Phocion 28.1). Sacrifices, choral dances and many sacred ceremonies were held along the road when Iacchus was conducted forth from Athens to Eleusis (Plutarch, Alcibiades 34.3).

Iacchus in Aristophanes’ Frogs

Aristophanes brings the procession on stage in the Frogs. The chorus of initiates sing to “Iacchus, much honoured, dwelling here in your seats,” and ask him to come and dance in the meadow (Aristophanes, Frogs 324–326). They call him the “torch-bearing star of the nocturnal rite” (Frogs 340–343), and later invite the youthful god, “companion of our dance,” to come with the song of the festival (Frogs 395–399). Pausanias saw at Athens, by the temple of Demeter, images of the goddess, of her daughter, and of Iacchus holding a torch, which an inscription attributed to Praxiteles (Pausanias 1.2.4).

Iacchus and Dionysus

The tragic poets use the name for Dionysus. In Sophocles’ Antigone, the chorus calls on Dionysus, leader of the fire-breathing stars, to come with the Maenads who sing him as “Iacchus, the giver” (Sophocles, Antigone 1146–1152). In Euripides’ Bacchae, the Bacchants of Cithaeron are said to call on “Iacchus, the son of Zeus, Bromius, with united voice” (Euripides, Bacchae 725), and Virgil’s shepherd calls the vine most pleasing to Iacchus (Virgil, Eclogues 7.61). Strabo explains that the Greeks gave the name Iacchus not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries, who is the genius of Demeter (Strabo 10.3.10). Lucian lists “the rending of Iacchus” among the stories told in the dance (Lucian, On the Dance 39). Because of this, the ancient authors do not give Iacchus a single, fixed parentage; Euripides calls him a son of Zeus, and Strabo links him with Demeter.

Iacchus Sources

Herodotus 8.65; Plutarch, Themistocles 15.1, Camillus 19.6, Alcibiades 34.3, Phocion 28.1; Aristophanes, Frogs 316–343, 395–416; Pausanias 1.2.4; Sophocles, Antigone 1146–1152; Euripides, Bacchae 725; Strabo 10.3.10; Lucian, On the Dance 39; Virgil, Eclogues 7.61.

See Also: Dionysus, Demeter, Persephone, Zeus, Eleusis, Eleusinian Mysteries