Dionysus is a symbol of immortality on many sarcophagi as late as the third century.

Freud coined the term libido from the Roman divinity Liber: it is the presence of of Liber within us. Who, then, is Liber? None other than the Roman form of Dionysos, the androgenous god of fertility, passion, and life. The instinctual energies of the libido are Dionysos as he resides within each of us. He is of neither particular sex because he is the source of both, and when his divided halves are restored to their primal unity, his full presence sweeps over us. He becomes Dionysos Polygethes, "The Joyous," and Lysios, "The Liberator." Ecstacy is life's experience of itself.

(from "Dionysos: The Masks of Madness" by Robert Luyster, published in PARABOLA, Winter 1995)

       
Ancient Sexuality
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