Ampelos
Ampelos ( ancient Greek Ἄμπελος Ámpelos , German 'vine' ) is a young satyr and the personification of the vine in Greek and Roman mythology . After Ampelos, the grape variety was called ampelography .
Ancient mythology
In the Greek Dionysiaka of Nonnos Ampelos is in Asia Minor Lydia the mistress of Dionysus . While riding a bull while hunting, he falls down and is trampled to death. As a consolation for Dionysus, Zeus transforms him into the first vine . Dionysus first plants the new plant in a bird's bone. When this becomes too small, he exchanges it for a lion bone and finally for that of a donkey. So Dionysus can take the vine everywhere and spread it all over the world.
In the Roman Fasti of Ovid Ampelos is the son of a nymph and a satyr. In the Greek countryside of Thrace he becomes Bacchus's lover . When he climbs a tree to pick grapes from a vine that has grown up there, he falls down and dies. Bacchus then takes him to heaven as Vindemitor ( Bootes ).
literature
- Heinrich Wilhelm Stoll : Ampelos . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 292 ( digitized version ).
- Wolfgang Fauth : Eidos poikilon . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981, ISBN 3-525-25162-9 .
- Nicole Kröll: The youth of Dionysus . The Ampelos episode in the Dionysiacs of the Nonnos of Panopolis (= Millennium Studies / Millennium Studies . Volume 62 ). De Gruyter, Berlin and Boston 2016 ( open-access book ).
