Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 104

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[104] Why do they call Bacchus Liber Pater ( Free Father)?¹

Is it because he is the father of freedom to drinkers? For most people become bold and are abounding in frank speech when they are in their cups.² Or is it because he has provided the means for libations?

Or is it derived, as Alexander³ asserts, from Dionysus Eleuthereus,⁴ so named from Eleutherae in Boeotia?

Quaestiones Romanae. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Current edition Perseus

The Roman Questions (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (2)

Αἴτια Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IV. Babbitt, Frank Cole, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).) — 104 focus

[104] διὰ τί τὸν Διόνυσον Λίβερουμ Πάτρεμ καλοῦσι;

πότερον ὡς ἐλευθερίας πατέρα τοῖς πιοῦσι 289a γιγνόμενον; γίγνονται γὰρ οἱ πολλοὶ θρασεῖς καὶ παρρησίας ὑποπιμπλῶνται περὶ τὰς μέθας· ἢ ὅτι τὴν λοιβὴν παρέσχεν; ἤ, ὡς Ἀλέξανδρός φησιν, ἀπὸ τοῦ περὶ ¹ Ἐλευθερὰς τῆς Βοιωτίας Ἐλευθερέως Διονύσου προσαγορευομένου;

Κεφαλαίων καταγραφή Ῥωμαϊκά Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙ. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 104 focus

[104] διὰ τί τὸν Διόνυσον λίβερουμ πάτρεμ καλοῦσι; πότερον ὡς ἐλευθερίας πατέρα τοῖς πιοῦσι 289a γιγνόμενον· γίγνονται γὰρ οἱ πολλοὶ θρασεῖς καὶ παρρησίας ὑποπιμπλῶνται περὶ τὰς μέθας· ἢ ὅτι τὴν λοιβὴν παρέσχεν; ἤ, ὡς Ἀλέξανδρός ¹ φησιν, ἀπὸ τοῦ παρʼ Ἐλευθερὰς τῆς Βοιωτίας Ἐλευθερέως ² Διονύσου προσαγορευομένου; 5

Translations (1)

Roman Questions Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Chauncy, Isaac translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 104 focus

[104]

Question 104.

Why did they call Bacchus Liber Pater?

Solution. Was the reason because they make him, as it were, the father of liberty to tipplers? For most men become very audacious and are filled with too much licentious prattle, by reason of too much drink. Or is this it, that he hath supplied them with a libamen, a drink-offering? Or is it, as Alexander hath said, that Bacchus is called Eleutherius from his having his abode about Eleutherae, a city of Boeotia?

Notes on the current edition

The Roman Questions

1. Cf. Petronius, Satyricon, 41, and Housman’s commentary in Classical Review, xxxii. p. 164.

2. Cf. Moralia, 716 b.

3. Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. iii. p. 244; Alexander Polyhistor.

4. Cf. the inscription on the chair of the priest of Dionysus in the theatre at Athens, Ἱερεῶς Διονύσου Ἐλευθερέως.

Plutarch Quaestiones Romanae 104

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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Question 104.

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