In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Iacchus (also Iacchos, Iakchos) () was a minor deity, of some cultic importance, particularly at Athens and Eleusis in connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries, but without any significant mythology.Graf 2005, "Iacchus"; Hard, p. 134; Grimal, s.v. Iacchus, p. 224; Tripp, s.v. Iacchus; Rose, Oxford Classical Dictionary s.v. Iacchus; Smith, s.v. Iacchus. He perhaps originated as the personification of the ritual exclamation Iacche! cried out during the Eleusinian procession from Athens to Eleusis.Compare with Hymenaios, whose name derived from a traditional wedding-cry, see Hard, p. 223. He was often identified with Dionysus, perhaps because of the resemblance of the names Iacchus and Bacchus, another name for Dionysus. By various accounts he was a son of Demeter (or apparently her husband), or a son of Persephone, identical with Dionysus Zagreus, or a son of Dionysus.
During the Greco-Persian Wars, when the Attic countryside, deserted by the Greeks, was being laid waste by the Persians, a ghostly procession was supposed to have been seen advancing from Eleusis, crying out “Iacchus”. This miraculous event was interpreted as a sign of the eventual Greek victory at the Battle of Salamis (480 BC).Herodotus, 8.65. Iacchus was also possibly involved in an Eleusinian myth in which the old woman Baubo, by exposing her genitals, cheered up the mourning Demeter.
Cult Iacchus was one of the deities, along with Demeter and Kore (Persephone), worshipped as part of the Eleusinian Mysteries.Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, p. 125. The late 1st-century BC geographer Strabo called him the ἀρχηγέτην ("leader-in-chief" or "founder") "of the mysteries".Strabo, 10.3.10; Farnell, p. 146. However Farnell, p. 148, arguing that Iacchus was a late addition to the Eleusinian Mysteries, discounts Iacchus as "founder of the mysteries" saying: "if Strabo, in styling [Iacchus] the ἀρχηγέτης τῶν μυστηρίων, means more than that he led the mystae down the saced way to the mystic shrine, we need not be influenced by Strabo against better evidence."
Statue, temple, and feast day
There was a statue of Iacchus kept in a temple at Athens. According to the 2nd-century AD geographer Pausanias, the statue held a torch and was by the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles.Pausanias, 1.2.4, 1.37.4. A passage from Aristophanes' The Frogs (405 BC) suggests it wore a crown of myrtle.Mylonas, p. 253; Aristophanes, Frogs 323–330. According to Pausanias, the statue was kept in a temple of Demeter located near the Dipylon gate, the main entrance to ancient Athens. The temple was perhaps the one that Plutarch referred to as the "so called Iaccheion".Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, pp. 129–130; Graf 2005, "Iacchus"; Mylonas, pp. 253–254; Farnell, p. 147; Plutarch, Aristides 27.3. Nearby was the Pompeion, the building which was the assembly point for the procession celebrating the Eleusinian Mysteries. According to the 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia the Suda, Iacchus was also the name of his "feast" day, presumably the day that Iacchus was carried to Eleusis as part of the Eleusinian procession.Suda, s.v. Ἴακχος (iota,16); Rose, Oxford Classical Dictionary s.v. Iacchus; Harrison, p. 542; Farnell, p. 147.
Eleusinian procession Iacchus and his statue played an important part in the Eleusinian procession.Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, p. 125; Versnel, p. 25; Kerényi 1967, pp. 62–66; Mylonas, pp. 252–258. Plutarch referred to the procession as ἐξαγόντων Ἴακχον (“leading out Iacchus”).Plutarch, Themistocles 15.1; Graf 2005, "Iacchus". See also Plutarch, Camillus 19.6, Alcibiades 34.3, Phocion 28.1. On 19 Boedromion (probably), the statue of Iacchus was taken from its temple and carried as part of the procession of the participants in the Mysteries who walked from Athens to Eleusis, arriving on 20 Boedromion (corresponding to the 28th or 29 September).Leaving Athens on 19th Boedromion, and arriving in Eleusis on the 20th, are the most likely dates for the procession, see Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, pp. 125, 129; Versnel, p. 25; Kerényi 1967, p. 62; Mylonas, p. 252; Dow, pp. 113–115; Farnell, p. 147 n. a. Along the way, the participants in the procession would cry out the cultic exclamation, Iacche!Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 149; Graf 2005, "Iacchus"; Farnell, p. 147; Herodotus, 8.65; Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 2.16.3. See also Aristophanes, Frogs 316–336, 340–353, 396–404.
There was a special official associated with Iacchus and his statue called the Ἰακχαγωγός ('leader/bearer of Iacchus'), whose function presumably was to carry or accompany the statue of Iacchus during the procession.Clinton 1974, p. 96; Farnell, p. 147. The Ἰακχαγωγός is listed as one of the Eleusinian officials receiving an endowment (c. 160–170 AD),The "Eleusinian endowment": Inscriptiones Graecae ||2 1092.31. appears in a list of Eleusinian priests given by the 2nd-century AD Julius Pollux,Julius Pollux, Onomasticon I 35. and had a reserved seat in the prohedria ("seats in front") of the Theater of Dionysus at Athens.Inscriptiones Graecae II2 5044.2. An incumbent of the office (126/7 AD) is mentioned on four dedications.Inscriptiones Graecae ||2 3733.20–21, 3734.1–3, 4771.11–12, 4772.7–9.
A parody of the Eleusinian procession appears in Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs, set in Hades (the underworld).Versnel, p. 24; Kerényi 1967, p. 9; Harrison, pp. 540–541. There a chorus of dead mystics, singing and dancing in procession, chant their "hymn to Iacchus": "O Iacchus, Iacchus O!", and sing, Iacchus, here abiding in temples most reverend, Iacchus, O Iacchus, come to dance in this meadow; to your holy mystic bands Shake the leafy crown around your head, brimming with myrtle, Boldly stomp your feet in time to the wild fun-loving rite, with full share of the Graces, the holy dance, sacred to your mystics.323–336.
and,
Awake, for it has come tossing torches in hand, Iacchos, Oh Iacchos, the light-bringing star of our nocturnal rite. Now the meadow brightly burns Old men's knees start to sway. They shake away their pains and the long cycles of ancient years Through your holy rite. Beaming with your torch, lead forth to the flowering stretch of marsh the youth that makes your choruses, o blessed one!340–353.
and,
Now then Summon the god of the hour with your songs the partner of this dance of ours. Iacchus, honored by all, deviser of our festal song most sweet, follow us here to the goddess and show us how you travel a long road with ease. Iacchus, lover of the dance, lead me onward,396–404.
The Lenaea Iacchus also played a role in the Lenaia, the winter Athenian festival of Dionysus.Guía, pp. 109–113; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 149. Guía, p. 110, suggests that at the Lenaia, Iacchus, in addition to being a young man, and torchbearer, was possibly personified as a child, 'The son of Semele'. According to the scholiast on the Frogs of Aristophanes, participants at the Lenaia responded to the command to "Invoke the god" with the invocation, "Hail, Iacchos, son of Semele, thou giver of wealth."Translation by Farnell, p. 149 (citing scholiast on Frogs 482). See also Guía, pp. 103, 109; Bowie, A. M., p. 233; Rose, Oxford Classical Dictionary s.v. Iacchus; Versnel, p. 25; scholiast on Aristophanes, Frogs 479 (Rutherford, p. 332); PMG 879 (Page, p. 466). According to the scholiast, the command to call on the god was proclaimed by the Daduchos, a high Eleusinian official (Farnell, p. 149; Guía, p. 103).
At Delphi? The name Iacchus—identified with Dionysus—was also possibly associated with cultic ritual at Delphi.Guía, pp. 109–113, which adds the qualification "at least in Attic tragedy" (p. 110). Sophocles' Antigone, referring to nocturnal rites occurring on Mount Parnassus above Delphi, contains the invocation: O Leader of the chorus of the stars whose breath is fire, overseer of the chants in the night, son begotten of Zeus, appear, my king, with your attendant Thyiads, who in night-long frenzy dance and sing you as Iacchus the Giver!Sophocles, Antigone, 1146–1154.
Name and origin Iacchus seems to have originated as the personification of the cultic exclamation, Iacche, cried out by participants during the Eleusinian procession,Harrison, p. 413; Foucart, pp. 110–113; Persson, p. 151; Guthrie, pp. 287–288; Mylonas, p. 238; Versnel, p. 26; Clinton 1974, p. 96; Grimal, s.v. Iacchus; Graf 2005, "Iaccus"; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 149; Guía, p. 112, who asserts that "the figure of Iacchos probably originated in Athens as a ritual song or cry, not initially in relation to the mysteries and the Eleusinian festival, but in the context of the agricultural festivals of Dionysos". with the exclamation itself, having apparently derived from ιαχή ("cry"), ιάχω ("to cry").Versnel, p. 27; Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, p. 127. It has been suggested that the cry "iacche’’ over time came to be interpreted as the vocative form of a name "Iacchus".Versnel, p. 27; Encinas Reguero, p. 350. In addition to being the cultic cry, "iacchus" was also a term for a kind of song or hymn of worship, possibly unassociated with the god.Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, p. 128; Guía, p. 110 n. 46; Liddell & Scott, s.v. Ἴακχος; Suda Ἴακχος (iota,16). For example, see Euripides, The Trojan Women 1230: νεκρῶν ἴακχον, where ἴακχον is used to denote a threnody, a lament for the dead, thus Coleridge translates the line as "Wail for the dead"; Cyclops 68–71, where the song "Iacchos Iacchos" is sung to Aphrodite; Palamedes fr. 586 Kannicht [apud Strabo, 10.3.13] (= fr. 586 Nauck) (Collard and Cropp, pp. 56, 57), where the word ἰάκχοις, translated by Collard and Cropp as "revel-cries", is used to refer to the sound of Dionysiac tambourines (τυμπάνων).
Identification with Dionysus Iacchus is associated with Dionysus at least as early as the 5th century BC.Jiménez San Cristóbal 2012, p. 125; Bowie, A. M., p. 232; Harrison, pp. 540–542. The association may have arisen because of the homophony of the names Iacchus and Bacchus, one of the names of Dionysus. Two black-figure lekythoi (c. 500 BC) may represent the earliest evidence for such an association. The nearly-identical vases, one in BerlinAntikensammlung Berlin F1961 (Beazley Archive 302354). and the other in Rome,National Etruscan Museum 42884, (Beazley Archive 9017720). depict Dionysus along with the inscription IAKXNE, a possible miswriting of IAKXE.Versnel, pp. 32 ff.; Bowie, A. M., p. 232.