0359NOTDionysus

0359NOTDionysus_Pratchett

Full Illustration
Ovid Met. 3.509-690
Apollodorus Bibl. E3.5

Terry Pratchett, Hogfather (London: Gollancz, 1996), 200 - 201.

Amidst the extensive divine apparatus of Discworld, the pancake-flat planet on which Pratchett's novel is set, the drunken figure of Bibulous is clearly drawn from the Greek god Dionysus.

Illustration (right) is excerpted from Paul Kidby, "The Gods of Discworld" in The Art of Discworld. (London: Gollancz, 2004).

Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Discworld (London: Doubleday, 2008), s.v. "Bibulous", explain the identity of Bibulous, the Discworld god of wine:

"God of wine..., he resembles a fat man who enjoys endless parties with scantily-clad young ladies. He drinks all kinds of colorful drinks with things on the ends of sticks and interesting names. Normally, he does not suffer from any hangover. Described extensively in Hogfather, wholeheartedly hated by Bilious [the Discworld god of hangovers].

[His] Roundworld reference is to Bacchus, also called Dionysus. And as the word Bibulous means given to or marked by the consumption of alcoholic drink he's a remarkably aptly-named God of Wine."

slide by CB

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.