Silenus

Silenus was the old rustic god of wine-making and drunkenness.

Silenus was depicted as a jovial old man, hairy and balding, with a pot-belly, snub-nose, and the ears and tail of a donkey. He rode in the train of Dionysus seated on the back of a donkey.

In every other respect he is described as resembling his brethren in the fondness for sleep, wine and music. He is mentioned along with Marsyas and Olympus as the inventor of the flute which he is often seen playing.

But it is a peculiar feature in his character that he was conceived also as an inspired prophet, who knew all the past and the most distant future, and as a sage who despised all the gifts of fortune; so that he becomes the representative of that wisdom which conceals itself behind a rough and uncouth external appearance, whence he is likened to Socrates.

Silenus was, in essence, the spirit of the treading dance of the wine-press, his name being derived from the words seiô, "to move to and fro," and lênos, "the wine-trough."

When he was drunk and asleep, he was in the power of mortals who might compel him to prophesy and sing by surrounding him with chains of flowers. Silenus had a temple at Elis, where Methe (Drunkenness) stood by his side handing him a cup of wine.

He is the father of Chrysopeleia and Syramour by the same mother, though he has many other children by many different mothers still in Olympus.