![]() Jane Ellen Harrison believed that the name Dionysus means "young Zeus". ![]() He suggested that the male form is νῦσος ( nūsos) and this would make Dionysus the "son of Zeus". Kretschmer asserted that νύση ( nusē) is a Thracian word that has the same meaning as νύμφη ( nýmphē), a word similar with νυός ( nuos) (daughter in law, or bride, I-E *snusós, Sanskr. On a vase of Sophilos the Nysiads are named νύσαι ( nusae). It is perhaps associated with Mount Nysa, the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by nymphs (the Nysiads), although Pherecydes of Syros had postulated nũsa as an archaic word for "tree" by the sixth century BC. The second element -nūsos is of unknown origin. In Mycenean Greek the form of Zeus is di-wo. At that time, there could be no certainty on whether this was indeed a theonym, but the 1989–90 Greek-Swedish Excavations at Kastelli Hill, Chania, unearthed, inter alia, four artefacts bearing Linear B inscriptions among them, the inscription on item KH Gq 5 is thought to confirm Dionysus's early worship. The earliest attestation is the Mycenaean Greek dative form □□□□ (di-wo-nu-so), featured on two tablets that had been found at Mycenaean Pylos and dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. ![]() The dio- prefix in Ancient Greek Διόνυσος (Diónūsos /di.ó.nyː.sos/) has been associated since antiquity with Zeus ( genitive Dios), and the variants of the name seem to point to an original *Dios-nysos.
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