An alternative story was that when lost and wandering in Phrygia, Silenus was rescued by peasants and taken to Midas, who treated him kindly. As Silenus fell asleep, the king's servants seized and took him to their master. The Phrygian King Midas was eager to learn from Silenus and caught the old man by lacing a fountain with wine from which Silenus often drank. When intoxicated, Silenus was said to possess special knowledge and the power of prophecy. This puts him in a company of phallic or half-animal tutors of the gods, a group that includes Priapus, Hermaphroditus, Cedalion and Chiron, but also includes Pallas, the tutor of Athena. Silenus was described as the oldest, wisest and most drunken of the followers of Dionysus, and was said in Orphic hymns to be the young god's tutor. Silver tetradrachm from Mende, 460–423 BCĪ notorious consumer of wine, he was usually drunk and had to be supported by satyrs or carried by a donkey. Rev: Vine of four grape clusters within shallow linear incuse square, ΜΕΝΔΑΙΩΝ, of Mendians Obv: Inebriated Silenus reclining on a donkey, holding kantharos with wine Later still, the plural "sileni" went out of use and the only references were to one individual named Silenus, the teacher and faithful companion of the wine-god Dionysus. The later sileni were drunken followers of Dionysus, usually bald and fat with thick lips and squat noses, and having the legs of a human. The original Silenus resembled a folkloric man of the forest, with the ears of a horse and sometimes also the tail and legs of a horse. In the decorative arts, a "silene" is a Silenus-like figure, often a "mask" (face) alone. Silenus presides over other daimons and is related to musical creativity, prophetic ecstasy, drunken joy, drunken dances and gestures. Silen and its plural sileni refer to the mythological figure as a type that is sometimes thought to be differentiated from a satyr by having the attributes of a horse rather than a goat, though usage of the two words is not consistent enough to permit a sharp distinction. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue ( thiasos), and sometimes considerably older, in which case he may be referred to as a Papposilenus. In Greek mythology, Silenus ( / s aɪ ˈ l iː n ə s/ Ancient Greek: Σειληνός, romanized: Seilēnós, IPA: ) was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. Wine, grapes, kantharos, thyrsos, wineskin, panther, donkey Roman copy of Hellenistic statue of Silenus holding a bunch of grapes and a cup of wine, Vatican Museums (Pius-Clementine Museum, Room of the Muses), Rome
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