ABSTRACT
The name of the god Dionysos first appears on a clay tablet from the Greek bronze age, over three thousand years ago. And so he is our oldest living symbol.
A symbol of what? He does not, in his various manifestations, symbolise the same thing. Plutarch (1st to 2nd centuries AD) noted that he is represented in many forms (Moralia 389b). It is the same with other deities. What does the Olympian Zeus share, apart from the name, with the Zeus who was represented as a snake? Does the meaning of Jesus Christ for, say, George W. Bush have anything at all in common with his meaning for, say, Francis of Assisi?
