Semachos

InGreek mythologySemachoswas a doublet ofIkarios,the recipient ofDionysus'gift of wine,who welcomed Dionysus toAttica,with a tragic outcome. Semachos was thefounder-heroof the Athenian priestesses of Dionysus, theSemachidai.^[1]

The name could be given a Hellenic twist by linking it withmachia,"battle", but M.C. Astour^[2]recommended a derivation from aNorthwest Semitic word,represented by the Hebrewšimah,"made to rejoice".^[3]

Dionysus was welcomed by the women of Semachos'oikos.His daughter received the gift of a deer skin (nebris), whichKarl Kerenyiidentified as the bestowal of the rite ofmaenadsin rending limb from limb the animals they sacrificed to Dionysus: "nebrizeinalso means the rending of an animal. "^[4]

The date of the introduction ofwine makingto Greece, which certainly occurred during theBronze Age,was given the confident precision of 1497 BCE byJeromeinhis adaptationofEusebius'Chronicon.^[5]

An inscription^[6]records the site of theheroonof Semachos, which lay along the pathway that led toLaurion.

Notes

^Stephen of Byzantium,s.v.Σημαχίδαι, noted by Kerenyi 1976:143 note32.
^Astour,Hellenosemitica: an ethnic and cultural study in West Semitic impact on Mycenaean Greece1967:195, noted by Karl Kerenyi,Dionysos: Archetypal image of indestructible life1976:146 note 44.
^Semachos,as a plural ofsimchah,"joyous occasion", appears in the euphemistically titledTalmudicTractate Semachos,which deals with customs of death and mourning.
^Kerenyi 1976:147.
^Under year 1497Dionysus verum non ille Semelae filius, cum in Atticam pervenisset, hospitio receptus a Semacho filiae eius capreae pellem largitus est;Jerome makes this distinction between the "true" Dionysus and that born of a virginSemele,under year 1387Dionysus, qui LatineLiber pater,nascitur ex Semele.; noted in Kerenyi 1976:143 note 32.
^Inscriptiones GraecaeII part 2, 1582, lines 53f, noted by Kerenyi 1976:147 note 45.

References

Stephanus of Byzantium,Stephani Byzantii Ethnicorum quae supersunt,edited by August Meineike (1790-1870), published 1849. A few entries from this important ancient handbook of place names have been translated by Brady Kiesling.Online version at the Topos Text Project.

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[1] Stephen of Byzantium,s.v.Σημαχίδαι, noted by Kerenyi 1976:143 note32.

[2] Astour,Hellenosemitica: an ethnic and cultural study in West Semitic impact on Mycenaean Greece1967:195, noted by Karl Kerenyi,Dionysos: Archetypal image of indestructible life1976:146 note 44.

[3] Semachos,as a plural ofsimchah,"joyous occasion", appears in the euphemistically titledTalmudicTractate Semachos,which deals with customs of death and mourning.

[4] Kerenyi 1976:147.

[5] Under year 1497Dionysus verum non ille Semelae filius, cum in Atticam pervenisset, hospitio receptus a Semacho filiae eius capreae pellem largitus est;Jerome makes this distinction between the "true" Dionysus and that born of a virginSemele,under year 1387Dionysus, qui LatineLiber pater,nascitur ex Semele.; noted in Kerenyi 1976:143 note 32.

[6] Inscriptiones GraecaeII part 2, 1582, lines 53f, noted by Kerenyi 1976:147 note 45.

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