Bacchus, << BAK uhs >>, was the god of wine in Roman mythology. The myths about Bacchus are almost the same as those involving Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and agricultural fertility. The Romans began to worship Bacchus after they came into contact with Greek culture in the 700’s B.C. They also worshiped a wine god called Liber or Liber Pater. But in time, the myths about Liber became almost identical with those about Bacchus.
The Romans held an annual festival honoring Bacchus. This festival, called the Bacchanalia, featured drinking and wild behavior. The word bacchanalian means drunken or riotous, and bacchant means merrymaker. Roman artists showed Bacchus as a handsome young man. But many later artists, especially painters of the Renaissance, portrayed Bacchus as a drunken, fat old man.
