Posted: Aug 05, 2018 12:19 pm
Googling from a position of ignorance, the entry for Dionysus in Wictionary here states that the Latin form of the name is "Dionysus":
Latin was the language of all educated people in Western Europe in the Middle Ages and was still widely used in the 1600s, so I suppose the Latin forms of ancient words drifted into English by default? If the Greek myths were retold by an English author any time before 1600, the English author would have been familiar with the Latin rather than the Greek form? More recently, it's become usual to change the Anglicised forms of foreign names which used to be standard in English, back to something closer to the original language, as in Mumbai and Beijing, so the name of the Greek god in modern English may currently be halfway between Dionysus (Latin and standard English) and Dionysos (closer to the Greek form)??
The same god (or at any rate, the equivalent god of wine and intoxication) in Roman mythology was Bacchus, as Hermit says, so I'm not clear when they would have been referring to Dionysus, perhaps when they wanted to talk specifically about the Greek deity?
Edited to add: the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Dionysus is here, and does not mention the alternative spelling "Dionysos", except at the end, where it cites a French publication and uses the French spelling. The Oxford English Dictionary online on Dionysus here likewise does not mention Dionysos, and Wikipedia here gives Dionysos only as the transliteration of the Greek. By contrast, Dictionary.com here and the Collins English Dictionary here, like Wiktionary above, both give Dionysos as an alternative English spelling; perhaps they are being quicker to move with the times?
Wiktionary wrote:Dionysus
Alternative forms
Dionysos
Etymology
Via Latin Dionysus, from Ancient Greek Διόνυσος (Diónusos).
Pronunciation
(UK) IPA(key): /daɪəˈnaɪsəs/, /daɪəˈnaɪsɪs/
Proper noun
Dionysus
(Greek mythology) The god of wine, specifically its intoxication and social influence, but also the patron of agriculture and the theater. Also related to the mystery of religion, as in "spiritual intoxication".
Latin was the language of all educated people in Western Europe in the Middle Ages and was still widely used in the 1600s, so I suppose the Latin forms of ancient words drifted into English by default? If the Greek myths were retold by an English author any time before 1600, the English author would have been familiar with the Latin rather than the Greek form? More recently, it's become usual to change the Anglicised forms of foreign names which used to be standard in English, back to something closer to the original language, as in Mumbai and Beijing, so the name of the Greek god in modern English may currently be halfway between Dionysus (Latin and standard English) and Dionysos (closer to the Greek form)??
The same god (or at any rate, the equivalent god of wine and intoxication) in Roman mythology was Bacchus, as Hermit says, so I'm not clear when they would have been referring to Dionysus, perhaps when they wanted to talk specifically about the Greek deity?
Edited to add: the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Dionysus is here, and does not mention the alternative spelling "Dionysos", except at the end, where it cites a French publication and uses the French spelling. The Oxford English Dictionary online on Dionysus here likewise does not mention Dionysos, and Wikipedia here gives Dionysos only as the transliteration of the Greek. By contrast, Dictionary.com here and the Collins English Dictionary here, like Wiktionary above, both give Dionysos as an alternative English spelling; perhaps they are being quicker to move with the times?