Jesus could be Dionysus on Graeco-Turkish island

A bus took us up into the hills, those very same hills where Archbishop Makarios got independence for the island from the pesky Brits before our time.

We have little Greek, but believe the term peddled in the mid 1950s was eleutheria, which in Scottish is rendered the same - freedom.

The Brits still have two bases on the island, but refugees from what is now Turkish Kypros reckon that's AOK.

The vinyard, or wine place, is run by a guy who only makes 50,000 bottles a year because it is his hobby. We asked what his real job was and he was very open about that.

He said that he was in charge of the Lays/Walker crisp factory on Kypros, and hoping to retire soon. His grandfather and father before him had crushed the grapes, but this was just his hobby.

One of the winemaker's lovely daughters took us through the house and explained the significance of the picture below. She said it was a specially commissioned pic of Dionysus, also known in Roman times as Bacchus, a god who presided over the joys of alcohol, which is of course, like alchemy, an Arabic word. (See the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - he's Persian, but spoke the lingo).

You think we're making this up, don't you? We're not.

We were quite surprised. We thought at first the pic was of the saviour, or Kristos. Still, on the island of Aphrodite, said in Greek legend to be where Venus emerged from the surf, you should always be prepared to be surprised. Us Brits - me, Ross and Dave from Centerprise, enjoyed the experience.

It was a bit cooler than Rhodos, home of Helios, the Greek sun god, and of course other pagan deities.

Bacchus, in Roman legend, was carried away by the nymphs, a bit like the Indian Krishna as the protector of the cows looked after the Hindu maidens in times past.

There is no equivalent Buddhist figure, as far as we can tell in the famous Sri Lankan sutras, although in Tibet, now part of China, similar tales are told. Pictured below the Dionysus on Aphrodite/Venus' island is a still, which has been illegal in the UK from times immemorial, because otherwise the Excise men would have been on the case.

Cultural readers of the INQ might be surprised to hear that the so-called Oracle at Delphi survived until the sixth century of the Christian era. It appears Dionysus lasted a tad longer. A student of comparative religion could have eka field day or dva, on Old Kypros.

We trust we have not upset anyone's religious sensibilities. µ

L'INQ
Canyon Prestigio