Silenus

Silenus
Minor rustic god of drunkenness and winemaking
Drunken Silenus. Parian marble, Roman artwork of the 2nd century AD, Louvre.
Abode	King of Nysa
Symbol	Wine, grapes, kantharos, thyrsos, wineskin, panther, donkey
Consort	Hermaphroditos
Parents	Pan, or Hermes and Gaea
Children	foster father of Dionysus, Pholos

In Greek mythology, Silenus (/saɪˈliːnəs/; Greek: Σειληνός Seilēnos) was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue (thiasos), and sometimes considerably older, in which case he may be referred to as a Papposilenus. The plural sileni refers to the mythological figure as a type that is sometimes thought to be differentiated from a satyr by having the attributes of a horse rather than a goat, though usage of the two words is not consistent enough to permit a sharp distinction.

The original Silenus resembled a folkloric man of the forest with the ears of a horse and sometimes also the tail and legs of a horse. The later sileni were drunken followers of Dionysus, usually bald and fat with thick lips and squat noses, and having the legs of a human. Later still, the plural "sileni" went out of use and the only references were to one individual named Silenus, the teacher and faithful companion of the wine-god Dionysus.

A notorious consumer of wine, he was usually drunk and had to be supported by satyrs or carried by a donkey. Silenus was described as the oldest, wisest and most drunken of the followers of Dionysus, and was said in Orphic hymns to be the young god's tutor. This puts him in a company of phallic or half-animal tutors of the gods, a group that include Priapus, Hermaphroditus, Cedalion and Chiron, but also includes Pallas, the tutor of Athena.