Silenus
Americannoun
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a forest spirit, sometimes referred to as the oldest of the satyrs and the foster father, teacher, and companion of Dionysus: often represented as a bearded old man.
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(lowercase) any of a group of forest spirits similar to satyrs: often represented as a drunken old man with the legs and ears of a horse.
noun
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chief of the satyrs and foster father to Dionysus: often depicted riding drunkenly on a donkey
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(often not capital) one of a class of woodland deities, closely similar to the satyrs
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
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Also in the exhibit is a decoration from a temple rain-gutter depicting a bearded Silenus, a mythological creature associated with Dionysus, the wine god.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2023
Silenus, a companion of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, sprawls across the canvas with a brightly lit, barrel-like belly and a cup raised for a refill.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2019
“Metamorphoses” also inspired an intriguing pair of panels devoted to the hapless drunkard Silenus and another about Prometheus and the creation of man.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2015
The gadroons on the underside look very Iranian but the grinning bearded Silenus mask that takes the place of the boss in comparable Iranian pieces is strictly Greek.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2011
Silenus bowed stiffly, along with his two friends, and they left the grove.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
The nymphs, shepherds and Sileni who decorate the big classical landscapes of his middle years are inert and stereotyped.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Sileni were creatures part man and part horse.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
He bore in his train the Satyrs, whose joyous troop I led, Sileni, Pans, and Centaurs.
From Anatole France The Revolt of the Angels by France, Anatole
Divine honours were given to Silenus in Arcadia, and from him the Fauns and Satyrs are often called Sileni.
From Heathen Mythology by Various
I cannot give a more just idea of the two books of satires made by Horace than by comparing them to the statues of the Sileni, to which Alcibiades compares Socrates in the Symposium.
From Discourses on Satire and on Epic Poetry by Dryden, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
