(), or SEILE'NUS. It is remarked in the article
Satyrus, that the older Satyrs were generally termed Sileni (comp. Schol. ad
Nicand. Alex. 31), but one of these Sileni is commonly the Silenus,
who always acts a prominent part in the retinue of Dionysus, from whom he is inseparable, and
whom he is said to have brought up and instructed. (Hymn. 53. 1.) Like the other Satyrs he is called a son of Hermes
(Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. 6.13), but others call him a son of Pan by a
nymph, or of Gaea (Nonn. Dionys. 14.97, 29.262; Aelian, Vit. Pythag. 16 ;
Clemens, Cohort. ad Gent. p. 24.) Being the constant companion of
Dionysus, he is, like the god, said to have been born at Nysa (Catull. 64, 253), and Diodorus
(Cycl.) He is described as a jovial old man,
with a bald head, a puck nose, fat and round like his wine bag, which he always carried with
him, and generally as intoxicated. As therefore he cannot trust to his own legs, he is
generally riding on an ass (Deor. Cone. 4.) In every other respect he is described as
resembling his brethren in the fondness for sleep, wine and music. He is mentioned along with
Marsyas and Olympus as the inventor of the flute which he is often seen playing (Icarom. 27.) But it is a peculiar feature
in his character that he was conceived also as an inspired prophet, who knew all the past and
the most distant future (Aelian, Eclog. vi, 31, &c.), and as a sage who despised all the gifts of fortune
(Cic. Tuscul. 1.48); so that he becomes the representative of that wisdom
which conceals itself behind a rough and uncouth external appearance, whence Sympos. 32 ; Xenoph. Sympos. 5 § 7.) When he was drunk and asleep, he was in the power of mortals who
might compel him to prophesy and sing by surrounding him with chains of flowers. (Aelian,
Imay. 1.22, Vit. Apoll. 6.27; Mythol. Bilderb. p. 164, &c.; C. O. Muller, Ancient Art and its Remains, § 386.)