#liber

Or Liber Pater, one of the three Aventine Triad alongside Libera and Ceres. Liber was the god of virility and true freedom alongside wine. He is a god of free speech and free people, representing the plebeian lower class who worshiped him with divine imagery associated with the Greek Dionysus, known to the Romans mostly as Bacchus. The Bacchanalia and Liberalia were his cultic worships and were not welcome by all, coming under heavy scrutiny and restriction by the Roman senate. His priestesses roamed the streets during the Liberalia to give out honey cakes, and young men would remove their beards and don new clothing to represent their coming of age and freedom to live as adult men. The accounts of these festivals, like most of the mystery cults, are shrouded in time and secrecy, though later retellings of them paint them as lavish and sexually perverse.

Pantheon: Roman

Domain or Function: God of fertility, wine, celebration, and the lower class.

Alternate Names: Like Dionysus he was called Bacchus as well as Liber Pater.

Character Traits: Adopted the traits of Dionysus; was seen as a god of free speech and was for the common people.

Visual Traits: Depicted almost identical to Dionysus.

Symbolism: Thyrsus, wine, grapes.