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In
Greek mythology, the mountainous district of 'Nysa', variously associated with Ethiopia, Libya, Tribalia or Arabia by Greek mythographers, was the traditional place where the rain nymphs, the
Hyades, raised the infant
Dionysus, the "god of Nysa". Though the worship of Dionysus came into mainland Greece from
Anatolia (where the
Hittites called themselves "Nesi" and their language "Nesili"), the locations of the mythical Nysa may simply be conventions to show that a magically distant
chthonic land of myth was intended. The name "Nysa" may even be an invention to explain the god's name.
Hesychius (C5th AD Byzantine lexicon) gives a list of the following locations proposed by ancient authors as the site of Mt Nysa: Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylon, Erythraian Sea [the Red Sea], Thrake, Thessaly, Kilikia, India, Libya, Lydia, Makedonia, Naxos, around Pangaios [mythical island south of Arabia], Syria.
On his return from Nysa to join his fellow Olympians, Dionysus brought the
entheogen wine.