Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, Gelos (;

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

: Γέλως) was the divine personification of

laughter Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, usually audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laug ...

. According to

Philostratus the Elder Philostratus of Lemnos (; c. 190 – c. 230 AD), also known as Philostratus the Elder to distinguish him from Philostratus the Younger who was also from Lemnos, was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. He was probably a nephew of the sop ...

, he was believed to enter the retinue of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

alongside Comus. Plutarch relates that

Lycurgus of Sparta Lycurgus (; ) was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta, credited with the formation of its (), involving political, economic, and social reforms to produce a military-oriented Spartan society in accordance with the Pythia, Delphic oracle. The Sp ...

dedicated a small statue of Gelos to the god, and elsewhere, mentions that in Sparta there was a sanctuary of Gelos, as well as those of Thanatos, Phobos "and other ersonifications ofexperiences of this kind". Risus was the Latin rendition of the name Gelos. A festival in honor of Risus (i. e. Gelos) in

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

was described by

Apuleius Apuleius ( ), also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis (c. 124 – after 170), was a Numidians, Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician. He was born in the Roman Empire, Roman Numidia (Roman province), province ...

, ''The Golden Ass'' 2.31, 3.2 & 3.11 ff. but it is unknown whether it was an actual event or writer's invention.

Notes

References

. ''Imagines,'' translated by Arthur Fairbanks (1864-1944). Loeb Classical Library Volume 256. London: William Heinemann, 1931
Online version at the Topos Text Project.
* Philostratus the Lemnian (Philostratus Major), ''Flavii Philostrati Opera. Vol 2''. Carl Ludwig Kayser. in aedibus B. G. Teubneri. Lipsiae. 1871
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library
Greek gods Personifications in Greek mythology Laconian mythology Laughter {{Greek-deity-stub