[104] Why do they call Bacchus Liber Pater (“Free Father”)?[242]
Is it because he is the father of freedom to drinkers? For most people become bold and are abounding in frank speech when they are in their cups.[243] Or is it because he has provided the means for libations?
Or is it derived, as Alexander[244] asserts, from Dionysus Eleuthereus,[245] so named from Eleutherae in Boeotia?