Gods of dance

[Caburus]

I'm looking for male deities of dance.
.
Shiva was the Lord of the Dance, that created, sustained and destroyed the universe, in Hindu myth.
Bes was the dwarfish god of dance in Egyptian mythology.
In Greek mythology Apollo was known as The Dancer, as was Pan, Dionysus and Ares.
Hecaterus was the god of a type of dance that used quick hand movements. He was the father of the Dactyls, who, along with their sons, the Curetes, danced around the cradle of Zeus, clashing their shields and swords, in order to hide his cries from Cronus. Pyrrhicus, leader of the Curetes, established the Pyrrhic warrior dance, and was identified with Silenos, the god of the wine-pressing dance. Silenos was foster father of Dionysus, around whose cradle the Corybantes, sons of Apollo, danced inorder to guard him from Hera. Silenos and the Satyrs, (said to be sons of Silenos or of the Dactyls) were dancing companions of Dionysus in the countryside. The Cabeiri were two dwarfish sons of Hephaestus who presided over the orgiastic dances in Samothrace, Crete and Egypt. Theseus is said to have invented the Crane dance.
In Roman myths, Aeneas is said to have brought the labyrinthine Game of Troy dance to Italy.
.
Are there any other mythological male patrons of dance?

 

[Nadai]

Looks like you've got a pretty good list going. I can't think of any males that you haven't already named.

 

[eirine hatsumi]

Xochipilli was known as the Aztec god of games, beauty, dance, flowers, and song in Aztec mythology. ^^

 

[Alejandro]

An alternate explanation of the origin of the Pyrrhic war-dance is that Athena invented this dance during the Gigantomachy and, after the defeat of the Gigantes, she imparted the rite to the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces, who themselves later became minor gods. The dance came to be called the Pyrrhichus because the Dioscuri introduced it at an obscure place, in their native Lacedaemon, called Pyrrhichus (which is possibly somewhere in Sparta).

In Hindu mythology the Gandharvas were male spirits of the air, of forests and mountains, and also the mates of the Apsarasas, who essentially were divine nymphs. The Gandharvas and Apsarasas inhabited Indra's heaven Svargā, where they entertained him and other gods with song and dance. Kṛṣṇa [Krishna], an incarnation of Viṣṇu [Vishnu], but also a deity in his own right, once in a fight with the Nāga (snake-man) Kāliya, almost killed the snake-man by dancing on his one hundred and ten—or one thousand—cobra-hooded heads. The Nāga's many wives saved his life by begging Kṛṣṇa to spare it. (I'm unsure if this necessarily makes Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu a dance-god, or if the Gandharvas were/are deities who patronise[d] the dance among human beings.)

Baal-Marqod, the "Lord of the Dance," was the Phoenician god of healing and dancing.

In Forgotten Realms' Dungeons & Dragons (which I don't know if you'd consider mythological ), Damh is the fey deity of dance, song and celebrations.

 

[Caburus]

Thanks Eirine & Alejandro.
I'd heard that Athena performed the Pyrrhic dance after the Gigantomachy (although that doesn't mean she invented it - Pyrrhicus was dancing around her father's cradle, so in theory it predates her own birth). That she could have taught it to the Dioscuri seems fitting, as they were princes of Sparta, a most war-like city state in later Greek history. Another origin is that the dance was first performed by Achilles during the Trojan War, and it's name was connected to his son Pyrrhus (aka Neoptolemus).
The Gandharvas are the musicians and singers, while the Apsarasas are the ones who do the actual dancing in the courts of the gods of India.
Krishna is also sometimes depicted as a child dancing, and is often shown desporting with the gopis, but dancing is not particularly one of his, or Vishnu's, attributes.
Thanks for the pointers to Xochipilli and Baal-Marqod.
Did the Marvel Comic series ever have a dancing super-hero?? The Mighty Mambo, or The Pole Dance Kid? Oh my! Just got this from google search - Batman & Cleopatra dancing that'd kill any audience - villainous or otherwise;

 

[Alejandro]

Eyyy... The costumes, the make-up, the visual sound-effects, the acting!!! I don't think I've ever seen this incarnation of the Batman before, and it seems like the new-skool Cartoon Network Batman: The Brave and the Bold is paying homage to this vibe. Wow. Tutankhamen as a chubby adult with a blonde beard, in the same era with Cleopatra and Batman, no less! Was this supposed to be a time-travel mash-up episode or something? Oh, I've never heard of any dancing superhero of Marvel Comics, or any other company actually. Pole-Dance Kid?? Gadzooks. Most super-powered individuals in comic-books and cartoons seem to be super-villains using sound for "eeevil" And at the moment the only one that comes to mind is an electronica DJ from an episode of Samurai Jack. His dance-moves are killer! (Bad pun , but yeah, literally.)

Speaking of the Gigantomachy on the same topic, I found these references from a lost Titanomachy (which here seems to be synonymous with Gigantomachy) by Eumelus of Arctinus, quoted by Athenæus, who says that "Eumelus somewhere introduces Zeus dancing; he says: 'In the midst of them danced the father of men and gods.'" This might be in reference to the Curetes' war-dance which Zeus might have been taught by Pyrrhichus. A different Gigantomachy fragment makes it sound like the gods danced the Gigantes to death when it calls Zeus "the leader of dance that slew the Gigantes". That probably just means that the gods fought so gracefully or melodiously, or that there was a victory war-dance somewhere in the midst of all the fighting, but it does also almost entitle Zeus the same as the "Lord of the Dance" like Śiva [Shiva] and Baal.

 

[Caburus]

Modern mythology;
.
"I danced in the morning when the world was begun
And I danced in the Moon & the Stars & the Sun
And I came down from Heaven & I danced on the Earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth:"
.
"Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He.
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He."
.
"They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the Life that'll never, never die!
I'll live in you if you'll live in Me -
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!"
.
"Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He.
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He."
.
First and last verse, with chorus, from a Christian hymn composed in 1963 by Sydney Carter (but mistakenly believed by many to be much older). It portrays Jesus as the Lord of Dance, equating dance with Christian belief; something not done in the Bible. Carter actually thought this song would be rejected by the Church as being too pagan!

 

[Alejandro]

Yeah, I actually thought of this hymn when you first posted this thread. But it's funny you should say that such an equation is not made in the Bible, since the only time that the words "dance" or "dancing" appear in the New Testament, apart from a parable Jesus tells in Luke's Gospel, is when He's preaching in Matthew's Gospel saying: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear! But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying: 'We played the flute for you and you did not dance; we mourned to you and you did not lament.'" (Ch. 11, vv. 15-17) There may not be anything in the Bible as explicit as Carter's hymn as far a connection between Christ and dance is concerned, but via the derivation of Christianity from Judaism, there are plenty of references made to the Old Testament regarding this art-form (such as in certain of the Psalms and in the prophet Jeremiah), the most ancient of which references would have been made by the first followers of Christ, who were Jews quite familiar with Jeremiah's oracle and with the Psalms, many of which songs were written by David, the dancing king of Israel from whom the Messianic title "Son of David" is derived.

 

[Caburus]

I guess music and dancing, as a form of rejoicing, would be seen as a fitting activity for the return/acceptance of sinners to God's Law in Christ. Not thought of "Son of David" as a encouragement to be a dancer, though. Dancing also preceeded the deaths of Jepthah's daughter and John the Baptist, although these too could be taken as examples of fulfilling divine purpose.

 

[Myrddin]

Pole-Dance Kid?? Gadzooks.

Gadzooks indeed! Not a great name, Pole-Dance Kid. (Sounds like a sidekick to a superhero named, I don't know, Señor Tango. )

 

[Alejandro]

Hmmm... For some reason that makes me think of The Pinker Tones' song Electrotumbao ("Electr[on]ic Tomb/Grave") from the Need for Speed: Undercover original soundtrack. The song's concept is strange & interesting.

Not thought of "Son of David" as a encouragement to be a dancer, though.

Haha, I wasn't quite looking at it that way, but King David is indeed often cited as a paragon of zeal in praising God through dance (as well as song[-writing]).

Dancing also preceeded the deaths of Jepthah's daughter and John the Baptist, although these too could be taken as examples of fulfilling divine purpose.

I dunno, I've always taken the death of Jephthah's daughter as the direct result of a rash promise made by her father while John the Baptist would be a casualty of the corruption and greed of politically powerful individuals. But then again there is the idea that divine purpose is always ultimately fulfilled despite the existence of free will so that one either goes against or along the grain of this purpose without ever thwarting it. In that sense, I could understand those examples as such.