Comus. In Greek mythology, Comus is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Dionysus. Comus represents anarchy and chaos. His mythology occurs in the later times of antiquity. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged clothes. He was depicted as a young man on the point of unconsciousness from drink. He had a wreath of flowers on his head and carried a torch that was in the process of being dropped. Unlike the purely carnal Pan or purely intoxicated Dionysos, Comus was a god of excess. Description of Comus as he appeared in painting is found in Imagines by Philostratus the Elder, a Greek writer and sophist of the 3rd century AD. Comus appears at the start of the masque Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue by Ben Jonson and in Les fêtes de Paphos, an opéra-ballet by Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville. In John Milton's masque Comus, the god Comus is described as the son of Bacchus and Circe. This is a post-classical invention. Comus is featured in the baroque operas Les plaisirs de Versailles by Marc-Antoine Charpentier and King Arthur by Henry Purcell and John Dryden, and in a masque, Comus, by Thomas Arne. A selfish dandy, Comus Bassington is the central character in the novel The Unbearable Bassington by Saki. Cult British progressive folk group Comus took their name and much of the lyrical content of their 1971 album First Utterance from Comus.