Dionysus was the god of the vine. He invented wine and spread the art of tending
grapes. He had a dual nature. On one hand, he brought joy and divine ecstasy. On
the other hand, he brought brutality, thoughtlessness and rage. This reflected
both sides of wine's nature. If he chooses, Dionysus can drive a man mad. No
normal fetters can hold him or his followers. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and
Semele. He was the only god to have a mortal parent. Zeus came to Semele in the
night, invisible, felt only as a divine presence. Semele was pleased to be a
lover of a god, even though she did not know which one. Word soon got around and
Hera quickly realized who was responsible. Hera went to Semele in disguise and
convinced her she should see her lover as he really was. When Zeus next came to
her, she made him promise to grant her one wish. She went so far as to make him
swear on the River Styx that he would grant her request. Zeus was madly in love
and agreed. She then asked him to show her his true form. Zeus, was unhappy, and
knew what would happen but, having sworn he had no choice. He appeared in his
true form and Semele was instantly burnt to death by the sight of his glory.
Zeus did manage to rescue Dionysus and stitched him into his thigh to hold him
until he was ready to be born. His birth from Zeus alone conferred immortality
upon him.Dionysus' problems with Hera were not yet over. She was still jealous
and arranged for the Titans to kill him. The Titans ripped him into pieces.
However, Rhea brought him back to life. After this, Zeus arranged for his
protection and turned him over to the mountain nymphs to be raised. Dionysus
wandered the world actively encouraging his cult. He was accompanied by the
Maenads, wild women, flush with wine, shoulders draped with a fawn skin,
carrying rods tipped with pine cones. While other gods had temples, the
followers of Dionysus worshipped him in the woods. Here, they might go into mad
states where they would rip apart and eat raw any animal they came upon.
Dionysus was also one of the very few that was able to bring a dead person out
of the underworld. Even though he had never seen Semele, he was concerned for
her. Eventually he journeyed into the underworld to find her. He faced down
Thanatos (Death) and brought her back to Mount Olympus. Dionysus became one of
the most important gods in everyday life. He became associated with several key
concepts. One was rebirth after death. Here his dismemberment by the Titans and
return to life is symbolically echoed in tending vines, where the vines must be
pruned back sharply, and then become dormant in winter for them to bear fruit.
The other is the idea that under the influence of wine, one could feel possessed
by a greater power. Unlike the other gods, Dionysus was not only outside his
believers but, also within them. At these times, a man might be greater then
himself and do works he otherwise could not. The festival for Dionysus is in the
spring when the leaves begin to reappear on the vine. It became one of the most
important events of the year. Its focus became the theater. Most of the great
Greek plays were initially written to be performed at the feast of Dionysus.
Those who took part, including writers, actors and spectators, were regarded as
sacred servants of Dionysus during the festival. This is a god who gives
pleasure to mankind: he discovered honey and the vine and its cultivation. But
some say that it was Aristaeus who discovered honey and that he competed with
his honey against the wine of Dionysus but Zeus gave the first prize to the
wine. Some say that Oeneus, king of Calydon, was the first to receive a
vine-plant from Dionysus. Dionysus formed the women (MAENADS) into an army and
made a campaign over all the inhabited world. Dionysus is also known because of
his Indian campaign. He also instructed all men in the knowledge of his rites,
but he punished severely those who opposed him (like Lycurgus and Pentheus). He
was attended by SATYRS, MAENADS and others. Semele was a daughter of Cadmus and
Harmonia. Zeus fell in love with Semele and consorted with her. But Hera was
jealous, and in order to delude Semele, Hera took the shape of Beroe, Semele's
nurse, and told Semele to ask Zeus to come to her as he comes to Hera, so that
she would know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god. At her suggestion Semele
made this request to Zeus and was smitten by a thunderbolt. Later Dionysus
brought up his mother from Hades, named her Thyone, ascended with her to heaven
and there she was made immortal by Zeus. After Semele's death Zeus carried the
unborn child in his thigh. When the child was born Zeus brought him to Nysa in
Arabia where the boy was reared by NYMPHS. But it is also said that Hermes
entrusted Dionysus to Athamas and Ino, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl.
But Hera (or Tisiphone) drove them mad, and Athamas hunted his elder son
Learchus as a deer and killed him. The CORYBANTES are also named as guardians of
Dionysus in his growing days. The HYADES are sometimes said to have been the
nurses of Dionysus and to have been put to flight by Lycurgus, king of the
Edonians (Thrace) or the Arabians, who was the first to expel Dionysus. Or else,
river NYMPHS (NYMPHS LAMUSIDES), took care of the child Dionysus, but they were
maddened by Hera. Hera hated him so much that she promised Artemis to the giant
Alcyoneus if he would fight against Dionysus. And to the giant Chthonius she
promised Aphrodite if he would do the same thing. Hera incited also the giant
Peloreus against Dionysus and to the giant Porphyrion she promised Hebe as his
wife if he would fight Dionysus. Hera drove Dionysus mad and when Dionysus was
afflicted with madness he came to a large swamp which he could not cross. He was
then met by two Asses and one of them carried him across the water so that he
could reach a temple of Zeus. When Dionysus came to the temple he was freed at
once from his madness and, feeling gratitude for the Asses he put them among the
stars (Asellus Borealis and Asellus Australis in Cancer) and gave human voice to
the Ass which had carried him. This Ass is said to be the saddle-ass of Silenus,
a Satyr adviser and instructor of Dionysus. He came to Cybela in Phrygia where
Rhea, the mother of the gods, purified him and taught him the rites of
initiation. He then came to Thrace where Lycurgus was king of the Edonians, who
lived beside the river Strymon. This Lycurgus was the first to insult Dionysus
and expel him. Dionysus learned of the plot of Lycurgus against him from Charops,
the grandfather of Orpheus, and he conquered the Thracians in a battle and
killed Lycurgus, or else Lycurgus was maddened by the god and killed himself.
Thereupon, out of gratitude to Charops for his aid, Dionysus made over to him
the kingdom of the Thracians and instructed him in the secret rites connected
with the initiations. Later the son of Charops took over both the kingdom and
the initiatory rites. It is also said that when Dionysus was persecuted by
Lycurgus he took refuge in the sea with Thetis the Nereid, while the MAENADS
were taken prisoners together with the SATYRS that attended him. But when the
MAENADS were released, and Dionysus drove Lycurgus mad, the latter struck his
son dead with an axe, imagining that he was lopping a branch of a vine, and
having cut off his son's extremities, he recovered his mind. Others say that
Lycurgus was almost killed by the MAENADS but was saved by Hera and made
immortal, but first he was driven mad by Zeus so that no other man should be as
proud as he. It is also told that the Edonians themselves bound him to horses
which rent him in pieces, because they believed Dionysus who had said that the
land would not bear fruit until Lycurgus was put to death. When Dionysus came to
Thebes, he forced the women to abandon their houses and rave in Bacchic frenzy
on Cithaeron. King Pentheus attempted to put a stop to these proceedings, but he
was torn limb from limb by his mother, who believed him to be a wild beast, or
by the MAENADS. After Thebes Dionysus came to Argos, and because they did not
wish to honor him, he drove the women mad, and they devoured the infants whom
they carried at their breasts to the mountains. On another occasion Dionysus
desired to sail from Icaria to Naxos. He then hired a Tyrrhenian pirate ship.
But when Dionysus was on board, they sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending
to sell him as a slave. So Dionysus turned the mast and oars into snakes, and
filled the vessel with ivy and the sound of flutes so that the SAILORS went mad,
and leaping into the sea, were turned into dolphins. Others say Dionysus came on
board when these SAILORS, having leapt ashore, captured him, stripped him of his
possessions and tied him with ropes. When Theseus came to Crete, Ariadne, being
amorously disposed to him, offered to help him if he would agree to carry her
away to Athens and have her to wife. Theseus having agreed on oath to do so, she
asked Daedalus to disclose the way out of the labyrinth. And at his suggestion
she gave Theseus a clue when he went in. And having found the Minotaur he killed
him; and drawing the clue after him made his way out again. And by night he
arrived with Ariadne at Naxos. There Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and
carried her off, when deserted by Theseus. He brought her to Lemnos and there
she had children by him. Some say she had children by Theseus as well. Ariadne's
final fate is most uncertain. Some say that she was killed by Artemis, for
something that Dionysus told the goddess. Others say that she was turned into
stone when Perseus shook in front of her the face of Medusa. Still others say
that she hung herself because she was abandoned by Theseus. It is also told that
Theseus and Ariadne, coming from Crete, were driven out of their course by a
storm to Cyprus. Ariadne was big with child and Theseus set her on shore alone,
while he was borne out to sea again by the storm. Ariadne was taken into the
care of the Cyprian women, who helped her during the pangs of travail, and gave
her burial when she died before her child was born. Yet others say that Ariadne
was made immortal by Zeus and that Dionysus set the Crown among the stars as a
memorial of the dead Ariadne. Aura, a Phrygian huntress unacquainted with love,
daughter of the Titan Lelantus and the Oceanid Periboea, was ravished by
Dionysus while asleep. She had twins but killed one of the children and in
despair she threw herself into the river Sangarius and was transformed into a
fountain by Zeus. Nicaea was a huntress and nymph of Astacia with whom Hymnus
fell in love. She grew angry and killed him as he was declaring his love for
her. However later, having drunk wine, she fell asleep and Dionysus seduced her.