Dionysus

Dionysus Zeus’ divine child relishes the happy life He loves peace who sheds happiness Peace who nurses admirable youths And gave of the rich and poor He hates those who do not do their best day and wondrous night to live happily. (Euripides, Bacchai 416-426) Dionysus has been called the Father of Wine, the Bringer of Virility, and the Patron of the Theatrical Arts, of which he is most well known for. Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, Iacchus, Bassareus, Trietenicus, and Liber, is credited for the creation of wine and theatre, yet his origins and earthly powers are vague and convoluted (Apiryon, 1). His origin has long been suspected to be in a fusion of a rural, local Greek nature god and another more potent god imported from Phrygia (central Turkey) or Thrace later in Greek prehistory (Gross, 1). Contradictory, Dionysus was one of the most important deities to the Greeks, yet historically he was rarely mentioned in writing. He was the Thracian, and eventually Greek, god of ecstasy, terror, guilt and atonement, death and resurrection, vegetation, trees, wine, madness, and drama. He also represented Eleusis: ecstasy, personal delivery from the world through physical or spiritual intoxication, and initiation into secret rites (1).To comprehend the complicated worship of this (once)nature dionysus, zeus, one, god, followers, eventually, form, theatre, maenads, human, greek, dionysia, wine, today, time, through, ritual, origins, often, nature, known, hera, festivals, world, winter, while, virility, songs, semele, phallic, people, organized, once, gave, father, evolved