Key Takeaways
If a Google search for " Dionysus " brought you here rather than to selective information on thehit songfrom South Korean K - pop megastarsBTS , whoop ! But also , welcome — let ’s find oneself out why the ancient Greek god Dionysus has inspired artists to sing his praises .
" Dionysus is a coordination compound god,“Richard P. Martin , Antony and Isabelle Raubitschek professor in classic at Stanford University , say via email . " He has the tycoon to transport his worshippers into spiritual rapture , and to drive his opponents into ritual rage . He seems to come from alfresco and to invade the awareness . "
That ’s probably primarily due to his joining withwineand its effects , from the very first mild and pleasant bombilation it gives you to the wretched morning - afters when you have too much . Read on to learn more about the grape - sleep with Greek god .
1. He Symbolizes Wine and All Things Wine-related
In Greek mythology , Dionysus isthe god of fertility and wine . But mostly , he ’s all about the wine .
" Dionysus introduce viticulture to Greece , " Martin says . " Ancient Greeks cognize about , wrote about , and did innumerable vase paintings of all of those situations . In fact , we still have pot of the sort used in drinking party ( ' symposia ' ) that show wild dancing , energetic festivity , and even young guy rope disgorge as someone hold their head . "
The Greeks were keenly witting of how you should keep control and what can bump when you do n’t . They had a number of myth come to to wild fauna like satyr and centaurs who hunger wine but ca n’t always handle it . These semi - human wight go nuts and endeavor to slip bride at weddings or start huge fights and so forth .
The message in these myth is : Be human , not semi - human , when it comes to drinking .
One of Dionysus ' Roman name , Liber Pater , is also now the name of the mostexpensive winein the earth — no doubt in honor of the god ’s bequest .
2. He Has Two Sides. On One Hand, He’s a Ton of Fun …
Dionysus is known for have something of a dual personality : He land delight , Adam and playfulness , but also deliver " unrelenting and glaring rage . "
He ’s the only god who can get you to join in rapt dance and make you raise a ritual call of revulsion just as well . So , in a sense , he represents all the potential side effects of excess .
For instance , a marble sarcophagus recover at New York City’sThe Metdepicts Dionysus ushering in the joy of each season . The National Archaeological Museum inGreeceshows him peacefully enamored with the nature around him . Many story about the god depict him as a fun - loving party animal or proto - hipster , but that ’s just hisgoodside .
" He ’s more than a symbol , which mean a kind of ashen or over - cerebral grouping ; instead , he was a profoundly felt personal and societal reality for the ancient Greeks , " Martin tell . " He ’s link up with joy and terror , at once , which is why he always appeals to creative person , philosopher and poet who are interested in the boundaries of consciousness and how emotions work . Friedrich Nietzsche , in his final calendar month of fury , would now and then sign letter ' Dionysos . ' "
3. … On the Other Hand, He’s Totally Terrifying
The scariest stories are about what happens to people who baulk Dionysus and his ecstatic bands of worshipper — unremarkably female , called Bacchae or Bacchants , after his name in Roman literature , Bacchus — when they fall to town spreading the god ’s special ritual practices .
" The Athenian dramatistEuripideswrote the most compelling depiction , " Martin tell of a tragic play bring forth in the recent 5th C B.C.E. " In the dramatic event , the young king of Thebes ( named Pentheus ) in Greece feels threaten by a mysterious visitor — Dionysus in disguise — who has follow back to his own cradle . He thinks the alien is up to no good , seducing women . But at the same time he ’s transfix by the fresh worship and spy on the rapt women as they observe the god "
He continues , " All of a sudden , he ’s caught — the adult female are driven to a hysteria , and they turn over from tearing apart minor animals to really hunting Pentheus . They tear him limb from limb and his mother in a Dionysus - bring on fury carries his nous off , recollect she has slain a lion . So Pentheus and the Theban are punished for having resisted the musical theme that the local boy was really a powerful god . "
As is the case with many Greek gods , the morale of the story is : Do n’t doubt the graven image ; you wo n’t care them when they ’re angry .
4. He Has Two Different Birth Stories
Zeus managed to impregnate the deadly Semele with Dionysus . There was just one job : Zeuswas wed to someone else besides Semele , and her name was Hera ( you eff , the head honcho of allGreek goddesses ) .
While other idol had mickle of dalliances outside of wedlock , Zeuswas perhaps the premier womanizer on top of Mount Olympus .
" Hera , always jealous of his many personal matters , visited Semele in disguise and convinced her to put Zeus to the trial ( implying that her fan was really just an ordinary valet in disguise — the same theme as late crop up in this story ) , " Martin say . " So Semele begged Zeus to fall to her express himself as he really was — and he did , in the form of a lightning dash . He incinerate her on the spot . "
There ’s no doubt that ’s harsh . But even if he kill his boy ’s deadly parent , he did n’t want to lose his semi - divine son . He snatched the infant Dionysus from her womb and complete the growth process by sewing him into his own second joint .
Another version of the myth pass the god a different female parent : Persephone . While his love for frivolity may not make him the most potential offspring for the queen of the Underworld , Dionysus knew his room around Hades ' domain , no matter who his mother might have been .
5. He Was Also the God of Theater
" The most important to my mind is that he was the god of field , " Martin says . " you could still walk through the ancientTheater of Dionysus , establish right next to an old shrine of his , on the southerly slopes of the Acropolis in Athens . "
How are drama ( which the Greeks after all invented — both comedy and tragedy — concern to the god of wine ? It seems to have to do with masking and disguise , and of hold up out of your own ego — whether by drinking or dress up — into a fictional otherworld . It ’s not an accident that ' Adam ' issue forth from theGreek ekstasis — and that the ultimate and wild ' foreigner ' god can do it in those who idolize him . "
