Dionysus/Bacchus/Liber- the god of wine, ecstasy, winemaking, festivity, theatre and madness. He was usually described the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, a daughter of the hero Cadmus/Kadmus and Harmonia, the goddess of harmony and concord and the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. Hera befriended Semele in disguise and suggested that Semele's lover was not actually Zeus but just someone claiming to be. Doubtful, Semele asked a boon of Zeus and he swore her anything, so she asked to see him in his glory, or for him to come to her as he came to Hera. Zeus was forced to consent and the sight of his godhood or his arrival with thunder and lightning caused Semele to die of fright. Zeus rescued the unborn Dionysus and sewed him in his thigh, from this he was later born.
He another version, Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Persephone. A jealous Hera persuaded the Titans to distract him with toys and then tear him to pieces. In one version he shifted into animal forms in his attempt to escape before being torn to pieces in the form of a bull. They devoured him, save his heart which Persephone/Athena/Rhea/Demeter/Hermes saved, and Zeus turned them to ash with his thunderbolts in revenge. Zeus either placed the heart in his thigh and recreated him from this or he tricked Semele into eating the heart and having him born from her, thus linking the two versions of his creation. It is thought he could be the god Zagreus, a hunter god a son of Zeus and Persephone, Zeus potentially in the form of a serpent, or Hades and Persephone.
After Semele's death Zeus gave the infant to Hermes who gave him either to Dionysus' aunt Ino and her husband Athamas, bidding them to raise him as a girl, or to the nymphs of Nysa. These were rain nymphs who may have been the daughters of Atlas and an Oceanid/Okeanid Pleoine or Aethra. They were the sisters of the ill-fated Hyas who wept over his death and became known as the Hyades. The Nysiads are also said to have been the nymphs who raised him. Some sources say it was Rhea or a priest of Apollo, Maro, who raised him. Silenus, a man usually depicted with the ears, legs and tail of a horse (two legs, he wasn't a centaur) was given as Dionysus foster father, tutor and loyal companion.
Ino was a queen of Thebes and the wicked stepmother of Phrixus and Helle who drove them to fleeing on the back of the infamous golden ram Chrysomallus. Either Hera or Dionysus drove her husband King Athamas to madness causing him to murder his son and chase his wife and another son. Ino jumped off a cliff with her son Melicertes, or she too was driven mad, boiled her son and them jumped into the sea. She and her son became the goddess Leucothea and god Palaemon respectively.
Dionysus discovered wine and shared this gift with Icarius/Ikarios. Icarius shared the wine with shepherds who, thinking they had been poisoned when they were drunk, killed Icarius in vengeance. His daughter Erigone hung herself in grief and her dog Maera/Maira leapt off a well or jumped off a cliff. Dionysus turned them into the constellations- Boötes, Virgo and Procyon. (Boötes is also thought to have been a man who invented the plough and pleased Demeter with it. Virgo is given as Demeter or as Astraea.) Dionysus then inflicted Athens with a plague and demanded that they honoured Icarius, Erigone and Maera before he ended the plague.
He was driven mad by Hera and wandered the earth in this fashion before being cured by Cybele/Rhea. He then wandered spreading his worship and teaching winemaking. He was opposed on several occasions. Lycurgus/Lykurgos/Lykourgos was a king in Thrace who opposed him. He imprisoned Dionysus' followers the Maenads and drove Dionysus from the city. Dionysus fled and took refuge with Thetis and punished Thrace with a drought and drove Lycurgus to madness leading him to kill his son thinking he was ivy that he was pruning. He refused to end the drought until Lycurgus was punished. He may have tried to rape his mother and killed his wife as well. The people then threw him to man-eating horses or panthers. Dionysus gave Thetis a golden urn or vase in thanks for sheltering him.
On his wanderings he was also opposed by Perseus. There was a battle during which either Ariadne or a Maenad called Khorea was killed. Perseus may have mistaken Dionysus and his band for invaders. Eventually the two ended the battle and had peace.
Pentheus, a king of Thebes and cousin to Dionysus, opposed him. He banned worship of him and imprisoned him, though the chains fell off him and the cell door opened for him. In vengeance Dionysus drove the women of Thebes, including Pentheus' mother Agave, and possibly his aunts Ino and Autonoë to madness and lured Pentheus to spy on them. Pentheus hid in a tree but he was spotted, thinking he was an animal the women tore him to pieces. His mother Agave carried his head back and only when she saw her father Kadmus/Cadmus did she realise she was carrying the head of her son. Some sources claim Dionysus was so cruel to his own family because his aunts had claimed their sister Semele had been impregnated unmarried and only claimed Zeus to be the father to conceal this and was later killed as punishment for her lies. The women were then exiled from Thebes.
The Minyades, three daughters of Minyas, possibly a son of Poseidon, spurned the worship of Dionysus. Called Alcathoe (or Alcithoe), Leucippe/Leuconoe and Arsippe/Arsinoë, they remained at home when other women celebrated over the mountains in worship to Dionysus. He came to them in the form of a maiden to entice them into joining the festivites but they declined. He then turned into a bull, lion and panther and drove them mad and they sacrificed Leucippe's son Hippasus to him by tearing him to pieces before Hermes turned them to bats, or Dionysus simply turned them into bats. The sisters did not believe Dionysus was a god and continued working at the loom and spinning.
Orpheus, the famous poet, also suffered Dionysus wrath as he refused to worship him and thought of Helios/Apollo as the greatest god, for this they tore him to shreds. Alternatively Orpheus had sworn off women after the death of Eurydice and for this they killed him. His head continued to sing, and was buried in Antissa, a city in Lesbos, and became an oracle until Apollo silenced it. The Muses gathered up his body parts and buried them.
The Proitides, were three daughters of King Proitos/ Proetus, a king of Argos who was the twin of Acrisius, the father of Danae, and grandfather of Perseus, and husband of Stheneboea/Stheneboia who lusted after Bellerophon. The daughters were called in the Bibliotheca- Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, whilst the Italian Maurus Servius Honoratus called them Lysippe, Hipponoe and Cyrianassa, and Claudius Aelianus named two Elege and Celaene. They were driven mad either by Hera for calling themselves more beautiful than she and/ or for stealing gold off her statue, or by Dionysus for refusing to worship him. The healer and soothsayer Melampus offered to heal them for a third of the kingdom but was declined. The women went madder and Melampus was called upon again, this time he demanded a third of the kingdom for himself and a third for his brother Bias, Proteus agreed and the women were cured. Some sources say Iphinoe died and her two sisters married Melampus and Bias.
Dionysus was extremely handsome and when some sailors/pirates saw him on a shore they thought him a prince and kidnapped him. He allowed him to take him onto their ship and when bonds would not hold him the helmsman realised he was a god and begged his fellow sailors to release him. They would not believe him. Vines then grew on the ship, Dionysus turned into a lion and a bear appeared on board. The pirates tried to jump off the ship and were turned into dolphins. The helmsman, Acoetes, was spared and later became a priest to the god.
Cyanippus/Kyanippos was a man who refused to worship Dionysus. Dionysus got him drunk and he raped his daughter Cyane. Cyane took his ring to identify him. Apollo inflicted the city with a plague saying it would not be removed until an unjust man was killed. Understanding this, Cyane killed her father and then herself.
Another to feel his wrath but not because of lack of worship, was Psalacantha/Psalakantha, a nymph from the island Ikaros/ Icaria who loved Dionysus and promised to help him win Ariadne on the condition that he loved her too. Dionysus refused so Psalacantha tried to dissuade Ariadne from being with the god. In anger, Dionysus turned her into the plant psalakanthos, which was later weaved into Ariadne's crown.
Coresus was a priest of Dionysus who was in love with Callirhoe who scorned him. Coresus prayed to Dionysus for aid and the god turned the city, or just the women, mad and an oracle told them Callirhoe or someone in her stead must be sacrificed. When no one would offer themselves up for her, Callirhoe went to be sacrificed but Coresus couldn't kill her and killed himself instead. In grief, Callirhoe killed herself.
Dionysus proved his godhood to the people and chiefly to the gods in two important ways. He went to the Underworld and rescued his mother Semele and made her immortal, renaming her Thyone. Secondly, when Hephaestus tricked Hera into sitting on a gold throne which she became stuck too, Dionysus went to bring him back to Olympus. He got the lame god drunk and brought him back on a donkey and persuaded him to free Hera. After this, Hera no longer challenged Dionysus' position as an Olympian.
He fought in the war against the Gigantes and killed Eurytos.
Though mostly known for his wrath he could also show favour to people. When King Midas found Silenus passed out he treated him well for ten days before returning him to Dionysus. As thanks, Dionysus promised Midas whatever he wanted. Midas asked that everything he touched be turned to gold and Dionysus consented. When he turned his own daughter to gold and realised he could not eat or drink as all food and drink became gold, he begged Dionysus to reverse the gift. Dionysus told him to wash in the river Pactolus, Dionysus obeyed and the curse/gift was reversed.
Althaea was the wife of the king of Calydon Oeneus/Oineus. Dionysus coveted her and realising this, Oeneus left this city of his own will, Dionysus gave him a vine in thanks and showed him how to plant it. With Althaea he became the father of Deianeira/Dejanira. Deianeira became Heracles' third wife and killed with a shirt poisoned in the centaur Nessus' blood, though she meant for it to make him desire her as she was jealous of Heracles' concubine Iole.
The Oenotropae/Oenotrophae/Oinotrophoi were the three daughters of Anius/Anios, a son and priest of Apollo.Called Spermo (seed), Onio/Oeno (wine) and Elais (seed) they became the goddesses of grain, wine and oil, their grandmother Rhoeo was a daughter of Staphylus and Chrysothemis, Staphylus in turn was a son of Dionysus and Ariadne who was associated with grapes and wine. Thus the Oinotrophoi were the great, great granddaughters of Dionysus. They could turn water to wine, grass to wheat and berries to olives. They stocked the Greeks' ships for Troy, resulting in Agamemnon abducting them, they escaped only to be betrayed by their brother before Dionysus turned them into doves.
Dionysus married Ariadne after persuading Theseus to abandon her on the island Naxos, or simply rescuing her from there after Theseus abandoned her. With her he had twelve children- Oenopion, a king of Chios who blinded Orion for assaulting his daughter Merope; Staphylus, a general of Rhadamanthys; Thoas, a king of Lemos who was sent from it when Aphrodite cursed the women to have a bad odour leading to the men to consort with slaves, which drove the women to kill them. Thoas was the only male survivor. His daughter Hypsipyle became queen. Thoas then became king of Tauris, Artemis made Iphigeneia a priestess here; Peparethus; Phanus; Eurymedon; Euanthes; Latramys; Tauropolis; Ceramus; Maron; and Enyeus, a king of Skyros. Oenopion and Thoas may have been Theseus' sons.
Dionysus had other lovers as well, including Aphrodite. With her he is sometimes said to have had the Charites, though usually they are the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome; Hymen a god of marriage ceremonies, sometimes given as a son of Apollo and a Muse; and Priapus/Priapos a fertility god associated with fruits and livestock who had a huge erection, alternatively he may have been the son of Dionysus and Chione or Aphrodite and Hermes, and was cursed with ugliness and foul-mindedness by Hera because Paris judged Aphrodite more beautiful than she.
Sometimes he is given as the father of Phthonus, the personification of envy and jealousy, his mother being Nyx, but as it is he who is said to have drawn Hera's attention to Semele and given her the idea to trick her, it is more likely he is someone else's child, and occasionally Aphrodite is given as his mother.
With Althaea he had Deianeira, and with Circe he had Comus/Komos, the god of festivity and revels, who represented chaos and was also Dionysus' cupbearer. With the breeze goddess Aura he had twins, one which she ate and one which was saved by Artemis, Iacchus. Dionysus raped Aura when she proclaimed herself to have a better body than Artemis and claimed Artemis too womanly to be a virgin. After the rape she became a slayer of men before Zeus turned her into a breeze or a stream.
He raped the nymph Nicaea/Nikaia when Eros inspired him with love for her in punishment for her killing the shepherd Hymnus who loved her by shooting him through the heart. She was a follower of Artemis and was raped in her sleep. Telete, a daughter, was born as a result and after her birth Nicaea tried to hang herself.
With either Araethyrea or Chthonophyle he was the father of Philas. Chthonophyle is sometimes given as his wife. Philas/Philus was an Argonaut, Hyginus called him Phliasus and said he was a son of Ariadne and Dionysus. With Chthonophyle he had a son, Androdamas. Chthonophyle was a princess of Sicyon, who with Hermes had Polybus.
With Physcoa, a member of the Sixteen Women- women from 16 cities who were negotiators between Elis and Pisa- he had a son, Narcaeus, who became a conqueror. She is said to have been the first to acknowledge Dionysus as a god.
Pallene, a daughter of king Sithon, was wooed by many for her beauty and because his father promised her and his kingdom to the suitor who could defeat him in combat. In older age he had the suitors fight each other. Two came, Dryas and Cleitus, Pallene loved Cleitus and so her tutor bribed Dryas' charioteer to ensure his wheels came off, they did and he was killed. Sithon discovered the plot and was going to kill his daughter by Aphrodite intervened or a heavy shower caused him to change his mind and she married Cleitus. In another version of the story, Sithon coveted his daughter himself and killed the suitors for this reason. Dionysus offered to fight the maiden herself for her hand and seduced her in the process, he then killed Sithon and stayed with Pallene for a night.
Carya was a daughter of king Dion and Amphithea, for receiving Apollo hospitality, he gave Carya and her sisters the gift of prophecy, on the understanding that they should not betray gods or search after forbidden lore. Dionysus visited and fell in love with Carya, but her sisters, Lyco and Orphe, became aware of the affair and tried to prevent it, thus betraying Dionysus. He drove them mad and they were turned into rocks and Carya was turned into a walnut tree.
With Alexirrhoe he had a son, Carmanor who was killed by a boar. He loved the Indian nymph Alphesiboea but she spurned him until he turned into a tiger. With her he had a son, Medes.
Ovid says he seduced Erigone, the ill-fated daughter of Icarius, with grapes.
He loved the satyr Ampelos who died either riding a bull that threw him and gorged him, driven by Selene who he had insulted, or he died picking grapes on a tree. Dionysus turned him into the first vine or the constellation Vindemitor/Vindiatrix.
He was shown as a young, handsome god or a bearded man carrying the thyrsos/thyrsus, a pinecone headed staff. Sometimes he is naked or half-naked, other times cloaked. He is accompanied by a procession of Maenads, sileni and satyrs, sometimes they too are armed with thrysos. He has a chariot pulled by lions and/or tigers. His symbols are the thyrsos, fig, grapevine, ivy, leopard skin and winecup, and his animals are the bull, lion, tiger, leopard, and panther.
His Roman counterpart was Bacchus, a name the Greeks also used, and Liber. Liber was also known as Liber Pater (Free Father) a god of wine, fertility and freedom. His festival was associated with the freedom of speech and coming of age. He was originally a companion of Ceres and Libera (she became associated with Prosperina/Persephone/Kore), as part of the Aventine Triad. He was also associated with male procreation. His mother was called Stimula and the groves in which people were initiated to Bacchus' cult were considered sacred to her, and his followers were known as Bassarids/Bacchae/Bacchantes.
Dionysus was a strange god in that he was born of a mortal and should have been a demigod but thanks to his dual birth and birth from death he was able to cross over into godhood, even joining the Olympian pantheon as Hestia was said to have stepped down so that he could number in their twelve. The only other demigod who achieved godhood was Heracles who also had to die to achieve it.
Despite being seen nowadays as a fat, rowdy partygoer he was in large a cruel god, and not even his mortal relations were safe from his wrath. He cast madness almost everywhere he met, driving women to tear their own relations limb from limb and think their companions animals.
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