Dionysus (called Bacchus by the Romans) was the son of Zeus and Semele, the princess of Themes. Since Seele had no divine origins herself, the child was half human and the other gods considered him semimortal. But Semele met the same fate as all of Zeus's other lovers, caused by Hera. Zeus was fasinaed by her though and swore by the river of sticks, an oath not even the king of the gods could break, that he would grant her any wish. Hera then entered one of Semele's dreams and whispered to her how it would be wonderful to see Zeus in his divine form, an homor to see him in the way that the gods saw him. Semele went to Zeus and asked him to appear as he really was. Zeus tried to change Semele's mind, knowing that no mortal could see his fiery glory and live, but Semele insisted. Zeus had sworn by the holy oath, though, and when he appeared in his aspect of godley power, Semele died of shock. Zeus, knowing Semele was pregnant, took their unobrn child and kept it by him, hiding it from Hera, until it was to be born. Then Zeus gave Dionysus to Hermes, who would carry him to the nymphs of Nysa, a place where the finest of grapes would eventually grow. Dionysus grew into a young man who loved trabel and adventure. He wandered all over Earth, teaching humans how to turn the juice of grapes into an intoxicating beverage called wine. He once sailed wigh a band of sailors, who took Dionysus for a son of a king rather than a god, and captured him, thinking they could be given riches. They captured him but no ropes or leather would hold him, and all bonds that the kidnappers tried to use, fell apart once they touched Dionysus body. One sailor soon realized they were not dealing with a mortal and warned the others to let him go, but they did not listen. Soon, the ship would not move, no matter how much wind filled the sails, wine rained from the heavens, and grape vines grew from the wooden planks of the ship and wound themselves around the masts and sails. The sailors then tried to free their captive, but Dionysus had turned himsself in a lion and roared so fierce, they all jumped overboard. When they hit the water, they turned into dolphins, but only one was saved--the sailor who had tried to get his peers to free Dionysus. He was carried to shore and allowed to go home to his family. Dionysus then grew older and longed for his mother that he had never seen. He traveled to the underworld and brought her back, but because she was a mortal, he feared she would die again, so he took her to Olympus, where the gods allowed her to stay. She was the only mortal to live along the immortals forever.
Dionysus was always considered a god with a double nature: kind and helpful but sometimes cruel and destructive. He is also connected with death and resurection, whether by the fact of the rescue of him as a baby by his fathe, Zeus, or him bringing his mother back from the underworld. Dionysus was also worshiped as a promise of immortality in a better way than a ghostly existence in Hades. The "happier-life-after-death" religion was not believed by the Greeks, but we may suppose that there were similar non-christian ideas about the immortality of the soul.