The stories of Dionysus, who was also called Bacchus by both the Greeks and Romans, are
extremely complicated since they combine elements borrowed from a variety of cults, some
of them of Oriental, or at least Anatolian and Syrian origin.
In the classical era, Dionysus was the god of the productive force of the earth and, in
particular, of wine, the vine, and mystical ecstasy. The son of Zeus and the Theban
princess Semele, he was known as Dithyrambos, the "twice-born", because, taken
prematurely from his mother's womb, he was incubated in his father's thigh until he was
ready to enter the world. To preserve him from the jealousy of Hera, Zeus took him far
away from Greece, to the country called Nysa (which may be the source of the name
Dionysus), identified by some as Asia and others as Ethiopia. Here Dionysus was raised by
the local nymphs who were later rewarded with a place in heaven as the constellation of
the Hyades.
He was already full-grown and had invented wine when he was stricken with madness by Hera.
In the grip of his delirium he wandered for a long time through Egypt and Syria, and then
followed the coasts of Asia as far as India, where he was welcomed by the goddess Cybele,
who purified him of his madness and initiated him into the rites of her cult. During these
travels Dionysus taught the cultivation of the vine to the inhabitants of the regions he
passed through and, at the same time, laid the foundations of civilization. On his return
to Europe he went to Thrace and, then, his native Thebes, where he asserted his power.
King Pentheus, who tried to oppose him, was harshly punished. At Argos, his next
destination, Dionysus displayed his power in a similar way, driving King Proetus daughters
along with all the women of the country mad, causing them to devour their children.
The god then decided to visit Naxos and boarded a Tyrrhenian pirate ship. The treacherous
crew, who set sail for Asia with the intention of selling their illustrious passenger into
slavery, found themselves witnesses to an extraordinary prodigy, and all the sailors were
changed into dolphins. After gradually imposing his cult in this way, the divine nature of
Dionysus was recognized by all and the god was able to ascend into heaven and take his
place among the Olympians. One of his first acts as a god was to abduct Ariadne, abandoned
on Naxos by Theseus, who became his bride. There is also a tale of his love affair with
Aphrodite, to whom Priapus was born.
In the oldest legends, Dionysus is accompanied by the Charities or Graces, but very
soon the frenzied Bacchantes, also known as Maenads, and Sileni began to appear at his
side during his expeditions and long journeys. In the later, stories Silenus was the tutor
of Dionysus who kept him company on all his travels. King Midas' kindness to him was
rewarded by Dionysus with the gift of the golden touch.
Not very widespread in Homeric Greece, the cult of Dionysus grew stronger in the
Hellenistic era, roughly in the period following Alexander the Great's expedition to
India. In Rome it assumed more unrestrained and orgiastic aspects, leading the Senate to
prohibit celebration of the Bacchanalia in 186 BC. However, the cult was preserved by the
mystic sects that celebrated the Dionysian Mysteries.
