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Dionysus is the god of the vine, master of revels and bestower
of ecstasy; he is pictured as a wild, ivy-crowned youth and is the most
important of the nature gods. He is the son of Zeus, but there are many
questions as to who exactly his mother was; some stories say Demeter, queen
of the harvest, is his mother, and some that Lethe, a nymph whose name
means forgetfulness, is his mother, but the story most widely told is that
he was born of the divine flames that consumed Semele, the new moon priestess
and Phrygian princess whom Zeus courted invisibly until she realized that
he was something more than what he seemed and coaxed him to show himself
and that the fire ever after coursed in his veins, giving him a matchless radiance. Zeus gave him to the mountaintop nymphs to raise to protect him
from Hera's wrath and when he was half grown, he was taken under the tutelage
of Silenus, a fat little woodland deity, very wise and very mischievous;
Silenus taught him the secret of the grape and the terrible enchantment
it cast. Accompanied by Silenus, he visited all the kingdoms on the border
of the Inland Sea, introducing vine-culture to men, always followed by
a troop of dancing drunken worshippers, including Silenus's sons, the satyrs,
and the wild women called Maenads, who reveled nightly under the moon.
Once he was captured by pirates, who thought he was a prince they could
ransom; the ship stopped, though in deep water and strong wind, vines sprouted
out of the ocean and climbed around the hull and mast and the oars in the
galley slaves' hands turned into sea serpents and swam away. Where Dionysus
had been, a giant lion sat and soon got up to dance; the frightened pirates
jumped overboard and were turned into dolphins. It is also told that he
descended into Tartarus, form which there is no return, to rescue Semele,
his mother, but he produced a bouquet of flowers for Persephone that was
so beautiful and whose fragrance so intoxicating that could not refuse
him anything, so Semele followed him out and up to Olympus where Dionysus
convinced Zeus to make her a moon deity. Zeus was so taken with his gorgeous
son that he wished to enroll him among the pantheon, which could not number
more than twelve, but modest Hestia gave up her spot to him; he was given
a spot on the right hand of Zeus and honored among the gods, though her
frequently descended because of his love of mankind. The festivals in his
name were so numerous and so joyous that the gods often disguised themselves
as mortals to join the frolic. He was loved beyond the other gods because
he had taught men to escape the narrow bonds of their personalities and
yield to the ecstasy of natural forces that permits them to know the gods
in their deepest mystery. The grape, ivy, rose, dolphin, goat and panther
were all sacred to Dionysus.
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