Dionysus He was a god so different from the rest of the olympic godswhich the Greeks themselves considered to have a foreign origin, which they located either in Ethiopia or in Arabia.

One of those distinctive elements was its cult, driven by a frenzy which was at the antipodes of, for example, Apollowhich advocated knowing oneself through security and balance.

Birth of Dionysus, unforeseen god

Another of the peculiarities of Dionysus is that I wasn’t meant to be a godsince, Although he was the son of Zeus, his mother, the Theban princess Semele, was not a divinity.but a mortal one.

Zeus had fallen in love with her and, as was typical of him, he did not give up until he made her his. That relationship ended up reaching the ears of the god’s wife, Herawho, driven by jealousy, devised a stratagem to get rid of that annoying rival. So, it appeared to him one day and He convinced her to ask Zeus for proof of his love.: to show yourself to her in all your splendor.

Semele, who was already pregnant with Dionysus, fell into the trap: She begged her lover so much that he finally agreed to show himself exactly as he was. That is, with a brightness that no human could stand. The princess was no exception and lit like a torch.

Zeus barely had time to open her womb and take out that son. To complete your pregnancy, He sewed it to the thigh, from where it would end up being bornno longer as a mortal, but as a god.

Hera’s hatred of Dionysus

Knowing that Hera hated children born of extramarital relations, Zeus gave Dionysus for adoption to King Athamas and his wife Ino.and asked them to raise him as if he were a girl. Hera was not fooled and made the marriage go crazy to the point of killing his own children.

From there, Dionysus passed into the care of Hermeswho entrusted it to the nymphs of Nisa, a mountain located at the ends of the world, hence the foreign god fame who would always accompany Dionysus. But he also discovered it there Hera, who made Semele’s son go crazy and wandered aimlessly through Syria and Egypt.

Rhea, Zeus’s mother, was the one who picked him uphealed and taught him the religious rites related to the cultivation of the vine.

From there, Dionysus returned to Greece, where he introduced the knowledge of the vine and wine.

The cruelty of Dionysus

Thanks to the wine, Dionysus found himself surrounded by a cheerful group of followers. Among them stood out Pan, the god of flocks; the satyr Silenus, and the maenads and bacchanteswomen carried away by a mystical delirium that annulled their own personality and united them with the god. To achieve this state they resorted to wine and a frenetic dance carried by the sound of flutes, tambourines, drums and cymbals.

This ritual served a cathartic and liberating function. Many, however, not only did not understand it, but also openly rejected it. This is the case of the Theban king Pentheus, a cousin of Dionysussince his mother was the sister of the god.

Pentheus banned the cult of Dionysus in Thebesand this despite the fact that both his mother and his aunts were part of the group of bacchantes that the god accompanied.

Dionysus punished Pentheus in a particularly cruel way.: He made his mother and aunts, carried away by an orgiastic and irrational frenzy, confuse the king with a wild animal and tear him to pieces with their own hands and teeth.

Another king who rejected his cult, Lycurgus, was dismembered by his own horses.

The loves of the god Dionysus

Dionysus was a god of irresistible attractiveness. So much so that Not even Aphrodite, the goddess of love, could resist him.. From their relationship a peculiar creature was born, Priapus, characterized by a sexual appetite proportional to his enormous phallus.

The most famous of his lovers was Ariadnethe Cretan princess who had helped Theseus defeat the Minotaur, but whom the ungrateful hero had left abandoned on the island of Naxos. Dionysus found her and took her to Lemnos, where he made her his wife.

The cult of Dionysus

Dionysus was especially revered in Athensa city that dedicated up to four great festivals to him: the Rustic Dionysiacs (December) and the Leneas (January-February), whose programs included processions and sacrifices in his honor; the Anthesterias (February-March), in which the jars of new wine were opened, and the Great Dionysiacs (March-April), a procession that carried the image of the god from Eleutheras to Athens.

These holidays are above all important because The hymns and dances that were performed in honor of Dionysus constitute the origin of tragedy and comedy. The ruins of the theater of Dionysus, from the 6th century BC, can still be seen in Athens today.