Dionysus

DIONYSUS THE TWICE BORN

• He is the son of Zeus and Semele (a mortal).
• Zeus sewed him too his leg after accidentally killing Semele.
• That was Dionysus first birth.
• The second came when Dionysus emerged from the thigh of Zeus.

DIONYSUS MOTHER

• Semele is also known as Thyone.
• She was retrieved from the Underworld by Dionysus.
• She was brought back to Olympus.
• She was known there as Thyone, goddess of inspired frenzy

AbOUT DIONYSUS

• God of Wine, Merry Making, Theatre, and Ecstacy.
• He has many siblings such as, Ares, Athena ,Apollo.
• Artemis, Aphrodite, Hebe, Hermes, Heracles, Helen of Troy.
• Hephaestus, Perseus, Minos, the Muses, and the Graces.

MORE INFORMATION ON DIONYSUS

• He was the last god to be accepted into Mt. Olympus.
• He was the youngest and the only one to have a mortal mom.
• His festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek Theatre.
• He is a dying god.
• A dying-and-rising god is born, suffers a death-like experience, and is subsequently reborn.

DIONYSUS IS GOD OF...

• He is represented by city religions as the protector of
• those who don't belong to conventional society and thus
• symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected,
• everything which escapes human reason and which can only be
• attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.

DIONYSUS CULT AND THYRSUS

• His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey.
• He is also called Eleutherios ("the liberator"), whose wine, music and
• ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care,
• and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful.
• Those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god.

THE END