One of the most important gods of Ancient Greece, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes. Semele was killed by a lightning bolt when, at Hera’s instigation, she asked to see her lover in all his majesty. In order to save their unborn child, Zeus removed him from Semele’s body and sewed him into his thigh until it was time for him to be born. The prevailing tradition is that, to protect him from Hera’s wrath, the infant Dionysus was raised by the Nymphs of Nysa, a region placed by some on Mount Helicon, by others in Thrace or Macedonia, and by some accounts in Asia or Africa; Nysa was also the name of one of the Nymphs who cared for him. The first element of his name is confidently held to derive from Zeus (Dios in the genitive). As for the second part, the most likely of the many hypotheses that have been formulated associates it with Nysa.Dionysus, also called Bacchus, was chiefly the god of wine, of revelry, of vegetation and of fecundity, and was regarded in addition as the protector of the drama, which developed from his cultic revels. Great festivals were organized in his honor in many Greek cities, among them the Great Dionysia, the Rural Dionysia, the Lenaia, and the Anthesteria, while later his cult was also carried to Rome. He had a great many epithets, the most important being Eleuthereus or Lyaeus, “deliverer from care and sorrow”, Aegobolus, “to whom goats are sacrificed”, Chthonius, “belonging to the earth”, and Oenodotes, “wine-giver”. His emblems were the phallus, the thyrsus (a long staff entwined with ivy) and the torch, and he was always accompanied by a train of Maenads (or Bacchantes), Satyrs and Sileni. The Dionysiac cult was one of mystic ecstasy, orgiastic frenzy, divine mania and fervid enthusiasm, which led the follower to mystical union with the god. Known since Mycenaean times, a wanderer whose travels had encompassed Egypt, Syria, Phrygia and India, Dionysus was particularly associated with the land and people of Thrace. His famous sanctuary, guarded by the Thracian Satyrs, was on Mount Pangaeon. One noteworthy myth involves Dionysus and Lycurgus, king of the Edoni, a Thracian people. According to one version of the tale, in his rage against Dionysus Lycurgus attacked the Bacchantes and threatened the god’s life, for which he was punished with madness. While in that state he chopped up his son, thinking that he was cutting down a grapevine. When he came to his senses, he saw that the land was dry and hungry. When the oracle of Dionysus implied that the drought would remain until Lycurgus had been put to death, the Edonians carried him to Mount Pangaeon where he was torn to pieces by wild horses.
