'''Dionysus''' was the Olympian god of wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, madness and wild frenzy. He was depicted as either an older, bearded god or an effeminate, long-haired youth. His attributes included the thyrsos (a pine-cone tipped staff), a drinking cup and a crown of ivy. He was usually accompanied by a troop of Satyrs and Mainades (wild female devotees).

In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia. His wine, music, and ecstatic dance were considered to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His thyrsus, a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself.

His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In Orphism, he was variously a son of Zeus and Persephone; a chthonic or underworld aspect of Zeus; or the twice-born son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. The Eleusinian Mysteries identify him with Iacchus, the son or husband of Demeter. Most accounts say he was born in Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner. His attribute of "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults, as he is a god of epiphany, sometimes called "the god who comes".

Wine was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus and was his earthly incarnation. Wine could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness. Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, the initial driving force behind the development of theatre in Western culture. The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god.

He was also known as the Liberator (Eleutherios), freeing one from one's normal self, by madness, ecstasy, or wine. The divine mission of Dionysus was to mingle the music of the flute and to bring an end to care and worry.

In one of its popular origins, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, a daughter of Cadmus (king of Thebes). Out of jealousy, Hera, the wife of Zeus, persuaded the pregnant Semele to prove her lover’s divinity by requesting that he appear in his real person. Zeus complied, but his power was too great for the mortal Semele, who was blasted with thunderbolts. However, Zeus saved his son by sewing him up in his thigh and keeping him there until he reached maturity, so that he was twice born. Dionysus was then conveyed by the god Hermes to be brought up by the bacchantes (maenads, or thyiads) of Nysa, a purely imaginary spot.

As Dionysus apparently represented the sap, juice, or lifeblood element in nature, lavish festal orgia (rites) in his honour were widely instituted. These Dionysia (Bacchanalia) quickly won converts among women. Men, however, met them with hostility. In Thrace Dionysus was opposed by Lycurgus, who ended up blind and mad.

In Thebes Dionysus was opposed by Pentheus, his cousin, who was torn to pieces by the bacchantes when he attempted to spy on their activities. Athenians were punished with impotence for dishonouring the god’s cult. Their husbands’ resistance notwithstanding, women took to the hills, wearing fawn skins and crowns of ivy and shouting the ritual cry, “Euoi!” Forming thyai (holy bands) and waving thyrsoi (singular: thyrsus; fennel wands bound with grapevine and tipped with ivy), they danced by torchlight to the rhythm of the aulos (double pipe) and the tympanon (handheld drum). While they were under the god’s inspiration, the bacchantes were believed to possess occult powers and the ability to charm snakes and suckle animals, as well as preternatural strength that enabled them to tear living victims to pieces before indulging in a ritual feast (ōmophagia). The bacchantes hailed the god by his titles of Bromios (“Thunderer”), Taurokeros (“Bull-Horned”), or Tauroprosopos (“Bull-Faced”), in the belief that he incarnated the sacrificial beast.

In Orphic legend (i.e., based on the stories of Orpheus), Dionysus—under the name Zagreus—was the son of Zeus by his daughter Persephone. At the direction of Hera, the infant Zagreus/Dionysus was torn to pieces, cooked, and eaten by the evil Titans. But his heart was saved by Athena, and he (now Dionysus) was resurrected by Zeus through Semele. Zeus struck the Titans with lightning, and they were consumed by fire. From their ashes came the first humans, who thus possessed both the evil nature of the Titans and the divine nature of the gods.

Below are characters from Greek mythology who are considered children of Dionysus. In some cases there are conflicting stories about who their parents are. A complete list is here.
* Priapus
* Hymen
* Thoas
* Staphylus
* Oenopion
* Comus
* Phthonus
* the Graces
* Deianira

All published appearances of Dionysus from before January 1, )-(95)}} are public domain in the US.

Notable appearances are listed below:

* Bibliotheca historica
* Dionysiaca
* Metamorphoses by Ovid
* The Birth of Tragedy
* Beyond Good and Evil and later
* The Twilight of the Idols
* The Antichrist
* Ecce Homo

* The Bacchae
* Homeric Hymn to Dionysus
* The Frogs by Aristophanes

* Wikipedia
* [https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dionysos_Mosaic.jpg Wikimedia Commons]
* [https://comicvine.gamespot.com/dionysus/4005-14561/ Comicvine]
* [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/ClassicalMythologySecondGenerationOlympians TV Tropes]
* Myths in Media Wiki
* Myth & Folklore Wiki
* [https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html Theoi]
* [https://www.giantbomb.com/dionysus/3005-7189/ GiantBomb]
* Religion Wiki
* [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dionysus Britannica]
* DC Wiki
* Marvel Wiki
* Ultimate Pop Culture Wiki
* [https://www.comics.org/character/name/Dionysus/sort/chrono/ GCD]
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