Dionysus

Family: Olympian · Role: god · First appears: Apollodorus, Library 1.3

🌐 Also appears in: The Iliad (as Bacchus) · The Metamorphoses of Ovid (as Bacchus) · Greek Tragedy — The Same Myth, Three Voices (as Dionysus)

Dionysus is an Olympian god whose birth is recounted through both Zeus and Semele. Zeus gave birth to him and entrusted him to Hermes, who brought him to Ino and Athamas to be reared as a girl; another account says that Semele bore him and that both mother and son became gods. Hermes thus acted as his guardian, while Ino and Athamas raised him.

Driven mad by Hera, Dionysus wandered through Egypt and Syria before Rhea purified him, taught him the rites of initiation, and gave him his costume. Proteus first received him, and when he took refuge in the sea, Thetis sheltered him while his Bacchanals and Satyrs were captured. His conflict with Lycurgus led to Lycurgus’ madness and the death of his son Dryas, while at Cithaeron Agave, maddened by Dionysus, tore Pentheus apart. He also transformed pirates who attempted to sell him into dolphins.

Dionysus killed Eurytus with a thyrsus and was opposed by Lysippe, Iphinoe, and Iphianassa, who would not accept his rites. He gave a vine to Oeneus and taught Icarius how to make wine; Orpheus was associated with inventing his mysteries. He granted Elais, Spermo, and Oeno the power to produce oil, corn, and wine from the earth.

Dionysus fathered Deianira with Althaea, and Phanus and Staphylus are named as his sons. He carried Ariadne, daughter of Minos, away from Naxos after falling in love with her, made her his wife, and made her deathless and unageing. With Ariadne he fathered Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus; after bringing his mother from Hades, he renamed her Thyone and ascended with her to heaven.