In Greek mythology besides the twelve Olympian gods of Mount Olympus, there were some others who didn’t reside the godly mountain. One of them was Dionisos the god of wine, viticulture and ecstasy.
Dionisos was the son of Zeus and mortal princess Semele. Semele, who was the daughter of Cadmus and Armonia, was Zeus’ lover while he was married to Hera.
When Hera learnt about his husband’s infidelity decided to punish them. Out of jealousy and desire of revenge, she appeared in Semele guile convinced her to ask from her lover to appear in front of her as god and not as human as he used so to prove his love. Clueless and naïve, Semele asked Zeus to reveal himself in all his glory in his next visit. Zeus vainly tried to convince her otherwise and in order to please her he fulfilled her wish. The poor mortal, could not experience the light of bolts of lighting coming out of Zeus’ and she perished thunderstruck. As the flames wreathed the unfortunate woman, Zeus took the six month fetus, she was carrying and sewed him into his thigh and when the nine months went by Dionisos was born, for the second time, this time by his god father. For this reason he gained immortality.
The king of immortal, though knew very well that his jealous wife would show her wrath towards the newborn child that’s why he gave the child to Hermes to keep him safe. Hermes trusted the child to Semele’s sister Ino and her husband Athamantas. Being rather cunning Hera, drove Ino and Athamantas crazy and started killing their children. Hermes saved Dionisos and that time he trusted the child to the nymphs, who nursed the boy with love and care in an idyllic landscape full of trees and colourful flowers.
When Dionisos grew up, his father, taught him the wine making. It is said that for the first time he showed his wine to the king of Aetolia, Oineas. His shepherd, Stafilos, had found a peculiar plant full of grapes and thrilled brought them to his king to please him Oineas extracted the juice. Since then Dionisos called that juice “oino” and the fruit “stafilia” derived from the names of Oinea and his shepherd, respectively.
Dionisos never wanted to keep his gift only for himself and started travelling from town to town holding a thyrsus ( a lengthy stick decorated with ivy or vine ) on one hand and a pot of wine on the other teaching people how to make wine.
On all his trips he was followed by Maenads satyrus, silenus as well as his good friend, god Panas.
This abuzz companionship cheered the people with their loud voices and songs. There was plenty of wine and they kept dancing continuously accompanied by musical instruments or by playing the flute and guitar by themselves. Their journeys were an unstoppable feast.
The basic difference between the worship of Dionisos and the other twelve Olympian gods was that he didn’t demand any sacrifices so as to show his grace. He didn’t treat people harshly or persecute them, but through his wine he initiated them to the ecstasy for intoxication making them feel free from the burdens of their mundane life.
