Dionysus was the Greek god of wine, fertility, theater, and religious ecstasy. According to mythology, he was the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele. As a child, he wandered Asia and Egypt before returning to Greece. Dionysus had many powers including control over madness, vegetation, plays, winemaking, and reincarnation. He introduced wine and the cultivation of grapes to humans. Dionysus should be remembered as one of the few gods born of a human and one of the only ones who could bring someone back from the underworld.

1. Dionysus

2. Who is Dionysus?God of WineRoman name BacchusHis birth: In Greek mythology Dionysus is made to be a son of Zeus and Semele (the mortal woman)

3. Who is Dionysus?Childhood: When Dionysus had grown up, Hera threw him into a state of madnessAccording to the common tradition, Dionysus first wandered through EgyptThe most famous part of his wanderings in Asia is his expedition to India, which is said to have lasted three, or, according to some, even 52 years.

4. Powers and ResponsibilitiesGod of Viticulture & Winemaking "Icarus, to whom, on account of his justice and piety, Father Liber [Dionysos] gave wine, the vine, and the grape , so that he could show men how to plant the vine, what would grow from it, and how to use what was produced. When he had planted the vine, and by careful tending with a pruning-knife had made it flourish." - Hyginus, Astronomica 2.2God of Wine-Drinking & Party "Let us be merry and drink wine and sing of Bakkhos [Dionysos] , the inventor of the choral dance, the lover of all songs, leading the same life as the Erotes (Loves), …..." - Greek Lyric II The Anacreontea, Frag 38

5. Powers and ResponsibilitiesGod of Madness & Hallucination "Bacchus [Dionysos] himself, grape-bunches garlanding his brow, brandished a spear that vine-leaves twined, and at his feet fierce spotted panthers lay, tigers and lynxes too, in phantom forms." - Ovid Metamorphoses 3.572God of Fruit & Vegetation "Thee [Dionysos] it becomes to circle thy locks with flowers of the springtime ... or thy smooth brow to wreathe with the ivy’s clustering berries." - Seneca, Oedipus 413

6. Powers and ResponsibilitiesGod of Plays & Choral Song"They say also that when he [Dionysos] went abroad he was accompanied by the Mousai, who were maidens that had received an unusually excellent education, and that by their songs and dancing and other talents in which they had been instructed these maidens delighted the heart of the god." - DiodorusSiculus, Library of History 4.4.3God of Homosexuality & Effeminacy"Hermes took him [the newborn infant Dionysos] to Ino and Athamas, and persuaded them to bring him up as a girl." - Apollodorus, The Library 3.28

7. Powers and ResponsibilitiesGod of Reincarnation & Afterlife"He [Dionysos in his boyhood] rent rams, skins and all, and clove them piecemeal and cast the dead bodies on the ground; and again with his hands he neatly put their limbs together, and immediately they were alive and browsed on the green pasture." - Oppian, Cynegetica 4.230

8. Why should he be remembered?The only of the twelve great gods to be born of a humanDionysus is also one of the very few that was able to bring a dead person out of the underworld.