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Dionysus (or Dionysos; also known as Bacchus in Roman mythology and associated with the Italic Liber), the Greek god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficent influences. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace — as well as the patron deity of both agriculture and the theater.
Within the Olympian tradition, Dionysus is made to be the son of Zeus and Semele; other versions of the story contend that he is the son of Zeus and Persephone.
Many scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity and a more powerful god from Thrace or Phrygia such as Sabazios.
Herodotus, (in Histories 2:146) was aware that the worship of Dionysus arrived later among the Greeks than the Olympian pantheon, for he remarksMany Greeks were sure that the cult of Dionysus arrived in Greece from AnatoliaAnatolia ( Greek ανατολη anatole for "rising of the sun" or "East"; compare " Orient" and " Levant", by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana "mother" and dolu "filled"), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, but Greek concepts of where Nysa was, whether set in Anatolia, or in LibyaThis article is about Libya, the country in North Africa. For the mythical character of the same name see: Libya (mythology . The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya or Libya ( Arabic: ) is a country in North Africa, bordering the Mediterranea ('away in the west beside a great ocean'), Ethiopia (Herodotus), or ArabiaArabia is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. It lies north of Ethiopia and northern Somalia; south of Israel, the disputed Palestinian territories, and Jordan; and southwest of Iran. The coastal limits of Arabia comprise: on (Diodorus Siculus), are variable enough to suggest that a magical distant land was intended, perhaps named 'Nysa' to explain the God's unreadable name, as the 'god of Nysa.' Apollodorus seems to be following Pherecydes, who relates how the infant Dionysus, god of the grapevine, was nursed by the rain-nymphs, the Hyades at Nysa. The Anatolian Hittites' name for themselves in their own language ("Nesili") was "Nesi," however. The Hittites' influence on early Greek culture is often unappreciated.
The above contradictions suggest to some that we are dealing not with the historical memory of a cult that is foreign, but with a god in whom foreignness is inherent. And indeed, Dionysus's name is found on Mycenean Linear B tablets. Clearly, Dionysus had been with the Greeks a long time, and yet always retained the feel of something alien.
Dionysus is strongly associated with the satyrs, centaurs and sileni. He always carries a thyrsus. The grapevine and its wild barren alter-ego, the toxic ivy plant, were both sacred to him, the fig was also his. The pine cone that tipped his thyrsus linked him to Cybele, and the pomegranate linked him to Demeter.
The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens was also dedicated to Dionysus.
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