by Lynda Kohn

Created on: December 29, 2009   Last Updated: December 30, 2009

Dionysus

Dionysus or Bacchus as he was called in ancient Rome was the deity of wine and drinking, especially to the point of revelry. His father was Zeus, the king of the Gods. In Roman names, Zeus is Jupiter. His mother was the mortal, one of the many lovers of Zeus, Semele. Her father was Cadmus. He supposedly founded the city of Thebes. In other words, Dionysus was the child of a Deity and of a mortal woman.

Semele rather foolishly and tragically insisted on seeing the full splendor of the divine Zeus. She was cruelly persuaded to do so by Hera, who was envious of her. Little did she know that his pure splendor, including his mighty thunderbolt would be too much for her. She would lose her life and the infant Dionysus would be an orphan. Consequently, he was raised by the Nysaeren nymphs under order of Zeus himself.

He is considered the deity of wine and the fruit of the vine, culitivation of produce and theater. There are two sides to him. The negative is he rules over drunken revelry. The positive is he is the the essence of the intoxicating fruit of the grape's beneficial characteristics. It is unknown to me, whether the ancient Greeks knew of the health benefits, particularly resversetol. At any rate, wine played an important enough role to the Grecians of olden times for them to develop a divine figure for that role.

The deity figures in some Greek myths. One of them is he was Midas and was tutored in the ways of phenomena of the wine divinity by the poet Orpheus. The penultimate musician taught the ruler the power of wine and the drinking of its mind altering liquid. He played a major love interest in the story of Ariadne once she was deserted by her handsome lover Theseus. He was a prince, the son of King Ageus. The man whom Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete , helped get him out of the super complicated cave named the Labyrinth. It was built by Daedulus. He of his son Icarus and the trying to fly fame. She suggested Theseus carry a thread with him and simply retrace his steps. The Labyrinth was where the Minotaur, half man and bottom, half bull who yearly devoured seven young women and equal number of male youths. It was Theseus who slew the monster.

My perspective on Adriadne. Ariadne while never a Goddess. To me, if she was one she'd be the Goddess of every woman who lost what she believed to be the love of her life for whatever reason. Only to find a lover who is infinitely better than her former love. This goes for men, gay and straight

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