Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and fertility,
Latin Bacchus, son of Zeus and Semele
Semele von Zeus wished for Zeus to appear to the council of jealous Hera, who appeared to her in the guise of her nurse, to appear to her in her actual form.
This one, bound by the promise to fulfill her every wish, appeared in thunder and lightning and burned Semele. Her unborn child, Dionysus, rescued Zeus and carried it out sewn into her thigh. Shele's sister Ino or the nymphs of Nys cared for and educated Dionysus.
On the island of Naxos he married the desperate Ariadne (Ariadne's thread = solution from a confused situation). There, Theseus, who had promised her marriage, abandoned her in her sleep. The crown of Ariadne, her wedding gift from Dionysos, was transferred to heaven as a constellation ("Northern Crown").
In the wake of the wine god satyrs and silenes, horse-like beings as well as nymphs were to be found. His admirers, the maenads (Greek "raging"), also called Bacchantinnen, roamed in ritual processions for Dionysos, clothed with the fur of the fawn with torches, the Thyrsos - staff with pine cones at the top - swinging, as the God's feastful swarm in rapturously rage dancing through the woods and mountains. In the tumult, they tore up young animals and devoured them raw.
Pentheus, the king of Thebes, resisted the introduction of the Dionysos cult and wanted to prevent women from participating in the feast of God. On the advice of the God he had not recognized, whom he had captured, he took part in the celebration as a spectator in the forest mountains without permission and was torn apart, discovered by the raging maenads. His mother carried the bleeding head home in rapturous rapture and recognized what had happened too late.
The orgiastic, ecstatic train, also known as Bacchanal, was originally only approved for women, but was significantly reduced in the official cult in Greece. The reason for this was desolate, sometimes criminal debauchery. The cult centered on a phallic procession.
Bust of the main exhibit of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, surrounded by vines and leaves.
