Dionysus Beliefs

Dionysus is a greek god of vine, grape harvest, wine, vegetation, fertility, ritual madness, pleasure, theater and religious ecstasy. In Roman mythology he is known as Bacchus. There are different stories about his birth, but in all of them, he is the »twice – born« or born by two mothers. His father is Zeus. In one of the stories, his mother is a mortal woman, Semele. When Hera, the wife of Zeus, found out, that Semele is pregnant with her husband, she was looking for the way to prevent the baby to be born. She and Semele became friends and Hera planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Semele therefore asked Zeus to give her proof of his godhood. Zeus finally did that, but Semele had to die, because no mortal could look in an undisguised god without dying. Zeus saved the baby from her womb and he sew him into his thigh. The baby, Dionysus, was born few month later. In another story Dyonisus's mother was Persephone. Again, Hera wanted to kill the child by sending the Titans. Zeus managed to save only his heart. He sew his heart into his thigh to recreate him. In all of the cases, we are witnessing the story of death and rebirth. There are again several different stories about his childhood, but in all of the stories he was raised on
Dionysus appears in all traditions as the representative of some power of nature. This productive, overflowing and intoxicating power of nature carries man away from his usual quiet and sober mode of living. Dionysus can be compared to his brother, Apollo (Nietszche in the Birth of Tragedy), where Apollonian are all types of form and structure, rational mind and individuation, and Dionysian is completely the opposite – ectasy and enthusiasm, instinctive, chaotic emotions, everything, that forces a man to give up his individuality and submerge himself with a greater