Dionysus or Dionysos (/daɪ.əˈnaɪsÉ™s/; Greek: Î"ιόνυσος) is
the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility,
orchards and fruit, vegetation, insanity, ritual madness, religious
ecstasy, festivity and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth.He
is also known as Bacchus (/ˈbækÉ™s/ or /ˈbÉ'Ë kÉ™s/; Greek:
Î'άκχος, Bákkhos), the name adopted by the Romans; the frenzy he
induces is bakkheia. Another name used by the Romans is Liber meaning
“free†, due to his association with wine and the Bacchanalia and
other rites, and the freedom associated with it. His thyrsus,
sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent
wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the
freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios ("the liberator"), his wine,
music and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear
and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those
who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and
empowered by the god himself.He is also known as Bacchus (/ˈbækəs/
or /ˈbÉ'Ë kÉ™s/; Greek: Î'άκχος, Bákkhos), the name adopted by
the Romans; the frenzy he induces is bakkheia. Another name used by
the Romans is Liber meaning “free†, due to his association with
wine and the Bacchanalia and other rites, and the freedom associated
with it. His thyrsus, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with
honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those
who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios
("the liberator"), his wine, music and ecstatic dance free his
followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the
oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who partake of his
mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god
himself.In his religion, identical with or closely related to Orphism,
Dionysus was believed to have been born from the union of Zeus and
Persephone, and to have himself represented a chthonic or underworld
aspect of Zeus. Many believed that he had been born twice, having been
killed and reborn as the son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. In the
Eleusinian Mysteries he was identified with Iacchus, the son (or,
alternately, husband) of Demeter.His origins are uncertain, and his
cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as
Thracian, others as Greek. Though most accounts say he was born in
Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner,
evidence from the Mycenaean period of Greek history show that he is
one of Greece's oldest attested gods. His attribute of "foreignness"
as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his
cults, as he is a god of epiphany, sometimes called "the god that
comes". Dionysus Top Movies & Young Movies