Dionysus



**Dionysus **
== The God of Wine, Theater and Vegetation Key Points
 * Taught the abilitly to ferment wine
 * Son of Zeus
 * Has religious following
 * His symbol is the thrysus

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Birth Dionysus (Dy onn **__ny__** sus) was born to the the king of gods, Zeus, and Semele, who was a mortal. In an unfortunate twist of fate, Semele was consumed by the radiance of Zeus. With no one to help young Dionysus, Hermes helped saved him. He helped Zeus plant Dionysus, his unborn child, on the inside of Zeus' thigh. After three months, Dionysus was born. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus  Dionysus is the god of wine, theater, and vegetation. He is also sometimes known as the god of mysterious religious rites. As Dionysus is a vegetation diety, he created the grape vine. Using the vine, he taught the the ability to ferment wine. Dionysus is also linked to the fir tree from which his symbol, the thrysus, is made. All of his followers carry one. Dionysus finds safety in water. Water is also an excellent example to portray Dionysus because water is two sided in personality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3PI5jWgfpc



The Creation of Humans (myth) In one myth it is believed that Dionysus is indirectly responsible of the creation of humanity. When Dionysus was young, he was slained by the Titans by way of a slit throat. They proceeded to slice him up into little pieces and cook him. This is where it all went wrong for the Titans because his father Zeus smelled this odor. Zeus was unpleasantly surprised to find one of his sons in the pot cooking. Zeus saved his son and had him resurrected. After the death of the Titans, the humans were supposedly to have risen from the Titans ashes. Midas (myth) Probably one of the more recognizable myths that Dionysus is involved in, is when Dionysus foster father is missing. The drunken man is found by some peasants, and they take Silenus, as he is named, to the king, Midas. Midas entertains and helps the old man, and in return Dionysus grants Midas one wish. With this wish, Midas wishes that everything he touches turns to gold. After a while this becomes a problem, for Midas' food even turns to gold. Dionysus told Midas the only way to get rid of his wish is to go to the river Pactolus, to wash away the gift   of Dionysus. The power was then in turn passed onto the river, which is why the sands are gold.

This page was created by Robert Duran Other Links 
 * [|historylink102.com/ greece2/dionysus.htm]
 * http://www.dionysia.org/greek/dionysos/thompson/dionysos.html

Works Cited-duran