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Dionysus, the god of vine-growing and wine-making, was son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of the Theban king Cadmus. Following the advice of the jealous Hera, Semele asked her lover to appear in his majesty. The supreme god of Olympus appeared before the princess surrounded with glittering lightnings. Semele, caught by the fire, gave birth to a son and died. Zeus put the baby into his hip where he grew and got stronger before he was born once again. Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, took the baby to nymphs to be brought up. When Dionysus grew older he travelled round the Earth, granting vines to people and teaching them vine-growing. Once during his pilgrimage pirates caught Dionysus and wanted to sell him as a slave. But Dionysus set the ivy to entwine their oars and tackle and the vines to twine the mast. The apparitions of wild animals appeared on the desk after that and the pirates threw themselves into the sea and were turned into the dolphins. On the island Naxos Dionysus met his beloved Ariadne, daughter of the king of Crete, deserted by Theseus. She became the wife of the god and his priestess. Dionysus's old wise teacher Silenus and the goatlike Pan, the patron of forests and pastures, were his inseparable companions. In the suite of Dionysus were also satyrs and maenads (after libation they went into ecstasies and rushed in a stormy dance), snow leopards, tigers, panthers and goats.
To honour the god of fertility of nature, vegetation, vine-growing and wine-making ancient Greeks held festivals known as Dionysia (Bacchanalia in Rome). Performances, representing scenes from the myths about wonderful birth of Dionysus, his travelling and his appearance in Greece, were held during the Dionysia in Athens. Religious rites devoted to Dionysus gave birth to the ancient Greek tragedy (from Greek tragoidia - "song of the goats", i.e. satyrs - the goatlike companions of Dionysus). In Attica, the Great, or Town Dionysia were devoted to this god. They consisted in solemn processions in his honour, competitions of tragic and comic poets and choruses that performed dithyrambs. The Small, or Rural Dionysia represented repetitions of the plays performed in towns.
Many statues dedicated to Dionysus survived till today. The earliest of them represent him with beard, long hair, in long ceremonial clothing. From the 5th century B.C. the god of wine-making is shown as a young boy with a wreath of vines on his head and with a cup and a bunch of grapes in his hands. The myths about Dionysus and his companions became favourite subjects in the Western European art starting from the Renaissance. Bacchus, the painting by Pieter Paul Rubens, the great Flemish artist of the 17th century, is one of the masterpieces of the Hermitage collection.
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 Mercury Takes Bacchus to be Brought Up by Nymphs Laurent de La Hyre Larger view |
 Bacchus and Ariadne Maurice Denis Larger view |
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