Perhaps the most mysterious of the principal Greek deities is Dionysos. Everyone seems to know that he is the god of wine and sexuality. But there is so much more to this ancient divinity. This is why I always tell my students they should never respond to the question “Who is Dionysos?” in their exam with only “god of wine and sex”. Too little is too trite.

In the words of Eric Dodds, one of the most influential scholars of Greek religion, Dionysos is “not only the liquid fire in the grape but the sap thrusting in a young tree, the blood pounding in the veins of a young animal, all the mysterious and uncontrollable tides that ebb and flow in the life of nature.” This is a more precise and more inclusive definition than any simple reference to alcohol. It is based on the works of Plutarch, an ancient author who was himself a priest.

The epithets of Dionysos clearly indicate that he is a force of nature: Dendrites and Endendros (‘the One of/in the tree’), Anthios (‘the Blossomer’), Karpios (‘the Fruit-bringer’), Phleus (‘the Abundance of Life’?). The divine permeates all the living world so that Dionysos can make fruit grow out of barren land and ivy entwine the masts of ships, as he did in a famous incident when he was captured by pirates, who refused to believe he was a deity and hoped they could get a large amount of gold in ransom for a young prince.

Dionysos turned himself into a lion and chased the crew into the sea. The frightened pirates turned into dolphins, proving that the god pervades not only the terrestrial life of nature but also the denizens of the deep.

No Greek god comes so close to uniting opposites and abolishing the boundaries between the sacrificer and the sacrificed, between this world and the other. Again, Dodds put it nicely:

He is the principle of animal life, bull and bull-eater, the hunted and the hunter—the unrestrained potency which man envies in the beasts and seeks to assimilate

Dionysos’ animality is one of his most potent characteristics. Any Greek god could turn into an animal temporarily, as Zeus did many times in order to have sex with various females he found attractive across the species. But Dionysos is the animal god per se, the roaring lion and the terrifying bull, as well as the slippery snake that takes many forms.

In Argos he was called ‘Bougenes’ (‘the offspring of a bull’) and on the shores of the sea the women of Elis sang a ritual hymn in which they invoked the god:

Come, o hero Dionysos, with Charites to this marine temple, on your raging bovine foot to this marine temple, worthy bull, worthy bull!

The bovine aspect of Dionysos invokes the potency and power of bulls, who were renowned for their prowess and fertility already in the prehistory of Greece. The Minoan civilisation worshiped the creative power of the bull: their colourful frescos show young men engaging in bull leaping, a game that was most likely a rite of passage for their transition to manhood.

Dionysos breaks the boundaries of consciousness. One of his most important epithets is Lyaios (‘Deliverer’ or literally ‘Loosener’), the god who dissolves inhibitions and reveals the urges and impulses that lie beneath the thin veneer of cultural norms and whatever goes for ‘civilized behaviour’. In Euripides’ Bacchae, King Pentheus famously opposes the cult of Dionysos, challenging the god to demonstrate his power by playing with his mind to the point of total dissolution of the king at the hands of his own mother, Agave, who took to the mountains as a maenad (follower of Dionysos) to perform his rites in the wilderness.

Again and again the god is perceived as a foreigner and must prove his divinity to skeptics and atheists. This is because Dionysos has the most unusual appearance for a god. He lets his hair grow long and has the soft skin of a woman. At first sight of the sexy god, Pentheus imagines him having sex with his maenads in the hills around Thebes. The more the king tries to resist, the stronger the god’s grip on his body and mind. Eventually, Dionysos makes him believe he will see the maenads for himself but only if he disguises as a woman. The demented king obeys, puts on a dress and pays the price of impiety with his life.

Dionysos dissolves the boundaries between the sexes and obliterates the construct of male and female gender, which was central to the making of Greek society. He empowers women to do incredible feats, defeating a whole army and tearing a bull as well as the king with their own hands. It is no surprise that Dionysos has both male and female lovers. For who could ever resist the god of sex?

The mythology of Dionysos is vast and I have barely scratched the surface in this brief post. However, one cannot omit the fact that he was also the god of the mysteries. In Orphic and Bacchic rites, he was invoked as the god of life and regeneration.

Orphic texts, such as the gold tablets found in graves across the ancient Greek world, provide instructions for the deceased on how to navigate the afterlife. The devotees often invoke Dionysus, underscoring his role as a guide and savior for the soul. The presence of Dionysus in these eschatological contexts highlights his significance not just as a god of earthly revelry but as a divine mediator who facilitates the soul's journey to immortality.

Dionysos is able to guide the soul to the Otherworld and its regeneration in a different life because he too suffered death and was revived. According to Orphic tradition, Zeus decided to appoint Dionysos as his successor when he was still a baby. The weakness of the infant king was exploited by the giants who were the enemies of the gods. According to Olymiodorus, a 6th-century BC Neoplatonist philosopher:

They say that through Hera’s treachery, the Titans who were around Dionysus tore him to pieces and ate his flesh. And Zeus, being angry at this, struck the Titans with thunderbolts, and from the soot of the vapors that arose from the incinerated Titans came the matter from which humanity came into existence.

In this myth, humanity is a result of the conflict between Titans and the Olympians and rose from the ashes of the defeated enemies who were empowered by eating the flesh of the god. Humans thus inherited the crime of the Titans but also the divine spark that was in Dionysos, arising from the ashes of his sacrifice. Athena (or Rhea in some versions) saved his heart from being eaten. Zeus instilled his heart in the womb of Semele for the god to be born again. He is thus knowns as the Twice-born. Only by following the cult and example of Dionysos can fallen humanity be saved. Orphic initiation can save the soul from eternal reincarnation and guarantee one a place among the blessed heroes.

Dionysos is the god of the mystery of life, which continues after death. He transcends the boundaries of death and guarantees his devotees a share of eternal salvation. Many scholars have noted the obvious parallels with the Christian Eucharist in which Christ, both god and the sacrificial victim, offers his flesh and blood (symbolized through wine in the ritual) as salvation to his followers. Christianity arose in the interaction of Messianic Judaism and Greek/Roman polytheism and owes much to its cultural milieu in the Roman Empire. Thus no history of Christianity can be complete without reference to the mythology of Dionysos.

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