Zeus used the heart to recreate Dionysus and implant him in the womb of Semele — hence Dionysus became known as " the twice-born ".

Of course, though Zeus no longer marries, he still has affairs with many other women, such as Semele, mother of Dionysus, Danae, mother of Perseus, Leda, mother of Castor and Polydeuces and Helen, and Alkmene, the mother of Heracles, who married Hebe.

Semele (;, Semelē ), in Greek mythology, daughter of the Boeotian hero Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mortal mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths.

Though the Greek myth of Semele was localized in Thebes, the fragmentary Homeric Hymn to Dionysus makes the place where Zeus gave a second birth to the god a distant one, and mythically vague:

Semele was worshipped at Athens at the Lenaia, when a yearling bull, emblematic of Dionysus, was sacrificed to her.

Drawing from an Etruscan mirror: Semele embracing her son Dionysus, with Apollo looking on and a satyr playing an aulos

Some accounts say that he was reassembled and resurrected by Demeter ; others, that Zeus fed his heart to Semele in a drink, making her pregnant with Dionysus.

In another myth, when his mother, Semele, is killed, the care of young Dionysus falls into the hands of her sisters, Ino, Agave, and Autonoe, who later are depicted as participating in the rites and taking a leadership role among the other maenads.

Dionysus came to his birthplace, Thebes, where neither Pentheus, his cousin who was now king, nor Pentheus ’ mother Agave, Dionysus ’ aunt ( Semele ’ s sister ) acknowledged his divinity.

Dionysus comes to Thebes to vindicate his mother Semele.

Pentheus soon banned the worship of the god Dionysus, who was the son of his aunt Semele, and did not allow the women of Cadmeia to join in his rites.

Later, Ino raised Dionysus, her nephew, son of her sister Semele, causing Hera's intense jealousy.

In her mortal self, Ino, the second wife of the Minyan king Athamas, the mother of Learches and Melicertes, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia and stepmother of Phrixus and Helle, was one of the three sisters of Semele, the mortal woman of the house of Cadmus who gave birth to Dionysus.

Later, Ino raised Dionysus, her nephew, son of her sister Semele, causing Hera's intense jealousy.

In the more familiar variant, Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, sister of Semele, and queen of Athamas, became a goddess after Hera drove her insane as a punishment for caring for the newborn Dionysus.

Semele, during her pregnancy with Dionysus, was destroyed by the sight of the splendor of Zeus.

For, after Dionysus, the son of Semele, had traversed the world, he came to Thebes and sent the Theban women mad, compelling them to celebrate his Dionysiac festivals on Mount Cithaeron.

The 4th or 5th century poet Nonnus describes the Athenian celebrations given to the first Dionysus Zagreus son of Persephone, the second Dionysus Bromios son of Semele, and the third Dionysus Iacchus:

Dionysus however descended into Hades and brought her and his mother Semele back.

Ariadne ( Etruscan Areatha ) is paired with Dionysus ( Etruscan Fufluns ) on engraved bronze Etruscan bronze mirrorbacks, where the Athenian culture-hero Theseus is absent, and Semele ( Etruscan Semla ), as mother of Dionysus, may accompany the pair, lending a particularly Etruscan air of family authority.

These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone ( by Demeter ), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses ( by Mnemosyne ); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.

When these daughters arrived at the age of maturity, they were stricken with madness, the cause of which is differently stated by different authors ; some say that it was a punishment inflicted upon them by Dionysus, because they had despised his worship, and according to others, by Hera, because they presumed to consider themselves more beautiful than the goddess, or because they had stolen some of the gold off her statue.

Ino, pursued by her husband, who had been driven mad by Hera because Ino had brought up the infant Dionysus, threw herself and Melicertes into the sea from a high rock between Megara and Corinth, Both were changed into marine deities: Ino as Leucothea, noted by Homer, Melicertes as Palaemon.

She was an attendant to Persephone, Aphrodite and Hera, and was also associated with Dionysus, Apollo and Pan.

According to one source, when Hera set the Giant army against Dionysus, Porphyrion was one of those.

Many Greek people recognized the major gods and goddesses: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena, Hermes, Demeter, Hestia and Hera though philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to posit a transcendent single deity.

* Greek mythos and heroes (" Olympian Pantheon "), among them: Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hades, Hecate, Hephaestus, Hera, Hercules, Hermes, Hestia, Nike, Pan, Poseidon and Tyche

In a cult hymn from Olympia, at a festival for Hera, Dionysus is also invited to come as a bull, " with bull-foot raging.

There was some variation as to which deities were included, but the canonical twelve as commonly portrayed in art and poetry were Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Hestia or Dionysus, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Hermes.

After a race, Ampelus and Dionysus go hunting, during which Hera causes a bull to kill Ampelus when he tries to ride it ; Dionysus makes a long lament.

Dionysus performs miracles at the Hydaspes but the Indians, stirred by Hera, attack.

Zeus awakens and forces Hera to cure Dionysus ' madness.

Perseus is incited by Hera to attack the Bacchantes and turns Ariadne into stone after which the Argives accept the rites of Dionysus at Hermes ' demand.

Hera stirs the giants to fight Dionysus and they are slain.

The Temple of Nemesis in the theatre, and religious items related to Hygeia and Telesphorus, Artemis Locheia, Apollo Clarious, Jupiter, Dionysus and Hera were common during this time.

The Charites are usually said to be the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, but Pasithea's parentage is given ( by the poet Nonnus ) as Hera and Dionysus.

* Dionysus ( voiced by Michael Gough ): Drunk out of his mind, as can only be expected, he, like Hera, Poseidon and Athena will give you a godly challenge.

In literary contexts, Apollo represents harmony, order, and reason — characteristics contrasted with those of Dionysus, god of wine, who represents ecstasy and disorder.

According to a 16th century French poem, Dionysus, the god of intoxication, and of wine, was pursuing a maiden named Amethystos, who refused his affections.

Variations of the story include that Dionysus had been insulted by a mortal and swore to slay the next mortal who crossed his path, creating fierce tigers to carry out his wrath.

The Etruscans, who paired Ariadne with Dionysus, never with Theseus, offered an alternative Etruscan view of the Minotaur, never seen in Greek arts: on an Etruscan red-figure wine-cup of the early-to-mid fourth century Pasiphaë tenderly cradles an infant Minotaur on her knee.

By Androgeneia of Phaestus he had Asterion, who commanded the Cretan contingent in the war between Dionysus and the Indians.

Like Dionysus, who inflamed the maenads, Poseidon also caused certain forms of mental disturbance.

* Gerarai fourteen Athenian matrons of Dionysus who presided over sacrifices and participated in the festivals of Anthesteria.

Educated, Hellenizing Romans connected their fauns with the Greek satyrs, who were wild and orgiastic drunken followers of Dionysus, with a distinct origin.

According to a scholiast, commenting on the passage in Argonautica, the island was first of all called Macris after the nurse of Dionysus who fled there from Euboea.

Sleeman observes of the dithyramb, or circular chorus, " It is first mentioned by Archilochus ( c 665 BC )… Arion flourished at least 50 years later … probably gave it a more artistic form, adding a chorus of 50 people, personating satyrs … who danced around an altar of Dionysus.

C. M. Bowra tied the myth to the period following the expulsion from Corinth of the aristocratic Bacchiadae, who traced their descent from Dionysus: " the cult of the god had to develop new and more democratic forms.

Amphitryon accordingly took the field against the Taphians, accompanied by Creon, who had agreed to assist him on condition that he slew the Teumessian fox which had been sent by Dionysus to ravage the country.

Dionysus ( god of wine, festivities, and the primal energy of life ) who was the protector of the island, met Ariadne and fell in love with her.

Dionysus is represented by city religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.

Kouretes also presided over the infancy of Dionysus, another god who was born as a babe, and of Zagreus, a Cretan child of Zeus, or child-doublet of Zeus.

The wild ecstasy of their cult can be compared to the female Maenads who followed Dionysus.

In this account, Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, Rhadamanthys ' brother ; another Ariadne was the daughter of Minos ' grandson and namesake, who features in the Theseus legend, and was rescued by Dionysus.

The maddened Hellenic women of real life were mythologized as the mad women who were nurses of Dionysus in Nysa: Lycurgus " chased the Nurses of the frenzied Dionysus through the holy hills of Nysa, and the sacred implements dropped to the ground from the hands of one and all, as the murderous Lycurgus struck them down with his ox-goad.

In the realm of the supernatural is the category of nymphs who nurse and care for the young Dionysus, and continue in his worship as he comes of age.

The term ' maenad ' is also used to refer to a category of women in the mythology who resist the worship of Dionysus, and are therefore driven mad by him, being forced against their will to participate in often horrific rites.

This also occurs with the three daughters of Minyas, who reject Dionysus and remain true to their household duties, becoming startled by invisible drums, flutes, cymbals, and seeing ivy hanging down from their looms.