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.

Humbled by Amethystos's desire to remain chaste, Dionysus poured wine over the stone as an offering, dyeing the crystals purple.

The Greek gods may also have had their origins in the personification of material objects: Ares representing iron, and Dionysus wine.

* Heracles challenged wine god Dionysus to a drinking contest and lost, resulting in his joining the Thiasus for a period.

They are frequently associated with the superior divinities: the huntress Artemis ; the prophetic Apollo ; the reveller and god of wine, Dionysus ; and rustic gods such as Pan and Hermes.

They point to the symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the mythology surrounding both Dionysus and Jesus Christ ; Wick argues that the use of wine symbolism in the Gospel of John, including the story of the Marriage at Cana at which Jesus turns water into wine, was intended to show Jesus as superior to Dionysus.

The Greek god Dionysus and the Roman equivalent, Bacchus, represented wine.

In Greek mythology, Silenus ( Greek Σειληνός ) was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus.

By the second millennium BC, the donkey was brought to Europe, possibly at the same time as viticulture was introduced, as the donkey is associated with the Syrian god of wine, Dionysus.

The bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Greco-Roman god Bacchus ( or Dionysus ), the wine god.

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 (, Dionysos ) was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology.

The Chorus delivers a choral ode to the god Dionysus ( god of wine and of the theater ; this part is the offering to their patron god ), and then a Messenger enters to tell them that Haemon has killed himself.

In Greek vase painting, the frolicking of maenads and Dionysus is often a theme depicted on Greek kraters, used to mix water and wine.

Cultic rites associated with worship of the Greek god of wine, Dionysus ( or Bacchus in Roman mythology ), were allegedly characterized by maniacal dancing to the sound of loud music and crashing cymbals, in which the revellers, called Bacchantes, whirled, screamed, became drunk and incited one another to greater and greater ecstasy.

< http :// www. oxfordreference. com. ezproxy. library. yorku. ca / views / ENTRY. html? entry = t9. e2608 & srn = 1 & ssid = 1033377691 </ ref > The play also highlights what Dionysus represents ; he is the god of wine, ritual madness and ecstasy.

None can escape the powers of Dionysus, the god of wine.

Upset by his death, Dionysus transformed Ampelos ’ s body into the first grape vine and created wine from his blood.

However, the Greeks thought of the two qualities as complementary: the two gods are brothers, and when Apollo at winter left for Hyperborea, he would leave the Delphic oracle to Dionysus.

In the later play Frogs, Aristophanes softens his criticisms, but even so it may be only for the sake of punning on Agathon's name ( ἁγαθός = " good ") that he makes Dionysus call him a " good poet ".

Before Thespis, the chorus narrated ( for example, " Dionysus did this, Dionysus said that ").

When Thespis stepped out from the chorus, he spoke as if he was the character ( for example, " I am Dionysus.

Artemis asked Nemesis for help to avenge her dignity and caused the rape of Aura by Dionysus.

In particular, the worshippers of Dionysus are ridiculed for their ritual use of children's toys.

See also Dionysus ' birth for other variations.

Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wished for.

Orpheus proclaimed the need of the grace of the gods, Dionysus in particular, and of self-purification until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever.

Dionysus later saw Ariadne crying out for Theseus and took pity on her and married her.

In Athens, a small seating section at the Theatre of Dionysus was reserved for priesthoods of " Hestia on the Acropolis, Livia, and Julia ", and of " Hestia Romaion " (" Roman Hestia ", thus " The Roman Hearth " or Vesta ).

The altar to them at the agora, for example, included Hestia, but the east frieze of the Parthenon had Dionysus instead.

It may also have been influenced by Greek traditions, such as festivities for deities such as Dionysus.

It is an ancient celebration of natures ' rebirth ( fiestas for Dionysus ( Dionysia ) and Kronos ( Saturnalia )), which ends the third day in a huge dance in the medieval square Ntoltso where all the bands are playing the same time and all the people are dancing too.

" referring to Iacchus, possibly an epithet for Dionysus, or a separate deity, son of Persephone or Demeter.

p. 107 for a discussion of Dionysus and his role in the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Some writers concluded by looking at these places that there is a good reason for calling Dionysus by the name (“ Phrygenes ”)”

" To these unfortunate prisoners Orpheus proclaims the message of liberation, that they stand in need of the grace of redeeming gods and of Dionysus in particular, and calls them to turn to God by ascetic piety of life and self-purification: the purer their lives the higher will be their next reincarnation, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live for ever as God from whom it comes.

Dionysus offered Midas a reward for his kindness towards Silenus, and Midas chose the power of turning everything he touched into gold.

Silenus commonly figures in Roman bas-reliefs of the train of Dionysus, a subject for sarcophagi, embodying the transcendent promises of Dionysian cult.

A closer look at this intertextual link reveals that Shakespeare used, for instance, Plutarch ’ s assertion that Antony claimed a genealogy that led back to Hercules, and constructed a parallel to Cleopatra by often associating her with Dionysus in his play.

In Euripides ' The Bacchae, Cadmus is given a prophecy by Dionysus whereby both he and his wife will be turned into snakes for a period before eventually being brought to live among the blest.