Dionysus

In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards, fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia. His wine, music, and ecstatic dance were considered to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His thyrsus, a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wan

Yahweh was an ancient Semitic deity in the southeastern ancient Levant that became the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel-Samaria and Judah. Although there is no clear consensus regarding the geographic origins of the deity, most modern scholars favor a southern origin hypothesis. The worship of the deity goes back to at least the early Iron Age and apparently to the late Bronze Age.

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In Greek mythology, Semele (; ), or Thyone (; ), was the youngest daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, and the mother of Dionysus by Zeus (her own great-grandfather).

Nonnus of Panopolis (, Nónnos ho Panopolítēs, 5th century AD) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebaid and probably lived in the 5th century AD. He is known as the composer of the Dionysiaca, an epic tale of the god Dionysus, and of the Metabole, a paraphrase of the Gospel of John. The epic Dionysiaca describes the life of Dionysus, his expedition to India, and his triumphant return. It was written in Homeric Greek and in dactylic hexameter, and it consists of 48 books at 20,426 lines.

ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides

comedy by Aristophanes

1872 essay by Friedrich Nietzsche

thumb|300px|Antinous holding the thyrsus while posed as Dionysus ([[Museo Pio-Clementino)]]

thumb|Three Roman [[Votive column|votive pillars; the one on the left reads Libero Patri Valerius Daphinus a[nimo] l[ibens] p[osuit]: "Valerius Daphinus erects [this monument] to Liber Pater of his free will."]] In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber ( , ; "the free one"), also known as Liber Pater ("the free Father"), was a god of viticulture and wine, male fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of their Aventine Triad. His festival of Liberalia (March 17) became associated with free speech and the rights attached to coming of age. His cult and f

thumb|upright|Statues at the "House of Cleopatra" in Delos, Greece. Woman and man wearing himations A himation ( ; ) was a type of clothing, a mantle or wrap worn by ancient Greek men and women from the Archaic period through the Hellenistic period ( BC). It was usually worn over a chiton and/or peplos, but was made of heavier drape and played the role of a cloak or shawl. When the himation was used alone, without a chiton, it served both as a chiton and as a cloak. The himation was markedly less voluminous than the Roman toga. Many vase paintings depict women wearing a himation as a veil cove

terms representing a dichotomy/dialectic between rationality and emotion

ritual of ancient Greece and Rome

religious motif in which a deity dies and is resurrected

thumb | right | alt=Actor Dennis Quaid | Actor Dennis Quaid Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius.

motif in ancient art showing a human between and grasping two confronted animals

male given name

According to the 5th century BCE Greek historian Herodotus, Orotalt () was a god of pre-Islamic Arabia whom he identified with the Greek god Dionysus:

animal skin, especially fawn-skin, worn as a garment, associasted with the cult of Dionysos

Roman sculpture in Wurzburg museum, Germany