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Dionysus ('lame god')
Recognized by his laurel crown and
leopard-skin shawl, Dionysus was the god of intoxication.
There are many stories of Dionysus' birth, but
the common one is that he was the son of Zeus and the moon goddess
Selene. When Zeus killed Selene because she refused him her bed
(at jealous Hera's prompting) Hermes saved the child she carried and
sewed him up in Zeus leg to finish his gestation. He was then born a
second time from Zeus' thigh, so he was called 'twice born'.
Raised in seclusion to protect him from Hera's
wrath, he studied under Silenus and eventually invented wine. Hera
found him, however and drove him insane so he wandered the earth
bringing the vine and his own madness, along with an entourage of wild
Maenads and Satyrs.
Father of Priapus (by Aphrodite), his main
consort was Ariadne, whom he met in Naxus after she had been abandoned
by Theseus. He married her and gave her six children.
It is thought that his role as wine god was
superimposed on an older role as beer god (beer was invented before
wine) a symbols of which was the pine cone (used
in making spruce beer) topped thyrsus that his followers
carried.
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