Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

208 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
and the afterlife, notably the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were open
to all Greek speakers, male as well as female, slave as well as free.
Dionysos
Dionysos was the god of wine, fertility, nature in the raw, liberation,
irrationality, and drama. His mother Semele was incinerated
when Zeus manifested himself to her in his full glory as a thunderbolt.
The god managed to rescue the embryo, which he sewed
into his thigh. In due course, he gave birth to the infant Dionysos.
According to another myth, Dionysos was killed and eaten by the
Titans, who were subsequently destroyed by Zeus’s thunderbolt.
Out of their ashes arose the human race, part human and part
divine. Dionysos was a latecomer to Olympos. His origins seem to
lie in Thrace, although he is also connected with Asia Minor. His
entry into Greece, and the opposition that he had to overcome, is
the subject of Euripides’ Bacchai.
Hephaistos
Hephaistos, the god of the forge, was the patron god of metalworkers.
Being lame, he alone of the Olympians was not physically
Dionysos. From Religion and the Greeks by Robert
Garland (Bristol, U.K.: Bristol Classical Press,
1994). Reprinted by permission of Duckworth
Publishers.