Dionysus

Dionysus is the God of revelry, of religious epiphany, and especially of wine. He is the youngest of the Olympians, born to Zeus and a mortal mother, Semele — who was later obliterated by Zeus’ glory when she demanded to see his true form. Zeus sewed the unborn Dionysus into his thigh, and when the child was born a second time, gave him up to Hermes to raise far from Hera’s jealous eye. Revered throughout the ancient world through the widespread (and occasionally dangerous) Dionysian Cult, he has served ever since as a harbinger of foreign revelation, of merriment, and of madness.

The Romans call Dionysus Bacchus, but like Apollo he differs little — a name is only a name, after all. As the quintessential foreign God who brings strange wisdom, no changes were needed, for there are always new lands to bring wild celebration to.

All these things and more, Dionysus finds in the modern World. No longer merely content with alcohol, he serves as the divine exemplar of every kind of high under the sun. When new chemicals are brewed, drugs no ancient Greek so much as dreamed of, Dionysus is there to sample it, to make it his own. When the children of the idle rich indulge in conspicuous consumption, Dionysus is there, presiding over the very moment that control is lost and things go a little too far. His is the two-edged blade of wisdom and excess, the line invisible until one has dashed across it — and he wouldn’t want it any other way.