Hi it's 3AM I'm infodumping about why I love the Greek god Dionysus so much (thread)

It mostly boils down to the fact that he breaks a ton of boundaries. First off, he was supposed to be a demigod, since he's the child of Zeus and Semele (a mortal). However, long story short, pregnant Semele exploded, and Zeus carried Dionysus in his thigh until he was born.

Because he was carried by Zeus, he is a god instead of a demigod. He has his status as a god contended a lot bc of this and because he's a very young gog, but he won't hesitate to fuck shit up to show people his power.

In the Hymn to Dionysus, he's captured by pirates, but the ropes they tie around him keep falling off. A helmsmen recognizes he's a god and tells the crew to let him go, but they don't listen. Dionysus then transforms into a lion bc he is cool and fucks their shit up

He kills the captain and the crew jumps overboard and are turned into dolphins for not recognizing his god status. The helmsman who did recognize him is rewarded.

A similar thing happens in Bacchae, where the king of Thebes (Pentheus) refuses to recognize Dionysus as a god.

Dionysus brainwashes all the Thebian women into worshipping him, tricks Pentheus into dressing like a girl so he can spy on the women, and then orders the women he's spying on to kill Pentheus for not recognizing him. He's killed by his mom who doesn't recognize him in her frenzy

So I think he is very cool because people often doubt his status and power and he will not hesitate to prove himself to them.

But back to breaking boundaries. He has a very genderfluid presentation in art. He's sometimes depicted very masculinely, and sometimes very femininely. Art at the time was very idealized, so a man with a feminine body was very intentional! I think he is cool in this way :)

Also, he is mire connected to humans than other gods, because when people worship him, it's said that he enters their body and they temporarily become one! This is cool especially considering every human has a little divinity in them bc of Dionysus (explained below)

According to the Orphics (another religion from ancient Greece), Dionysus was torn up and eaten by the Titans. His heart was saved, however, so he was born again, and Zeus punished the Titans by striking them with lightning. From the ashes came humans! So we all have a little -

Dionysus in us because the Titans ate him, which explains why we are bad and good at the same time. So Dionysus is very close to humans compared to other gods

There's more but I need to go to bed!! Maybe I'll add to this thread tomorrow

Also if you're interested in any part of this I can explain it more! I am super mega summarizing all this bc character limits so I omitted a lot of smaller details but I can talk about them if anyone wants :)