Dionysus

Liberator, Loosener, Wine-Darked, Twice-Born God, Twelfth Olympian, Youngest Olympian, Successor of Hestia, He Who Prevails, Leader of Maenads, Giver of Unmixed Wine, He of the Winnowing Fan, Mr. D, DIO-nysus, Wine Dude

## Profile

### Species

Olympian Deity
Former Demigod (2/3 God)

## Relationships

### Ancestors

Khaos (Progenitor)
Ouranos (Ancestor)
Gaia (Ancestor)
Ares (Ancestor)
Aphrodite (Ancestor)
Kronos (Grandfather)
Cadmus (Grandfather)
Rhea (Grandmother)
Harmonia (Grandmother)

### Parents

Zeus (Father)
Semele (Mother)

### Siblings

**Paternal Half-Siblings**
Hephaestus, Persephone, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Ares, Hermes...

### Romances

Ariadne (Wife)
Chiron, Aphrodite, Aura, Nicaea, Physcoa...

### Children

**Immortal Children**
Priapus, Telete, Comus, Methe...
**Mortal Children**
Phlias, Castor Belfrage, Pollux Belfrage, Dakota Goodwin...

## Personal Status

### Affliations

Mount Olympus
Olympian Deities
Greco-Roman Deities
Greco-Roman Pantheon
The Maenads (Leader)
Dionysian Acolytes
Camp Half-Blood (Director)

### Abilities

**Ethereal Energy*** Vine Manipulation
* Plant Manipulation
* Alcohol Manipulation

### Power Scale

**Rank**: EX-Ranked
**Class**: God-Class

## Portrayal

### English VA

Cyrus Nemati

**Dionysus**, also called **Bacchus** and **Mr. D**, is the God of Wine, Festivity, and Madness from Greco-Roman Mythology. As one of the Twelve Olympians, he is a ruler of Mount Olympus with immense authority over the Greco-Roman Pantheon.

## Overview

**Dionysus** is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth.

He is also known as **Bacchus**, the name adopted by the Romans; the frenzy that he induces is *bakkheia*.

As **Eleutherios** ("the liberator"), his wine, music and ecstatic dance 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 wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents.

His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as [[wikipedia:Greek. In Orphic religion, he was variously a son of Zeus and Persephone; a chthonic or underworld aspect of Zeus; or the twice-born son of Zeus and the mortal Semele.

The Eleusinian Mysteries identify him with Iacchus, the son or husband of Demeter. Most accounts say he was born in Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner. His attribute of "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults, as he is a god of epiphany, sometimes called "the god that comes".

Wine was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus and was his earthly incarnation. Wine could ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness. Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, the initial driving force behind the development of theatre in Western culture.

The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead. He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god.

Romans identified Bacchus with their own **Liber Pater**, the "Free Father" of the Liberalia festival, patron of viniculture, wine and male fertility, and guardian of the traditions, rituals and freedoms attached to coming of age and citizenship, but the Roman state treated independent, popular festivals of Bacchus (Bacchanalia) as subversive, partly because their free mixing of classes and genders transgressed traditional social and moral constraints.

Celebration of the Bacchanalia was made a capital offence, except in the toned-down forms and greatly diminished congregations approved and supervised by the State.

## Appearance

Dionysus appears as a handsome young man, with dark skin, an angular face, and a lean and muscular body. He has blue eyes so dark they appear purple, and long purple hair tied into a messy low ponytail. During his stay in Camp Half-Blood, he takes the form of an "adult trailer park cherub" out of spite for his punishment as director.

## Personality

At first glance, Dionysus seems like a rather displeasing god. He enjoys calling people by incorrect names, part because of his own pettiness, part to make the campers think that he cares for them so little, that he will make no effort to remember their names. He even refuses to acknowledge when he calls them by their correct name.

He hates almost all the heroes from Greco-Roman mythology, though he does become quiet when reminded that he could also be ranked among them due to his demigod background. His hatred stems back from his love for his wife Ariadne, who he found after she was abandoned by Theseus. As such, he is the god with the fewest demigod among the principal gods.

He presents the exterior of a true misanthrope: Cruel, intensely bitter, facetious, and sarcastic to a fault. He also apparently has a catastrophic temper as he is known for casting cruel and unusual curses when he's mad, and Chiron has noted that he is quite unforgiving.

However, despite the impression that he tries to give, *deep* down, he cares about his campers quite a bit. He is willing to send help using his divine powers whenever a camper is in danger and desperately needs help. He is also responsible for the demigods' surprisingly stable mental health, largely due to his blessing. According to Hebe, he deeply cares for the campers but is afraid to show it as it would undoubtedly scar him knowing that the children he cares for will mostly die a slow and painful death.

In stark contrast to the gruffness and bitterness he regularly expresses, he has been known to enjoy parties of all kinds, from formal celebrations to college revelries, provided that it gives him a chance to drink alcohol. However, because of his fondness for partying and festivals, he is often in a sour mood being forced to stay in Camp Half-Blood.

## Quotes

**Dionysus**: "*You hypocrite. Don't pretend she was anything other than hot meat to you.*"
**Heracles**: "*Wow. You really don't like me. You don't even know me.*"
**Dionysus**: "*I know enough. I'm out.*"
— Dionysus to Heracles

## Trivia

* His name "Dionysus" means "God of Mount Nysa".
	+ Alternatively, it can also mean "young Zeus" or "son of Zeus".
* His favorite non-alcoholic drink is Diet Coke, though as Bacchus, he likes Diet Pepsi.
* He is the youngest of the Twelve Olympians.
* His throne, having succeeded it from Hestia, is placed on the goddesses' side in the Hall of Gods.
* Although he was once a demigod, he was 2/3 god and is one of the few New Gods to achieve godhood when he was alive.
* He is said to have invented the dildo.
* In some myths, he forced Theseus to abandon Ariadne on Naxos so he could take her as his wife.
* Due to a prank he and Zagreus pulled on Orpheus, the two are syncretized in Orphism, with Zagreus being believed as the former incarnation of Dionysus before he was killed by the Titans.
* The Dionysia festival was a large festival that celebrated the cultivation of vines.
* In antiquity the worshipers of Dionysus/Bacchus were collectively referred to as the Bakkhai.
* Bacchus' name, spelled in Latin as BACCHVS, is the Latinized form of the Greek name Βάκχος (*Bákkhos*), which was a primary epithet of Dionysus.
	+ Bacchus, a white wine grape, was named after him.