Hello! I'm Thalia! The muse of comedy!

And I'm Euterpe, muse of music.

We're here to talk about Dionysus's appearance and

influence in both ancient and modern culture!

One of my favorite is the song "Dionysus" inspired

 by the god himself, and composed by Jocelyn Pook

The chanting background reminds me of those Dionysian

 rites the maenads go through, don't you think so Thalia??

Erm... yes? I was going to talk about the many 

appearances of Dionysus in theater, movies and books.

He appeared in the Percy Jackson series as a camp counselor

played by Luke Camilleri in the Lightning Thief, and Stanley

Tucci in The Sea of Monsters. And some people even 

think that Willy Wonka may be a Dionysian character.

(Luke Camilleri)

(Stanley Tucci)

Really? That's fascinating!

Dionysus also inspired many great artists, such as Michelangelo,

Titian, and Leonardo da Vinci. Shown below is a work done by

Titian depicting Dionysus falling in love with his future wife, 

Ariadne, while accompanied by his band of satyrs and maenads.

Truly gorgeous work I say.

I highly agree. 

So that about sums up this post...

            Bye everybody! We hope you enjoyed it!

Mnemosyne here ,again, Dionysus is too hungover to type out a blog at the moment so I'll be filling in for him. He wanted me to tell the story "The Bacchae".

*ahem* When Dionysus went back to Thebes, disguised as a peasant and with his bacchants in tow, he was aiming to clear his mother's reputation as a liar. Semele's father Cadmus gave control of the kingdom to Pentheus, who decided that the worship of Dionysus was not to be allowed in the city of Thebes. This angered Dionysus, who then drove Semele's sisters, Agave, Autonoe, and Ino mad, sending them to Mt. Cithaeron to preform Dionysian rites. Pentheus does not believe in the divine madness and is convinced the women are simply drunk, so he orders the royal guards to capture Dionysus and his maenads, whom he see's as being the root of the problem (although he is not aware it is Dionysus at all.) Dionysus lets himself be caught easily, so Pentheus would be fooled into thinking he was weak. Pentheus tried torturing Dionysus but to no avail, in the end an earthquake occurs and a fire starts in the palace, making Pentheus weak and confused. Dionysus speaks to Pentheus and tries to get him to change his mind, but at that moment a cowherd busts into the room, panicking and stuttering out his story. 

Sir, sir I've just seen something terrible! The maddened women of Cadmus were in the forest drinking milk and honey and dancing with joy, but when they caught sight of me they were consumed by murderous intentions and chased after me, baying for my blood! I managed to escape but all my cattle were ripped to pieces! And worst of all, one of the mad women was your beloved mother, Agaue!!

Way to interrupt the story...

Anyways, Pentheus was intrigued by the cowherds story, and noticing this, Dionysus asked Pentheus if he wanted a chance to see the maenads for himself. Pentheus's curiosity gets the best of him and he agrees to accept Dionysus's offer. He dresses in a wig and long skirts and ventures into the forest, where Dionysus places him in a fir tree to watch the maenads. When he is spotted by the maenads Dionysus orders them to attack the imposter, and they rip him apart with their bare hands. When Agaue returns with the torn off head of her son she is confused and boasts about a lion she has killed. Cadmus returns her mind to normal and she weeps. Then Dionysus turns into his true form and banishes Agaue from Thebes, turning Cadmus and his wife into snakes. Thebes celebrates and worships Dionysus from then on-

Hey Mnemosyne, could you mind keeping it down?? I have a terrible *hic* headache.

By Zeus's Thunder, what are we to do with you...

Heyy I'm Dionysus and this is my blog ;D You may think you've heard my name before, and you probably have (I'm suuuuper famous lol) I'm one of the twelve gods of Mt. Olympus, the god of ecstasy, wine, theatre, and merrymaking. I'm a super fun guy with an amazing beautiful wife Ariadne

Look how pretty she is gosh I'm lucky, but even though I have her I still need some extra company, that's where my posse comes in. Mostly satyrs and ladies we wander around the hillside havin' fun and bein' cool. My mom was a mortal, so you may be wondering how I'm a full god, but I have wine to make and parties to attend so I'll let Mnemosyne finish up this post!

Hello, Mnemosyne goddesss of memory and storytelling here to talk about Dionysus's birth. Zeus impregnated Semele, the daughter of Cadmus of Thebes, and Hera became jealous and enraged. So Hera came down to Earth and challenged Semele to prove Zeus was the father of her child. Semele made Zeus swear to the river Styx that he would do whatever she asked of him, he promised and she told him to reveal his god form so she could peer upon him in all his glory. He knew this would be too much for the mortal and begged her to change her mind but Hera's words had planted doubt deep within Semele's heart. So Zeus chose his smallest lightning bolt and showed his true form. Semele evaporated from the power and Zeus had barely enough time to snatch the child from her womb before she was just a pile of ash. Zeus sewed the child into his thigh so he could finish developing, and as he was born from Zeus's thigh he became a fully fledged god, although it was not for many years before he joined the 12 on Mount Olympus.