Dionysos is the son of Zeus, chief of the Olympians, and Semele, a woman of Thebes, according to the most used geneology. Dionysos is the god of wine and madness, vegetation, and the theatre, and was the focus of various mystery cults (which were not, perhaps, exactly cults, but let's not get into that). Oh, Thebes, nurse of Semele, crown your hair with ivy! Grow green with bryony! Redden with berries! O city, with boughs …showed first 75 words of 380 total…

…showed last 75 words of 380 total…sailor; there is a myth which tells how he was once kidnapped by pirates and taken aboard a boat. The god then turned the pirates into dolphins. The sea is a refuge for Dionysos. Water, according to W. F. Otto, is the element in which Dionysos feels at home, as like him it betrays a dual nature: being bright, joyous, and vital for life, while also having a side that is dark, mysterious and deadly.