Dionysus
Διόνυσος · Roman 바쿠스 (Bacchus)
The god who intoxicates — and briefly topples the rules.
When his mother Semele burned to death, Zeus sewed the unborn child into his own thigh and carried him to term. Hence his title, "the twice-born."
Kings who refused to acknowledge him tended to be destroyed — Pentheus of Thebes was torn apart by his own mother.
At Athens's festival of Dionysus, tragedies and comedies were staged. Western theater began at this god's altar.
SourcesEuripides, The Bacchae