Dionysus

Dionysus was the Lord of Kobol of the grape harvest, wine-making and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy. He was also known as Bacchus.

He is a Lord of epiphany, "the god that comes," and his "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults. Dionysus seen as a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a fennel staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus.

Dionysus was the last Lord to be accepted by the other twelve Lords and was the youngest and the only one to have a mortal mother. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of theatre. He is an example of a dying god.

Dionysus is represented as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected, everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.

His procession (thiasus) is made up of wild female followers (Maenads) and bearded Satyrs. Some are armed with the thyrsus, some dance or play music. The Lord himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers.

He is also the Liberator, whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful.

He is the son of Zeus and Demeter.