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Dionysos (Museum of Corinth),
is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy,
and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve
Olympians, among whom Greek mythology treated Dionysus as a late
arrival.
He was also known as Bacchus
and the frenzy he
induces, bakkheia.
He is the patron deity of agriculture
and the theatre. He was also known as the Liberator (Eleutherios),
freeing one from one's normal self, by madness, ecstasy, or
wine.
The divine mission of Dionysus was to mingle the music of
the aulos and to bring an end to care and worry. Scholars have
discussed Dionysus' relationship to the "cult of the souls" and
his ability to preside over communication between the living and
the dead.
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