1. Dionysos embodies the irrepressible life energy in plants

2. … and in animals (note the panther skin on his shoulders)

3. Dionysos is also known as Bacchus (Bakkhos), a term that designates both the god and the worshipper

4. Pentheus torn apart by his mother and aunts: sparagmos

5. Jupiter and Semele, by Gustave Moreau.

7. A Maenad inhabited by the power of Dionysos, holding a panther (which she presumably has caught herself with her bare hands)

8. The sparagmos of Pentheus

9. Dionysos, god of theater, masks, and impersonation

12. The pirates who captured Dionysos turn into dolphins

13. The daughters of Kadmos and their sons AutonoeAgaveSemeleIno ActaeonPentheus (pain)DionysosLearchos Melikertes

14. Artemis and Actaeon

15. Lycourgos pursues the Maenads, goes mad and kills his own son Dryas while mistaking him for an ivy vine

16. Maenads (always clothed) and Satyrs (always naked)

17. Zeus “gives birth” to Dionysos from his thigh

18. Dionysos and Ariadne, an exceptionally successful mortal/god marriage

19. Hermes handing baby Dionysos over to Athamas and Ino

21. In Greek Myth, Foreignness is more Symbolic than Literal Medea (from the Black Sea Coast): child and brother killer Taurians (on the Black Sea Coast): perform human sacrifice The Amazons (in a vague Northeast): all-women warrior society, who reject males except for purposes of procreation