Nowadays, there are all kinds of "ancient Greek gods in charge of taking pictures", "ancient Greek gods in charge of P pictures", "ancient Greek gods in charge of dry rice" on the Internet, but for those of us who love wine, in fact, the most worshipful is the "ancient Greek god in charge of wine"!
In Greek mythology he is called Dionysus, in Roman mythology he is called Bacchus, and there are quite a lot of theories about the origin of Dionysus... Today, we will mainly focus on Greek mythology to tell you the story of Dionysus~
01.
Zeus's flowery heart is already a well-known thing (but it is also a manifestation of the ancient Greeks' admiration for fertility), whether he was in the sky, underground, underworld, sea... As long as you see your favorite female guests, no matter what method you use, you have to get their hands on them...
Ares, Athena, Helen, Perseus... He has so many babies that he can't count them on his hands, but he doesn't seem to be satisfied with them... On this day, his gaze lingered on Semele, the princess of King Thebekadmus.
And the biggest label of the queen Hera in mythology is "good jealousy", no, after she knew the existence of Semele, she was jealous, but she couldn't send down the thunder with a wave of her hand like Zeus, so she turned into a nurse disguised as Semele's nurse, and said after successfully sneaking into Semele's boudoir: "Do you really believe that he is Zeus?" You see, when he was united with other women, he incarnated as a white cow, a swan, a golden rain... And when combined with Hera, the queen of heaven, she is surrounded by shining lightning, so the queen of heaven is also the most noble. And since you have no miracle for you, and you have not given you the same noble lightning bolt as Hera, how can you be sure that the father of your child must be Zeus? ”
When Zeus came to have a tryst with Zeus again, Semele urged Zeus to prove his love for her: "Oh, my great and noble husband, if you are truly the all-knowing and all-powerful Zeus, please grant me the supreme glory of thunder, and I will be the happiest woman in the world!" ”
As soon as Zeus heard Semele's words, he knew that Hera must be behind it, but he also really loved Semele, so he still couldn't resist such a plea, and showed his god-king posture, and in an instant, the whole room was thundering, and the mortal Semele was killed instantly; And just a few seconds before she was completely engulfed by lightning, Zeus quickly rescued their premature child from Semele's womb, and immediately cut a hole in his thigh to allow it to continue to grow. This method also worked, and a few months later, a healthy baby was born from Zeus's lap, and he was Dionysus, which means "born twice".
02.
But Hera's jealousy didn't stop there, and she sent a group of Titans to kill Dionysus on Mount Olympus, and the blood splattered from his body turned into pomegranate trees (which is why people don't eat pomegranates during festivals dedicated to him); Later, Zeus's mother Rhea took pity on Dionysus, so she collected his pieces and resurrected them, and Zeus also commissioned Hermes to give the child to the king and queen of Olcomenos, and put it on women's clothes, and raise it as a girl (so Dionysus had a kind of "male and female" neutral beauty) - however, Hera did not give up, but pursued him again, and Zeus had no choice but to turn the child into a goat and move to Mount Helikon, far away from Greece, where he was raised by the nymphs.
Dionysus finally found a rare and brief peace here. He learned to hunt, to fight, to tame beasts of prey... He even accidentally discovered the secret of how to make wine from grapes - legend has it that grapes grew from the grave of a friend of his friends after he failed in a duel, and Dionysus juiced these purple-red fruits and put them in a horn cup, and after drinking them, he found that they tasted very good, and his sad mood improved, which was the original wine.
03.
In fact, Hera hasn't given up yet... She continued to hunt down Dionysus tirelessly, and cast a spell to destroy his sanity, causing him to sink into a state of near-madness, and Dionysus happened to be followed by the "fan sister" who was also in an equally excited mental state, so that in the process of roaming the country, their crazy and intoxicated atmosphere also passed on and influenced others, and everyone thought that it was because of drinking alcohol that they became like this.
Later, as he traveled more and more, his viticulture and winemaking skills were gradually passed on to kings and passers-by along the way, and in this way, delicious and pleasant wines became popular all over the world, and people gratefully worshipped Dionysus as the "god of wine".
It seems that when we toast, we should not only respect the leaders and elders, but also respect the grapes, wine growers, winemakers, nature... And a tribute to Dionysus!