![]() Dionysus summons the Chorus, a group of Asian female followers, to dance around the city and sing his glory, while he goes off to the mountains to frolic with the Maenads. The basic job description for a Maenad includes: dancing in the woods, drinking wine, breast feeding baby animals, and dismembering whoever gets in their way. He's started by turning his mother's sisters into the Maenads. Dionysus is now determined to show them all. Since Dionysus's birth, the rest of the royal family has denied that he's a god. In order to protect his unborn son from Hera, Zeus stitched little Dionysus into his thigh until the child was ready to be born. Dionysus was still a fetus inside her when this happened. Semele's puny mortal frame couldn't take the king of the gods' super godliness and she was obliterated. That is, until she was tricked by Zeus's jealous wife, Hera, into asking Zeus to show her his true form. His mother, Semele, was part of Cadmus's family. ![]() He's directly related to the main folks who are denying him. Dionysus also fills us in on his whole life story. The ruling family of Thebes, the house of Cadmus, has managed to really tick the god off, by denying his divinity. ![]() His wild rituals are a big deal all over Asia, but Thebes is the first place in Greece where he's brought them. He's come to Thebes to spread his religion. ![]() At the top of the play, the god Dionysus prances out and tells us he's in disguise as the mortal form of the Stranger. ![]()
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