Love, Dance and Ecstasy

Dionysos is the Greek god of the grape-harvest and winemaking, of the growth and fertility of vegetation - especially orchards and vineyards - and, lastly, of insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity and theatre. Because of his links to plant growth, he also became associated with death, resurrection and regeneration. He was also known as Bákkhos to the Greeks, a name adopted by the Romans as Bacchus. The focus here is on the links between Dionysos’ cult and the perennial human preoccupations of drugs, sex and ecstasy.