The Great Greek Myths | Dionysus: An Outsider in the City (Episode 8)

Episode 8: Zeus had a reputation for being a seducer of women. One day he lay with a mortal - Semele, the daughter of the king of Thebes. Their son Dionysos was brought up by nymphs.

He was an errant, wandering God, and was often considered marginal. He left for Thrace, and then for India, accompanied by a noisy procession of Maenads and Silenus. He often aroused the suspicion of the people he encountered, and they sometimes rejected him. In Thebes, his birth city, he wanted to make his voice heard, that of the “Other”, the different one. His message of tolerance and openness, his encouragement of poetry, theatre, cross-dressing, and festivities, all slowly but surely became a cult – that of the God Dionysos.