Dionysus (dNetHack)
| Religion in NetHack |
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- For the neutral god of the Drunk pantheon, see Dionysus (SlashTHEM).
In dNetHack, notdNetHack and notnotdNetHack, Dionysus is the chaotic god of the Bard pantheon.
Description
Dionysus is a chaotic god of holy holiness, and his minions consist of naiads, Noviere Eladrin, deminymphs, and Gae Eladrin.
Origin
Dionysus is one of the twelve major Olympian gods in classical Greek folklore, and is known as the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia. As Dionysus Eleutherius ("the liberator"), his wine, music, and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Wine was a religious focus in the cult of Dionysus, said to ease suffering, bring joy, and inspire divine madness. Festivals of Dionysus included the performance of sacred dramas enacting his myths, which was the initial driving force behind the development of theatre in Western culture.
The origins of Dionysus are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, and others as Greek. In Orphism, he was variously a son of Zeus and Persephone; a chthonic or underworld aspect of Zeus; or the twice-born son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. The Eleusinian Mysteries identify him with Iacchus, the son or husband of Demeter. Most accounts say that Dionysus was born in Thrace, traveled abroad, and arrived in Greece as a foreigner. His attribute of "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults, particularly his domain as a god of epiphany.
