Dionȳsus Zagreus

The myth of Dionysus Zagreus played an important role in the beliefs of the Greeks who practised the mysteries of Orpheus. Zagreus was the son of Persephonē and Zeus, who came to her in the form of a snake. He gave the rule of the world to the child, sat him on a throne and had the Corybantes guard him. At the instigation of the jealous Hera (wife of Zeus) the Titans distracted the child's attention with toys, then seized him, tore him to pieces, and devoured him, all but the heart; this Athena saved and took to Zeus. From the heart Zeus remade his son and implanted him in Semelē (see DIONYSUS), from whom was later born a new Dionysus Zagreus. He punished the Titans by striking them with his lightning, and from the rising soot sprang the human race, rebels against the gods but having in them some portion of the divine. This story is known only from writers of the Hellenistic age, but it seems to have been current earlier. The association of Dionysus with the Underworld (through his mother Persephone, wife of Hades and queen of the Underworld) is significant in the mystery religions which were primarily concerned with judgement after death, freedom from punishment, rebirth, and eventual blessedness.