Dionysus

In Greek mythology, Dionysus (PROSE: Sky Pirates!, et al.) or Dionysius was the son of Zeus and a sibling to Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Castor and Pollux, Hermes, Hebe, Minos and Persephone. (PROSE: Deadly Reunion)

Dionysus was praised as the "father of all thespians" and the patron god of dramatic art. (PROSE: Theatre of War)

Origins

The Eighth Doctor believed that the Bacchanites, parasites who fed on sorrow, had been the inspiration for the drunken gods of the Greeks and Romans. (PROSE: The Sorrows of Vienna)

Legacy

A cista mystica was a carven box used by Roman followers of Dionysus; they stored snakes inside them for use in rituals. (AUDIO: Dead London)

In Athens, in 421 BC, Hex tried to pass himself off as the god Dionysus. (AUDIO: Mask of Tragedy)

In Athens, 410 BC, Plato told the Eleventh Doctor that his teacher Socrates drank like Dionysus. (COMIC: The Chains of Olympus)

The Feast of Dionysus was held in the god's honour in Babylon during the fourth century BC. (AUDIO: Farewell, Great Macedon)

In the 18th century, Alexander Monro II, a clone, told Martha Jones that he had been born from the original Alexander Monro's thigh, and was "Twice born, like Dionysus himself". (PROSE: The Many Hands)

In the mid-20th century, Professor Stone oversaw the British Ministry of Defence's Dionysus Project, which culminated in the development of a device that could tear open the fabric of reality. (AUDIO: Zagreus)

Behind the scenes

• In Deadly Reunion the god's name is spelled "Dionysius", an apparent typo. In the real world, "Dionysius" is a nominalised adjective meaning "of Dionysus", never applied to the god himself.