1.  Mother was Semele, a mortal, and father was Zeus, the most powerful Olympian.  Only god whose parents were not both gods.  God of the Vine.  Zeus was so in love with her that he promised her anything on the river Styx.  Hera, annoyed that Zeus had fallen in love with yet another woman, made Semele wish to see Zeus’s immortal glory.  Semele died because of this wish, but her soon-to-be- born child, Dionysus, was saved by Zeus.

2.  When Dionysus grew up, he journeyed far ; was accepted everywhere as a god until he came closer to Thebes, his mother’s country.  He was spotted on the beach by sailors, who kidnapped him. All but one refused to believe he was a god.  Possibly fell in love with Ariadne, the princess Theseus abandoned.  Brought his mother (Semele) back from death to live amongst the Olympians.  Followers were the Maenads, a group of women who could either be frenzied or joyful in their worship.

3.  When Dionysus reached Thebes, the king was so repelled by the Maenads he refused to accept Dionysus as a god.  Dionysus and the king’s old prophet calmly insisted the king relent, but the king never did.  As punishment, Dionysus sent the Maenads, including the king’s mother and sister, to tear King Pentheus into pieces.  Dionysus was the god of sorrow and the god of joy. (Wine makes you drunk, or it gives you courage.)  Also the god who represented that death did not end all.

4.  The story of two lovers who had a tragic end.  Both lived in Babylon, in houses next to each other, separated by a wall.  Their parents forbid their marriage, so the two had to whisper to and kiss each other through a little crack in the wall.  One day, Pyramus made a plan with Thisbe to run away, and they decided to meet by a mulberry tree around a certain grove.

5.  Thisbe reached the meeting place first, and when she arrived, there was a lioness who had just killed an animal.  The lioness had bloody jaws and was approaching Thisbe, so she threw down her cloak, which the lioness ripped apart while Thisbe escaped.  When Pyramus arrived, he saw the cloak’s bloody shreds, and he assumed Thisbe was dead.  He stabbed himself and his blood spurted onto the then-white berries of the mulberry tree.  Thisbe then found him and the two had one last moment before she killed herself as well.