This particular sanctuary was the central focus of a number of Athens' famous Theatrical festivals: Because the various towns in Attica held their festivals on different days, it was possible for spectators to visit more than one festival per season. It was also an opportunity for Athenian citizens to travel outside the city if they did not have the opportunity to do so during the rest of the year. This also allowed travelling companies of actors to perform in more than one town during the period of the festival. [3] Vermeule, Cornelius Clarkson. 1955. "Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis : Ancient marbles in Great Britain." American Journal of Archaeology, 59(2): p. 134. The chorus of Euripides’ tragedy The Bacchae, written around 405 B.C., evokes the Dionysian mystery rites: Later variants include Dionūsos and Diōnūsos in Boeotia; Dien(n)ūsos in Thessaly; Deonūsos and Deunūsos in Ionia; and Dinnūsos in Aeolia, besides other variants. A Dio- prefix is found in other names, such as that of the Dioscures, and may derive from Dios, the genitive of the name of Zeus. [29]

Statue of Hermes bearing the child Dionysos. Olympia Archaeological Museum. Credit: Paolo Villa/ CC-BY-SA-4.0 Place of Hermes in the Greek Pantheon

Mastromarco, Giuseppe: (1994) Introduzione a Aristofane (Sesta edizione: Roma-Bari 2004). ISBN 88-420-4448-2 p.3 The pediments of the Parthenon are the two sets of statues (around fifty) in Pentelic marble originally located as the pedimental sculpture on the east and west facades of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. They were probably made by several artists, including Agoracritos. The master builder was probably Phidias. They were probably lifted into place by 432 BC, having been carved on the ground. The team—led by Kaan Iren, an archaeologist at Mugla Sitki Kocman University—discovered the 2,400-year-old mask while excavating the ancient city of Daskyleion’s acropolis.

Dionysus’ association with wine embodies this paradox. Wine is a delicious beverage with medicinal properties, but it also intoxicates. It brings liberation and ecstasy, yet, like any initiatory experience, it also introduced the risks of losing hold of identity and control. Births and deathsWaywell, Geoffrey B. 1986. The Lever and Hope Sculptures: Ancient Sculptures in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight and a Catalogue of the Ancient Sculptures Formerly in the Hope Collection, London and Deepdene. no. 6, pp. 72–3, pl. 49, 1, Berlin: Mann. The pediments of the Parthenon included many statues. The one to the west had a little more than the one to the east. [8] In the description of the Acropolis of Athens by Pausanias, a sentence informs about the chosen themes: the quarrel between Athena and Poseidon for Attica in the west and the birth of Athena in the east. [N 3] This is the only evocation in the ancient literature of the Parthenon's decoration. [5] [12] In addition, the traveler gives no detail outside the general theme while he describes in a very precise way the pediments of the temple of Zeus in Olympia. Perhaps he considered the Panhellenic sanctuary of the Peloponnese to be more important than the Parthenon, the latter perhaps being too "local", or simply Athenian. [5] Bassareus, Βασσαρεύς a Thracian name for Dionysus, which derives from bassaris or "fox-skin", which item was worn by his cultists in their mysteries. [41] [42] The New York Classical Club, through Fordham University's Classics Department, stages a competition every April wherein groups of high school students produce unique adaptations of the same play. [12] The competition aims to engage the themes and style of the ancient plays with renewed vigor and an accessible, thought provoking frame. Several notable schools from the area participate, including Stuyvesant and Regis. Adaptations are cut to twenty minutes, and source plays have included The Bacchae by Euripides and the entire collection of Ovid's Metamorphoses. [12]